Art · Observations · Nature

Marigolds from the Americas in European gardens and in a painting by Bartolomeo Passerotti

Fond of marigolds? Or perhaps you remember your grandmother planting these flowers between the rows of vegetables to save them from pests? Marigolds, or Tagetes, reached Europe immediately after Columbus's expedition to America, and in Russia they were in fact the very first overseas crop. Once in Spain,

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

My first thought on seeing the 1754 portrait of Abbé Jacques Pernetti: good heavens, did Jean-Étienne Liotard paint Bridget Jones's father?

Black-and-white print: two frightened ladies with tall coiffures and ostrich plumes flee from an ostrich while a dog barks beside them.

NB! · Art · Mores · Nature · Humour

Ostriches attack ladies in feathered hats in an engraving of 1777

Enraged ostriches attack fashionable ladies in extravagant hats trimmed with ostrich feathers. Avian revenge, 1777

Art · London · Museums · Observations · Science · Humour

To everyone who fears dentists as much as I do, or perhaps even more, I recommend pondering the simple subject of this sculpture of 1601 from the storerooms of the Science Museum in London

To everyone who fears dentists as much as I do, or perhaps even more, I recommend pondering the simple subject of this sculpture of 1601 from the storerooms of the Science Museum in London. In those days the extraction of teeth was an exceedingly painful operation, conducted almost without anaesthetic:

Archive · The East · Art · People

Miniature of 1635 by Giovanna Garzoni identified as portrait of Ethiopian heir Zaga Krist

A miniature of 1635, sold twice at Sotheby's: twenty years ago and again last year. All this time the man in the portrait remained unknown: he was thought to be from Abyssinia or North Africa. Imagine the astonishment of the owners of this trifle when it emerged that

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

Art · Mores · Paris

Etymology of the word courtesan, from courtier to kept woman in English

Courtesans Go to the Louvre, 1586. "Courtesan" derives from the word court, which was, one way or another, the centre of courtly life and of state administration. Originally a "courtesan" was a person admitted to that court and initiated into certain matters: a courtier at a

Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums

Group portrait of the heroine airwomen of the 46th Guards Taman Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, Order of the Red Banner and Order of Suvorov, by the artist Sergey Bocharov, 1985

Group portrait of the heroine airwomen of the 46th Guards Taman Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, Order of the Red Banner and Order of Suvorov, by the artist Sergey Bocharov, 1985. The painting was acquired by the Central House of Aviation and Cosmonautics of DOSAAF, where it remains on display to

Art · Observations · People

The Goddess Flora by Bartolomeo Veneto and the Debate over Lucrezia Borgia

An anemone, daisies and a buttercup: a charming little posy from the goddess Flora. For a long time it was held that in this painting the artist Bartolomeo Veneto had deified the notorious Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, though many scholars dispute the view. Whoever she may be,

Art · Monarchies · Museums · People

Execution of Emperor Maximilian, Manet's paintings and his coffin in the Vienna Furniture Museum

The coffin of Maximilian of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria and Emperor of Mexico, who came to the throne with the help of Napoleon III and by means of a so-called plebiscite. Maximilian was in many respects a charming ruler, but he failed to hold on to power: he swerved

Archive · Faith · Art

Repin repainted the priest’s face in “Religious Procession in an Oak Forest” in 1924

"The extract of our deacons, those lions of the clergy, in whom not one iota of anything spiritual is to be found: he is all flesh and blood, goggle eyes, maw and senseless roar" - so Repin wrote to Kramskoy of his "Protodeacon" in 1878. Well, these

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society Pages

I was very lucky on Monday, the museum day, to find myself at the colossal Repin exhibition and, avoiding queues and crowds, to see 300 works gathered over 3 floors from 21 Russian and 7 foreign museums and 7 private collections: nothing like it…

I was very lucky on Monday, the museum day, to find myself at the colossal Repin exhibition and, avoiding queues and crowds, to see 300 works gathered over 3 floors from 21 Russian and 7 foreign museums and 7 private collections: nothing like it has been seen for 25 years.