Carved light wood relief of a bearded, half-naked man with a hand raised to his mouth, surrounded by curling flames.

NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Humour

Sixteenth-century memento mori with a chained figure in a boxwood coffin amid flames

A sixteenth-century memento mori: a figurine in a boxwood coffin, chained and ringed with flames, somewhat recalls the plasticine works of the contemporary artist Tatyana Brodach. Let us be frank: the fellow burning in hell comes off rather better

NB! · Observations · Society · Nature · Humour

The Expression to Wear When World Leaders Fail to Hear "the Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Peoples" at a Global Climate Conference

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

A proud skeleton on a mountain of skulls: not a bad design for a monument to Napoleon, and one that remains apt for many a ruler even in our own day

Faith · Observations · Society · Rome

Biden's closed-door meeting with Pope Francis and the discussion in the Catholic world

Biden's visit to the Vatican, the second Catholic president in US history, and especially his private meeting with the Pope behind closed doors, has provoked debate in the Catholic world. A conservative American bishop, Strickland, even called Francis a serpent, though he has since deleted the insult and

Faith · Observations · Society · Rome

Nothing out of the ordinary, just snipers on the roof of the Church of Saint Patrick in Rome during the Bidens' attendance at Mass in that church

The Church of St Patrick is the church of the American Catholic community and of the English-speaking community in Rome generally, and this year it turns one hundred

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Looking at this 1909 photograph of Sir Winston Churchill, then a major and a Member of Parliament, with Kaiser Wilhelm II, I think not of history and politics but of how splendid it would be to bring back capes like Wilhelm's into men's fashion

Banner with cartoon figures: visitors in old-fashioned and modern clothes head to the museum, people in swimwear head to the bank of the Oka.

NB! · Museums · Observations · Humour

Illustrated notice about the dress code at the Polenovo Museum-Reserve

It is good when a museum employs people with a sense of humour. A notice on the grounds of the Polenovo Museum-Reserve

London · Observations · Science · Education · Society

Boris Johnson cites the fall of Rome as an example of the consequences of climate change

"When the Roman Empire fell, it was in large part the result of uncontrolled immigration. The empire could no longer control its borders ..and Europe sank into the Dark Ages, which lasted a very long time. ..it could happen again" The Prime Minister of Britain has warned of

Mummy of a woman with long dark hair and a pale fur hat lying on an ochre woven mat.

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Observations · Ethnography

Four-Thousand-Year-Old Mummy of a Woman from the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang

A beautifully preserved four-thousand-year-old mummy of a woman from the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. What lovely hair and headdress, even after all these years

Art · Cinema · Observations · Humour

Primaticcio’s 1540 Spring Costume and the Living Trees in Alexander Rou’s “Morozko”

On the one hand, these costumes resemble the work of contemporary Russian designers. On the other, they are very interesting and, in their own way, beautiful, if alarming. Costume of a spring beneath a grove, 1540, by Francesco Primaticcio. Costume of the animated trees from the fairy tale "Morozko&

Art · Observations · Pop Culture

Costume design by Jean Berain for a guitarist riding a snail, 17th century

One would like to see costumes like this at the Met Gala. In the second half of the 17th century a whole series of such characters was created for Italian comic operas. Mostly this was how lutenists might appear, sometimes in the guise of mermaids and nereids, enthroned upon fantastical

NB! · Observations