NB! · Archaeology · Science · Ethnography · Humour

How a noble Etruscan woman looks in her funerary portrait and how scholars reconstructed her face: girls on Instagram vs in real life

NB! · Art

a crib sheet for those who are only just setting out to understand art

Metal screw instrument with a threaded shaft, two guide rods and a handle with an opening, shown on a light background.

NB! · Museums · People · Saint Petersburg · Humour

Peter the Great's instrument for holding patients' mouths open

This is the instrument Peter the Great used to keep the mouths of his patients open. Good morning

Half-length painted portrait of Catherine II wearing a diadem, with grey curled hair, a blue dress and a white fur-trimmed cape with jewelled ornaments.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Portrait of Empress Catherine II by an Unknown Artist

Portrait of Catherine II by an unknown artist. Or how men thrust out the lower jaw in selfies

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

This is Ivan the Terrible versus the European one, who wished to marry in England, raised companies of pikemen, musketeers and oprichniki from among the Germans, and waged his wars with the help of hired Western Europeans

NB! · Art · Heritage · Paris · People

The most interesting part is that after the defeat of the Commune the column would be restored, and Gustave Courbet would be blamed for its destruction: by order of the court he was to pay 10,000 francs a year in compensation, and he died in poverty seven

NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage · Paris

The Statue of Napoleon from the Toppled Vendôme Column

NB! · Architecture · Heritage · Society · Paris

The Demolition of the Vendôme Column on 18 May 1871

Archive drawing “Colonne de la Grande Armée”, Place Vendôme, original layout: elevation, plan sections and a cross-section showing the inner staircase.

NB! · Architecture · Observations · Paris · Humour

Original design of the Vendôme Column, erected by Napoleon in honour of the victory at Austerlitz

This is how the Vendôme Column might have looked, erected by Napoleon in 1807 in honour of the victory at Austerlitz. As they say, the associations are no accident: the form does indeed match the message

Page of a printed book with diary entries from October 1941 about the dog Silva, cats and hunger.

NB! · Archive · Mores · Society · Saint Petersburg

A girl's diary from the first months of the siege and the fate of the dog Silva

The first months of the siege. A little girl keeps a diary. In the end they decided to salt the dog Silva, but then did not, and salted the cat instead. In December poor Silva was stolen and eaten

NB! · Art · Ethnography · Humour

Everything Is Splendid in This Nineteenth-Century Image of the Inca Mythical Princess Mama Ocllo

Everything is splendid in this nineteenth-century image of the Inca mythical princess Mama Ocllo. The hunchbacked dwarf and the severed head alike, but what especially catches the eye is the black double-headed eagle, the ancient symbol of so many civilisations

NB! · Monarchies · Mores · Humour