Faith · Art · Books

Alexey Khomyakov's 1841 verses on God's truth and earthly armour

The singing shepherd, for a martial feat, Took up no heavy sword, No helmet, no armour of tempered steel, No mail from Saul's shoulder; But, overshadowed by the spirit of God, He took a plain flint in the field - And the foreign-born foe fell, Flashing an. And

Faith · Art · Museums · Science · Mores

Restorers at the Amsterdam Museum find a comet tattoo in a 17th century group portrait

Oldest Tattoo in Dutch Painting Discovered. Conservators have discovered the image of a tattoo while examining a seventeenth-century group portrait that had returned from an exhibition. Specialists at the Amsterdam Museum believe the tattoo, found on the wrist of the presumably wealthy merchant Wessel Smits, to be the oldest

Art

James Pradier's Venus with a Shell: an Unsung Masterpiece of Neoclassicism

The first half of the nineteenth century

A red chalk study of a foot on paper, with a handwritten inscription at the bottom.

NB! · Coming Up · Art

Christie's to Sell Michelangelo's Study for the Libyan Sibyl in February

In February Christie's will offer for sale Michelangelo's study of the foot of the Libyan Sibyl, made for the Sistine Chapel fresco. The study, in red chalk, is estimated at $1.5 to 2 million

Art · Museums · Paris

Finnish painter Pekka Halonen featured in the “Ode to Finland” exhibition at the Petit Palais

The Petit Palais is holding an exhibition devoted to the Finnish artist Pekka Halonen (1865-1933), "Ode to Finland". In the self-portrait the artist is about 30 years old. Halonen is one of the key representatives of the Golden Age of Finnish painting. He studied in Helsinki

NB! · Art · Heritage

The son of the artist and theatre designer Alan Barlow was clearing out his father's studio in Norfolk when he found an original counterproof of a Rembrandt etching depicting a tax collector

The son of the artist and theatre designer Alan Barlow was clearing out his father's studio in Norfolk when he found an original counterproof of a Rembrandt etching depicting a tax collector. The print was soon put up for auction

Faith · Art · Observations · Nature · Ethnography

An Unidentified Flying Object in the Italian Sky

“The Walnut Tree of Benevento” is a picture of 1826 by Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti, created for a series of images of the mystical and miraculous phenomena of Italy, in which the artist documented not real events but folk legends, traditions and marvels that existed within Italian culture. The subject is

A woman in a red dress bends over a metal bowl, wringing out a blood-soaked cloth, with architecture in the background.

Faith · Art

Vermeer copied a painting by the Italian Baroque artist Felice Ficherelli

Saint Praxedes Collecting the Blood of Executed Martyrs with a Sponge. The painting is by the Italian Baroque artist of the seventeenth century Felice Ficherelli. The canvas made such an impression on Vermeer that he copied it

A boy in glasses reads a book beside a sleeping black dog, while above him a circle shows a knight in armour, a lady and a castle.

NB! · Art · Books

Norman Rockwell's 1923 work on tales of knights and a boy with a book

Tales of Knights, 1923. The American artist Norman Rockwell

NB! · Art

Igor Zaidel's art object is called "Thus They Sucked All the Juices Out of Her"

Igor Zaidel's art object is called "Thus They Sucked All the Juices Out of Her". From the series "The Secret Life of the Jews". Berlin, 1992

NB! · Art · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Given these figures, the real Marina Abramović performance is trying to justify to yourself the price of a ticket to her show

NB! · Art · New York

Yesterday at Sotheby’s in New York a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo entitled “The Dream” was sold for $54.7 million

Yesterday at Sotheby’s in New York a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo entitled “The Dream” was sold for $54.7 million. The sale set a record price for a painting by a woman artist, surpassing the previous maximum of $44.4 million for “Jimson Weed” by the American artist