Art · Heritage · Society
Latest
NB! · Architecture · Museums · People
The Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers, the better to keep watch over the Rijksmuseum, his beloved brainchild, even after his death, hid a sculpted portrait of himself on the wall of one of the towers on the Museumplein side
The East · Books · Monarchies · Humour
Donald Trump's 1990 visit to Japan and his meeting with the Emperor 27 years later
A rather amusing episode concerning Donald Trump's meeting with the Japanese Emperor Akihito, described in Harry Hurt's book "Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump" The author tells of Trump's business visit to Japan in 1990. If the book is
NB! · Aristocracy · Mores · People · Humour
The mother of the composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Yevgenia Andreyevna Glinka-Zemelka, married her second cousin Ivan Nikolayevich Glinka and became a Glinka, but without the Zemelka
Archive · Art · Monarchies
A 15th-century French book of hours on Melusine, the queen who turned into a dragon
The March calendar summons people to plough, sow and put their houses in order. And dragons to return to the castle. Though, strictly speaking, we are talking about one very particular dragon. A French book of hours of the fifteenth century records one version of the legend of Queen Melusine,
NB!
Top view of the carved hair of a sculpted head on a marble stand
NB! · Architecture · Art · Museums
Antinous's Magnificent Hairdo
Antinous's magnificent hairdo. A Renaissance bronze after an antique original. Archaeological Museum, Florence
Coming Up · The East · Interviews · Society
Nizhny Novgorod Opera House stages "The Abduction from the Seraglio", written by Mozart shortly before his marriage to Constanze Weber
The problems of fidelity and choice in love and freedom, of male and female nature: critics call Mozart's opera "a fantasy for grown-ups". The premiere runs from 29 February to 3 March, in a production by Ekaterina Odegova; the musical director of the performance is
Art · Moscow · Museums
Priam Begging Achilles for the Body of Hector
Alexander Ivanov, 1824. Collection of the Tretyakov Gallery
Archaeology · Art · Museums
Etruscan pink sarcophagus of the 4th century BC in the Archaeological Museum of Florence
Pink sarcophagus. 4th century BC. Archaeological Museum of Florence. The Etruscan women knew a thing or two about colour
NB! · Nature · Humour
One Ostrich Power Is Not Such a Small Amount of Horsepower After All
Archive · Books · Observations · Society
So, Professor Thomas Salmon, in his "Modern History, or the Present State of All Nations" of 1735, reports that once Russia has mastered the subtleties of navigation and the other sciences, nothing can prevent her from becoming the foremost commercial pow
Russia produces goods without which other nations, and maritime powers in particular, would find it very hard to subsist. From Russia come pitch, tar, hemp, planks and round timber. Thanks to the canals between the Volga and the Baltic Sea, Russia is able to supply grain at low prices. The