Giacomo Serpotta was an Italian sculptor, active in a Rococo style and mainly working in stucco. Serpotta was born and died in Palermo; and may have never left Sicily. His skill and facility with stucco sculpture appears to have arisen without mentorship or direct exposures to the mainstream of Italian Baroque. Rudolf Wittkower describes him as an aberrancy in an otherwise provincial scene, a "meteor in the Sicilian sky".
Martin Hürlimann was a Swiss publisher, photographer, and writer celebrated for his photographic documentation of European and Asian landscapes. Known for his meticulous approach, he spent hours perfecting shots to capture the interplay of light and architecture, focusing on historical sites and urban vistas. As the founder of Atlantis Verlag, Hürlimann oversaw every detail of his publications, producing high-quality art and travel books. His work, while sometimes critiqued as overly romanticized, remains a lasting record of cultural heritage and a testament to his singular vision.
The Ainu of Japan are typically said to descend from the Jomon people, who appeared in Japan around 16,000 years ago, and are also associated with the Emishi people and the Satsumon, who were both active around 700 CE and into the early 1000s CE. Like their ancestors, the Ainu were hunter-gatherers. During the summer, they would gather plants and fish for salmon, and during the fall and winter, they would hunt rabbit, bear and ezo deer. Tattooing among the Ainu was for women only. A specially trained woman would tattoo a girl’s face and perhaps forehead. The process of the tattooing began early, around age 6 or 7. A few dots at first, near the upper lip, made with small cuts from a ceremonial knife. Each year new cuts would be made, and the cuts rubbed with charcoal (specifically birch charcoal, for its rich, dark color), and then the wound would be cleaned in an antiseptic made of boiled ash bark. The process continued until her wedding day, when the groom would make the final cuts that turned the tattoo into a smile.
Matthäus Schwarz was a German accountant, best known for compiling his Klaidungsbüchlein or Trachtenbuch (usually translated as "Book of Clothes"), a book cataloguing the clothing that he wore between 1520 and 1560. The book has been described as "the world's first fashion book".
The Blancpain Erotic Minute Repeater is a watch with concealed erotic automation.
The Osmothèque is the world's largest scent archive, a leading international research institution tracing the history of perfumery, based in Versailles with conference centers in New York City and Paris. Founded in 1990 by Jean Kerléo and other senior perfumers including Jean-Claude Ellena and Guy Robert, the Osmothèque is internationally responsible for the authentication, registration, preservation, documentation and reproduction of thousands of perfumes gathered from the past two millennia, archived at the Osmothèque repository and consultable by the public.
I Modi is a famous erotic book of the Italian Renaissance that had engravings of sexual scenes. The engravings were created in a collaboration between Giulio Romano and Marcantonio Raimondi. They were thought to have been created around 1524 to 1527.
Philipp von Ferrary was a noted French-born stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is considered likely to exist. Among his extremely rare stamps were the unique Treskilling Yellow of Sweden and the 1856 one-cent "Black on Magenta" of British Guiana.
TV Party was a cult public-access television cable TV show in New York City that ran from 1978 to 1982. Guests on the show included Mick Jones, David Byrne, Debbie Harry, James Chance, Klaus Nomi, Charles Rocket, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Sissel Tolaas is an expert in scents.