Catalogue page: a mannequin in black with a Soyka radio direction finder at the waist and a suitcase in hand, USSR, 1960s.

Museums · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Soviet and Russian radio direction finders in the catalogue of the Museum of Cryptography

I Keep Telling You, Fashion Always Comes Back. Radio direction finders of the USSR and the Russian Federation, from a very respectable catalogue of the Museum of Cryptography

Faith · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Vasnetsov's triptych “Apocalypse” for Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv

"He was clothed in a robe dipped in blood. His name is called "The Word of God". And the armies of heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, with which to strike the

Museums · Society · Paris · People · Pop Culture

Lady Mendl and the Duchess of Windsor founded a wartime charity to aid the French army

American actress, designer and philanthropist Elsie de Wolfe (1865-1950), by marriage Lady Mendl, in a velvet cape created specially for her in 1938 by Elsa Schiaparelli. The cape is dedicated to the Fountain of Apollo in the park of Versailles and is called, accordingly, Apollo of Versailles. The garment

Art · Museums · Observations · Society Pages

Vladimir Kravchenko's exhibition on the evolution of beliefs opens at Avtoklaster 19/21

Yesterday I attended an event rather out of keeping with my usual routine, at the Avtoklaster. If you are wondering what on earth the Parnassian Mockingbird has to do with a space for devotees of the motor industry, I answer: firstly, small private museums are often more interesting than old,

Two gilded stools upholstered in green floral silk, each with a cushion and tassels on top and an arched opening with curtains.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Humour

Pair of stools with kennels for the dogs of Louis XV, 1765

A pair of stool-kennels for the dogs of Louis XV, 1765. The luxury doghouse

NB! · Art · Museums · Science · Rome

The Laocoön and His Sons of the Rhodian school from the Museo Pio-Clementino, and the Austrian anatomist Josef Hyrtl's reflections on the legendary sculpture

Museums · Saint Petersburg · Ethnography · Humour

Our museum deals with the culture and way of life of the peoples of the world, and therefore does NOT display the freaks, dwarfs, giants and other monsters who amused the grandees of the eighteenth century

The essence of Peter's cabinet of curiosities, in a few sentences on the doors of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera), where the notice hung at least into the 1980s. The museum administration's message is clear enough, but one could still

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Russian Artists and Spain at the “Images of Spain” Exhibition at the Pushkin Museum

"For Russians who had an abundance of imagination or money, travel in Europe took on an almost ritual character. Those concerned with their health, and at the same time stirred by roulette, set off for Baden-Baden; lovers of the beautiful hastened to Rome; in search of adventure they

NB! · Coming Up · Art · Museums

Dialogues of the Arts: Zinaida Serebriakova and Alexandre-Jean Dubois-Drahonet

A young woman in an ochre cloak and pink blouse sits and strokes a lamb against a golden patterned background.

Art · Museums

Painting of a seated woman with a lamb from the Art Institute of Chicago collection

Meekness, one of the eight ideal qualities, by the seventeenth-century French artist Eustache Le Sueur. Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago

Detail of a battle painting: a wounded soldier in a dark uniform with red stripes lies on the grass holding another, while a soldier with a musket stands nearby.

Art · Museums

Detail of Horace Vernet’s “The Battle of Somosierra” from the National Museum in Warsaw collection

Please, Do Not Die! Detail from "The Battle of Somosierra" by Horace Vernet, collection of the National Museum in Warsaw

NB! · Art · Museums · Heritage · Paris · Rome

Napoleon stole the Apollo Belvedere from the Vatican in 1797 and brought it to Paris with great pomp, installing it as the supreme trophy in the Central Museum of Arts, the future Louvre

Napoleon stole the Apollo Belvedere from the Vatican in 1797 and brought it to Paris with great pomp, installing it as the supreme trophy in the Central Museum of Arts, the future Louvre. After Napoleon's fall the statue was returned to Italy