Art history - Getty Images

Art history

Formidable dynasties of the Italian Renaissance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Madame Tussaud's exhibition at Baker Street, London. But who was her first waxwork? (Photo by Bettmann, via Getty Images)

Q&AWho was Madame Tussaud’s first waxwork?

Actor Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster in James Whale's classic 1931 film

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: the birth of a gothic monster

The Persian empire: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Renaissance: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

(L to R) Isaac Newton, Henry VIII and Bal Gangadhar Tilak

How did people cope with ‘lockdowns’ of the past? And were they really all so productive?

The Regency era: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Vivid experiences: a self-portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque artist whose brilliant renderings of biblical and classical scenes earned her commissions from some of the most powerful figures in 17th century Europe. (Photo by Araldo de Luca/Corbis via Getty Images)

Artemisia Gentileschi: how pain powered the great 17th-century artist

Simon Schama photographed in Hauteville House, Guernsey (Photo by Oxford Films, Photographer Eddie Knox)

Simon Schama on the Romantics. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Afua Hirsch in Kenya. (Photo by Clear Story/BBC)

Afua Hirsch: "The prejudice still surrounding Africa is absolutely rooted in a racist past". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

People gather around the Mona Lisa painting after its return in January 1914

Mona Lisa heist: how do you steal the world's most famous painting?

Afua Hirsch with the Samburu people, Kenya

Africa’s cultural liberation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Self portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi as a lute player (Photo by Getty Images)

The genius of Artemisia. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Why did Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear?

A history of nakedness in art: Mary Beard on her new BBC series Shock of the Nude

Historian Mary Beard at the Oxford Literary Festival 2019. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Mary Beard on the nude in western art. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ninth-century Alfred Jewel, adorned with the inscription: "Alfred ordered me to be made". This masterpiece of Anglo-Saxon art is thought to have been an aestel, a pointer used to follow text. (Picture by Alamy)

10 ways the Anglo-Saxons changed the course of British history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of Henry V

Q&AWhy is Henry V's portrait in profile?

The Venus de Milo sculpture

Q&AWhen was the Venus de Milo found?

Da Vinci's Mona Lisa portrait

Q&AWho was the Mona Lisa?

History ExplorerThe Holy Island of Lindisfarne

The story of Madame Tussaud. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

10 photographs that made history

Pocket-sized paintings: Elizabethans in miniature

The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Illustration by Kate Greenaway, 1888. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

In pictures: fairytales through history

British Artist Ivon Hitchens. (Image by Bridgeman)

My history hero: Chris Packham chooses Ivon Hitchens. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Married architects Alison and Peter Smithson at work, October 1961. The pair were architect members of the Independent Group and had an impact on the British urban scene via what became known as ‘New Brutalism’. (Photo by Davies/Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Who were the original Independent Group?

Duncan Grant's studio at Charleston. Despite its lack of creature comforts, the East Sussex farmhouse became the weekend hub of the Bloomsbury set. (Photo by Charleston House/Tony Tree)

History ExplorerThe story of the Bloomsbury set

The National Portrait Gallery attributed this unfinished portrait to Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra, and dated it to circa 1810. (Universal History Archive / Getty Images)

What did Jane Austen really look like?

The "brilliant" Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse in 1935. (Getty Images)

My history hero: Walt Disney (1901-66). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.