Art · Books · Humour

Linor Goralik wrote that in one Soviet album the painting was titled "Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash"

Linor Goralik wrote that in one Soviet album the painting was titled "Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash". As they say, the subtleties of translation!

NB! · Art · Humour

The Dachshund Hurries

The dachshund is in a hurry. 1912, a painting by Giacomo Balla, one of the authors of the manifesto of Italian Futurism: "Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash". Oil on canvas.

NB! · Art · Books · Observations · Humour

I Feel Like the Owl in the Portrait of the Scottish Writer and One-Hit Wonder James Boswell

NB! · Faith · People

Alexander the Great was born in the city of Pella in 356 BC, on the 6th day of the month of Hekatombaion, the first of the Attic year (15 July to 15 August)

Alexander the Great was born in the city of Pella in 356 BC, on the 6th day of the month of Hekatombaion, the first of the Attic year (15 July to 15 August). Symbolically enough, this month was devoted to sacrifices

Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Society

Demolition of the Church of Saint Martin in Sablé-sur-Sarthe for a car park began on 17 July

My Street. France On 17 July, demolition began of the church of Saint Martin in the French commune of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, built in 1880-86. The deconstruction is due to be completed by the end of July. For several years now the church building has been in a state

Painting detail: legs in pale blue stockings, one green and one yellow shoe, each with a pink rosette and a gilded spur.

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · Observations · Mores

Count of Bellamont in a portrait wearing mismatched coloured shoes with spurs

Note that the Count of Bellamont is wearing odd-coloured shoes, and with spurs to boot. Only the most daring dandies could permit themselves footwear of differing colours; it was considered the height of style

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · People · Humour

This is no Kirkorov of the eighteenth century, but the Irish politician Charles Coote, Earl of Bellomont, in the regalia of a Knight of the Order of the Bath: a mantle of crimson velvet, a hat with an ostrich plume and a gold chain weighing a kilogram

NB! · The East

Oriental tales, why are you making eyes at me

NB! · Architecture · Cinema · Books · Observations · Humour

Episode 1 of Game of Thrones recalled Chetham's Library in Manchester: the same little gates as in the Citadel, though here they went further and chained the books down, and in place of Samwell Tarly it was Karl Marx who sat up late

Books · Monarchies · Mores · People

Procopius of Caesarea describes Empress Theodora in his pamphlet “The Secret History”

Procopius of Caesarea gathered a great deal of gossip about the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora in his pamphlet the "Secret History", a disputed and scandalous work over which historians are still quarrelling. The book contains the following diverting description of the Empress Theodora, whose biography is

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Heritage · Humour

The marble lions that lay for 409 years at the foot of the tomb of the French king Charles V and vanished from Saint-Denis in the years of the Revolution, were found 200 years later and sold at auction for £9 million

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations

A woman, whatever we choose to call her, cares for her beauty: in one hand a comb, in the other, presumably, a mirror

A woman, whatever we choose to call her, cares for her beauty: in one hand a comb, in the other, presumably, a mirror. The most interesting thing is that this pair comes from the church where Shakespeare lies with his wife

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