We’ve had more than a year without major exhibitions to visit. But the British Museum has returned with one of its blockbusters: a treasure-filled and challenging exploration of the Emperor Nero. Best-selling author Simon (SJA) Turney, who knows a thing or two about the Roman Empire, reviews it for Historia and finds it one of […]
Review: Art Deco by the Sea
Historian Lucy Jane Santos reviews Art Deco by the Sea, an exhibition at the University of East Anglia’s Sainsbury Centre, transferring to the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle in the summer. The term Art Deco, coined in the 1960s, refers to the decorative modern style that spanned the boom of the roaring 1920s and the […]
Troy: an ancient story for a modern age
Emily Hauser, classicist and author, reviews the British Museum’s Troy: Myth and Reality exhibition for Historia. It seems that the story of the Trojan War is capturing our imaginations now more than ever before. The past few years has seen an explosion in the numbers of reworkings of the Trojan War myth. My own debut […]
Unforgettable legacies of the East India Company
Historian William Dalrymple’s profile is high at the moment, with an acclaimed book about the East India Company published recently and an exhibition he curated opening this month. We’re delighted that Vayu Naidu has interviewed him for Historia and writes here about Dalrymple’s wide vision, as shown by his writing and his selection of paintings. […]
Eat, drink, and be merry the Pompeian way
Historian Lindsay Powell reports on an exhibition in Oxford which shows, through images and objects from Pompeii, the variety of the Roman diet and the places associated with its preparation and consumption, from filthy kitchens to elaborate banquets. “Vivamus, moriendum est” – “let us live, for we must die” – the effusive Vibius Gallus is recorded […]
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War at the British Library has been hailed as “a once-in-a-generation exhibition“. Edoardo Albert finds that, in this giant treasure-hoard, the brightest jewels are often in the smallest details. Would you give a thousand acres of the best land for a book? Benedict Biscop, founder of the double monastery at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, did. […]
Windrush: Songs in a Strange Land
Jason Hewitt visits the Windrush exhibition at the British Library. Tucked away in one of the many audio recordings at the British Library, a Caribbean woman describes her first experience of the ‘strange’ English custom of eating fish and chips out of newspaper. It is one of the hidden gems within the British Library’s new Windrush […]
Van Gogh and Japan
Lesley Downer visits the new exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. ‘All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art,’ wrote Vincent Van Gogh. This absorbing and beautiful exhibition at the glitzy Van Gogh Museum explores Van Gogh’s fascination with Japanese art and with Japan – you could almost call it obsession […]