NB! · The East · Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

The Netflix series “Blood, Sex and Kings” is rather good, only one would note that in 1523 the Tudors had no Oriental carpets on their floors, nor could they have had: such a treasure could be found only on a table

Faith · Art · Museums · Observations · Heritage · People · Humour

Sister Plautilla Nelli’s “Last Supper” shown again to the public after restoration

I Cannot Work Out Who Was Roasted for Christ at the Last Supper of the Self-Taught Florentine Artist-Nun Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588): a Capybara or a Monkey? In the Renaissance, women were still barred from studying art, anatomy and the construction of the male figure, so the skill

Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society

Two Museums at Moscow Waste Processing Plants Have Collected Over 400 Discarded Items

From time to time the news carries reports that some masterpiece has been found among the rubbish. Not long ago in Bavaria, originals by the Dutch artist Samuel van Hoogstraten and the Italian Pietro Bellotti were discovered in a dustbin. We, too, have something to boast about: two museums holding

Art · Cinema · Observations

You do realise that the title sequence of the second season of "The White Lotus" is not just a set of frescoes, but scenes chosen and painted with care in the style of the Renaissance and antiquity, alluding to the fate of each character and forming…

If you, too, have been anxiously pondering what awaits the magnificent Tanya McQuoid, take a closer look at the chained monkey watched by a mysterious lady in a tower. Whom does Jennifer Coolidge play: the hapless captive or the heartless captor? Who will Jon Gries turn out to be, the

Art · Books · Monarchies · Observations · Science

Pareidolia from Arcimboldo's portrait of Rudolf II to the divination of Natasha Rostova

I propose we recall Giuseppe Arcimboldo and his portrait of Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus, on the occasion of my having taken a closer look at my grandmother's blanket. The phenomenon itself, in which people see the outlines of faces and creatures in the patterns, stains and details

Observations · Science · Nature

An interesting letter about Knorozov's cat has arrived from Artem K., shedding some light on the history of the Thai and Siamese breeds

I remember a cat my uncle had. We took it for a Siamese, but I now realise that the clever, affectionate and sociable creature was in fact a Thai. Well, now you know too

Faith · Art · Observations

The legend of Saint Narcissus's flies that saved Girona from French sieges

Saint Narcissus and the Miracle of the Flies. Francesc Joan, 16th century. During the siege of Girona in 1285, the troops of the French king Philip the Bold desecrated the tomb of Saint Narcissus of Girona, the city's bishop in the 4th century. The next morning an enormous

Books · Observations · Humour

A note on the French writer Paul de Saint-Onge

The Conditional Mood: The Most Beautiful Grammatical Category in the World and, Naturally, the Most Convenient. The French writer Paul de Saint-Onge

NB! · Observations · Mores

Make Yourself at Home, or What I Mean When I Say "Domesticity Has Swallowed Me Whole"

Aristocracy · London · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour

Most Peculiar

Most peculiar. The former husband of England's Queen Consort Camilla, the retired Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, was recently the Queen's official representative at the funeral of a distant relation of the royal family, John Bowes-Lyon, a second cousin of the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

NB! · Architecture · The East · Observations

Bukhara Is Beautiful 💜💙

NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour

I don't know about you, but to my mind the glass teapot with a plunger is one of the least aesthetic and most senseless objects of modern domestic life

I don't know about you, but to my mind the glass teapot with a plunger is one of the least aesthetic and most senseless objects of modern domestic life. A herald of the plastic-and-steel age, borne aloft on the wings of overconsumption