Art · Museums · Observations · Humour
This sculpture was once considered a self-portrait of Gauguin, but a growing number of experts now agree that the head was in fact made by an unknown Polynesian puppet-maker in 1894. In principle, the Getty has money to burn, so it is not all that vexing that in
Observations · Palaeontology · Nature · Humour
The pups Poppy and Sam have found an almost complete skeleton of an ichthyosaur, 190 million years old, on a beach in Somerset. Palaeontologists are now trying to establish whether the remains belong to a new species of extinct marine creature. In short, walk your doggies more often https://www.
Art · Mores · Humour
Fops of the eighteenth century would be greatly astonished to step into a branch of Sberbank on pension day: pink curls flit across the heads of grandes dames more often than they could ever have imagined. The more so as in those days pink hair was considered chiefly a masculine
NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
Behold the tiny feet of Henri IV ☺️ Only bear in mind that here he is a corpse. Hardly the most flattering angle for a portrait, and a posthumous one at that. The king reclines on a bed beneath a canopy, in full dress and regalia, with candlesticks set all around
NB! · Archive · Mores · Humour
Where to put one's hat during the performance? As you see, an ingenious American furniture company has found a solution for gentlemen, allowing them to go to the theatre without disturbing the comfort of those around them.
NB! · Archive · People · Pop Culture · Humour
Igor Stravinsky has knocked back a whisky and is delighted with life. To your health, naturally
The East · Mores · Society · Humour
There is a tale about Soviet diplomats in China in the 1950s: they refused to ride in rickshaws, since to them the rickshaw seemed the very embodiment of the exploitation of man by man, even though giving up this transport meant endless lateness. In those years China still suffered from
NB! · Art · Museums · Humour
Zeus: a boy is seduced by an eagle, a girl by a swan. The main thing is not to get them mixed up. Museum of Fine Arts, Lisbon
Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
In Netflix's The Last Czars, this is what we are invited to take for the heir to the Russian throne, Nicholas Alexandrovich, at the funeral of Alexander III. Let me remind you that Nicholas was 26 🤷🏽♂️ Of course, in former years people looked older and worse than we
NB! · The East · Observations · Society · Humour
The end of 1891. The Governor-General of Turkestan, Vrevsky, is interested only in women and asparagus, while Annenkov makes the starving hack at the ice on the Volga by hand. Russia and her rulers do not change, even a hundred years on
Faith · Art · Observations · Humour
In Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "Adoration of the Magi" everyone looks thoroughly miserable, though the occasion is, broadly speaking, a happy one: the birth of a saviour. And then there is Balthazar, the only guest who has brought a decent present: a golden ship with a
NB! · Observations · Humour