Architecture · Art · Cinema · London · Humour

Sculptor Alexander Sederbach created the figure of Diogenes for Lacock Abbey in 1755

Does the statue of Gandalf in an English abbey ring no bells? In fact, this is how in 1755 the sculptor Alexander Cederbach envisaged the figure of Diogenes of Sinope for the adornment of Lacock Abbey in the county of Wiltshire in England. The lantern in the sage's

Archaeology · Art · Museums · Saint Petersburg

Victoria Calvatone, an ancient Roman bronze in the Hermitage, and its 19th century restoration

The Calvatone Victory. Ancient Roman statue, 2nd century AD. The Hermitage. The inscription VICTORIAE AUG / ANTONINI ET VERI / MARCUS SATRIUS MAIOR records the victory of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus over the barbarians. Until 2019 the sculpture was not exhibited; until the 2010s it lay in storage altogether

Faith · Art · Books · Observations · Humour

When They Ask What I Do with All These Books

Engravings by Albrecht Dürer, 1498, and Vasily Koren, 1690s. Saint John eating the book. Revelation 10:9 “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the

An elephant walks along a road beside a metal guardrail, with greenery and houses behind it, in a BBC News screenshot.

NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour

BBC News reports an elephant on the loose near a supermarket in southern Italy

Are elephants roaming Italy again? All we needed was another Punic War

Portrait of a long-haired youth in a wreath of vine leaves and grapes against a sunset sky and hills.

Art

Work by Pre-Raphaelite artist Simeon Solomon from 1867, a youth in a wreath of vine leaves

Bacchus. Pre-Raphaelite artist Simeon Solomon, 1867

A small white house with a red door stands in a lit clearing amid dark forest, reached by a winding path.

Art

Illustration by the Portuguese artist Francisco Fonseca showing a house in a forest

Dream House. The Portuguese artist Francisco Fonseca

Science · People

Spanish sergeant Antonio Chover survived dozens of wounds in June 1809

During the Peninsular War, in June 1809, the Spanish courier, cavalry sergeant Antonio Chover, found himself surrounded by a detachment of Marshal Claude-Victor Perrin, and, contrary to the law, was not taken prisoner but cut down with sabres. In the fight Chover lost his left ear and received dozens

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · People · Pop Culture

Princess Margaret, evidently, knew what style was

NB! · Art · Museums · Saint Petersburg

Statue of Octavian Augustus in the Guise of Jupiter, Hermitage

NB! · Art

Venus Anadyomene, rising from the sea, as painted by Botticelli (1484-86), Titian (1522), Poussin (1635-36) and Cornelis de Vos (1651)

Books · People

Byron on an enslaved land of vanished greatness and the battle at Thermopylae

A sorrowful land of vanished greatness, In your fall immortal, great. Oh, who will rouse your children with a cry, Who will free you from slavery? Your sons have now become other men. Not disputing with fate, a hopeless battle At Thermopylae they once awaited. Where now is that valour,

Architecture · Observations · Paris

Of course, the ugly 210-metre Montparnasse skyscraper is not in fact all that close to the 330-metre Eiffel Tower, and one has to work rather hard to get the two buildings into the same frame, but all the same, looking at these photographs, it is easy to

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