Books · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society Pages

The Library of Foreign Literature opens a research hall with books of Vyacheslav Ivanov

What is the indispensable element of any scientific institution? Why, a hallmark of quality, an emblem that would shine like a star on the lapel of that institution's jacket. Today, in one of Moscow's jackets (the Library of Foreign Literature), a very important pocket was unstitched,

The East · Art · Moscow · Museums

Vyacheslav Akhunov’s installation “Mantras of the USSR”, developed by the artist since 1975

When Miziano and Krasteva, the curators of the exhibition "Service of Time" at Garage, wrote about the relation between spiritual labour and time, and about the different forms time may take in art, what did they have in mind, and how is it expressed in t. Step, say,

Painting of a nude woman lying on a bed, holding a book above her face, with other books scattered beside her.

Art · Museums · Observations · Society · Humour

A reader of novels in a painting by Antoine Wiertz in his museum in Brussels

If you want to feel lucky, simply know that in Brussels all the museums will reopen for the FIRST time since the start of the pandemic only on 15 October. To begin doubting your own luck, consider that this reader of novels in Antoine Wiertz's painting, from his

Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums

Tomorrow Two Very Impressive Exhibitions Open at Garage:

Spirit Labor, dedicated to the memory of Nikita Alexeev, brings together 40 works by the best-known artists from various countries who have explored time. The curators are Andrey Misiano and Snezhana Krasteva. Among the authors are the greatest names in world art, from Yury Albert to On Kawara, and

Oval mask with openings for the eyes and mouth, the left half darker than the right, a bead at the mouth and a ruler on the left.

Museums · Mores · Humour

Sixteenth-century mask with a bead held in the mouth, possibly for sun protection

A sixteenth-century mask worn... to keep off the sun? To hold it in place, one had only to clamp between the teeth a small bead attached to it. And should anyone still suspect you of being a vampire, simply say that you hadn't had time to put

NB! · Museums · Pop Culture

The Piano on Which All the Hits of the Russian Pop Stage Are Written

Marble torso of a crouching nude Aphrodite seen from behind against a black background, with a small fragment of a hand on the back.

Art · Museums · Paris · Humour

The Venus of Vienne in the Louvre, without its Cupid, and the Hermitage Venus of Lely

When you have smeared the sun cream unevenly over your back and remain for ever after with a sunburnt handprint on the snow-white marble of your body. The Venus of Vienne, or Bathing Aphrodite, of the 1st-2nd centuries AD, from the collection of the Louvre, with the missing

Art · Museums · Observations · Paris

Physical resemblance of Danton and Robespierre in portraits at the Carnavalet Museum

Do you think there is a connection between the very distinctive appearance of two French revolutionaries, Danton and Robespierre, and their personal qualities? At any rate, one cannot fail to notice the outward resemblance of these two figures of the French Revolution in these portraits by unknown artists from the

Close-up of a painted terracotta head of a man with parted lips, upturned gaze and short dark hair.

NB! · Faith · Art · Museums · Paris

Painted terracotta head of a Franciscan monk by Guido Mazzoni, 1475, Louvre

Head of a Franciscan Monk. Guido Mazzoni, painted terracotta sculpture, a kind of living painting frozen in place. 1475. The year fourteen hundred and seventy-five, exactly so. Collection of the Louvre

Archaeology · Cinema · Museums · Saint Petersburg · Ethnography

The funerary mask of the semi-legendary Empress Himiko in the film "Tomb Raider: Lara Croft" is a complete replica of a real woman's mask from the Oglakhty burial ground in Khakassia

The funerary mask of the semi-legendary Empress Himiko in the film "Tomb Raider: Lara Croft" is a complete replica of a real woman's mask from the Oglakhty burial ground in Khakassia. The painted plaster mask, made by a woman of the Tashtyk archaeological culture, dates

Faith · Art · Museums · Observations · Heritage

When You Look Back and Realise That the Past Cannot Be Changed

A fragment of a bench from the church of Staffarda Abbey, not far from Turin. The wooden sculpture is housed in the museum of Palazzo Madama in Turin itself, while the Abbey, meanwhile, shows a distinct shortage of period furnishings, so that local historians and art historians are seriously murmuring

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Humour

This Is What People Look Like When They Try to Break into a Private Account Under Fake Names

While Urs Fischer, the Muses of Montparnasse and the exhibition design of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Historical Museum drive the lovers of internet battles out of their minds, the A.S. Pushkin State Museum is quietly hosting "Poets and Muses", and the display is adorned with these