During the crusades, King Richard the lionheart once sent Saladin a message saying he was ready to duel him personally to decide the fate of Jerusalem. Saladin sent back a gift of ice and snow to quench Richard’s thirst in the desert heat, subtly mocking Richard's bravado.

From "The Coronation of Napoleon"

"Warrior," by Salvador Dali, 1982.

Odysseus, as painted by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein.

Kids these days...

From @/create.repeat—substack.

Arundhati Roy

Images from a 2017 exhibition by Emma McEvoy. The set is from the Namibian town of Kolmanskop which was once settled by the Germans in their quest for diamond mines, that now stands abandoned once the diamond reserves were all exhausted.