NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Saint Petersburg · Humour
Zeus stole the beautiful Ganymede by turning himself into an eagle. I do not know whether the youth is feeding the bird on this bas-relief from the Hermitage before the abduction or after it, but I think you will have understood what a vile, lecherous beast this Zeus was
NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Art · Saint Petersburg · Humour
The Bengal Lion and Tiger and the Petersburg Lion and Tiger. A caricature, presumably of the 1840s, from the album of Prince Pyotr Urusov. In the guise of the Petersburg lion is Arkady Pavlovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (above)
Museums · Science · Palaeontology · Nature · Saint Petersburg
A little about the errors of scholars. In 1806 a frozen mammoth was found in the valley of the River Lena. Apart from the missing internal organs, part of the muscle mass and the front right leg, it was a whole carcass, badly mauled by the wild beasts that had
NB! · Art · Monarchies · Moscow · Museums · Paris · Saint Petersburg
Books · Monarchies · Observations · Saint Petersburg
Catherine II was nevertheless the greatest ruler of Russia. Consider only her determination to acquire Voltaire's library for the country at all costs! Neither the expense nor the difficulties of the negotiations stopped her. The library was installed beside the Empress's apartments. Of its nearly 7,
NB! · Art · Museums · People · Saint Petersburg
The collector François Tronchin with the finest painting in his collection, Rembrandt's Woman in Bed. A portrait by his friend Liotard. Most of Tronchin's collection was bought by Catherine II for the Hermitage
Archive · Observations · Mores · Education · Saint Petersburg
Fyodor Tyutchev's eldest daughter thought Smolny an unsuitable place for her sisters: "I was struck by the shortcomings of the upbringing given to children in this institution. The education received there was altogether very weak, but the moral upbringing was especially badly arranged." Anna Fyodorovna herself
NB! · Archive · Faith · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg
NB! · Museums · People · Saint Petersburg · Humour
This is the instrument Peter the Great used to keep the mouths of his patients open. Good morning
NB! · Archive · Mores · Society · Saint Petersburg
The first months of the siege. A little girl keeps a diary. In the end they decided to salt the dog Silva, but then did not, and salted the cat instead. In December poor Silva was stolen and eaten
Books · Observations · Saint Petersburg
I have a sizeable library of books about the war, memoirs of those years, and I did not at once work out which story to recall today. All of them are heavy and grievous. But one cannot brush such horrors aside. If you have to read a single book about
Art · Monarchies · Museums · Saint Petersburg
The sculpture deserves a story of its own. If you are not lucky enough to see it at Versailles, be sure to look at the bust when it returns home to Saint Petersburg. It is one of two busts of Peter made by Rastrelli, but perhaps the most outstanding. In