Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

Wedding banquet of Joseph and Isabella at the Hofburg, golden service and sugar sculptures

That very wedding banquet of Joseph and Isabella, open to the widest public, was held in the Hofburg, the winter palace of the Austrian Habsburgs. At the centre of a table that looks modest beside the expanse of the colossal hall sat the imperial couple, Francis I Stephen and Maria

Art · Monarchies · Observations · People

Henry FitzRoy in a cap in his portrait and possible reasons for the image

I do not know why Henry FitzRoy, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII and yet his heir, came to be captured in a nightcap in this portrait. I think the version that he simply did not want to climb out of bed, even when the artist had already arrived, and

NB! · Architecture · Art · Moscow · Observations

I have never seen anything like it: the Palekh Hall in the Sats Theatre, with huge lacquer panels of theatrical scenes by artists of the Palekh workshop of the 1970s and 1980s

Art · Observations · Society

Sergey Grigoryev’s 1950 painting “Discussion of a Bad Mark” and Soviet upbringing

Discussing a Fail Mark, 1950, Sergey Grigoryev, Stalin Prize. The canvas is criticised for the parallelism of its lines to the picture plane, the primitive arrangement of its figures and its simplified palette. The artist's merit lies rather in outlining the genre's range and shaping a

Art · Moscow · Observations · Heritage

Quietly and without idle applause, a great date in world theatrical history has passed: the Natalia Sats Academic Children's Musical Theatre, the first professional musical theatre for children in the world, a theatre that for the first time in history de

Quietly and without idle applause, a great date in world theatrical history has passed: the Academic Children's Musical Theatre named after Natalia Sats has turned 55. It is the first professional musical theatre for children in the world, a theatre that for the first time in history devoted

Art · Cinema · Observations · Nature

When I see the work of the British naturalist artist Charles Tunnicliffe (1901-1979), who spent most of his life on the island of Anglesey at peace with the world around him, drawing scenes from the lives of birds and animals, I am invariably reminded of

When I see the work of the British naturalist artist Charles Tunnicliffe (1901-1979), who spent most of his life on the island of Anglesey at peace with the world around him, drawing scenes from the lives of birds and animals, I am invariably reminded of the Soviet cartoon of

NB! · Observations · Education · Society

I See No Grounds for Obtaining a Higher Education in Such Conditions

Architecture · Moscow · Observations

A photograph by Alexandr Kadochnikov that has gone viral: the dome of the Paveletskaya metro pavilion huddles in the embrace of the building at 43/16, Building 1, Novokuznetskaya

A photograph by Alexandr Kadochnikov that has gone viral: the dome of the Paveletskaya metro pavilion huddles in the embrace of the building at 43/16, Building 1, Novokuznetskaya. The pavilion itself occupies the ground floors of a house that was completed four years after the station was built. Most

Observations · People · Pop Culture

Roman Viktyuk’s late production “Requiem for Radames” with Vasilyeva, Aroseva and Obraztsova

In memory of Roman Viktyuk, I suggest watching one of his late theatrical works: the production "Requiem for Radames", after the play by Aldo Nicolaj, with three great Russian actresses: Vera Vasilyeva, Olga Arosheva and Yelena Obraztsova. The story of the lives and rivalry of two opera divas

Observations · Society · People

There is a certain irony of the information world in the lot of outstanding persons, to be mentioned in some inscrutable idle impulse by people who, on the whole, couldn't care less about them and never could, for the one and only time in all…

There is a certain irony of the information world in the lot of outstanding persons, to be mentioned in some inscrutable idle impulse by people who, on the whole, couldn't care less about them and never could, for the one and only time in all history, and then

Cinema · Observations · Humour

In episode 6 of «TASS Is Authorised to Announce» there is a very interesting scene in a fashionable European psychiatric hospital, where the wealthy Emma Schanz, played by Olga Volkova (you will surely remember her as the waitress Violetta from «Station f

In Emma's private ward we learn of the Nazi past of her father and husband, along with other compromising particulars. To judge by Mrs Schanz's account, her husband got her hooked on drugs and shut her away in the madhouse, hoping to conceal the truth she

Observations · Society

Why new measures hit cultural venues while bar patrons simply changed their hours

Most of my acquaintances keep going out to the same bars as before the new measures, only at a different hour: truly, people who used never to leave the house before one in the morning now dance on the same overcrowded dance floors, only from 6 to 8 p.m.