Making Egypt’s Museums
The world’s largest archaeological museum is poised to open on the Giza Plateau, building on two centuries of museum planning and development.
Unmaking a Priest: The Rite of Degradation
The defrocking ceremony was meant to humiliate a disgraced member of the clergy while discouraging laypeople from viewing him as a martyr.
How René Magritte Became the Grudging Father of Pop Art
Though he dismissed Pop as “window dressing, advertising art,” many critics and artists of the 1960s claimed Magritte as the movement's greatest forebearer.
Plant of the Month: London Rocket
London rocket was observed in abundance following the Great Fire of London in 1666, but why does this non-native weed still interest English botanists?
Framing Degas
The French painter Edgar Degas was Impressionism’s most energetic and inventive frame designer.
Restoration Recipes
Need to clean your sixteenth-century distemper painting? Try a piece of bread (at your own risk).
Plant of the Month: Sunflower
With the invasion of Ukraine, it seemed like sunflowers suddenly appeared on the political landscape. Yet they’ve long held symbolic and economic value in Europe.
Who Was the Little Girl in Las Meninas?
A Spanish princess who became a German queen, Margarita Teresa lived a life structured by Catholicism and cut short by consanguinity.
The Princes of Saxony Collected These Kitschy Miniature Mountains
Struck with “Berggeschrey,” or “mountain clamour,” early modern nobles of Saxony dolled up the dirty and dangerous work of the mines with gold and glitter.
Why John Baldessari Burned His Own Art
The artist's "Cremation Project" of 1970 marked a liberation from the tradition of painting and a step toward a more encompassing vision.