Art · Museums
A Small Landscape on Canvas with a Storm, a Gypsy Woman and a Soldier. Or, to be more precise, Giorgione's "The Tempest", 1507-1508. In essence, what we have before us is the first landscape in the history of painting. Yes, yes, exactly so. Giorgione'
NB! · Archive · Museums
NB! · Archive · Mores · Humour
Faith · London · Observations · New York · Society
Not only America but England too is turning its gaze to Orthodoxy, which means the programme to destroy the Christian religion in the Anglo-Saxon world has misfired. Remember the episode of "The Simpsons" in which Homer and Bart become Catholics, and Marge frets that they will make
Art · Moscow · Humour
📌 A column, or the capital of a column, is present 📌 There is a human hand 📌 In place of a head, some object or other
Faith · Art · Books
I saw a beast rising out of the sea. He has ten horns and seven heads; on his horns are ten crowns, and on his heads blasphemous names. The beast I saw was like a leopard, but his feet are those of a bear, and his mouth a lion'
Archive · Monarchies · Society
1668 A white-blue-red flag is raised on the first Russian warship, the Oryol (“Eagle”), by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. It served as a naval flag, but did not yet have the status of a state flag. 1693 Peter I raises the white-blue-red tricolour for the
Art · Museums
Vessel of rock crystal and gilded silver, with enamel and rubies. Work of Dionisio Miseroni, circa 1655. The Miseroni family workshop was founded in 1588 in Prague, under Emperor Rudolf II. Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
NB! · Art · Observations
Good morning from Francisco de Zurbarán. Let us begin the day quietly, with thoughts as plain as a mug of water and a mood like a tender pink flower
Archive · In the Press · Observations · Humour
For example, The Times Record in March 1953, in a piece on the death of Stalin, publishes a photograph from Lenin's funeral, with the caption: This scene shows Nicolai Lenin lying in state at the House of Unions in January, 1924, His wife, Krupskaya and sister Maria stand
NB! · Architecture · Books · Heritage
Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage
During excavations in Staraya Ladoga, archaeologists have uncovered stonework dating from the reign of Oleg the Wise, who ruled in the Novgorod land in the 880s. Originally the Ladoga fortress was protected by wooden walls, built after an enemy raid around 860-870, and only in the 10th century was