Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Dürer engravings from the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo at the Historical Museum until 28 June

The Standard-Bearer, The Monstrous Sow, Christ Taking Leave of His Mother, The Virgin with the Pear, Saint Jerome in His Study. The exhibition of Dürer's engravings at the State Historical Museum makes a very powerful impression. And, incidentally, unlike many critics, I have no quarrel with the

Two black-and-white photographs side by side: an infant on the left and an elderly balding man in a dark suit and tie on the right.

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Humour

Childhood and adult portraits of Hitchcock with the same facial expression

Astonishing, really. Hitchcock carried the same unchanging expression through his entire life

Art · Moscow · Observations · Society Pages · Ethnography

Seychelles coral amulet by Chanel Alphonse at Hide Gallery in Cube.Moscow

At a tiny exhibition at Hide Gallery in Cube.Moscow I came across this island talisman. The sculpture has a most interesting history: the gallerists found it in the studio of an artist who carves such figures from coral in some little village in the Seychelles, to protect his family

Museums · Observations · Mores · People

The history of the Anke pie of the Tolstoy family and the recipe from Dr Nikolay Anke

As Far as I Know, This Cake Was Once Served to Putin at Yasnaya Polyana. The Anke pie is a celebrated dish of the Tolstoy family, served at the museum on special occasions. I was lucky enough to try it, and the pie was to my taste, so I am

NB! · Books · Observations · Mores · People

Of Sofya Andreyevna I shall say this: who are we to call her a harridan?

Black-and-white photograph of an elderly woman in glasses and a fur hat, wearing a patterned scarf and seated in an upholstered chair.

NB! · Archaeology · Books · Observations · Mores · Humour

Agatha Christie's 46 years of marriage to the archaeologist Max Mallowan

One recalls Agatha Christie's remark about the archaeologist husband, who is so good for a woman because the older she grows, the more interesting she becomes to him. The writer lived to 85, and for 46 of those years she was married to the archaeologist Max Mallowan, who

Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture · Society Pages

Anna Chipovskaya in Ksenia Zueva’s film “Intervention” as a young woman on the social margins

The other day I attended the premiere of Ksenia Zueva's film "Intervention" with Anna Chipovskaya, who plays a girl in difficult life circumstances. It was most unusual to see Anna in a new guise, at least to my eye: that of an ordinary girl from our

Art · Observations · Society Pages

Spanish artist Juan Miguel Palacios shows female images at the Polina Askeri gallery

A chamber exhibition of Juan Miguel Palacios has opened at Polina Askery's gallery. The Spanish artist works in a unique technique, using paper, plasterboard, acrylic, cement, stone, wood and other most unexpected materials. Palacios's attention is centred on female images. The pictures, as you can see,

Books · Observations · Mores · Paris

French writer Gandon on everyday hardships under the German occupation of France

The French writer Gandon recounts the German occupation of France. Among the hardships and horrors of those years he lists, on a par with the executions, grey bread, moonshine in place of wine, roasted barley in place of coffee, and cakes of buckwheat flour as hard as stone. It reads,

NB! · Observations

Incidentally, a good author: don't laugh

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

A Maestro Fresh off the Press

A maestro fresh off the press. Enthusiasts and admirers have a unique opportunity to acquire Ponasenkov's second book, in its 2007 edition, for a mere 115,000 roubles. True, only recently this same book was sitting on Ozon for 419. Nevertheless. My business is to inform.

Archaeology · Architecture · Observations

Papyrus columns at Luxor and the Fifth Dynasty models from Niuserre's chapel

If you look closely at this type of Egyptian column, made in the form of bound papyrus stems with capitals shaped like unopened papyrus flowers, it resembles a pair of mighty hands holding up the architrave on five outstretched fingers. The columns in the photograph are from Luxor. In architectural