Faith · The East · Art · Books

"A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter"

"A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter." And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There

Painted sculpture of a standing barefoot woman with long wavy hair and a torn garment with a woven pattern, on a pedestal in a dark museum room.

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Sculpture of a barefoot woman with long hair in a tattered woven garment

Painted wooden statue of a barefoot standing woman with long wavy hair in a torn yellow garment, on a plinth in a dark gallery.

Coming Up · Faith · Art · Moscow · Museums

Sculpture of Mary Magdalene attributed to Pedro de Mena at the Pushkin Museum exhibition

Saint Mary Magdalene, a wooden sculpture of the 17th century, attributed to the Spaniard Pedro de Mena. Collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition at the Pushkin Museum, “The Spanish Collection. From the Holdings of Russian Museums”, is open until 4 February

NB! · Cinema · Books · Pop Culture · Humour

The French Olympic Team at the Opening of the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976 and the Beauxbatons Academy Delegation at the Goblet of Fire Games at Hogwarts

Art · Museums

Cassandra as a Sibyl and Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, in richly decorated costumes

Cassandra and Penthesilea, Heroines of the Trojan War. The prophetic daughter of Priam is presented in the guise of the soothsayer Sibyl, but with a somewhat more majestic bearing and a richer costume. Her headdress with its pointed plume is executed in the Eastern style, and its height signals the

Landscape with dark silhouettes of trees above a ploughed field, a pink sky with a yellow strip at the horizon and grey-blue clouds.

Art

Landscape by the Swiss artist Félix Vallotton, painted in 1918

Sunset, Blue Clouds. The Swiss artist Félix Vallotton, 1918

Faith · The East · Monarchies · Nature · Ethnography

When a giraffe was presented to Zhu Di (1360-1424), the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, during the voyages of his subject Zheng He around the world, the court was delighted, for everyone took the animal for a qilin or kirin, the mythical beast, one of…

Archive · Faith · Museums · People

At his trial, Patriarch Nikon explained why he wore a black klobuk with a cherub and two panagias

A six-winged seraph on the klobuk of Patriarch Nikon. Collection of the New Jerusalem Museum. When Patriarch Nikon was asked at his trial why he wore a black klobuk with a cherub and two panagias, Nikon replied thus: "Black klobuks are worn by the Greek patriarchs, and I

Engraving in an oval frame: a man in a curled wig, white neckcloth and buttoned coat looks at the viewer, his head slightly turned.

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Oval engraved portrait of a man in a powdered wig, 18th-century style

Books · Education · Society

If it is good to know how to use men as they are, it is far better still to make them what one needs them to be; the most absolute authority is that which penetrates into the inmost being of a man and exerts no less influence…

From Jean-Jacques Rousseau's article “Discourse on Political Economy” in the Encyclopédie

A fire burns in a fireplace shaped like a giant grimacing face with wavy hair. At right, a table with a lace cloth, chairs in white covers, a bouquet and wine bottles.

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Fireplace carved as a monstrous mask with an open mouth in a dining hall

NB! · Architecture · Art

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