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Art
Art · Observations
August
August. Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, 1691. A reminder that July and August have for more than two thousand years now borne the names of the Roman emperors Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus. Julius Caesar, who gave the world a calendar almost matching the length of the solar year, named one of
Art · Museums · Ethnography
"English iron is vile, but having the means to make it cheaper, they undercut us everywhere" - in 1818 the industrialist Nikolay Nikitich Demidov complains of cheap English iron, which had shaken the international standing of a trade that was, admittedly,
Yet this very thing became one of the reasons for the intensive development of the iron trades. Do you have a handsome painted lacquer tray at home? Such ware was once an indispensable and costly part of any interior. Russian decorative iron trays, salt cellars, caskets and chests replaced artistic
Art · Monarchies · People
Napoleon and His Son
Napoleon and his son. In a frock. Painting by Karl Karlovich Steuben, engraving after it by Alexandre Vincent Sixdeniers
NB! · Art · People
René Gruau 🔥
Art · Moscow · Museums · Mores · Ethnography
The Dowry in Old Russia and Pukirev’s “Accepting the Dowry by Inventory”
The Reception of the Dowry According to the Inventory, Vasily Pukirev, 1873. Collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. The bride is not easy to find in this picture: all the attention is on the things. The dowry, a word still heard in our grandmothers' vocabulary, had in the old days
NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Paris
Drifting into the weekend with Gustave Caillebotte, acquired not long ago by the Musée d'Orsay for 3 million euros with the help of Bernard Arnault, who added a further 40 million from his company's coffers
NB! · Art · Mores
Abraham Bosse's 1636 engraving of women dining together without their husbands
Women at table in the absence of their husbands. Abraham Bosse, 1636
NB! · Art · Books · Observations · Humour
Every morning I tell myself: one more day, one more chance to labour according to my strength and talents, like the little angel at the bookbinder's press in the engraving from Jean Leclerc's History of the Netherlands of 1728
Faith · Art · Museums
Hendrick ter Brugghen painted “The Incredulity of Thomas” in 1622, now in the Rijksmuseum
Doubting Thomas. 1622. And he has brought witnesses, one of them even in spectacles. Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629), Rijksmuseum collection
Coming Up · Art · Books
The Hobbit to be published in September with more than 50 of Tolkien's own illustrations
In September an edition of The Hobbit with Tolkien's own illustrations will be published. It is the first edition to include an expanded selection of the author's own sketches: the book will contain more than 50 drawings, studies, maps, manuscript pages and paintings by J. R.
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums
Ancient Greek funerary stele of the 5th–4th century BC from Piraeus showing a youth playing with a ball
Funerary stele depicting a naked young man playing with a ball. Beside him stands a boy-servant holding bathing implements. Ancient Greece. 5th-4th centuries BC, Piraeus. National Archaeological Museum, Athens