Art · Observations · People
I'd rather lie abed a little longer than face all this... Punting under the Willows (1887) and Siesta (1907) by the American painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Sargent moved among the Impressionists, and this seems to have left a mark on his work. American by birth, he
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Monarchies · Museums · People
A rather grim portrait of the birthday boy: the head of Emperor Vespasian, born on 17 November AD 9 and died in AD 79. This fragment of a statue of Vespasian was found in the forum of Hippo in Algeria and set into the wall of its museum. Not the
Aristocracy · Mores · People · Humour
William, 5th Baron Byron, British nobleman, peer, politician and great-uncle of the famous poet, went down in history as the Wicked Lord or the Devil Byron: a dreadful scoundrel who beat his wife; the killer of his own cousin, whom he stabbed in a dark room and was convicted
Art · Monarchies · Observations · People · Humour
Grand Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany is customarily regarded as an unproductive, dull and mediocre ruler. To me, it takes a fine sense of humour to commission the court painter to make portraits of one's own harvest. The tongue simply refuses to call it a still life, this
NB! · Aristocracy · Cinema · Monarchies · Mores · People · Humour
Archive · Faith · People · Ethnography
The founder of the World Zionist Organization, Theodor Herzl, is shown alongside the biblical figures of Moses and Aaron on a flag printed in Warsaw for the celebration of Simchat Torah in 1902. Imagine Herzl's glory at that moment, when his face found itself between a biblical prophet
NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · People · Humour
Marie Antoinette as a hyena. The hairstyle is odd, of course
Observations · Society · People
To say that I was taken aback on reading the investigation into Ponasenkov would be an understatement. Hold on to your monocles, gentlemen: a gripping descent into the chthonic murk awaits you. https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2019/10/09/82288-ponasenkov
Architecture · Museums · Observations · People · Humour
Pasternak's house in Peredelkino, of course, comes wreathed in an entire body of legend. As a child I was very fond of this dacha and gave little thought to how real many of the stories told about it might be. Who could think of criticism when people such
Museums · Heritage · Science · People
When Galileo's body was exhumed in 1737, 95 years after his death, three fingers, a tooth and one vertebra were removed from the coffin. The vertebra is kept at the University of Padua, where Galileo taught, but the fingers and the tooth vanished for almost a century from
Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · People
Catherine de' Medici, hated by many and regarded as a spiteful, heartless schemer and a royal mischief-maker, spent her last minutes drawing up her will. It is even said that the will took so long that her son had to finish dictating his mother's last wishes
Monarchies · Museums · Heritage · People
A cast of Catherine de' Medici's tomb effigy from Saint-Denis has recently been brought to Blois from the Louvre. The queen was first buried in the Church of Saint-Sauveur within the walls of the Château de Blois, after a ceremonial effigy of her, fitted with