The Lely Venus: the famous copy of Praxiteles' Venus, made in the 1st-2nd centuries

The Lely Venus is a famous copy of Praxiteles' Venus, made in the 1st-2nd centuries. Rubens found the sculpture in the rich collection of the House of Gonzaga and showed it to the English king, Charles I, who fell in love with it and acquired it for his art collection. After the king's execution, his property was sold off, and the marble Venus was bought by the connoisseur Peter Lely, whose name became the domain, as it were, in the title of this most delicate sculpture. Some time later the masterpiece returned to the crown's collection and never left it again, save for a theft after the fire at the Palace of Whitehall.

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

The Lely Venus: the famous copy of Praxiteles' Venus, made in the 1st-2nd centuries

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s