This 16 9/16 inches (42 cm) parcel-gilt bronze with silver inlay roundel attributed to Italian Renaissance artist Gian Marco Cavalli has been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The bronze roundel is an absolute masterpiece, standing apart for its historical significance, artistic virtuosity, and unique composition,” said Max Hollein, the Museum’s Marina Kellen French Director. “It is a truly transformational acquisition for The Met’s collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture. We look forward to further studying and displaying this magnificent work, one that establishes Cavalli as one of the ingenious creators of the Gonzaga court style.” More at the Met Museum site. (photo courtesy Met Museum)

Ukraine is home to thousands of museums, ranging from small, private institutions to major state-owned collections in Kyiv, the capital, and Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea. The state collections include significant works of Ukrainian and Russian art; classical and Byzantine artifacts; and paintings by Bellini, Goya, Rubens and Jacques-Louis David.

The Museum of Freedom, which was founded in 2014, features a collection of around 4,000 objects associated with Ukraine’s pro-democracy struggles, including banners and artworks. Poshyvailo said he feared for some items if Russian troops entered Kyiv before the objects had been moved to safety.

“Our museum is evidence of Ukraine’s fight for freedom,” he said. “Of course I’m fearful.”

  • Art historian Tatiana Flores offers her thoughts on what is going on at CAA (College Art Association, which is the professional organization for US art historians and others):
  • Smithsonian curator Ariana Curtis talks to Vice media’s Refinery 29 about curating Black Latinidad at the national museum:

“In this time of racial protest, I was coming out of my comfortable, Black-dominant space and saying, ‘I’m going to really experience the Smithsonian as a predominantly white institution and talk about institutional racism,’” Curtis says. “‘I’m going to figure out what our role as an institution is in these ongoing conversations on this history that we have collected but perhaps not interpreted in this way. I’m going to really think about why and how the National Museum of African American History and Culture exists, and also how it exists in combination with our Asian Pacific American Center, with our Latino Center, with the National Museum of the American Indian, with the changes that they are really trying to make at the National Museum of American History.’” 

Newcomers have much to learn, but Elden Ring is a more welcoming game than its predecessors. While there are hundreds of different weapons to find and forge, even your chosen character’s starting arsenal, once improved by the relevant blacksmith, will remain workable for dozens of hours. Provided you’ve wooed them correctly, friendly characters or other players can be summoned to provide support during the most challenging battles with the game’s hellish monstrosities, and it’s now possible to conjure a variety of spectral warriors to provide additional backup. As in Miyazaki’s previous games, you are never entirely alone in Elden Ring. The ghostly outlines of other players occasionally flicker on-screen as you roam its world. Later, hostile players may enter to hunt you – and others can be summoned to your defence.

YouTube video

Yet Conservative Brief has emerged in 2022 as a dominant force on Facebook. It has recently become more popular on the platform than the New York Times and the Washington Post. 

How did this happen? Popular Information has uncovered evidence strongly suggesting that Conservative Brief is paying a network of large Facebook pages, including several controlled by prominent conservative political personalities, to post its content. This conduct, if it is indeed occurring, is in direct violation of Facebook’s rules. 

Conservative Brief’s engagement on Facebook has exploded over the last year. According to data provided to Popular Information by NewsWhip, an independent social media analytics firm, in February 2021, Conservative Brief attracted about 2,500 engagements (a combination of likes, reactions, comments, and shares) per article. Today, each article posted by Conservative Brief attracts well over 30,000 engagements. 

A map of Superheroes in NYC from MapPorn

Required Reading is published every Thursday afternoon, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts, or photo essays worth a second look.

Hrag Vartanian is editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hyperallergic.