Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies

Daughter, Élisabeth Charlotte de Bourbon-Orléans, Duchess of Lorraine, and mother, Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Princess of Orléans

Daughter, Élisabeth Charlotte de Bourbon-Orléans, Duchess of Lorraine, and mother, Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Princess of Orléans. Eighteenth century. An incredible likeness, an incredible authorial approach to the portrait. The portrait of Liselotte, as Her Highness the Princess of Orléans was known, was painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud. Her

Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies

The Lely Venus from the Gonzaga collection to the English royal collection

The Lely Venus is a famous copy of Praxiteles' Venus, made in the 1st-2nd centuries. Rubens found the sculpture in the rich collection of the House of Gonzaga and showed it to the English king, Charles I, who fell in love with it and acquired it for his

Coming Up · Art · Museums · Saint Petersburg

Today: a lecture on Dürer by Roman Grigoryev, Head of the Department of Western European Prints at the Hermitage

Today: a lecture on Dürer by Roman Grigoryev, Head of the Department of Western European Prints at the Hermitage. Do join in, if you like: https://likadlugach.timepad.ru/event/1339706/ He gave a splendid lecture on Bruegel earlier, which I ought to have shared as well. But that is

Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour

On Josephine's birthday, let us recall the hilariously funny American melodrama "Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story", with a young Armand Assante as the Emperor

On Josephine's birthday, let us recall the hilariously funny American melodrama "Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story", with a young Armand Assante as the Emperor. It is a miniseries, so it will see you through several evenings. Do take note of the costumes, hairstyles and make-

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · Art

1894: The Unveiling of the Statue of Antinous at Delphi

The East · Books · Science · Mores · Ethnography

Birth in the amniotic sac in folk belief, literature and history

Modern medicine holds that birth inside the amniotic sac, or caul, occurs in roughly one case in eighty thousand, which is why such deliveries tend to become a significant news item for specialist journalists. In former times, children born in such a bubble, with the waters not yet broken, were

Archive · Art · Observations · Society

In the 1790s, campaigns arise in England against the currents blowing in from France, alarming for their backdrop of bloody reprisals and the overthrow of a monarchy

In the 1790s, campaigns arise in England against the currents blowing in from France, alarming for their backdrop of bloody reprisals and the overthrow of a monarchy. A propaganda broadsheet sets two allegories of Liberty side by side: Britannia, with the scales of justice, Magna Carta under the protection of

NB! · Observations

good night, 🐽

Faith · Monarchies · People

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has left the Vatican with a small retinue, his secretary and several medical staff to visit his elder brother Georg, aged 96, in Germany, where the latter's health has begun to decline

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has left the Vatican with a small retinue, his secretary and several medical staff to visit his elder brother Georg, aged 96, in Germany, where the latter's health has begun to decline. Benedict commented briefly on this rare absence from his permanent Vatican residence,

NB! · Observations

What Are You Like Today?

NB! · London · Society · Pop Culture · Humour

Dolls, English Style: Notable Tories in the Guise of Gentlemen of Yesterday, 1970

Newspaper clipping headed “110, She Still Works in Fields”, an article about a 110-year-old Irishwoman who still works in the fields.

NB! · Archive · Mores · People · Humour

Irish peasant woman Johanna O'Connor speaks of her longevity at 110

Mrs Johanna O'Connor, a peasant woman from a mountain hamlet in Ireland, at the age of 110: "I still smoke my pipe and do not think a person ought to be without a drop of punch, wine or stout... My secret of longevity? There is no secret,

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