Features

Joseph Gandy’s dramatic paintings turned John Soane’s neoclassical designs into full-blown Romantic fantasies

Mass-produced majolica has often been sneered at – but its exuberance is what makes it so appealing

The Crown Jewels are what the castle is most famous for, but over the centuries it has housed everything from prisoners to military hardware

David Chipperfield’s cool, if costly, renovation plays to the gallery’s minimalist strengths

Colombia’s indigenous communities are toppling statues of the Spanish conquerors to highlight past and present injustices

The portraits of James Barnor, Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé conjure up an image of cool modernity – but also draw on a long photographic tradition

A pair of amateur fossil hunters have uncovered a section of Jurassic sea floor in a sleepy corner of England

These comforting songs are freighted with cultural and personal memories – and artists are working to preserve them

It may be an unassuming little shelter, but the beach hut tells of a British infatuation with property and propriety

Raymond Erith adapted classical architecture for a modern age

Native American belts made of wampum shells have long fulfilled a diplomatic purpose – and as such are very much a living art

The novelist may be little read today, but his fiction inspired an enduring, Romantic vision of the past

The giant ferris wheel may now be part of the furniture – but the view from on high is still revolutionary

Most Parisians treat the Arc de Triomphe as a glorified roundabout – but by climbing it they’d see the city in a new light

The sculptor took Restoration England by storm with his virtuosic woodwork

Through the Italian painter’s eyes, the German city became both an idealised version of itself and a surrogate for his native Venice

Why do paintings and objects from the Tudor and Stuart periods have so much to say for themselves?

An art trail at Wembley Park won’t change the behaviour of football fans – but the best works here are at least sensitive to their surroundings

One of the world’s greatest collections of medieval manuscripts now has state-of-the-art accommodation, writes Michael Prodger

At the Palazzo Grimani, more classical sculptures can now be seen in the splendid rooms in which they were once displayed

Sitting on the steps is now forbidden – but for centuries, the monumental staircase has been one of Rome’s most theatrical attractions

A troupe of nimble-footed technicians has been drafted in to restore monuments up and down the country – without a scaffold in sight

The early Olympic games of the modern era set out to celebrate both ‘muscle and mind’ – which meant that artists were in the mix for medals