Faith · Museums · Ethnography

The Lar, Roman household deity, and a statuette in the Weissenburg Roman Museum

The Lar is a very old and most interesting household deity. The Romans held that he watched over the hearth, the house, the family, the clan and the community. The lares were applied to for help in every conceivable matter: from childbirth to the growth of one's income,

The East · Science · Ethnography

Chinese fire clock in the shape of a dragon with an incense stick and falling weights

This mysterious dragon-shaped boat is a Chinese fire clock, known since the 6th century. The principle is simple: an incense stick is placed in the dragon's hollow body and lit at the head. As it burns, it consumes the threads from which small weights are suspended at

Faith · Art · Ethnography

Vita icon of the Prophet Elijah's fiery ascent, late 16th century

The Fiery Ascent of the Prophet Elijah, the very man who slew the priests of the god Baal and prophesied before King Ahab, a hagiographic icon of the late sixteenth century. Saint Elijah was taken into the kingdom of heaven alive, ascending on a fiery chariot drawn by blazing horses

Sculptural group of three wooden angels, the central one with a halo, displayed under glass in a museum gallery.

NB! · Faith · Art · Ethnography

Wooden angels of the late 18th century from the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Kargopol

Late 18th century, angels from the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in the town of Kargopol. PS: note the amusing halo in the shape of a little plate on the head

NB! · Faith · Art · Ethnography

Saint Nicholas in a Shrine with Folding Wings, Seventeenth Century, from the Church of Saints Florus and Laurus in the Village of Astafyevo, Kargopol District, Arkhangelsk Region

Saint Nicholas in a shrine with folding wings, seventeenth century, from the Church of Saints Florus and Laurus in the village of Astafyevo, Kargopol District, Arkhangelsk Region. In the upper part of the wings: the Nicene miracle, the sun and the moon, painted in the eighteenth century; on the right,

NB! · Faith · Art · Ethnography

A Seventeenth-Century Nicholas of Mozhaisk Holding a Church in His Left Hand, from a Private House in the Village of Lugi, Plesetsk District, Arkhangelsk Region

Faith · Art · Ethnography

Sculpture of Nikola Mozhaysky from Nikolskaya village in Arkhangelsk Region, 17th century

St Nicholas the Wonderworker (the image of Nikola of Mozhaysk, who, according to legend, defended the town of Mozhaysk from the enemy by appearing above it with a sword), seventeenth-century sculpture from the village of Nikolskaya, Kargopol District, Arkhangelsk Region. The traditional Nikola of Mozhaysk from the Arkhangelsk North

Coming Up · Faith · Art · Moscow · Ethnography

Carved wooden figures of the Russian North and an exhibition at the Tsereteli Gallery in Moscow

In the Russian North, special 'icons' were venerated: three-dimensional wooden figures of saints set in icon cases, sometimes carved at full length and reaching two metres in height. The oldest such icons in Arkhangelsk date from the 16th century. These original sculptural images were known as carved

NB! · Ethnography · Humour

The Comb-Makers' Guild Board Had Its Own Emblem Too, This Time, Happily, Without the Sense of a Living Person Being Forcibly Turned into a Doll

NB! · Art · Mores · Ethnography

Peasant with a spoon in his cap, detail of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting “The Peasant Dance”

A sixteenth-century peasant with his spoon. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, detail from the painting "The Peasant Dance".

Faith · Monarchies · Society · Ethnography

Persecution of holy fools and soothsayers in Russia from 1636 to Catherine the Great

Soothsayers, Blessed Ones and Holy Fools were not always revered in Russia, in fact. State persecution of them began in 1636, when first the Patriarch and then Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich pondered the harm they did to simple God-fearing folk, the latter issuing decrees expelling these enigmatic wanderers from Moscow

Archive · Faith · Society · Ethnography

The Podpolniki sect, which arose in the nineteenth century in the Saratov district, recognised only the pre-Nikonian church and came out rather categorically against the everyday manifestations of secular life: proposing not to attend schools and reading

The sect of the Podpolniki ("Undergrounders"), which arose in the nineteenth century in the Saratov district, recognised only the pre-Nikonian church and came out rather categorically against the everyday manifestations of secular life: it proposed not to attend schools and reading huts but instead to live in