Architecture · Rome · Humour

These columns in Rome remember Julius Caesar, and still, not bad, the old dears are holding up!

And so must you.

NB! · Observations · Humour

I call upon Kofemania to come to its senses before it is too late!

Faith · Art · Moscow · Museums

The Angel with a Nail

From the collection of the Perm State Art Gallery. The exhibition “From Icon to Avant-Garde” at the New Tretyakov Gallery

NB! · Art

The Cover of the Latest New Yorker

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · People

Napoleon's Death Mask

NB!

Autumn, 1800

A dark-skinned hand in a white sleeve clasps a small bouquet of red and orange flowers against a dark background. A blue piece of clothing is visible at right.

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Hand holding a small bouquet of flowers, detail of a painting

Art · Museums

Painting by Sweerts, once attributed to Pacheco De Rosa, and the allegory of Smell

Youth in a Turban with a Bouquet of Flowers, Michael Sweerts, 1650s. The painting was originally attributed to another artist, the Italian Pacheco De Rosa, who lived at the same time as the Netherlander Sweerts. The subject of this picture may belong to the series of the five senses, twice

Education · Society

Funding for the "Pushkin Card" proposed to be cut by almost 8 billion roubles

Budget funding for the federal "Pushkin Card" project is proposed to be cut from 16.411 billion roubles to 12.508 billion roubles in 2024, and from 16.411 billion roubles to 12.691 billion roubles in 2025. At the same time, 28.3 billion roubles are proposed

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Mores

A Register of Goods for the Tsar's Treasury Suggests That Alexei Mikhailovich Did Not Favour French Wines

NB! · Aristocracy · London · Monarchies · Science · Mores · Humour

The Sixteenth-Century Poet and Courtier Sir John Harington, Ancestor of Kit Harington, Who Played Jon Snow in "Game of Thrones", Invented the First Flushing Lavatory for the Ageing Queen Elizabeth I

An elderly man in white vestments and a white skullcap laughs at a laid table with wine bottles, bread and carafes.

NB! · Faith · Mores · Rome · Humour

Wine and the Vatican, from the Conclave of 1378 to the Wine Institute's Assessment

The Vatican was flooded with wine when the Romans ransacked the Apostolic Palace during the conclave of 1378. Today the Wine Institute names the Vatican one of the most wine-drinking countries in the world