NB! · Art · Museums · Ethnography

A Cat and Her Mistress from an Embroidered Quilt of 1790, Connecticut Museum of History and Culture

NB! · Archive · Art · Ethnography

Pattern for Embroidering a Griffin, 1589

The altar of the Contarelli Chapel with three Caravaggio paintings of Saint Matthew framed by coloured marble.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art · Rome

Three Caravaggio Paintings of Saint Matthew in the Contarelli Chapel in Rome

The Church of Saint Louis of the French in Rome, between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, became famous thanks to three masterpieces by Caravaggio, painted in 1599-1602 for the interior of the Contarelli Chapel. The canvases depict scenes from the life of Saint Matthew: the Calling, the Inspiration (the

Faith · Art · Madrid · Museums · Rome

Two El Greco sketches for a Madrid polyptych in Palazzo Barberini, Rome

To see an El Greco in the flesh is a great stroke of luck. Of the slightly more than a hundred surviving works by El Greco in the world, Russia holds, for example, just five, and Italy eleven, of which Rome has only two, both in the Palazzo Barberini. These

Coming Up · Art · Museums · Rome

Until 16 June the Quirinal Palace in Rome hosts the exhibition “Napoli Ottocento”, that is, “Naples, the Nineteenth Century”

At the end of the eighteenth century the discovery of the ruins of Pompeii, the great popularity of the Grand Tour among the aristocracy and the enlightened elite, the fascination with the incessant eruptions of Vesuvius and the love of romantic landscapes made Naples the third city of Europe, after

Art · Monarchies · People

Table medal commemorating the death of Emperor Alexander I the Blessed, who reposed in God on 19 November 1825

The reverse bears the inscription: Our Angel in Heaven 1812. On the obverse, around the bust of the Emperor in a laurel wreath, a serpent bites its own tail.

A polished metal egg with a wavy seam across the middle and three inset stones: one purple, one pink and one striped yellow.

Faith · Art

Egg with coloured stones by the Austrian artist Koloman Moser, 1905

Easter egg of silver and precious stones. The work of the Austrian artist Koloman Moser, 1905

A rectangular ceramic dish printed with a calendar for 1887 hangs on a wall with copper-coloured patterned wallpaper.

NB! · Art · Museums · Observations

Ceramic Wall Calendar for 1887 in the Chekhov House Museum

A ceramic wall calendar for 1887 in the form of a rectangular dish. The Chekhov House Museum. The first I have ever seen

Art · Moscow · Society Pages

Artem Lyapin's exhibition of lace fairy-tale characters opens at Lobby Moscow

A cosy exhibition, as is always the case at Lobby Moscow, has opened: the work of Artem Lyapin, an artist of the Flor et Lavr gallery. The show is called “I Think This Love Will Last Forever”. Artem works with metal, textiles and painting, and uses such techniques as cyanotype,

Archive · Art · Museums · Humour

“Two Hermeses”: guide Nikolaos Zafeiropoulos beside the statue of Hermes in an Athens museum, 1935

Hermes in Marble and Hermes in the Flesh. In 1935 the photojournalist Vasilios Tsakirakis took a photograph of a stranger in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The man, who turned out to be a guide named Nikolaos Zafeiropoulos, proved to be uncannily like the statue of Hermes, a copy

Architecture · Art · Museums

The della Robbia dynasty and works by Andrea, nephew of Luca, in the Bargello Museum

Someone says "della Robbia", and you hear "Florentine glazed painted ceramics". This family gave the world a whole galaxy of notable maiolica masters. Vasari, indeed, directly names the eldest of the sculptors of the della Robbia family, Luca, of the fifteenth century, as the inventor of

A small girl in a beige coat and pink bonnet stands in front of a pale green door with a glazed upper panel.

NB! · Art

Belgian Symbolist Fernand Khnopff painted “Portrait of Jeanne Kéfer” in 1885

"Portrait of Jeanne Kéfer", by the Belgian Symbolist Fernand Khnopff, 1885. Jeanne is about 5 years old