Books · Ethnography · Humour
Pushkin Studies. What was there that great Pushkin never knew? He never knew a single chastushka, Never saw a single matryoshka In her lacquered little dress. The birch as the symbol of Rus' He never called, God forbid. In his day it was not suited To that role. It
Art · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
One must pay tribute to the skill of the French portraitist Louis Hersent. Maria Amalia of Naples, Queen of the French from 1830 to 1848, who, incidentally, fretted to her dying day that she had taken the place of the Bourbons, shown in a portrait of the 1840s and in
Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture
The idyllic Tilda Swinton has made yet another mediocre, strained film: "The Eternal Daughter". This time she plays both leading roles: a dusty mother of Victorian character and an obsessive-compulsive daughter, barely distinguishable from one another, who find themselves in a long-since-sold family estate. Tilda&
NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Society · Humour
Proud representatives of subjugated peoples gaze upon the magnificent symbol of oppression. And every member of the Commonwealth, looking at the British crown, will recall what it took from him. A great thing, all the same
NB! · Faith · Art
Art · Moscow · Museums · Pop Culture
A sketch of my suit for this spring. Slava Zaitsev. Museum of Moscow. Exhibition “The House of Fashion. An Industry of Images”
Art · Monarchies · People
A hat fit for a king! Or, to be more precise, for the Elector of Brandenburg, King of Hungary, Germany, Bohemia and Lombardy, and Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Portrait of Sigismund, presumably of 1433, by the Italian Quattrocento painter Pisanello
Museums · Observations · People · Saint Petersburg
How curious that my Instagram, in its "Memories" section, reminded me of this photograph of Irina Antonova, taken four years ago, precisely today, on the day of her 101st birthday. The picture is from the museum congress at the Hermitage: everyone was waiting for Irina Alexandrovna with a
Archive · Art
The Chariot of the Goddess Selene. Claude Mellan after a drawing by Pietro da Cortona, 1646. In the Greek tradition the Moon is associated with three goddesses: Hecate, patroness of sorcery, as the hypostasis of mystery; Artemis the huntress with her crescent bow, as the hypostasis of wandering; and the
Books · Mores · Pop Culture · Ethnography
After the success of the novel Little Lord Fauntleroy in the 1880s, the outfit of beret, dark jacket, knee-length breeches, coloured silk sash and lace-and-bow shirt became almost obligatory in a boy's wardrobe on both sides of the Atlantic. Suddenly English, French, American and even
NB! · Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage
The altar screen of the Anglican cathedral of St Albans has been coloured by a system of projectors to show how it might have looked before the Reformation. Oddly enough, a robot dog has become part of the installation; if I have understood correctly, it is a tactical military robot
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