Faith · Cinema · Monarchies · Observations
The composite battle cry of the French knights, Mont-joie Saint-Denis!, has been known since the time of Charlemagne, but it spread most widely under Louis the Fat, who in the story is the suzerain of the Count de Malfête. The etymology of the cry is traced back to
NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Art · Observations
And here is the place where the Duke and Duchess of Angoulême are depicted in Étienne Garnier's portrait. Chartres, Bishop's Palace, 2017. Almost nothing has changed
NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour
The Duke and Duchess of Angoulême: he puts one in mind of our pensioners in Rubchinsky, chasing fashion with their brains switched off; really, silly boy, can one go about with a bikini line like that? Not even in 1823.
Books · Monarchies · Observations · Saint Petersburg
Catherine II was nevertheless the greatest ruler of Russia. Consider only her determination to acquire Voltaire's library for the country at all costs! Neither the expense nor the difficulties of the negotiations stopped her. The library was installed beside the Empress's apartments. Of its nearly 7,
Aristocracy · The East · Mores · Society
A love drama comes to mind. The Catherinian grandee Count Osip Igelstrom, packed off to live out his days on a pension for his Warsaw failures, was appointed by Paul I, after the Empress's death, military governor of Orenburg. In Orenburg the 60-year-old Igelstrom made the
NB! · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
Sadly, nobody bought me a fragment of Napoleon's crown. But a Love bracelet with diamonds is not bad either
NB! · Monarchies · Pop Culture · Humour
NB! · Art · Monarchies · Mores
His Royal Highness George, Prince of Wales, takes boxing lessons, 1786. Judging by the face, the future King George IV is standing in the middle; he is 26 here. The man with the wound on his face is the trainer, John Jackson
Aristocracy · Art · Observations
Another copy of the Madonna of the Yarnwinder is known as the Lansdowne Madonna, after the English marquesses who owned the painting in the nineteenth century. It was listed among the possessions of the dowager Marchioness of Lansdowne. By the end of the century the work had left the family
NB! · Aristocracy · Art
It is said that if the Madonna of the Yarnwinder, owned by the Duke of Buccleuch, were ever put up for sale, its price could reach a billion pounds. It would then become the most expensive painting in history
Art · Heritage · New York · Society
In 2014 it was reported that Dmitry Rybolovlev, the former owner of Uralkali, had sold his last major Russian asset, Voentorg. But, as it turned out three years later, the billionaire still had something worth having left in Russia. In 2017 he began selling off his famous collection of European
NB! · Art · New York · Pop Culture
Christie’s sells the highly controversially attributed “Salvator Mundi” by da Vinci for $450.3 million, four times what it was bought for. The previous record was set by Picasso’s “Women of Algiers”, which went for $179 million