Faith · Museums · Ethnography
In the exhibition of the Bishop's Chambers at the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve, one can see a women's monastic conical hat of the 1910s, made of dark blue velvet and cotton fabric. This article employs an interesting device that contemporary couturiers would do well to note:
Observations · Mores · Society
Popular graffiti has of course existed in every age, but it has not always taken such hideous forms. https://theparnassian.com/graffiti-ot-vandalov-tsarskoi-rossii/
Observations · Society · Humour
The Brezhnev constitution contained a good deal of absurdity of its own: the USSR was described as a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat that had fulfilled its tasks and become a state of the whole people, "developed socialism" was defined as a stage on the road
Archive · Society
The Brezhnev Constitution of 1977 took 15 years to prepare. The decision to draw up a new constitution was taken in the spring of 1962, and the constitutional commission originally numbered 97 members. A draft was ready by the autumn of 1964, but it was not adopted and was sent
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Rome · Humour
Overdosing on fillers: when the Emperor Trajan cannot be told from the Emperor Vespasian. The large marble so-called Bosham Head of AD 121 was found in West Sussex in 1800 and is on display at the Chichester District Museum.
NB!
Cinema · Books · Education
A film about young people whose lives are unceremoniously invaded by world history. Paul Verhoeven's "Soldier of Orange" (also known in Russian as "The Queen's Soldier"), 1977, is a classic of war cinema. Its heroes are four friends, all students at Leiden
Books · Observations · Society · Humour
A doomed quotation of the day, and very much in season. Though, given that at this very minute the dollar stands at 75.63/72.63, one is tempted to cite Gandalf the Grey’s “Fly, you fools”. As it is, it is curious that the celebrated British playwright Noël
Science · Mores · Society · People
The famous laughing old lady with a glass: winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Rita Levi-Montalcini, known not only for her scientific achievements but also for her active political stance, her public engagement and her charisma. Rita's father was against higher education for
Art · Museums · Heritage · Paris
The Sounds of the Tocsin have a curious fate: in 1892 they were shown in the French pavilion at the World's Fair. After being purchased, the painting ended up in the Museum of Picardy, founded by Napoleon, though whether the artist himself gave the canvas to the museum
Archive · Art · Museums · Observations
How works of colossal size are exhibited is more interesting still. Look at the system of blocks and ropes that several workmen used to hang a large-scale painting in the Museum of Picardy a little over 100 years ago. As far as I know, the photograph shows work on
Art · Moscow · Observations
Not long ago, at a lecture by a very educated woman, the question was put of how enormous canvases were carried through the narrow lanes of Moscow to be hung in the mansion of a famous collector. How astonished I was that this lady-in-waiting of the writing profession