Vermeer’s very strange way of looking at things
The painter’s works invite us to marvel at the mysteries of perception – and we will never see so many of them in the same place again
Travel agency – ‘Dürer’s Journeys’ at the National Gallery, reviewed
To trail the artist through Europe, as this lively exhibition does, is to realise that his art relied on movement
Do paintings have minds of their own?
Not all works of art need be interpreted – some simply demand that we spend some quality time with them
With his cryptic clusters of images, Aby Warburg remapped the art of the past
Warburg brought together Greek gods and golfers, antiquities and airships – and in reconstruction, his puzzling arrangements of images are as suggestive as ever
Touching distance – the fine art of keeping apart
The encounter between Mary Magdalene and the risen Christ has challenged the artists who have chosen to represent it
A Delft touch – the intricate patterns of Pieter de Hooch
The Dutch painter’s courtyard and interior scenes reveal his fascination with frames, grids and lines
Meet the beetles! The insect drawings of Joris Hoefnagel
The Dutch polymath’s lifelike drawings are masterpieces of wit and invention
Shell company – how a family of naturalists captured marine life
Science, art and natural history are intertwined in the Lister family’s monumental Historiae Conchyliorum
Pots, pans and pondering in Chardin’s domestic scenes
The 18th-century painter’s depictions of servants paused at work raise questions about the nature of attention
The visual side of Renaissance thought
Susanna Berger’s enquiry into philosophy and visual culture is full of original insight
The Voynich Manuscript is a book you’re not meant to read
Despite Yale’s new facsimile edition, this 15th-century manuscript happily remains as indecipherable as ever
More to cheese than meets the eye?
How Dutch meal still life paintings captured the great intellectual preoccupations of the 17th century
The illuminated manuscripts that are lighting up the Fens
The Fitzwilliam Museum’s ‘Colour’ exhibition is a triumphant introduction to medieval manuscript painting
Drawing the Curtain
Why paint a curtain? A look at the long tradition of depicting trompe l’oeil curtains in painting
The many faces of Mary Magdalene