Aristocracy - The Parnassian (Page 29)

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If you happen to have a couple of spare millions lying about, do not rush to invest in securities and cryptocurrency: this autumn two weighty collections of antiques, furnishings, art, jewellery and clothing go under the hammer: on…

If you happen to have a couple of spare millions lying about, do not rush to invest in securities and cryptocurrency: this autumn two weighty collections of antiques, furnishings, art, jewellery and clothing go under the hammer. The auction houses will present the collections of two celebrated society ladies, icons

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

The Duke of Hamilton, keeper of the Crown of Scotland, escorts it to Edinburgh Castle

What is going on, and where has the crown gone with a stranger? A most curious scene: the 16th Duke of Hamilton, Alexander Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, aged 40, is escorting the Crown of Scotland to Edinburgh Castle. The Hamiltons have been hereditary keepers of the royal crown since the 16th

Aristocracy · Art · Museums · Mores · Humour

Dressed for the Weather

Sabina Poppaea, unknown artist of the School of Fontainebleau, 1550–1570, Museum of Art and History, Geneva. Tacitus wrote that the Empress Poppaea, wife of Nero, drew the attention of the Romans by strolling about naked, wrapped only in a gauze veil, as women of easy virtue commonly went. This

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Pushkin's Closed Funeral Service and Invitations Sold for One Hundred Silver Roubles

Owing to the great unrest, Pushkin's funeral service was held behind closed doors: besides relatives and friends, only select representatives of the nobility and prominent public figures were invited. Entry to the cathedral was by invitation card, and these, as Skalon recalls, very soon turned up on the

Aristocracy · Architecture · Faith · Observations · People

Bishop Giustiniani and the Madonna della Grazia church with an eagle on its facade in Gravina

Monsignor Vincenzo Giustiniani, a Genoese patrician turned diplomat, in his 64 years gave Apulia, the region where he served as bishop, several churches and public buildings. Among them is the unique church of Madonna della Grazia in Gravina. Have you ever seen so majestic an eagle on the façade of

Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Mores

The Grand Portrait of the Dauphins of France with the Marquise de Lansac

The grand portrait of the Dauphins of France with the Marquise de Lansac. In 1638 Cardinal Richelieu filled every court office with his own creatures, and installed a relative of his as governess to the future king and the Duke of Orléans. The elderly woman beside the little boys is

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The five-year-old Dauphin of France, Louis, the future Louis XIV, and his three-year-old younger brother Philippe of Orléans, together with the sweetest curly-haired little Bolognese

Aristocracy · Faith · Art · Heritage

Ligier Richier's tomb of René de Chalon as a decaying skeleton in Bar-le-Duc

Perhaps one of the most extravagant monuments of the French Renaissance: the tomb of René de Chalon, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, who died in 1544. It is not entirely clear whether the 25-year-old René himself left instructions for a rotting tomb to be

Aristocracy · Art · Museums · Mores · People

Pauline Bonaparte as Venus in the sculptural portrait by Antonio Canova

The international campaign opens with a day of women in world culture. I propose that we recall Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's favourite sister, whose famous sculptural portrait is considered one of the masterpieces of Antonio Canova. The aristocrat Camillo Borghese commissioned the work as a wedding gift for his

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Contemporaries described Most Serene Prince Konstantin Gorchakov as a very attractive man

Contemporaries described Most Serene Prince Konstantin Gorchakov as a very attractive man. Count Witte, for example, remembered Gorchakov as "remarkably handsome" and as someone who "until very recently drew attention by his appearance." This is not easy to grasp from the surviving photograph of an elegant,

Aristocracy · Faith · Monarchies · Rome

Archduke Eduard and the priest Paul of Habsburg-Lorraine, descendants of Franz Joseph I

A man in formal dress and a priest, photographed after a solemn liturgy, might well be heirs to the Austrian crown. Before us are the brothers of Habsburg-Lorraine, great-great-great-grandsons of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria-Hungary. No great surprise, really, since the Habsburgs are today

Aristocracy · Art · Humour

Portrait of Marshal Duke de Gontaut-Biron as a peacock and the debate over its meaning

When One Has Not Quite Made Up One's Mind About One's Political Allegiance. A very strange portrait of Louis-Antoine de Gontaut-Biron, Duke and Marshal of France (1700-1788). Art historians dispute whether the depiction in the form of a peacock was a mockery, a