The mysterious curse of an Italian scholar and essayist whose very mention is still thought by some to bring iella, Roman slang for “bad luck.”

Hans Baldung Grien’s ‘Mary as the Queen of Heaven’ was recently acquired from Nicholas Hall by the Alte Pinakothek, Munich—one of the largest and the most significant collection of German Renaissance paintings in the world.

Snippets from a Study Day held at the Italian Academy at Columbia University to accompanying the gallery exhibition ‘Beyond the Fringe: Painting for the Market in 17th-Century Italy’.

Notes from my week in London for the December Old Master auctions.

A moment of existential crisis evoked in a Baroque masterpiece that once lived in Beirut.

Dianne Modestini on the powers and limits of technical imaging.

Is it just us or does Dorothea Tanning’s family patriarch from 1954 look eerily familiar?

Painting in early 14th century Siena, unlike Florence, Venice or Padua, is perhaps most original for its small narrative scenes.

Stella Rudolph’s long-awaited catalogue raisonné of Carlo Maratti is finally out.

An extended topological survey by Jessi Jezewska Stevens.

In Borgo San Sepolcro, an unexpected masterpiece by Rosso Fiorentino.

Revelations from our visit to the Scarpa-designed house museum of Antonio Canova in Possagno.

Eric Zafran follows the last four of seven Caravaggio acquisitions by American museums in the finale of his provocative series on Caravaggiomania in the U.S.

If only Annibale Carracci and Giulio Romano could have seen these spectacular 5th-century Roman mosaics.

In the second of three provocative articles on Caravaggiomania in the U.S., Eric Zafran traces the tale of the first three Caravaggio acquisitions by American museums.

It’s the glowing, celestial form of the turban that hits the highest note.

Eric Zafran recounts the fumbled initial attempts of American museums to buy an authentic Caravaggio painting in the first of three provocative articles on Caravaggiomania in the U.S.

Paul Mitchell on the complexities of choosing the right frame.

An unprecedented major exhibition of Baroque art at the Museum of Art Pudong.

‘His enormously long arms and legs would have sat perfectly in a caricature by Pier Leone Ghezzi, whom he revered, while his vague aura of sadness would have done justice to a portrait by his hero Pompeo Batoni.’

A 90-second teaser filmed at the Palazzo Barberini in the months leading up to our 2023 exhibition on Settecento Rome.

An introduction to the Anthony M. Clark Archive at the National Gallery of Art Library, Washington D.C. by Missy Lemke.

A report on the Old Master paintings market in 2022 – what sold well and what the world’s first billion dollar auction tell us about collecting old masters.

A concert set to the hours of the day by Ensemble Astrea.

Jessi Jezewska Stevens sets foot across Switzerland’s famous mountain towns to investigate the legend of pure, alpine air.

Daughter of art dealer Richard L. Feigen speaks about the thrills and demands of her formative experience.

Alain Goldrach on the necessity and dangers of cleaning a painting.

Jessi Jezewska Stevens on the energy crisis: a brief history of fire and sin.

A concert set to the hours of the day by Ensemble Astrea.

A report on the Old Master paintings market in 2022 – what sold well and what the world’s first billion dollar auction tell us about collecting old masters.

From Manila to Moroni, the curator at New York’s Frick Collection reveals a thing or two about her cultural life.

Join Nicholas Hall for a discussion on an early panel by Vittore Carpaccio, as part of the Meet the Experts series for TEFAF Maastricht 2022.

A gilded impression of Venice by Katy Kelleher.

Getting beneath the surface of Old Master paintings in the studio of Karen Thomas.

‘295’ and other vignettes of Aso O. Tavitian (1940-2020) recollected by David Bull.

Friedrich’s moonlit seascape and other lessons of the sea observed in Hamburg by Jessi Jezewska Stevens.

A paper given by art historian Caterina Volpi at the Italian Academy in April 2025 on the occassion of the study day for 'Beyond the Fringe: Painting for the Market in 17th-Century Italy'.

Theatermaker Elfie Tromp takes us on a wondrous excursion into the new Boijmans Depot.

Keeping up the cultural agenda while we await the 35th edition of TEFAF.

The conceptual artist's gravity-defying aerobes inspired Lizzie Marx to investigate their connections with the past.

In the wake of Fondation Beyeler's centennial Goya exhibition, Olivier Berggruen reflects on the ambiguity of the artist's work.

