Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Society

It is striking how closely what is happening in the country today resembles the general mood in the upper reaches of power in the 1870s

The Russian publicist Prince Vladimir Petrovich Meshchersky, a Kammerherr (chamberlain) of Emperor Alexander II, wrote in 1870 to Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich and Maria Feodorovna: All those who are not at court, all who work honestly for the good of the government and of Russia, who are selflessly devoted to

Faith · Art · Museums · New York

A 1530 painting of the miracle of an ascetic saint who revived roasted partridges

A Painting by Garofalo in the Metropolitan Museum Depicts One of the Most Touching Miracles of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino. An ascetic, he refused meat even during a grave illness. When a dish of roast partridges was brought to him, the saint merely made the sign of the cross over

NB! · Archive · Art · People

Photographs by the Catalan photographer Lloreç Herrera Altés (1948-2026)

Books · Humour

Alexander Sumarokov and his work “On Fools”

The fool is always sure to thrive, And wise men find in him their solace; But should the fool be rich, The wise man is to him not merely brother, But slave and flatterer, and therein he sins. Alexander Sumarokov, "On Fools"

Art · Ethnography · Humour

The sixteenth-century Flemish painting "The Legend of the Baker of Eeklo" tells a diverting folk tale about the inhabitants of the town of Eeklo, dissatisfied with their faces or their wits, who turned to the local baker for correction

But for the correction to be made, the unsuccessful head first had to be severed from the body, washed, dusted with flour and basted with egg yolks, and then slid into the oven on a baker's peel. In the meantime, a cabbage head was set in place of

Ethnography · Humour

One fool can throw a stone into the water that ten wise men cannot fish out

Russian proverb

Coming Up · Art · Paris

Waddington Custot opens its new Paris space with an exhibition on the Nabis

In April, Galerie Waddington Custot opens a new space on rue de Seine in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. For the opening they have chosen the theme "Nabi Shock": the exhibition is devoted to the Nabis, one of the most underrated movements in the history of modernism. The Nabis

Books · Society

Of all speculations the most accessible, and therefore the most widespread, is speculation in patriotism; love of the motherland sells most briskly of all, and in every age this has been a commodity in great demand

Viktor Petrovich Astafyev, "Damned and Killed"

Black-and-white photograph of a girl in a headscarf and coat walking across a stairwell landing beside a large window and a banister.

NB! · Archive · Mores

Girls playing hopscotch in a stairwell in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 1960s

Girls playing hopscotch in the stairwell of a block of flats in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the 1960s. Photo by Yury Sadovnikov, MDF archive

Black-and-white photograph of two men with canes standing on a woodland path, one with a long beard in a belted tunic, the other in a hat and overcoat.

Archive · Books · People

Two writers photographed by Sofya Andreyevna at Yasnaya Polyana in October 1900

Gorky Was Forty Years Younger than Tolstoy. At Yasnaya Polyana the writers were photographed by Sofya Andreyevna in October 1900

Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums

An inspiring spring exhibition, "Larionov / Goncharova

An inspiring spring exhibition, "Larionov / Goncharova. The Beginning", has opened at the Pushkin Museum. It is the first to explore the earliest, pre-avant-garde period in the work of two outstanding figures, a couple of Russian art. The thoroughly Impressionist pastels and drawings by Larionov and Goncharova

Architecture · In the Press · Museums · Heritage · Society · Paris

France's new Culture Minister Catherine Pégard said on France Inter on 30 March that the Louvre renovation plan must be adjusted to take account of security concerns

France's new Culture Minister Catherine Pégard said on France Inter on 30 March that the Louvre renovation plan must be adjusted to take account of security concerns. It is her first public interview in her new post. The occasion was the robbery of the museum on 19 October

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