NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

I am very fond of beautiful tableware, but I still do not know what considerations ought to guide one in placing a Medici garden vase in the kitchen, even if it is eighteenth-century and by Philippe Mombert

NB! · Art · Observations

I love such details

I love such details. One look and it is clear at once: Cupid is a tamer of wild beasts. And then you remember that he was suckled by the creatures of the forest, and his late antique depictions with a chariot drawn by swans and butterflies

Fresco of a man in a light coat bowing before the Pope in a red cape, with riders and a hilly landscape behind them.

NB! · Faith · Art · Rome · Humour

Nobleman asks forgiveness of the Pope in a fresco in the Vatican

A man begs forgiveness of the Pope, a fresco in the Vatican. You cannot see it, but take my word for it: with his left hand the nobleman is slipping a purse of gold into the Pope's cassock. The Pontiff receives the believer into the embrace of the

Faith · Art · Mores

Legends of Saint Wilgefortis and the origin of the image of the bearded virgin

There are two legends of the venerated Virgo fortis, the "strong virgin": one tells of a daughter (one of nine) of a Portuguese king of the eighth century, who secretly took a vow of chastity and prayed that the wedding her father had arranged with a pagan might

Sculpture of a bearded saint in a long robe and crown within a baroque altar, beside gilded statues.

NB! · Faith · Art · Ethnography

Saint Wilgefortis, the bearded virgin crucified by her father after refusing to marry a prince

This is not Jesus in a dress, but a Catholic saint: the bearded virgin Wilgefortis. She prayed that her father might not marry her off to a prince she did not love, and a beard grew upon her face; her father, in a fury, had her crucified

Eighteenth-century painting of a dark rhinoceros in a pen, with spectators in Venetian masks and tricorn hats behind a wooden barrier.

NB! · Art · Mores · Nature · Humour

The Rhinoceros Clara in a Painting by Pietro Longhi, Venice, 1751

Clara is 13, weighs 3 tons, has been touring all over Europe since the age of 3 in a coach drawn by 8 horses, and her urine is sold as medicine. The year is 1751. The Grimani Family and the Rhinoceros (and a heap of dung), Pietro Longhi, Venice

NB! · Art · Books · Humour

Love is tending a beautiful unicorn and dressing him in a caparison of royal colours

Love is tending a beautiful unicorn and dressing him in a caparison of royal colours. At any rate, the Book of Hours of Engelbert of Nassau of 1470 says nothing of relations with a monkey

Gold headdress with a relief female bust at the centre and pendants of fine chains, displayed in a museum case.

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums

Gold Woman's Headdress of the 3rd Century BC in the Archaeological Museum in Athens

A woman's headdress of gold, Greece, 3rd century BC. Held in the Archaeological Museum in Athens

NB! · Art · Observations

Orestes and Electra Anticipating Vengeance on Their Mother Clytemnestra, Who Killed Their Father

Orestes and Electra anticipating vengeance on their mother Clytemnestra, who killed their father. Interestingly, after the murder of his mother Orestes was not killed by the goddesses of vengeance, the Erinyes, since he found himself under the protection of Apollo

Pencil drawing of a barefoot boy in a shirt sitting on a chair at a table and writing.

NB! · Art · Books · People

Boris Pasternak in his father's portrait and the poet's first memory of Leo Tolstoy

A portrait of today's birthday boy, Boris Pasternak, drawn by his father. The poet's earliest childhood memory: waking at the age of four just as Leo Tolstoy was visiting his parents

A man in a blue scarf works on a part beside an inlaid cabinet topped with vases, while a second craftsman stands nearby.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage

Cabinetmakers restore a seventeenth-century cabinet in a restoration workshop

In the restoration workshop. Cabinetmakers restore a seventeenth-century cabinet

NB! · Aristocracy · Faith · Art

The stout gentleman in a sumptuous fur mantle with a crimson lining is Abbé François-Camille of Lorraine, who lived in the eighteenth century and belonged to the ducal house of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine