If one had to express all the ideas of the Baroque in a single image, this photograph would serve: a swaddled pearl infant, covered with a pearl blanket, in a cradle of gold filigree with silk trimming and pearl inlay

A masterpiece of the jewellers of the 17th century (the infant's face is even engraved on the pearl) was intended as a gift for the last representative of the House of Medici, Maria Luisa, wife of Elector Johann Wilhelm of the House of Wittelsbach, who was expected to be delivered of a child. The Electress's pregnancy proved unsuccessful, but the priceless creation of the goldsmiths remained the possession of the Baroque age. Today the pearl infant is an exhibit of the Uffizi Gallery, and is displayed in Florence's Palazzo Pitti among other pearl treasures

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

If one had to express all the ideas of the Baroque in a single image, this photograph would serve: a swaddled pearl infant, covered with a pearl blanket, in a cradle of gold filigree with silk trimming and pearl inlay

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s