Renaissance Italy

Flirting in 15th-century Florence

20 January 2024 9:00 am

In his history of male-male sexual relations, Noel Malcolm describes how a man in Renaissance Italy would seduce a boy in the street by seizing his hat and holding it ransom

Always carry a little book with you, and preserve it with great care, said Leonardo da Vinci

4 November 2023 9:00 am

Despite the digitisation of everything, many of us still choose to jot down thoughts and sketches on paper, and would be bereft without a notebook to hand

The Sixtus V cabinet: the supreme example of the art of pietra dura

Cabinet of curiosity: we do not even know for sure the maker of the Sixtus Cabinet at Stourhead

7 February 2015 9:00 am

Italian cabinets and tables decorated with inlaid semi-precious stones known as ‘pietre dure’ were a ‘must-have’ for English milords returning…

The Rose (IV), by Cy Twombly

The Duke of Wellington also invades Christmas art books

22 November 2014 9:00 am

Art books fall naturally into various categories, of which the most common is probably the monograph. Judith Zilczer’s A Way…