Archive · Monarchies · Society

Catherine II's Instruction to the Commission on the success of Peter the Great's reforms

Russia Is a European Power. The proof of this is as follows. The changes that Peter the Great undertook in Russia met with the greater success because the manners prevailing at that time were wholly unsuited to the climate, having been brought to us by the intermingling of various peoples

NB! · Geography · Observations · Science · Humour

Geological Ideas of the Sixteenth Century: Pure and Subtle Stony Juice from Earth and Water Engenders Stones of Great Price, While Coarse and Impure Juice Yields Plain Stones

Geological ideas of the sixteenth century: pure and subtle stony juice from earth and water engenders stones of great price, while coarse and impure juice yields plain stones. It turns out that with stones it is almost as it is with people.

Dark bronze figure of a nude man seen from behind, legs apart, head turned, one arm bent to the waist. A roughly modelled trunk stands beside him on an uneven base.

NB!

Bronze sculpture of a nude man beside a tree trunk, seen from behind

Art · Books · Paris · People

Rodin's Monument to Balzac, from the Nude Study to the Scandal at the 1898 Salon

While working on his famous monument to Balzac, often dismissed as a shapeless monstrosity, Auguste Rodin produced several models and sketches. Among them is this nude study. Apart from Rodin, hardly anyone ever saw Balzac like this. And it was in this form that Rodin first conceived the monument to

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Paris

Work in the Catacombs of Paris in 1862

Art · Observations · People · Nature

Impermanent sculptures of branches and vines by American artist Patrick Dougherty

My favourite artist of the day is the 78-year-old American Patrick Dougherty, who makes fantastical sculptures out of twigs and saplings. Dougherty's chief technique is stickwork: armed with stems, secateurs and a saw, he clothes the familiar furniture of the landscape (walls, fences, trees, hillocks) in

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Art · Museums

The Sarcophagus of Alexander the Great in Constantinople

Cinema · Observations · People · Pop Culture

Hannibal Barca from a Phoenician aristocratic family and the question of his appearance

Denzel Washington to play the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who invaded Italy on an elephant from North Africa, in a new Netflix project. The director is Antoine Fuqua, who has filmed Washington before: think of the action film The Equalizer. As for the historical figure, it is hard to speak of

NB! · Observations · Humour

Somewhere, a Giacomo Puccini Wept

Books · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

I have learned of a wonderfully intriguing theory that the Harry Potter books are set in the Sixth Age of Middle-earth from The Lord of the Rings, when magic had ceased to be commonplace, the elves had left the stage, and those who remained turned into ho

Art · Museums · Society

Stichting Ambulance Wens Nederland fulfils the last wishes of dying people

A dying woman asked to see a Rembrandt before the end. This happened in Amsterdam in 2015, and it was not an isolated case: several other gravely ill patients in the city's hospitals asked to be shown "The Night Watch" and the Rembrandt exhibition. The chance

A dark interior with a spiral staircase, an old man seated by a lit window and a second figure at a fire on the right.

Art · Museums · Paris

Rembrandt's Painting of 1632 from the Louvre Collection

Philosopher in Meditation. Rembrandt, 1632. Louvre collection

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