Archaeology · Architecture · The East · Observations · Heritage · Society · Saint Petersburg

As for Vladimir Putin's speech today at the Cultural Forum in Saint Petersburg, besides his remark about transformers, I noticed the quotation to the effect that "cultural figures build bridges between peoples – this is a mission…

Let me remind you that terrorists blew up the arch, reconstructed by the French in the 1930s, in 2015. In April this year a visualisation of the Russian project for restoring the monument was presented at the Hermitage Theatre; it was developed at the Centre for Rescue Archaeology together with

Art · Observations · People

Louise Bourgeois: a work of art does not need to be explained; if you feel nothing about it, I cannot explain it to you; if it does not move you, I have failed

Well, then.

Interviews · Cinema · Observations · Humour

Ridley Scott answers historians' criticism of his Napoleon film on French radio

Ridley Scott answers critics of his "Napoleon" who accuse him of falsifying history. I listened to Ridley Scott's interview on French radio, and when the talk turned to the barrage of criticism from historians who had abused his new film, the director said, curtly: "How

A smiling man in a dark coat and grey scarf stands beside a woman in a blue jacket with a red collar. Behind them are a Napoleon poster and screens in French flag colours.

NB!

Man and woman on the red carpet at the premiere of Napoleon

Aristocracy · Cinema · Monarchies · Paris · Society Pages

Prince Jean-Christophe Louis Ferdinand Albéric Napoléon with his wife, Princess Olympia, née Countess von Arco-Zinneberg, at the premiere of Ridley Scott's "Napoleon"

Jean-Christophe is a direct male-line descendant of Joseph, the eldest of Napoleon's brothers. Napoleon's only legitimate son, Napoleon II, died young and childless, while the numerous progeny of Napoleon's second son, the illegitimate Count Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, cannot lay claim to the

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · People

An authentic dress of Empress Josephine and her portraits in a similar guise

Drawing of Edgar Poe seated at a desk with a quill in hand, a cat perched on his shoulder.

NB! · Books · People · Nature · Humour

Edgar Poe said his stories were written by his cat Catarina

Edgar Allan Poe's beloved cat was called Catarina, and she would sit on his shoulder, watching him write. Poe liked to say that his stories had in fact been written by his faithful cat.

A sculpture shaped like a cabbage head on two bird legs stands in a museum display case on a green table.

Art · Museums

Claude Lalanne's 1976 cabbage on chicken legs at the Museum of Fine Arts in Agen

Cabbage on Chicken Legs. Claude Lalanne, 1976. Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen, Aquitaine, France

NB! · Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour

Éomer of Rohan Rests in the Shade of His Shield

Art · Mores

A girl in curl-papers waits for her ringlets to set, breakfasting on hot chocolate and cake

A Family Breakfast at Lavergne, Jean-Étienne Liotard. The artist returned to this subject twice: in 1754, when he painted the picture in pastel, and thirty years later, when he made an exact copy of it in oils

NB! · London · Monarchies · Observations · People

I Had Never Noticed This Striking Resemblance Between Elizabeth II and Her Grandmother Mary of Teck

A youth in a wreath of vine leaves and a white robe holds a glass of red wine, with a bowl of fruit before him.

Art · Observations

Wine offered by a god, lavish detail and Horace's call to a modest life

Everything in this early Caravaggio is exquisite, but just look at the glass! This is exactly how wine offered by God ought to be served. And the longer one gazes at the refined luxury of the details, the less one believes Horace's invitation to a modest life, half

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