NB! · Architecture · Paris · Humour

This is how the elephant was meant to look, according to Jacques Cellerier and Jean Alavoine: with a conservatory in its bottom

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Paris

A Monument to Napoleon's Military Genius in the Fountain on the Place de la Bastille

NB! · Art · Museums

At first glance one might think that Apollo's skin is made of bronze or some other metal, but it is simply aged bone

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Heritage

Chryselephantine sculpture: from chrysos (gold) and elephantinos (ivory)

Chryselephantine sculpture: from chrysos (gold) and elephantinos (ivory). Statues with a wooden frame were covered in ivory and clothed in gold. Only fragments of these beautiful statues have survived to this day

Close-up of the face of an ancient sculpture with a darkened metal surface, golden hair and inset eyes.

NB! · Art · Humour

Head of a sculpture of Apollo with golden hair and inset eyes

The morning after a legendary party. Apollo

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · Rome

Plan of the Church inside the Colosseum, Carlo Fontana

Engraving of a temple façade with an arcade, balustrade, two bell towers with statues and a central dome topped by a figure. Caption: Prospetto del Tempio di quadrupla Proportione.

NB!

Engraved façade of a domed temple from Carlo Fontana's book, plate 23

NB! · Geography · Maps · London · Pop Culture · Humour

A map of London on a kid glove, so that fashionable ladies might easily find their way home

A map of London on a leather glove, so that fashionable ladies might easily find their way home. 1851. These days maps could be printed for them on condoms, for instance

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Society · Paris

A Baroque bust of Peter I by Rastrelli the Elder is on show at Versailles, at the exhibition opened by Putin and Macron to mark the monarch's sojourn in France

NB! · Art · London · Monarchies · People · Humour

this little hamster in a frock, with a curious trinket at his neck, is the future King Charles II of England (1630-1685), who will order the remains of Cromwell and his associates to be dug up and quartered

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg

Nicholas II as Alexei Mikhailovich, Alexandra Feodorovna as Maria Miloslavskaya at the costume ball of 1903 in the Winter Palace, and Jared Leto at the Gucci Cruise 2018 show in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence

NB! · Monarchies · Moscow · Heritage · Nature

The Annenhof Grove was wiped from the face of Moscow in a single day, which is symbolic, if the legend of its appearance here in one night on the arrival of Anna Ioannovna is to be believed (not by a miracle, naturally, but by the efforts of Biron)