Arts

Detail of Portrait of a Woman by Lucas Cranach the Elder showing a Tudor-era painting of a young nun in a habit (Credit: Getty Images)

The servant who foretold King Henry VIII's death - and paid the ultimate price

Elizabeth Barton became a celebrated visionary, but when she defied the monarch, she met a grisly end. Was she a charlatan or a heroine of the Tudor world?

A woman with a white coat, visor and iPad looks closely at a scene from the Bayeux Tapestry

Five key scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry, and the story they tell

It depicts a medieval game of thrones as William the Conquerer did battle with King Harold to rule England.

Young woman sitting in a chair with a towel draped over the back, reading at the pool in the summer

What your summer reading list says about you

Just picked your holiday book? Our choices can subconsciously reveal important parts of our personality, studies show.

Arts in Motion

Rolex and the Arts

Through its Perpetual Arts Initiative, Rolex supports world-leading cultural institutions and exceptional artists, in the spirit of celebrating excellence and promoting the transmission of knowledge to new generations.

Art history

Composite of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (left) and Henry Taylor's From Congo to the Capital and Black Again (Credit: The Museum of Modern Art, New York/ Auru00e9lien Mole/ Henry Taylor Courtesy the artist)

'Hideous': The controversy over Picasso's most shocking painting

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was met with horror, then revered. A century later, the piece was reinterpreted by US artist Henry Taylor, and Picasso's masterwork remains contentious – why?

Detail of mountain and blue sky in Franklin Carmichael's Lone Lake (1929) (Credit: Alamy)

The 1920s paintings that changed how the world saw Canada

Crop of The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston on March 5,1770 by a party of the 29th Regiment (Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/ Gift of Mrs Russell Sage)

The image that fuelled the American Revolution

A cropped version of Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird by Frida Kahlo (Credit: Nickolas Muray/ Collection of Mexican Art)

What this Frida Kahlo painting tells us about her most intimate vulnerabilities

Around the world

Lucinda Chambers' home (Credit: Robyn Lea)

Inside eight of the best fashion designers' homes

Each of these remarkable interiors reflects its creative owner's unique vision – from a British bohemian-lady-of-the-manor style to a 14th-Century Florentine palazzo.

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch holding a photograph of herself when she was younger playing the cello (Credit: Getty Images)

How music saved a cellist's life in Auschwitz

After being sent to the Nazi death camp in 1943, Anita Lasker survived by playing in its women's orchestra. In 1996, she spoke to the BBC about her ordeal.

Etruscan sarcophagus with couple reclining (Credit: Getty Images)

What ancient women really thought about sex

Author Daisy Dunn's book, The Missing Thread, tells the history of the ancient world through women.

A black and white image shows a couple in the corner of a booth in a small Paris cafe with their faces close together as if they are about to kiss(Credit: Estate Brassai/ Succession Philippe Ribeyrolles)

10 intimate images of a lost, decadent 1930s Paris

Moving "from the slums to the exclusive salons", Brassaï captured the brothels, gay bars and backstreets of Paris's hazy night-time in its radical inter-war years.

Watch

Kama Sutra: A misunderstood ancient erotic manual

The Kama Sutra is perceived as an erotic manual in the West - but there is much more to it.

Classical music

Margot the dog listens attentively as a TV behind her can be seen playing a classical piece (Credit: Serenity Strull)

The music that keeps animals calm

You can find many different playlists for dogs and cats online. However, not all styles of music are effective.

Janet Leigh screaming in the shower in Psycho (Credit: Alamy)

How the Psycho music score changed film forever

Alfred Hitchcock's grisly horror might not have become a classic without composer Bernard Herrmann's disturbing score.

A view of the inside of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris with people seated inside the nave during a mass (Credit: Getty Images)

Does Notre-Dame still sound the same?

Performers and visitors to the famous gothic cathedral in the midst of the River Seine may find some subtle differences to the way sound bounces around its walls.