• Colour drawing of a staged theatrical scene framed by two symmetrical classical structures with niches containing gilded statues, flanked by trees. At the centre, a painted backdrop shows an island within an archipelago, with a visible settlement; in the foreground, a vessel approaches the shore. Four figures stand before the backdrop holding branches and other objects. The composition is enclosed within a thin rectangular gold border.

A person laying down in a field of grass

Making art is messy

by Simon Ellis Making art is messy. Artists make lots of decisions under less-than-ideal conditions without a clear understanding of how the work will turn out and how it will be felt and experienced by others. When we make artistic…

A black and white image of a large museum gallery full of people

Lost Property at the British Museum

by Sarah Keenan It’s easy to get lost at the British Museum. The expansive central London building, set out over three floors and divided up into over 60 galleries, displays some 80,000 objects from all over the world. The British…

A sketch of Lady Justice standing next to a stork in a garden

Lady Justice as an Allegory in Motion

by Valérie Hayaert Animated by signs that are in essence mutable, Justitia (Lady Justice) may be perceived as an allegory in motion. Scholars who pretend to master the intricacies of this “science of images” (iconology) forget an important fact: allegories…