Portrait of Charles IV of Spain from behind, painted from memory by Jean Bozil in 1820

A portrait of King Charles IV of Spain from behind, painted by the court miniaturist Jean Bozil in 1820, twelve years after his abdication, from memory. Apparently all that he could recall.

Charles IV is that very King of Spain in whose stead the country came to be set to rights by his wife's lover. In effect, Napoleon received the crown of Spain for his brother Joseph from the hands of this back, incapable of governing and scarcely memorable, which had plunged a stable state into the abyss of dynastic squabbles and palace coups

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Portrait of Charles IV of Spain from behind, painted from memory by Jean Bozil in 1820

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s