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History Art/Architecture
Here Be Monsters – how monsters advanced Renaissance science
Ridiculous. Amusing. Laughable. These are the first words that came to mind when I saw this image of the sea monster who resembled a monk from 1642. I assumed it to be a Renaissance fantasy imagined by a sailor who had one too many…
Aleister Crowley, “the wickedest man in the world”
There are names we all recognise, even if what we know about them is entirely wrong. So it is with Aleister Crowley. Sometimes described as a Satanist , and during his lifetime labelled “the wickedest man in the world” , in truth…
Maurice or The Fisher’s Cot: a long lost tale by Mary Shelley
Maurice is a short three part children’s story by a writer who remains best known for the gothic horror of Frankenstein. I came upon Maurice by accident and I can hazard a guess that I am not the only gothic fiction reader who wasn’t aware…
A Brief History of Art Forgery in Four Crazy Case Studies
Fraud! Scandal! Forgery! Over the past several years, articles with such attention-grabbing headlines have regularly appeared in the American media, all concerning what is probably the biggest art forgery case of the twenty-first century.…
The Origin of the World’s Art: Prehistoric Cave Painting
Prehistoric cave paintings are among the world’s first-known and least-understood works of art. At least two hundred painted caves, some dating to as early as 30,000 BCE, have been found throughout the Pyrenees regions of southern France…
The Tara Brooch: Gold and Jewels from the Ancient Irish Past
The Tara Brooch is justifiably among the most celebrated of all works of Celtic art. Dating to the early eighth century, the “Golden Age” of Celtic Irish history, this brooch has been called “The Book of Kells of Irish jewelry”.1 It is one…
A True Art Adventure: The Real-Life Story of the Monuments Men
Priceless works of art disappearing throughout Europe. Centuries-old monuments imperiled. Masterpieces hidden inside salt mines. A world-famous museum evacuated via ambulance. Clandestine inventories of war loot secretly compiled by quiet…
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, or Leonardo da Vinci as he is better known, or the blue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle as he is even better known, or Leonardo DiCaprio as he is perhaps best but certainly most-incorrectly known, was good.…