Renaissance

A painting of Lisbon depicts conspicuous displays of Portuguese imperial wealth and power – including enslaved African people

How slavery thrived in Renaissance Europe

The Arnolfini portrait painting – oil on wood – appears to depict a wealthy couple holding hands in a domestic setting, the bed perhaps indicating that they are in a bedchamber

What great paintings say The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck, 1434

CWAXKJ The Battle of Lepanto, the fleet of the Holy League destroys the Turkish fleet near Greece, October 7, 1571

Alternate history: what if the Ottomans had won at Lepanto?

Domenico Fetti painting illustrating a melancholic woman in the early 17th century

The Anatomy of Melancholy: how Robert Burton helped shape our understanding of the mind

A mermaid combing her hair

General Early Modern

Tails from the deep: separating the real folklore of mermaids from Disney stories

A portrait of a member of the Borgias family

The Borgias: everything you wanted to know

Bust of Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent: the astounding life of the ‘delightful tyrant’ of Florence

'The Journey of the Magi' by Benozzo Gozzoli, commissioned by Piero the Gouty for the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. It features his son Lorenzo, who would become known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, as one of the three kings

“They were on a level with today’s billionaires” – your guide to the Medici: bankers to the Pope, rulers of Florence, patrons of the Renaissance

A group of men observe a body lying on a table.

Early-modern cannibal doctors: why mummified corpse was considered medicine

From left to right: Queen Isabella of Castile; French regent Anne de Beaujeu; and Catherine of Aragon. (Photos by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/DeAgostini/Imagno/Getty Images)

Game of Queens: when women ruled Renaissance Europe

Portrait of Catherine de Medici

Catherine de Medici: the ‘Serpent Queen’ who became one of France’s most powerful 16th-century rulers

Two garden gnomes on grass

A brief history of garden gnomes

Catherine Fletcher discusses what is known about the private life and relationships of the Renaissance polymath, and considers the historical inspirations for the new TV drama Leonardo. (Image by Getty Images)

Leonardo da Vinci’s private life

Frank Spotnitz and Steve Thompson, creators of the new drama 'Leonardo' starring Aidan Turner, talk about the inspirations behind their series on the Renaissance polymath. (Image by © Fabio Lovino)

Leonardo: bringing Da Vinci to the screen

Aidan Turner as Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo: the real history behind the new Renaissance drama