Books · Observations · Society · People
Some very interesting reflections on Griboyedov and secret societies: was he a Decembrist, and what can be said of his attitude to the clash between old and new, as reflected in "Woe from Wit"? They come from a series of talks by Tatyana Savina on Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov,
NB! · Books · Observations · People
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Humour
When a woman you have never met gets a court to make your father adopt her, and then comes to tea. This photograph captures, quite literally, the first meeting of King Philippe of Belgium with his sister, Princess Delphine of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the illegitimate daughter of King Albert II
NB! · Observations
Archive · In the Press · Books · Observations · Society
There are quite a few oddities in issue No. 9 of 1830 of Delvig's "Literary Gazette". Take, for example, the rhyme in Pushkin's epistle to Yazykov of 1824: "Since time immemorial a sweet bond Unites poets with one another: They are priests of
The East · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Society
The Rijksmuseum and the Museum of World Cultures of the Netherlands intend to part with exhibits acquired during colonial conquests: at the prompting of the Council for Culture, the museums have declared their readiness to return to their homelands works of art, jewels and antiquities that were illegally removed. To
Observations · Science · Education · Nature
Julia Koricheva, Professor of Ecology at Royal Holloway, University of London, has photographed the label on a cork oak in the university arboretum. Note the spring that holds the sign loosely on its screw, so that no foreign object presses too tightly against the bark. In short, the damage done
Archaeology · Observations · Rome · Humour
How should one speak of one's good deeds? A fellow a couple of thousand years ago, for instance, had his name cut into stone on the main square of the resort town of Terracina, on the approaches to Rome along the Appian Way, in huge bronze letters. Made
Coming Up · Art · Cinema · Moscow · Museums
On 15 October the Tretyakov Gallery will screen Giovanni Troilo's documentary "Frida. Viva la Vida", which reaches general release on 20 October. Before the screening, Tatyana Pigareva, head of the cultural department of the Instituto Cervantes in, will give a lecture on Frida Kahlo, her ties
NB! · Art · Museums
Save it as your phone wallpaper. “Pissing Death” or “Death at the Water” by Max Klinger, the founder of the gloomy school of graphic art and a neoclassicist, 1880, Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig.
Art · Museums · People
Self-portrait of Carel Fabritius, founder of the Delft school of painting, killed on this day in 1654 in the monstrous explosion of the gunpowder magazine at Delft, where he had settled four years before his death. The artist lived to be only 32, yet managed to win renown as
Cinema · Books · Observations · Mores
Can a couple be happy if she is reading Nureyev's autobiography and he is reading "Women of Japan"? To find a reading person at all is already happiness, of course. And then, if we turn to the plot of "Bed and Board" from François