Arts feature
Norman Sicily was a multicultural paradise – but it didn’t last long
There are lessons to be learned from the disintegration of this once majestic multicultural Norman kingdom, says Martin Gayford
The rise and fall of Sicily
A few weeks ago, I looked out on the Cathedral of Monreale from the platform on which once stood the…
With the release of Oculus Rift, cinema will never be the same again
With the release of Oculus Rift – virtual reality you can buy from a shop – cinema will never be the same again, says Peter Hoskin
The future is here
Oculus Rift. It sounds like something from a science fiction novel, and in many ways it is. Its release this…
A film that dares to suggest that paedophile priests may be capable of holiness
Damian Thompson admires a Chilean film about paedophile priests which, unlike Spotlight, dares to explore social and psychological complexities
Sins of the fathers
A feature film about priests who abuse children is being released on 25 March. Which happens to be Good Friday.…
The holy relics of the Easter Rising: from hallowed flags to rebel biscuits
The reverence for those involved in the Easter Rising is evident in an exhibition devoted to its centenary, says Harry Mount
Rebel angels
This is the first exhibition I’ve been to where the Prime Minister joined the hacks at the press view. A…
Does the great Bach conductor Masaaki Suzuki think his audience will burn in hell?
Damian Thompson talks to the great Bach conductor — and strict Calvinist — Masaaki Suzuki
God’s messenger
When the Japanese conductor Masaaki Suzuki leads his forces in a performance of a Bach cantata, does he worry that…
Why does drama always end up sneering at religion?
Theo Hobson explores the enduring appeal that religion has for dramatists
The rite stuff
Religion remains a surprisingly popular subject for plays. It’s partly because there’s already a core of theatricality there, in the…
‘I enjoy the banal’: Stephen Bayley meets Martin Parr
The photographer Martin Parr claims to like ordinary people, but are his pictures celebratory or mocking, asks Stephen Bayley
You’ve been framed
‘I like ordinary people,’ says the extraordinary photographer Martin Parr, pushing a few high-concept smoked sprats around his plate at…
What is a serious film festival doing opening with Hail, Caesar!
What is a serious film festival doing opening with Ethan and Joel Coens’ turkey Hail, Caesar!? James Woodall reports from Berlin
Brothers grim
One of the more obscure winners in recent years of the Berlin film festival’s Golden Bear was a version of…
Renaissance master? Rascal? Thief? In search of Giorgione
Question-marks over attribution are at the heart of a forthcoming Giorgione exhibition. Martin Gayford sifts through the evidence
Whodunnit?
On 7 February 1506, Albrecht Dürer wrote home to his good friend Willibald Pirckheimer in Nuremberg. The great artist was…
What's that thing? Britain's worst public art
Bad public art pollutes our townscapes. Stephen Bayley names and shames the worst offenders as he unveils the winner of The Spectator’s inaugural What’s That Thing? Award
Public offence
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/fightingovercrumbs-euroscepticsandtheeudeal/media.mp3 There are, as adman David Ogilvy remarked, no monuments to committees. (That’s not quite true; Auguste Rodin’s ‘Burghers…
Nikolai Astrup - Norway’s other great painter
The Norwegian artist Nikolai Astrup has been unjustly overshadowed by Edvard Munch. But that is about to change, says Claudia Massie
Magnetic north
‘Edvard Munch, I cannot abide,’ wrote Nikolai Astrup in a letter to his friend Arne Giverholt. ‘Everything that he does…
Eugene Delacroix foresaw the future of society not just art
Delacroix’s frigid self-control concealed an emotional volcano. Martin Gayford explores the paradoxes that define the apostle of modernism
‘It’s good to chop out the boring bits!’: Andrew Davies on adapting War and Peace
What does Andrew Davies have to say to those who accuse him of gratuitous rumpy-pumpy in his adaptations of the classics? Stephen Smith finds out
Wild at heart
At the Louvre the other day there was a small crowd permanently gathered in front of Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the…
