A Mania For Nymphs
Peter Lely's underrated pastorals and mythologies are erotic delights for the connoisseur
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Seeing is Believing
The narrative of Will Gompertz's history of modern art faithfully follows the Serota tendency, claiming modern art always trumps that which it supplanted
The First Modern Art Movement
The Pre-Raphelites, whose work stars in a new Tate Britain show, dismissed the artistic hierarchy and founded a brotherhood with fire in the belly
A Delicious Summer Sorbet
Sterling Clark's collection of French art, on show at the Royal Academy, is as appetising as it is unfamiliar
From Art as Life to Blood and Soil
'While between 1895 and 1945 the German debate over how to be modern resulted in a global killing-field, a group of artists in Worpswede set down their visions for a 20th century
Could Picasso Draw Better than Raphael?
Comparing Pablo Picasso's drawings to those of the Old Masters reveals his failure to master the basics of draughtsmanship
Melancholia, Not Modernism
Edvard Munch may have yoked new technologies together but his leitmotifs were timeless
Regenerate Art
From beneath Berlin's streets archeaologists have unearthed a reminder of Nazi oppression
The Mask of the Monarchy
In six decades of portraits the Queen’s impenetrable expression has barely altered
Signs, Not Wonders
A retrospective of Damien Hirst’s work shows his skill as an aesthetic showman—but not as an artist
The Precision Portraitist
Johan Zoffany’s art enjoyed only a brief vogue, but the RA’s show displays all his technical brilliance
Margate Rendezvous
For J.M.W. Turner it wasn't only the beauty of the Kentish coast that attracted him, but also that of a buxom hotelier