Archaeology · Museums · Mores · Ethnography
A wooden ancient Egyptian headrest recalls an architectural model of a Greek portico. The Egyptians used such contrivances for sleeping. The head was placed upon the headrest in lieu of a pillow. If the bed stood close to the ground, this offered protection from insects and scorpions. On the other
Archaeology · Moscow · Museums
The wand is broken, so no magical powers remain in it. It is the third such object in the museum's holdings; the other two come from the collection of the Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Semyonovich Golenishchev. The newly acquired piece comes from the collection of the Australian surgeon Harley
Architecture · Interviews · Moscow · Museums
Not long ago, the Bakhrushin Museum held a preview of the Centre for Theatre History, part of the museum and theatre quarter. This large-scale and in many respects unique project has long been discussed with interest in the museum community. The other day TASS published a substantial, programmatic interview
Books · Museums · Science
The forerunner of the television: the oldest known “magic lantern” is recorded in the Physices elementa… of the Dutch physicist Willem Jacob 's Gravesande. 's Gravesande, a former lawyer from The Hague who became a professor of mathematics at Leiden, was the first of Newton's followers
Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Humour
When I posted to my stories a photograph of a work from the collection of the New Tretyakov Gallery, "Our Goal Is Communism! Komar, Melamid", a woman I did not know wrote back: "no, it isn't". I asked her: "what do you mean,
Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums
Philips Galle's Alchemist after a drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder: a man sinking into utter insignificance and ruin, driven by the wish to grow rich quickly in the fields of alchemical transmutation. Instead of turning lead into gold, the experiments of the philosopher's stone, as
Art · Moscow · Museums
A cast from the Pushkin Museum
Museums · Heritage · Science · Nature
The problem was discovered by a group of researchers led by Camilla Jul Basthholm, head of the conservation and storage department at the National Museum of Denmark, who described the situation as “a kind of coronavirus epidemic for Golden Age painting”. The fungus attacks paintings, textiles and furniture. “Museum” mould
Architecture · Faith · Art · Museums · Heritage · Rome
After ten years of painstaking restoration, the state Hall of Constantine in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican has regained its original splendour. The largest of the Raphael Rooms, named after the Roman emperor who granted Christians freedom of worship, was decorated under five pontiffs over the course of the
Architecture · Faith · Cinema · Books · Moscow · Museums · Mores · Paris
June's days are running out, so here is a round-up of this month's publications. The June digest takes in literary parallels, architecture, vampires, henpecked husbands and the artefacts of the Louvre. 📌 In the Parnassian Mockingbird cinema rubric: a piece on the first vampire serial 📌 The
Museums · Heritage · Pop Culture
The South African studio Nyamakop has recently released Relooted, a side-scroller about a crew of thieves who, in the near future, break into the private collections of Western museums to return African artefacts to their homeland. According to the plot, the countries have signed a repatriation treaty, but it
Faith · Art · Museums
Museo Correr, Venice. Da Messina was a gifted painter of the Early Renaissance, a native of Sicily. He is credited with introducing oil painting to Italy, which he mastered thanks to the Netherlanders and to Jan van Eyck, acknowledged as its genius.