Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture
Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette on the set of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, 2006
She was, incidentally, 24 then. Now she is 43. But this is only the beginning
Section
· 3929 stories
Observations
Art · Observations · Society · People
Everywhere art criticism is in decline, intellectually corrupted, mired in meaningless jargon, distorted by political correctness and, alarmingly, addressed only to other critics and their like
The English art critic Brian Sewell
Art · Observations · People
Much like us, only without the telephones
Martin Parr (1952-2025)
Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations
Contemporary art collection on display and the exhibition projects of the Garage museum
I almost forgot to share pictures from the new open storage display at the Garage Museum. Little by little we are learning what exactly one of the finest collections of contemporary art in the country looks like. There is much that one will not see in the New Tretyakov, for
Faith · Observations · Education · Society
Irish teacher Enoch Burke goes to prison for being a practising Christian and refusing to use the preferred pronouns and new name of a transgender pupil
Irish teacher Enoch Burke goes to prison for being a practising Christian and refusing to use the preferred pronouns and new name of a transgender pupil. He has been sentenced, for refusing to renounce his faith, his common sense and his clear conscience, to indefinite confinement until he complies with
Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Society · Humour
Russia Threatened with Isolation from European Civilisation
In short, nothing new. A piece on Russo-German relations, a sort of Telegram-channel analytics of 1872. They keep mulling over the future after the death of Alexander II, although he has another nine years allotted to him, and, as usual, they threaten to cut our dear little Russia
Aristocracy · Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Mores
Dmitry Sheremetev's guardians refused to rent the House of Solitude at Kuskovo to actress Sandunova
With the death of Count Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev, Dmitry Nikolayevich, his seven-year-old son by the former serf actress Praskovya Gorbunova-Zhemchugova, who died soon after the birth, was left a complete orphan. The boy's upbringing was taken on by the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, while as
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Observations · Paris
The grounds around the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 World's Fair and the pavilions demolished afterwards
The grounds around the Eiffel Tower during the 1889 Exposition Universelle. It is strange to reflect that all these buildings were temporary pavilions, and were simply pulled down once the exhibition was over
Faith · Art · Observations · Humour
And now let us take a look at Judith by the Italian painter Fede Galizia
Good heavens, what is the matter with this woman? Why is her face so serene, with the faintest smile? She has, after all, just cut off a man's head. Yet nothing in her appearance betrays the murder so recently committed. True, painters always give Judith this blissful tranquillity
Books · Moscow · Observations · Reportage · Humour
The intellectual literature fair at Gostiny Dvor and buying books with no intention of reading them
Shall I tell you what a fair of intellectual literature is? City dwellers, worn out by bustle, obligations and a dusk that begins at four in the afternoon, come to Gostiny Dvor to sigh a little in the queue at the entrance, jostle by the cloakroom and, at last, plunge
Observations · Science · Nature
Sebastian Voltmer's 1 December image and questions about the anti-tail and plasma tail of 3I/ATLAS
Sebastian Voltmer has published a stunning image of the "comet" 3I/ATLAS taken on 1 December. Well-informed viewers are asking how to explain the green anti-tail, which moves against the solar wind, and the opposite blue tail, which moves with it. I, for my part, simply
Faith · Art · Museums · Observations
Self-Portrait and John the Baptist in Ghirlandaio’s “Adoration of the Magi” in Florence
I have not been to Florence for some five years, but I remember distinctly the impression made by Domenico Ghirlandaio's Adoration of the Magi of around 1488 in the Foundling Hospital. The painter modestly included a self-portrait in the scene: the figure on the left in red