NB! · Archive · Art · Monarchies · Humour

13 June 1803: Britain Resumes Hostilities against France

13 June 1803: Britain resumed hostilities against France. The full-bodied Britannia lashes Napoleon's bloodied backside: take this and that, and be warned, provoke me no more

NB! · Art · People · Pop Culture

The portraits by the Baroque artist Chardin are an excellent example of the gender neutrality of eighteenth-century fashion: here the aged Jean-Baptiste wears an unusual peaked headdress and spectacles

The portraits by the Baroque artist Chardin are an excellent example of the gender neutrality of eighteenth-century fashion: here the aged Jean-Baptiste wears an unusual peaked headdress and spectacles. This is how he always looked

Portrait of an elderly man in spectacles, a white cap with a blue ribbon and a pink neckerchief against a dark background.

NB! · Art · Paris · People

Jean-Baptiste Chardin portrayed himself in a nightcap, not a turban

Self-portrait by Jean-Baptiste Chardin. The old man is wearing neither a turban nor a headscarf: it is a nightcap

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Goya's "Time" shows two old crones with the comic remains of youthful make-up and vacant stares, before the question "What's new?" The old girls plainly fail to notice the mythical creature behind their backs

NB! · Faith · Art · Heritage

An Apostle Refuses the Cup of Drink or the Food at the Last Supper

An Apostle refuses the cup of drink or the food at the Last Supper. The beautifully preserved stone reredos of the 1400s from Somerton church survived Puritan iconoclasm by being hidden behind boards

NB! · Art · Mores · Humour

Rembrandt, ‘The Bed’

Rembrandt, ‘The Bed’. A drawing of 1646, from the time of the artist’s relationship with his housekeeper Hendrickje Stoffels. All would be well, were it not that the woman has three arms

Engraving titled “Chaussures civiles des Grecs”: cut diagrams of a chlamys and a pharos and drawings of laced Greek sandals.

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Greek sandals worn without socks, shown in an engraving by Willemin

Seasonal footwear: classic Greek sandals. As you can see, they are worn without socks

NB! · Art · People

The alarming little fellow with his tongue poking out, lurking between the legs of Venus, is no mere lecherous child but the offspring of a Satyr, come to seduce the goddess

The alarming little fellow with his tongue poking out, lurking between the legs of Venus, is no mere lecherous child but the offspring of a Satyr, come to seduce the goddess. Annibale Carracci, 1588

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · London · Mores · Humour

Symptoms of Debauchery: Maria Anne Fitzherbert and Albinia Hobart, Countess of Buckinghamshire (the one with the larger jewellery) at the theatre, 1794

Symptoms of Debauchery: Maria Anne Fitzherbert and Albinia Hobart, Countess of Buckinghamshire (the one with the larger jewellery) at the theatre, 1794. Sometimes intraspecific competition drives one to extreme measures

NB! · Art

Jacopo da Pontormo, Leda and the Swan

Jacopo da Pontormo, Leda and the Swan. Zeus appeared to the daughter of the Aetolian king and seduced her. Leda gave birth to an egg, from which Helen of Troy hatched. The shell of this egg is said to have been preserved in Sparta

NB! · Faith · Art

Eve, the Apples and the Serpent Tempter

Eve, the Apples and the Serpent Tempter. Odoardo Fantacchiotti, 1864

Two kneeling figures of chained Moors hold gilded shell-shaped dishes in a panelled interior beside a fireplace.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

Louis XIV and the fashion for guéridons, stands in the form of Moors in chains

Stands in the form of Moors, for flowers, sculptures and victuals, were brought into fashion by Louis XIV; they are called guéridons (from the French for 'warlike'). Only it is not clear what is warlike about slaves in chains.