Reviews
How Canaletto constructed a better view of Venice
The artist would move churches around, erase rooftops, and even bend the Grand Canal straight if it allowed for a more harmonious scene
Paper plants and wax peaches at the Manchester Museum
The scientific teaching models in George Loudon’s collection are as beautiful as they are fascinating
A dazzling new attraction at the Musée Condé at Chantilly
Visitors can finally enjoy the exceptional drawing collection, and explore previously-unseen rooms, in the elegant new Cabinet d’Arts Graphiques
The historic Roman tapestries that travelled to New York
The remarkable Barberini tapestries at the Cathedral of St John the Divine are packed with surprising and beautiful details
The disturbing dreams of Michael Armitage
Armitage’s paintings combine African politics and western art history – and will make you see both in a different light
The many modern versions of the Japanese house
Domestic architecture in Japan is reinvented for every generation – as this fascinating exhibition shows
The golden age of propaganda
Calendars have often conveyed political messages, particularly in the reign of Louis XIV and during the French Revolution
A shining example of silver scholarship
One of the most important collections of 18th-century silver in Europe gets the attention it deserves in a new book
Terry Adkins and the art of sound
The artist’s haunting sound sculptures and paintings address the absent figures who inspired them
The Avignon Clock is as good as any sculpture
This spectacular French clock, designed by the best craftsman of the day, is the star of a show at the Wallace Collection
How did ‘Viva Arte Viva’ go so wrong?
Wasn’t this year’s Venice Biennale exhibition supposed to do away with grand curatorial conceits?
A flawed introduction to the women of post-war abstraction
MoMA’s attempt to ‘make space’ for women artists has backfired, but does at least highlight some unexpected affinities between artists
Cedric Price’s mission to make architecture amusing
Cedric Price believed that architecture should be mobile, lightweight, and temporary. Above all, he thought it should be fun
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
The successes and failures of Documenta in Athens
The decision to stage part of the 14th Documenta in Athens has been widely debated. Now that it’s open, what are the highlights of the programme?
The forgotten father of Abstract Expressionism
His ‘white writing’ style helped shape the course of modern painting, so why isn’t Mark Tobey better known?
The ‘living lines’ of Paule Vézelay
She was well known in the surrealist circles of the 20th century, but Vézelay’s work has been all but forgotten since
How the Japanese transformed French painting
An exhibition of Les Nabis at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Tokyo explores their interest in the art of the Far East
Michelangelo and Sebastiano’s fraught but fertile friendship
An ambitious exhibition at the National Gallery traces the productive overlaps between these two Renaissance masters
More can be less when it comes to Eduardo Paolozzi
Paolozzi’s 1950s work is astonishing, but a full retrospective draws too much attention to his duller later work
What the Minotaur can tell us about Picasso
An exhibition documenting Picasso’s obsession with minotaurs and matadors is a curatorial triumph
Religion in the Renaissance was as personal as it was public
An exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum reveals how the home in Renaissance Italy was the site of much private devotion
Monuments to mundanity at the Socle du Monde Biennale
This event is a must-see if you want your understanding of Piero Manzoni and the other featured artists turned on its head
The patronage of remarkable princesses
Some royal tastemakers have better taste than others – as the remarkable legacy of three Hanoverian princesses shows
The many faces of Mary Magdalene