A crystal chandelier hangs over a laid table with dishes and vases of blossoming branches against a dark wall.

NB! · Observations

Thanks to readers for birthday greetings and best wishes for the New Year

Dear friends, thank you very much for your birthday wishes! In return, I congratulate you all on the approaching New Year and wish you happiness and good fortune!

NB! · Observations

Marble kouros statue in profile in a museum gallery

Faith · Art · Observations · Humour

Sad faces and Balthazar's golden ship in Pieter Bruegel the Elder's “Adoration of the Magi”

In Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "Adoration of the Magi" everyone looks thoroughly miserable, though the occasion is, broadly speaking, a happy one: the birth of a saviour. And then there is Balthazar, the only guest who has brought a decent present: a golden ship with a

NB! · Observations · Humour

I don't know about you, but instead of a festive mood we have sad holy noises

Black and white photograph of a man dressed as Santa Claus on a sleigh piled with toys, pulled by two turkeys across a snowy field.

NB! · Archive · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Santa Claus on a toy-laden sleigh drawn by turkeys in a photograph from 1909

How do you like Santa in a sleigh drawn by turkeys? 1909

Geography · Observations · Science · Nature

Rutile, first found in the Central Urals, and the value of its crystals

There is a very beautiful mineral called rutile, which, incidentally, was first found in Russia, in the Central Urals, and is now mined in many countries of the world. Rutile tends to form long crystals in the shape of needles and bundles of needles, mostly golden or straw-coloured. Its

In a museum display case stand four painted wooden figures: Christ with outstretched arms and three figures beside him.

NB! · Faith · Art · Museums · Observations · Paris

Umbrian Deposition of the thirteenth century in the Louvre and its likeness to Russian northern carving

The Deposition from the Cross, second quarter of the 13th century, Umbria, Louvre. The three-dimensional, life-size figures of polychrome poplar, willow and walnut wood recall the church sculpture of the Russian North.

Books · Observations · People · Pop Culture · Humour

lol, fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev has given me a fashionable dressing-down for not citing his bestseller in my piece on Volkova

lol, fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev has given me a fashionable dressing-down for not citing his bestseller in my piece on Volkova. Needless to say, a great deal is written about the Russian spy in general, especially in the gutter press. But on the whole his "Beauty in Exile&

Cinema · Observations · Mores

Isabella Rossellini on the set of “Domina” and Roman curls as a mark of status

My beloved Isabella Rossellini reports from the set of "Domina" on the story of Livia Drusilla, together with the director Claire McCarthy. In the photograph her coiffure does not much resemble a wasps' nest, the shape of which was extremely popular among her heroine's contemporaries,

Faith · Art · Observations

But in general, looking at the Neapolitan bone multi-figure stele of the casting out of Lucifer, it is hard not to recall the equally populous works of the contemporary British artists, the brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman, who likewise use motifs…

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

The simplest answer to why I do not regard comparison with Oscar Wilde as a compliment

The simplest answer to why I do not regard comparison with Oscar Wilde as a compliment. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1895.

Archive · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Hat with cats by milliner Benjamin Green-Field in Life magazine, 16 July 1945

A hat with cats. IT. IS. GENIUS. An illustration from Life magazine of 16 July 1945. How I long for forty cats on the head to come back into fashion! Preferably with a ball of wool 🌝 The model is by the celebrated milliner Benjamin Green-Field, creator of the Bes-