NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Whenever I think of Ancient Rus', I picture exclusively Hyperborea as painted by Vsevolod Ivanov⁠⁠

Whenever I think of Ancient Rus', I picture exclusively Hyperborea as painted by Vsevolod Ivanov⁠⁠. And the riding mammoths are my absolute favourites

Floor mosaic detail showing a crowned Alexander holding skewers in raised hands between two griffins, with an inscription beside him.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations · Humour

Norman mosaic of Alexander the Great and griffins in Otranto, Italy

Mood on this birthday: Alexander the Great holds skewers of meat above his head to make two griffins carry him up into the sky. Norman floor mosaic in the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunziata, 11th century, Otranto, Italy

Archaeology · Archive · Art · Rome

Photographs of the 1885 excavation of the Terme Boxer on the Quirinal Hill in Rome

Footage from the excavation of one of the most famous boxers in the world. The so-called Boxer at Rest was found in Rome, on the Quirinal Hill, in 1885. Fortunately, a photographer happened to be present at the dig, and we can watch this bronze athlete of the 2nd-

Faith · Art · People

Iconography of Saint Stephen the protomartyr and his Orthodox and Catholic feast days

Saint Stephen, the Christian protomartyr executed by decision of the Sanhedrin around AD 33-36, is customarily depicted as a beardless youth at the moment of his execution, being stoned. In his hands Stephen often holds the Gospel and a palm branch, or a censer. Stephen was one of the

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Humour

Isabella of Castile has a rather advanced spacesuit for the late fourteenth century

Art · Mores · Humour

If you feel you already have too many children, there is nothing amiss in letting one of the little ones play with a cavalry sabre

The title of Parents of the Year is assured to this British officer of the East Lothian Yeomanry Cavalry and his wife, captured by an unknown artist in 1815 with, for the moment, four children

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · Art · Cinema

Jean Cocteau and Charlie Chaplin at the opening of the Chapelle Saint-Pierre in Villefranche-sur-Mer, restored by Cocteau

Jean Cocteau and Charlie Chaplin at the opening of the Chapelle Saint-Pierre in Villefranche-sur-Mer, restored by Cocteau. July 1957

A woman in a cream dress holds a frightened girl while a boy on the floor hides under an animal skin rug with open jaws.

NB! · Art · Mores · Humour

Children's hide-and-seek in a painting by Frans Verhas, 1874

Just an innocent game of hide-and-seek, and that very mother who is forever shouting that you will be the death of her. Frans Verhas, 1874

Art · People

The murder of Pompey in Egypt and Caesar's tears on learning of his rival's death

Caesar holds the head of the murdered Pompey in his hands and dissolves into tears. Pompey was treacherously murdered in Egypt: he was lured by a ruse into leaving his warship and going ashore, and since the invitation of Ptolemy Dionysus was relayed by centurions who had served under Pompey

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations · Rome

What charming sandals the Virgin wears in Carlo Maratti's "Flight into Egypt" in the Irish church of San Isidoro in Rome

Faith · Art · Museums

Saint Sebastian of 1490 by the painter of the early Italian Renaissance Andrea Mantegna, and a barely noticeable detail: an inscription on the ribbon wound around the candle, "nil nisi divinum stabile est caetera fumus", which means "only the divine…

The dying flame symbolises the life of the saint himself, departing towards the heavens, to which his last gaze is turned. But the arrows of martyrdom promise eternal life. Mantegna has other Sebastians too, in the Dresden and Louvre collections. This one is from the Franchetti collection in Venice.

Art · Museums · Observations · Society

An African offers emeralds from the Chavor mine on a golden tray

An African offers emeralds from the Chavor mine on a golden tray. To European sovereigns, by all appearances. Balthasar Permoser's sculpture of 1724 is on show at the Luxembourg Museum and, by and large, is not in the least archaic. The exploitation of Africa has since taken on