Art · Observations · Humour
A charming winged creature is simply waiting for you to open the window with no mosquito net
Hieronymus Bosch
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NB! · Art · Books
Dante
Dante. Salvador Dalí
Art · Observations · Mores · Humour
The Modern Venus, or a Woman of Modern Fashion in Her Natural State
The Modern Venus, or a Woman of Modern Fashion in Her Natural State. 1786. Who could have imagined that a satire on the standards of beauty of the late eighteenth century would be so precisely realised in our own day?
Books · Observations · Mores · Society
Charles Dickens in “American Notes” on evening amusements and the press
Is there no amusement here? Why, yes. There, across the road, is the lecture-room, from which sheaves of light pour out, and then three times a week, or more often, there are evening services for the ladies. For the young gentlemen there are the counting-house, the store and
NB! · Archive · Books · People · Humour
George Bernard Shaw with a surfboard on the South African coast at the age of 75, 1931
NB! · Observations · Humour
When They Asked for the Abstract
Archaeology · The East · Geography
On the spread of international trade in antiquity: during excavations of the Etruscan city of Lattara in the south of France, fragments of woollen goods were found, dated to the 5th-6th centuries BC and made, quite definitely, from the wool still famous t
On the spread of international trade in antiquity: during excavations of the Etruscan city of Lattara in the south of France, fragments of woollen goods were found, dated to the 5th-6th centuries BC and made, quite definitely, from the wool still famous today, produced in Kashmir. Wool from the
Coming Up · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Paris
The celebrated French antiques dealer and ardent admirer of Napoleon Pierre-Jean Chalençon has put around 100 items from his famous collection up for auction
The sale will take place on 25 June at Sotheby’s in Paris. Among the lots: Napoleon’s bicorne hat, made by his court hatter Poupard and presented by General Mouton. A campaign bed with a canopy. A ceremonial sword and sceptre used at Napoleon’s coronation in Notre-Dame
NB! · Observations · People · Humour
If I Were Not Alexander, I Should Wish to Be Diogenes
Books · Monarchies · Mores · People · Saint Petersburg
Catherine II and Denis Diderot, from the invitation to Russia to the fate of his library
Within ten days of her accession to the throne, Catherine II had invited Denis Diderot to come to Russia. She even proposed that he move the publication of the "Encyclopédie", which kept running into bans in France, to Riga or Saint Petersburg. But Diderot did not take up
Faith · Art · Museums · Paris
The Louvre acquires a collection of 272 icons and a Fabergé triptych
The Louvre has acquired a private collection of 272 icons from Greece (including Crete), the Levant, Russia and other regions. The collection spans the period from the 15th to the early 20th century. The acquisition is a significant contribution to the museum's holdings, as it plans to establish
Faith · Art · Observations · Rome
Sculpture of a globe with hidden mechanisms, installed in the Vatican in the 1990s
Could the Vatican not have done without this gleaming sphere by Arnaldo Pomodoro? The so-called sculpture was installed back in the 1990s, under John Paul II, which does nothing to mitigate its ugliness. It looks more like some trinket from a metallurgical industry exhibition than a work of art