Beard on the faces of power through history. She asks why - for over two millennia - the striking, stony realism of Roman portraiture has been a touchstone for subsequent depictions of power... read more
A gorgeous, illustrated study of the ways in which shells were circulated, depicted, collected and valued during a time of remarkable global change, by aristocrats and apothecaries, scholars... read more
Genial mix of aesthetics, lit crit, philosophy, art and history. Rabelais, Vermeer, ancient Rome and a classical Greek text in 16 vols about a single meal. The latter would have given Proust... read more