Mary Magdalene
Are Vermeer’s paintings really coded religious messages?
‘View of Delft’ is not just a representation of some buildings seen across a stretch of dullish water but a vision of the celestial city, argues Andrew Graham-Dixon
Which Mary is which?
Is there a patron saint of conjecture? Perhaps it is a name known only to Bible scholars, who have rich…
Low life
The chesty Corsican taxi driver was giving me his earnest appraisal of the way things were headed in France politically.…
Women of the gospels
The gnostic Gospel of Mary has long been the subject of controversy, even as to which of the several Marys…
‘I’ll show you what a woman can do’
The life of Artemisia Gentileschi is made for Netflix, says Laura Freeman, but it’s her art that really excites
A feast for foot fetishists
It is always interesting to see what art historians get up to when none of the rest of us is…
The codes and codswallop surrounding Leonardo da Vinci
‘If you look at walls soiled with a variety of stains or at stones with variegated patterns,’ Leonardo da Vinci…
The loveliest episode of Holy Week – Christ rises from the potting shed
In Nicolas Poussin’s ‘Noli Me Tangere’ (1653) Christ stands with his heel on a spade. He appears, in his rough…
Vice and virtue
‘Can the ultimate betrayal ever be forgiven?’ screams the publicity for The Judas Passion, transforming a Biblical drama into a…
The GP charged around to my side of the table and roved her hand all over my pubic area
On Friday morning I was peeing razor blades so I rang up the doctor and was given an appointment after…
Red for danger
‘Gentlemen prefer blondes,’ Anita Loos pronounced, ‘but gentlemen marry brunettes.’ Quite what they do with redheads she never revealed (and…
There’s something about Mary
A bogus history book and a new oratorio turn Mary Magdalene into the wife of Jesus and a human rights activist. Damian Thompson feels sorry for the poor woman
