Jan van Eyck was one of the most inventive and influential artists in the entire European tradition. The phenomenal realism of his paintings, now six centuries old, still astounds …
The Italian Renaissance is conventionally thought of as the historical period that bore witness to the rise of the individual. Yet no other artist of the time begins to compare …
The Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was a prolific writer, polymath and prodigious collector who amassed the largest collection of naturalia in sixteenth-century Europe, as …
Aldus Manutius is perhaps the greatest figure in the history of the printed book: in Venice, Europe's capital of printing, he invented the italic type and issued more first …
Artemisia Gentileschi is by far the most famous woman artist of the pre-modern era. Her art addresses issues that resonate today, such as sexual violence and women's problematic …
In his lifetime Hieronymus Bosch was already famous for his fantastic, unearthly creations. Today his name has become synonymous with the eerie, infernal and macabre. Bosch's …
A critical biography of René Descartes, whose first principle (“I think therefore I am.”) reshaped modern philosophy. Often called ‘the father of modern philosophy’, René …
