NB! · Art · Museums · New York · Pop Culture

Emily Blunt and a Golden Crown of the Ptolemaic Era, 2nd Century BC, from the Brooklyn Museum

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums · Pop Culture

Lupita Nyong'o and Predynastic Egyptian Combs of 3800 BC, with a Ceramic Dress of 2550 BC from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums · New York · Pop Culture

Kim Kardashian and the Predynastic Female Figure of 3500 BC from the Brooklyn Museum

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Art · Museums

Billy Porter and the Pectoral of Tutankhamun, 1323 BC, from the Cairo Museum

Aristocracy · Archive · Art · People

Contemporaries described Most Serene Prince Konstantin Gorchakov as a very attractive man

Contemporaries described Most Serene Prince Konstantin Gorchakov as a very attractive man. Count Witte, for example, remembered Gorchakov as "remarkably handsome" and as someone who "until very recently drew attention by his appearance." This is not easy to grasp from the surviving photograph of an elegant,

Faith · Art · Museums · Mores · Rome

Caravaggio painted the Virgin Mary from Rome's most famous prostitute, Maddalena Antognetti, known as Lena, yet her child is the very embodiment of holy simplicity, for he is not to blame for his mother's transgressions, and he even tramples the symbol of

Caravaggio painted the Virgin Mary from Rome's most famous prostitute, Maddalena Antognetti, known as Lena, yet her child is the very embodiment of holy simplicity, for he is not to blame for his mother's transgressions, and he even tramples the symbol of sin. The canvas even

Architecture · Art · Observations · Rome

Variants of the myth of Leda and Zeus and the Dioscuri statues on Rome's Capitoline Hill

In the myths of the union of Leda and Zeus-the-swan there are several versions of the outcome: Leda bore two eggs and two children, Helen and Clytemnestra; Leda bore four eggs, plus various versions of paternity: some name Zeus as the father of the eggs and Tyndareus as

NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Rome · Humour

I maintain that in Bernini's "Rape of Proserpina" it is most unjust that all the attention goes to Proserpina's bottom: Hades is very fine too

Marble tomb with a statue of the pope in a niche and a red stone drapery from beneath which Death emerges holding an hourglass.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art · Rome

Tomb of Pope Alexander VII by Bernini with a skeleton and an hourglass

The tomb of Pope Alexander VII, Bernini. From beneath the drapery that stands for the flesh, Death peers out with an hourglass.

Interior of Saint Peter's Basilica with the dome, a Latin inscription running around it and a dark baldachin in the centre.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art · Observations · Rome

Michelangelo's dome and Bernini's baldachin in Saint Peter's Basilica

St Peter's Basilica: the dome by Michelangelo, the baldachin by Bernini. I would like to congratulate everyone on the creative power of Christian culture

Art · Observations · Mores · People · Humour

Portrait of the Reverend Thomas Gisborne and His Wife Mary

Portrait of the Reverend Thomas Gisborne and his wife Mary. A splendid umbrella, a cool dog and a remarkable likeness: do you not think so? He and his wife might be twins. People used to murmur that Gisborne had married for money: the girl from the wealthy Babington family was

Stone relief in a round window showing a male figure fixed head down on a spoked wheel.

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations

The Execution of Saint George in a Window Relief at the Stiftskirche in Tübingen

Today, on Saint George's Day, many recall his rich iconography. To my mind, more impressive than the scene of the dragon being slain is the execution of George, for instance this relief on a window of the Stiftskirche in Tübingen