Chevening stands in a magnifi cent park below the wooded escarpment of the North Downs in Kent. It has a history dating back around 800 years, but the house we see today is almost entirely the creation of seven generations of the Stanhope family, bui...

At Stowe, 250 acres of parkland off er a complex web of views, pathways, statues, inscriptions, urns and ideas. Unlike its French fl oricultural precursors, Stowe presents sudden shifts of scene, abrupt revelations, as well as spots at which to stop...

In his joint capacities of Premier peintre du roi, director of the Gobelins manufactory and rector of the Academie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Le Brun exercised a previously unprecedented influence on the production of the visual arts – so mu...

This lively, lavishly illustrated volume presents rare decorative arts from Asia – all of exceptional quality – from ornate handled daggers and exquisite silver fi ligree boxes to diamond-studded jewels, magnifi cent embroidered silk and divination b...

In 1882 the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (Prints and Drawings Museum) acquired, from the collection of the Duke of Hamilton, Sandro Botticelli's spectacular series of drawings on parchment illustrating scenes from Dante's "Divine Comedy". It also acqui...