Art

Andrea Wolter-Abele looks at how machines and industrial society provoked new concepts of creativity.

Philip Mansel looks at interchange and intrigue in the cross-currents of 18th-century culture between East and West.

David Irwin chronicles how the imagery of the natural world entwined itself luxuriantly in the visual arts of the 1890s.

A reflection on the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a one of Scotland’s most innovative architects.

Charles Harvey and Jon Press examine the aesthetic achievements of the multi-talented and pioneering early Socialist.

David Ellwood discusses America's cultural take-over of Europe in a seemingly innocent Italian 1950s comedy called "Un Americano a Roma". The comedy features a hapless hero whose attempts to Americanise himself mirror Italy's struggle to handle a clash of cultures after World War II.

Ann Hills investigates a new online database of all English Heritage historic wall paintings.

Catherine King reviews two new books on art

David Elliott looks at how Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler used culture to their own ends and how the ramifications of this has continued to the present.

F.Bremer and E.Rydell examine the tricks used by preachers in 17th-century England and America to hold their audiences.