Portrait of Marshal Duke de Gontaut-Biron as a peacock and the debate over its meaning

When One Has Not Quite Made Up One's Mind About One's Political Allegiance.

A very strange portrait of Louis-Antoine de Gontaut-Biron, Duke and Marshal of France (1700-1788). Art historians dispute whether the depiction in the form of a peacock was a mockery, a hostile jest or a tribute to Biron's personal vanity and strutting masculinity. It is quite likely that the duke, being neither blinkered nor driven by prejudice, would himself have thought highly of such a metaphor, and taken not the slightest offence at being identified with a bird, be it peacock or cock. The author of the work is, regrettably, unknown

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of 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

Portrait of Marshal Duke de Gontaut-Biron as a peacock and the debate over its meaning

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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