NB! · The East · Art

One of the fifteen canvases painted by Aivazovsky in Tbilisi

A hand in a white glove holds a brass astrolabe in front of a wall of tiles painted with minarets and ornaments.

NB! · Art · Observations · Science · Education

Thousand-year-old astrolabe sold at Sotheby's for £680,750

A 1,000-year-old astrolabe sold at Sotheby's for £680,750; a pity that an instrument so popular in antiquity has been forgotten, along with the fundamentals of astronomy, though. How can one be educated without them?

NB! · Art · Mores · Humour

The Viewer's Armchair, Invented Long Before Television

NB! · Faith · Art

The Sufferings of Saint George: One of the Tortures Inflicted on Him by the Emperor Diocletian, Suspension over a Revolving Wheel Studded with Metal Spikes

The sufferings of Saint George: one of the tortures inflicted on him by the Emperor Diocletian, suspension over a revolving wheel studded with metal spikes. He bore it with dignity and brought many to Christianity

NB! · Art · London · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

A necklace of the teeth of stags slain by Prince Albert, presented to Queen Victoria

NB! · Art · Humour

Portrait of a Russian Nationalist, Bartholomeus van der Helst, 1642

In a painted portrait, two men in white garments, turbans, pearl necklaces and earrings sit before a standing figure in red.

NB! · The East · Art · Monarchies · Observations

Madhav Rao II and Minister Nana Farnavis in a portrait with 18th-century jewellery

Madhav Rao II, head of the Hindu Maratha state, who would take his own life at twenty-one, and his moustachioed minister Nana Phadnavis, who stood against the English. Good jewellery for the eighteenth century, especially the earrings

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations · Humour

Whatever Catholics choose to call the banner with the Madonna, oriflamme or gonfalon, I merely wanted to show what a splendid contraption the youth has between his legs: for redistributing the weight of the heavy staff, so to speak

NB! · Faith · Art · People

Alexey Bogolyubov, Easter in Yaroslavl, 1863

NB! · Art · Society · People

Look at the self-portrait of the celebrated Venetian artist Rosalba Carriera, in which she appears to be painting a portrait of her sister, and guess why feminists have chosen her as their heroine

Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Paris · People

Gabrielle d'Estrées, favourite of Henry IV, her family and her death in 1599

It is believed that at the time the painting was made, the favourite of Henry IV was pregnant with his first son, who would be named César after Julius Caesar. The pregnancy may be hinted at by the woman in the background sewing children's clothes, and by the

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Paris