Faith · Art · Museums · Paris · Pop Culture

Wooden figure of Saint Mary Magdalene by Gregor Erhart, La Belle Allemande, 1510, Louvre collection

And photographs of Nicole Kidman from Vogue Australia, 1994, shot by Rocky Schenk

Faith · Museums · Heritage

Forty items, including seven 17th-century icons, return to the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum

Forty historic objects have returned to the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve after restoration. Among them are 7 icons of the seventeenth century from the monasteries of the Russian North: Ferapontov, Kirillo-Belozersky and the Nilo-Sorsky Hermitage, restored by specialists of the Saint Tikhon's Orthodox Humanitarian University (PSTGU)

Monarchies · Museums · Observations

Parade helmet of an officer of the Life Guards Horse Regiment with the large guards cockade in the form of a silver star of the Order of Saint Andrew the First-Called, with an enamel centre and the motto of the Order of Saint Andrew "For Faith and Loyalty

Parade helmet of an officer of the Life Guards Horse Regiment with the large guards cockade in the form of a silver star of the Order of Saint Andrew the First-Called, with an enamel centre and the motto of the Order of Saint Andrew "For Faith and Loyalty&

Art · Museums · Observations · Paris · Pop Culture

The Louvre's Department of Decorative Arts stages a fascinating exhibition setting objects from the museum's collection, from Byzantium and the early Middle Ages to the Second Empire, beside more than a hundred fashion looks and accessories…

The works have been lent from the archives of more than 45 fashion houses from France and elsewhere: Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Fendi, Chanel, Schiaparelli, Alaïa, Prada, Paco Rabanne, Balenciaga, Louboutin, Balmain, Yohji Yamamoto and many others. The central idea of the exhibition is the bond between fashion and

Architecture · Art · Moscow · Museums

Yury Avvakumov created a model mausoleum of dominoes with Swarovski crystals in 2008

A mausoleum of black dominoes with Swarovski crystals. An homage to Shchusev. Yury Avvakumov, 2008. The domino, a byword for the chain reaction, for unstable, successive collapse, becomes the material of an object emblematic of both a political system and modern history. On the other hand, it is a tomb

Faith · Art · Museums · Saint Petersburg

A Very Unusual Three-Hypostasis Icon

A very unusual three-hypostasis icon. The New Testament Trinity, 1812. An icon from the collection of the State Museum of the History of Religion, at the exhibition "The Russian Incredible" at the Zotov Centre

NB! · Museums · Observations · Paris

Do you know what odd thing I've noticed?

Do you know what odd thing I've noticed? At the Louvre, the free museum map handed out for navigation is never to be had in Russian. It is probably available in twenty languages, but not in Russian, one of the eight most widely spoken languages in the world.

Art · Museums · Paris · People

"Nature endowed him with a body remarkable for its slenderness and bearing, and fully matching the nobility of his spirit…

"Nature endowed him with a body remarkable for its slenderness and bearing, and fully matching the nobility of his spirit… He had an expressive face, flashing eyes, a nose of noble shape,… a rather long neck, a very broad chest, a taut belly, muscular thighs, strong and shapely shins.

Museums · Observations · Society · Paris

A separate ticket for the Mona Lisa room at the Louvre and criticism of museum management

So, let us take a close look at the decision of the Louvre's management to introduce a separate, though in fact additional, ticket for admission to the room with the "Mona Lisa". Judging by my own impressions as a visitor, based on five to seven visits

Art · Museums · Society · Paris

Louvre director Laurence des Cars has just declared that the Mona Lisa will be viewable only with the purchase of an additional ticket

The ticket will be purchased as a supplement to the ticket for the main exhibition. "Our proposal is to accept the exceptional status of the Mona Lisa," said des Cars, calling the painting "a blessing for the Louvre". Yet only a few days ago Macron announced

Faith · Art · Museums · Rome

Giotto depicts the kerchief returned to Plautilla on the back of the Stefaneschi Triptych

The Roman noblewoman Plautilla gave Saint Paul her headscarf so that he would have something to blindfold himself with at his execution. Saint Paul promised to return the scarf after his death. On the reverse of the panel showing the beheading of Paul, in the Stefaneschi Triptych, Giotto depicted the

Museums · Observations · Humour

French Lessons

French lessons. Le fou en ville A fool in town. Remember it. That is what we call a person who, instead of going to a museum, chooses a shop.