The East · Art · Museums · Observations · Humour

English nightcaps of the Stuart era in the Eastern style

I don't know about you, but I can easily picture myself in one of these Oriental-style hats. Then again, I can picture myself quite well with a Jacquemus handbag too. In fact, these are English nightcaps dating from the reign of the Stuarts, an age inspired on

Faith · Observations · Humour

The shared origin of the Russian words blagogovenie, govyadina and zagovenie

Next time you feel reverence, remember that the word shares its origin with beef and with the eve of a fast. Govyada is the old name for horned cattle, pointing back to govenie, originally a string of prayers and sacrifices, evidently of the flesh of domestic livestock.

Majolica dish painted in blue, green and orange: a kneeling saint in a monk's habit with a crucifix above him, a second monk beside him and an ornamental border.

NB! · Faith · Art · Humour

Early 16th-century dish from Deruta showing Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata

Italian dish of the early sixteenth century, comune of Deruta. If you thought that Francis of Assisi was flying a kite in the shape of the crucified Christ, then cross yourself: the scene depicts the saint's receiving of the stigmata from Jesus himself

Faith · Art · Monarchies · Humour

Mary of Modena and the Jesuit James Petre in an image with the infant James Stuart

Mary of Modena was the heroine of such images. Here she is apparently being egged on by the treacherous and, for some reason, exceedingly swarthy (probably for greater conviction as to his malicious intent) Jesuit Sir Edward Petre, counsellor to James II, accused of complicity in the substitution of Mary&

Books · Observations · Humour

The dwarves Dvalin and Durin take revenge on their captor by cursing the sword Tyrfing

Poor little dwarves(( In his day Dvalin forged golden hair for Loki and made many other marvellous things. A regrettable accident, by which he and his friend became the prisoners of Sigrlami, was resolved, as so often happens, in a manner unexpected by the victor. Dvalin and Durin took their

Art · Observations · Mores · Humour

Mrs Rattle with her pets and the meaning of the squirrel in early modern English imagery

Good morning: we are breakfasting with Mrs Rattle and her family, a doggie, a kitty, a squirrel and a parrot. I think one ought not to ask a woman who keeps such picturesque company where her husband is. And as for the fact that the squirrel in English images of

Books · Mores · Ethnography · Humour

Advice from a book on the folklore of Cheshire published in 1898

Never buy furniture from workshops and shops near the cemetery: grandfather clocks and dining tables with antique tops are made from the planks of ornate oak coffins, which acquire an elegant patina underground. Advice from a book on Cheshire folklore, 1898

Art · Observations · Humour

Scatological scene on the base of a Greek drinking vessel from around 500 BC

The base of a drinking vessel, c. 500 BC. A man in a cloak, leaning on a staff, wipes himself with a smooth stone. The Greeks did not often turn to scatological subjects, that is, to those connected with the natural functions, in the applied arts, but this was evidently

Aristocracy · Moscow · Mores · People · Humour

General Afrosimov, a Possible Prototype of Famusov, and His Appetite Before Death

One of the directors of the Assembly of the Nobility, Pavel Afanasyevich Afrosimov, a retired major general, a fearfully important and dreadfully rich Moscow grandee, whom some call the prototype of Griboyedov's Famusov, was dying at the age of 64. His contemporaries left some amusing recollections of the

Two young women in elegant dresses sleep on a red sofa beside a black screen with an Asian-style design, one holding an open book.

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Auguste Toulmouche’s painting “Midday Idyll”, created in 1874

Auguste Toulmouche, 1874. A Midday Idyll, or Weary of the Squabbling

Faith · Books · Observations · Humour

Incredibly modern, given the state of affairs in our society, the fifteenth-century Dominican monk Giovanni Dominici, cardinal and persecutor of the Hussites, encoded in the chapter titles of his treatise "The Firefly in the Night" a quotation from the Go

The text, however, is anything but enlightening. And although Giovanni himself stressed that he was not versed in the differences between nouns and verbs and did not know the rules of grammar, he boldly declared that "Poets are the enemies of the true faith and must be removed far

NB! · The East · Art · Museums · Observations · Paris · Humour

To gauge the level of early medieval Japanese sculpture, simply compare these wooden guardians with, say, the French statue of Adam from the 12th century in the Musée de Cluny