A podcast about lots of interesting topics.
Queen Nefertiti is the undisputed icon of ancient beauty, yet the 3,300-year-old painted bust that made her famous is defined by contradictions: a missing left eye, and, as CT scans in 1992 and 2006 revealed, the face of an older woman with creases, hollow cheeks, and a bump on her nose carved into the limestone… Read.
Imagine hands steady enough to carve microscopic detail into solid gold, and the same hands plunging a dagger into a rival’s neck on a cobblestone street. This episode charts the pivotal turning points in the life of Benvenuto Cellini, the 16th-century goldsmith, sculptor, and author who navigated a volatile Italy of warring city-states, papal intrigue,… Read.
In February 2013 a vibrant 1881 portrait of a red-haired woman in a straw hat sold at Christie’s for 10.9 million dollars, making its painter the highest-priced female artist in auction history. Back in 1874 a prominent French critic had described the same artist as one of five or six lunatics on display. This episode… Read.
In 1007 a thief crept into the sacristy at Kells, stole what the annals called the chief relic of the Western world, ripped off its jeweled gold cover, and left the pages under a patch of dirt. The manuscript survived. This episode explores the Book of Kells, a ninth-century gospel book of 340 calf-vellum folios… Read.
In 2003 a thief climbed construction scaffolding at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, smashed a window, and made off with a 60 million dollar masterpiece while guards dismissed the alarm as a glitch. He did not sell it. He sealed it in a lead box and buried it in an Austrian forest. This episode uses that heist… Read.
A single harsh beam of light hitting half a face in a pitch-black room triggers instant drama, and artists have exploited that hardwired reaction for more than two thousand years. This episode traces chiaroscuro, the Italian term for light-dark, from the lost shadow painting of the Athenian Apollodorus and the stag hunt mosaics of Pella… Read.