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Archaeology · Cinema · Mores · Rome
As for the leather jerkin in which Maximus the gladiator performs on the arena floor, this is yet another unpardonable stretch on the part of the film's makers: gladiators had no armour to speak of, for the most part they fought quite naked, and only in t
As for the leather jerkin in which Maximus the gladiator performs on the arena floor, this is yet another unpardonable stretch on the part of the film's makers: gladiators had no armour to speak of, for the most part they fought quite naked, and only in the rarest
Archaeology · Cinema · Rome
The lorica musculata in the film “Gladiator” does not suit the period of AD 180
But then, the specialists already snort at this armour as it is, the so-called lorica musculata, that is, a two-plate cuirass fashioned in the shape of a male torso, with the detailed contours of a muscular chest at the front. Such armour was in use in the Roman
Cinema · London · Pop Culture
Russell Crowe denies wearing the armour from “Gladiator” offered at auction
Russell Crowe has denied that he wore in "Gladiator" the armour of General Maximus now on show at the British Film Institute and soon to be sold at auction. And although the armour the actor supposedly wore in the opening scenes of "Gladiator" is valued at
NB! · Cinema · Museums · Observations · Pop Culture
Exhibition in Boston marking the release of the film “Downton Abbey” closes
The bombshell exhibition marking the release of the Downton Abbey feature film closes tomorrow. All that remains is to bite one's elbows for having failed to get there. But what is one to do? The exhibition was in Boston, after all! 😣
Faith · Art · Nature
The goldfinch in depictions of the Holy Family and the legend of the crown of thorns
In depictions of the Holy Family, the infant Jesus often holds a little bird, or receives one from the hands of the infant John the Baptist. The bird is a goldfinch, the very one from the legend of Christ's ascent to Golgotha, which alighted on the crown of
Cinema · Mores · Ethnography
The gift of a braid in “Carnival Row” and the love symbolism of hair across cultures
The scene of a braid given as a gesture of love is played out in the fantasy series Carnival Row, when the fairy Vignette, played by Cara Delevingne, gives her braid to her beloved Inspector Philo, played by Orlando Bloom. The link between hair and the symbolism of love, however,
Archaeology · Cinema · Museums · Ethnography
In Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle" there is an episode in which Sophie Hatter, whose enchantment is almost undone, gives her plait to the demon Calcifer so that he may revive after the Witch of the Waste has all but snuffed him out, and the demon acquir
In Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle" there is an episode in which Sophie Hatter, whose enchantment is almost undone, gives her plait to the demon Calcifer so that he may revive after the Witch of the Waste has all but snuffed him out, and the
NB! · Archive · Geography · Nature · Ethnography
Willow twig barometer at a reindeer farm in Shebalino in the Altai
A barometer on a reindeer farm at Shebalino in the Altai. The secret is that the "barometer" uses a willow twig. As the humidity rises, the twig loses its springiness and droops. Photograph by the American Dean Conger, who travelled in the USSR in 1966-75.
NB! · Archive · Faith · Cinema · Paris
Archive footage from the filming of the Chambord stag in the Parisian church of Saint-Eustache
NB! · Architecture · Art · Museums · Paris
A Degas drawing "At the Paris Opera" and those very private partitions in the auditorium of the Paris Opera, on a model of the building in the Musée d'Orsay
NB! · Aristocracy · Observations · Humour