Art history

Jerry Brotton on the Renaissance. (Image by Getty Images)

The Renaissance: everything you wanted to know

(L to R) Isaac Newton, Henry VIII and Bal Gangadhar Tilak

How did people cope with ‘lockdowns’ of the past? And were they really all so productive?

The Regency era: everything you wanted to know

Vivid experiences: a self-portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque artist whose brilliant renderings of biblical and classical scenes earned her commissions from some of the most powerful figures in 17th century Europe. (Photo by Araldo de Luca/Corbis via Getty Images)

Artemisia Gentileschi: how pain powered the great 17th-century artist

Simon Schama photographed in Hauteville House, Guernsey (Photo by Oxford Films, Photographer Eddie Knox)

Simon Schama on the Romantics

Afua Hirsch in Kenya. (Photo by Clear Story/BBC)

Afua Hirsch: “The prejudice still surrounding Africa is absolutely rooted in a racist past”

People gather around the Mona Lisa painting after its return in January 1914

Mona Lisa heist: how do you steal the world’s most famous painting?

Afua Hirsch with the Samburu people, Kenya

Africa’s cultural liberation

British writer Hilary Mantel photographed at home

Hilary Mantel on the secrets of successful historical fiction

York Minster's rose window features 16th-century Tudor Roses white on red (left) and Lancastrian Roses, red

A brief history of the English rose

Self portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi as a lute player (Photo by Getty Images)

The genius of Artemisia

'Self Portrait' by Vincent van Gogh, autumn 1887 (Photo by Marc DEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Why did Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear?

Day of the God, painted by Paul Gaugin. (Image by Alamy)

A year in pictures: 1894

Podcast Mary Beard Transcript

A history of nakedness in art: Mary Beard on her new BBC series Shock of the Nude

Historian Mary Beard at the Oxford Literary Festival 2019. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Mary Beard on the nude in western art