Two common sayings about history, its judgment of all and its refusal of the subjunctive mood

People say that history will judge us all. They also say that history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. Rather mutually exclusive claims, wouldn't you say?

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Drawing in brown tones of a young woman's bowed head, with downcast eyes and loose, wavy hair.

Leonardo da Vinci, “La Scapigliata”, Head of a Young Woman, around 1508

Head of a young woman, known as La Scapigliata. Leonardo da Vinci. Circa 1508. The work embodies the chief principle of the master's poetics: the conveyance of the movements of the soul through outward features. This sketch demonstrates the summit of Leonardo's sfumato technique

Old studio photograph of a bearded man in a turban and striped robe, with a dagger and a long spear, a white cat sitting at his feet.

A Kurdish warrior with a spear and a white cat in a photograph of 1870

I have been seized by an unbounded respect for this Kurdish warrior with his cat, in a photograph of 1870

Church of St Sergius of Radonezh in Tashkent, consecrated in 1897 and demolished in 1932

Until 1932 Tashkent had a church of Saint Sergius of Radonezh. It was built at the state's expense on the initiative of the Governor-General of Turkestan, Baron Alexandr Vrevsky, and the construction cost 90,000 roubles. The church stood on Pushkinskaya Street, at the junction with Assakinskaya.

Old photograph of a standing man in a hat beside a reindeer carrying two children in fur clothing, on snowy ground.

Family portrait with reindeer, photograph from the 1910s

Portrait of a family with reindeer, 1910s

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Leonardo da Vinci, “La Scapigliata”, Head of a Young Woman, around 1508

A Kurdish warrior with a spear and a white cat in a photograph of 1870

Church of St Sergius of Radonezh in Tashkent, consecrated in 1897 and demolished in 1932

Family portrait with reindeer, photograph from the 1910s