NB! · Art · Monarchies · Humour

How Do You Know the Renaissance Has Arrived?

How do you know the Renaissance has arrived? The Triumph of Emperor Maximilian bears a strong resemblance to a car-audio festival, only with the sound systems harnessed to camels and deer

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums

The Sleigh of Louis XV, with Tortoise

NB! · Faith · Art · Mores · Humour

Did the Bishop of Cologne Overcome Weakness, or Is This Immortalisation with Autofellatio Motifs, the Revenge of the Haters?

Did the Bishop of Cologne overcome weakness, or is this immortalisation with autofellatio motifs, the revenge of the haters? The author's motivation is a mystery. But it is known that Conrad was indeed disliked for his beer bans

NB! · Art · Moscow · Observations · Humour

The Moscow flood brings to mind a 1643 woodcut of an epic witch seen floating on a plank down the River Kennet at Newbury in England

The Moscow flood brings to mind a 1643 woodcut of an epic witch seen floating on a plank down the River Kennet at Newbury in England. With the weather we are having, an excellent means of getting about

NB! · Art

a crib sheet for those who are only just setting out to understand art

Half-length painted portrait of Catherine II wearing a diadem, with grey curled hair, a blue dress and a white fur-trimmed cape with jewelled ornaments.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Portrait of Empress Catherine II by an Unknown Artist

Portrait of Catherine II by an unknown artist. Or how men thrust out the lower jaw in selfies

NB! · Art · Heritage · Paris · People

The most interesting part is that after the defeat of the Commune the column would be restored, and Gustave Courbet would be blamed for its destruction: by order of the court he was to pay 10,000 francs a year in compensation, and he died in poverty seven

NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage · Paris

The Statue of Napoleon from the Toppled Vendôme Column

NB! · Art · Ethnography · Humour

Everything Is Splendid in This Nineteenth-Century Image of the Inca Mythical Princess Mama Ocllo

Everything is splendid in this nineteenth-century image of the Inca mythical princess Mama Ocllo. The hunchbacked dwarf and the severed head alike, but what especially catches the eye is the black double-headed eagle, the ancient symbol of so many civilisations

NB! · Art · Observations · Mores

Victor Maximilien Potain (1760-1840), Portrait of the Artist's Sister Marie-Adrienne and Her Daughter Rose-Marie with a Puppy

Victor Maximilien Potain (1760-1840), Portrait of the Artist's Sister Marie-Adrienne and Her Daughter Rose-Marie with a Puppy. A charming statement on how important it is to be close to those we love

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Marie Leszczyńska, Queen of France, in a frightfully fine outfit with fur trim, a muff, a tippet and a plunging neckline

Marie Leszczyńska, Queen of France, in a frightfully fine outfit with fur trim, a muff, a tippet and a plunging neckline. The eighteenth century, but with our weather it would be just the thing today. And likewise in a sleigh, on some granite or other

Architecture · Art · Books · Monarchies · Paris

Napoleon's plaster model of a bronze elephant at the Bastille site stood until 1846

Napoleon wished to raise a dazzling monument to his victories: a bronze elephant twenty-four metres high, cast from melted-down cannon, was to adorn the square on the site of the demolished Bastille. The elephant, on a lofty pedestal, stood in the middle of a fountain, and the creature&