Pastries topped with taxidermy and lavish decoration were the inspiration for elaborate tureen dishes, masterpieces of the goldsmith’s craft
The adjective 'Rubenesque' was coined in the 19th century, but there’s rather more to the female figures in his paintings than acres of flesh
The market for paintings by the likes of John Craxton and John Minton – and Paul Nash in pastoral mode – is having an idyllic time
Achim Gnann of the Albertina Museum gets to grips with sketches that show the artist embracing a dynamic new style
The Regent’s Park attraction offers plenty of opportunities for people-watching when the animals decide to make themselves scarce
The parc des Buttes-Chaumont was meant to be a ’Tuileries of the people’, but the crowning glory of Haussman’s Paris has fallen on hard times
The psychedelic artwork-meets-wellbeing experience is still in its pilot stages but it deserves to be a mainstream hit
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is as powerful as you would expect, but the Hiroshima Museum of Art may catch you unawares
With its combination of visual splendour and complex allegory, the marble pavement of Siena Cathedral is one of the most enticing of all Renaissance masterpieces
This beaded seat represents the might of a monarch – and his global reach, says Kristen Windmuller-Luna of the Cleveland Museum of Art
The Green Vault in Dresden has received a baroque chess set for its 300th birthday, plus the rest of the most important items to enter public collections
When institutions try to offer something to everyone do they risk spreading themselves too thin?
Gwen John and the contemporary artist Matthew Krishanu found comfort in a shared composition
A convivial collaboration between the American artist and a saké brewery is refreshing stuff
Under its new director Christine Macel, the historic museum full of masterpieces of French design is entering a brand new era
The national museum of immigration has a new mission – but it’s still housed in a building haunted by France’s colonial ghosts
It’s hard to say who, exactly, the Normans were – but even harder to make them out as a model migrants and proto-Europeans as a string of recent exhibitions has tried to do
The reinvention of the Museum of Childhood as Young V&A has been a great success. Should more institutions follow its example and become younger at heart?
An old-fashioned way of bringing in cakes and custards is beginning to feel rather modern again
The Egyptian film industry came to dominate the Arab world – and poster makers did much to secure its hold on the popular imagination
The vintage trucks in London’s parks provide soft serve with an outsize dollop of nostalgia – and do it in style
The first garden created by the designer for a house by Edwin Lutyens has been bought by the National Trust – preserving a vital piece of history
It has taken the National Trust 24 years to restore the Gideon Tapestries at Hardwick Hall to their former glory
