Art

Philip E. Burnham Jr. describes how the court of Clement VI at Avignon became a model of humanism and scholarship for princely courts elsewhere in Europe.

At a time when the Turkish rulers of Greece were conducting a profitable trade in ancient statues, Charles Fellows, an enlightened English tourist, rescued a precious hoard from Asia Minor. By Sarah Searight.

M.L. Ryder describes the use of skins for writing material from about 2000 B.C. in Egypt down to recent times.

F.R. Cowell describes how the Romans were keen book-collectors; and the works they bought were often expensive and beautifully produced.

Michael Grant describes how, in their portrait-heads, which reveal an extraordinary grasp of the subject’s personality, Roman sculptors ‘created one of the outstanding arts of all time’.

Stella Margetson describes how English drama arose from the series of religious plays in which men of the Middle Ages expressed their profound, but direct and simple faith.

R.W. Brockway presents palaeolithic man as an accomplished artist.

Alan Haynes profiles a satirist, playwright and man of letters; Aretino led a prodigal and adventurous life in late Renaissance Italy.

John Nowell introduces and translates a contemporary portrait of the eighteenth-century actor at work, originally penned by G.C. Lichtenberg.

S.G.F. Brandon traces development from the fourth century in Christian art to Holman Hunt and Graham Sutherland.