Light blue porcelain dish with gilded flowers and a hammer and sickle, with a central inscription marking 325 years of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, 1979.

NB! · Art · Society

Dulevo porcelain dish of 1979 for the 325th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia

Propaganda porcelain plate of 1979: the 325th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. Dulyovo Porcelain Factory

Gilded bronze figure of Saint Sebastian tied to a dark trunk, in a museum room with red walls and portraits.

Faith · Art

Pietro Tacca's bronze Saint Sebastian tied to a tree, made around 1624

Saint Sebastian tied to a tree. Bronze. Early Baroque, c. 1624. Made by Pietro Tacca (1577-1640), chief assistant to Giambologna and his successor as court sculptor to the Medici

NB! · Art · People

Félix Vallotton, The White Beach, 1913

NB! · Faith · Art

The Dormition of Saint Mary Magdalene, Silvestro dei Gherarducci, 1380s

Art · Museums · Saint Petersburg

Jan Fabre's "Folly Standing on Death", 2016, and Frans Snyders's "Concert of the Birds", 1630-1640

The birds did not believe the owl, which warned them of the hunter's approach, and paid for it with their lives. Fabre looked at the subject of Aesop's fable in his own way. The work was created for the exhibition "Jan Fabre. Knight of Despair

Art · Books · Observations

The Rescue by the Eagles, Michael Hague's illustration for the 1987 edition of The Hobbit

Perhaps one of my very favourite book illustrations of all time

Close-up of a tiger's head with orange fur, black stripes and brown eyes on a pale sheet of paper, a colour drawing.

NB! · The East · Art · Nature

Depiction of a tiger by an unknown South Asian artist of the early 19th century

The Sad Tiger. Unknown South Asian artist, 1815 to the 1820s.

Architecture · Art · Cinema · London · Humour

Sculptor Alexander Sederbach created the figure of Diogenes for Lacock Abbey in 1755

Does the statue of Gandalf in an English abbey ring no bells? In fact, this is how in 1755 the sculptor Alexander Cederbach envisaged the figure of Diogenes of Sinope for the adornment of Lacock Abbey in the county of Wiltshire in England. The lantern in the sage's

Archaeology · Art · Museums · Saint Petersburg

Victoria Calvatone, an ancient Roman bronze in the Hermitage, and its 19th century restoration

The Calvatone Victory. Ancient Roman statue, 2nd century AD. The Hermitage. The inscription VICTORIAE AUG / ANTONINI ET VERI / MARCUS SATRIUS MAIOR records the victory of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus over the barbarians. Until 2019 the sculpture was not exhibited; until the 2010s it lay in storage altogether

Faith · Art · Books · Observations · Humour

When They Ask What I Do with All These Books

Engravings by Albrecht Dürer, 1498, and Vasily Koren, 1690s. Saint John eating the book. Revelation 10:9 “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the

Portrait of a long-haired youth in a wreath of vine leaves and grapes against a sunset sky and hills.

Art

Work by Pre-Raphaelite artist Simeon Solomon from 1867, a youth in a wreath of vine leaves

Bacchus. Pre-Raphaelite artist Simeon Solomon, 1867

A small white house with a red door stands in a lit clearing amid dark forest, reached by a winding path.

Art

Illustration by the Portuguese artist Francisco Fonseca showing a house in a forest

Dream House. The Portuguese artist Francisco Fonseca