Faith · The East · Art · Museums
According to legend, one of the apostles, Bartholomew, was flayed alive and then beheaded. Bartholomew preached in Lesser India and in the Caucasus. In the Orthodox tradition he is held to have suffered martyrdom on the site of the modern city of Baku. In the 1480s di Giovanni was the
Coming Up · Aristocracy · Art · Museums
The exhibition “The French Taste of the Princes Yusupov” at the New Jerusalem Museum offers a rare opportunity to trace the history of French painting as assembled by a single collector, Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov (1750-1831), Director of the Armoury Chamber. The Yusupov collection is famous the world over,
Aristocracy · Art · Books · Museums · People
In the late 1790s the celebrated Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun worked in Russia, painting august portraits and persons of the very highest rank, such as the last King of Poland; she devoted a separate part of her memoirs to the Russian period, and it has been published in Russian. The
NB! · Museums · Palaeontology · Paris · Nature
Museums · Science · Mores · New York · Humour
At one party or another one hears it boasted how epic it is, and how it will certainly go down in history. The tale of heavily pomaded guests sewn about on every side with jewels, in whatever numbers they may be presented, is, however, as old as the Proverbs of
Architecture · Art · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Paris
I have a great many complaints about the municipal improvement of Paris; my heart aches at the antics of the luckless Anne Hidalgo. Versailles, by contrast, as a near and respected province, has been very fortunate, both in the status quo of its historic precincts and in the preservation of
Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations
It will be interesting to see it realised, but they say that building the "Cogwheel", the new Garage Museum pavilion in Gorky Park, will take 5 years. What interests me most is whether the cladding will be sheet metal, glass or some material of the Alucobond kind. For
Art · London · Monarchies · Museums
This striking aquamarine brooch was given by Nicholas II, then still Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, to Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, the future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, on their betrothal. The brooch is on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Fabergé exhibition
Art · Museums · Mores · Humour
That is what the painting is actually called. The artist is Akhmet Kitayev, and it belongs to the collection of the Simferopol Art Museum. The canvas dates from 1954, yet the mise-en-scène is thoroughly modern. The family scene, familiar to everyone, recalls Squid Game more than anything else:
NB! · Museums · Nature · Humour
Art · Museums · Mores · Humour
The Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens makes skilful use of the theme of eroticism in its display. Naked youths demonstrate quite plainly the purpose of the clay vessels known as the aryballos and the alabastron, in which aromatic oils for rubbing into the skin were kept, and of the
NB! · Moscow · Museums