Our end-of-the-year market report digs deeper into the numbers behind some top selling Old Master paintings in 2021, as well as discoveries and museum acquisitions.

Spend a day getting to know our team through the lens of film maker Em Joseph.

Wanwan Lei, co-founder of M_WOODS museum in Beijing reconnects with us to chat about their ongoing exhibition of Old Master drawings presented by the British Museum.

Curator Mitchell Merling examines prudery through American private collecting of four major erotic paintings that ended up as centerpieces of American museums.

Observations from 'The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570', an exhibition on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York between 26 June–11 Oct 2021.

Sparked by memories of her visits to Le Marche in central Italy, V&A curator Emily Knight explores the Victorian fascination with Italian Renaissance paintings manifested in the museum's collection.

How is the Old Masters market doing more than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic? Our gallery associate Oliver Rordorf presents some trends observed in the marketplace between March 2020 and July 2021.

Scholar of black fashion and visual culture Jonathan M. Square responds to an unusual fragment of a painting by Annibale Carracci.

Poet Richie Hofmann dedicates his new poem, Jupiter, to a painting by Abraham Janssens.

An original study on the market for anonymous 15th and 16th century Flemish paintings, sold between 1946-2015.

An exclusive interview with Jasper Sharp, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna and designer Dani Mileo from Tom Postma Design on the making of the Beethoven Moves exhibition.

Observations from the Old Masters market in 2020 - a year of disruption and digital transformation for museums, auctions, art fairs and galleries.

Randy Reynolds chats with Tova Ossad about preparing for Brexit.

West Meets East in Dutch Art of the 17th Century - an exhibition organized by the Museum Barberini Potsdam and Kunstmuseum Basel. Featuring 120 works by Rembrandt and his contemporaries, it examines the influence of globalization on the Netherlands in the 17th century.

Taiwan-born Chinese lyricist and producer Yao Chien opens up about his new-found interest in Old Master paintings that began with books.

Poet James Fenton explores the little-known field of Hafner ware as an area of collecting, after rejecting traditional collecting areas such as stamps and medals.

Uli Sigg presents a witty analysis of what motivates a collector.

Wandering through the streets of Venice, Ben Street takes us to see a sublime Bellini altarpiece in situ.

Preview the new catalogue raisonné on the Venetian master with an entry on the altarpiece at the San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice.

Art historian Peter Humfrey reviews the much anticipated exhibition reuniting Titian’s six great mythological paintings for Philip II of Spain, which was forced to close three days after opening in March.

A discussion of what the Black Lives Matter movement means for art.

Anna Somers Cocks OBE reports on art and life from Turin, where she was sequestered for some time in Spring 2020.

David Ekserdjian presents a survey of films about artists.

Gary Schwartz recalls an emotional journey to the Isle of Bute.

John Spike recalls dining with one of the greatest collectors of Italian Still Life paintings, Silvano Lodi.

Nicholas Hall reviews exhibition Hans Baldung Grien: Heilig | Unheilig (Sacred | Profane) at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe—the first monographic exhibition of the artist in 60 years.

Paul Rem selects Interior View of Niewe Kerk, a painting by Pieter Saenredam as one of the top highlights at TEFAF Maastricht 2020.

2019 saw the rare emergence of works by Caravaggio and Cimabue, which topped the auction record for Old Masters this year, as well as superb monographic shows devoted to Breugel, Dürer, da Vinci, El Greco, Verrocchio and Rembrandt.

Between 13 Sept 2019 - 20 Jan 2020, the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris presents a major exhibition of works from the Alana Collection, formed by the Chillian-born collector couple Alvaro Saieh and Ana Guzmán.

On view between 18 Jun - 22 Sept 2019, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza brings together a small group of Spanish Old Master paintings in juxtaposition with the designs by Cristóbal Balenciaga.

An important retrospective of the Florentine Renaissance master Fra Angelico that focuses on the decade of 1420-30. It takes place at the Museo del Prado in Madrid between 28 May - 15 Sept 2019.

Exhibition at the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum in Bilbao, 12 Apr - 6 Oct 2019 examining the influence of Old Masters on Giorgio Morandi's still life paintings.

Nicholas Hall presents a fine Portrait of a Young Lady Holding a Cat, a seductive image painted by Antonio d'Ubertino Verdi, known as Bacchiacca, for this year's TEFAF – Meet the Expert series.

Snapshots from the exhibition of Dutch Caravaggists at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht from 15 Dec 2018 - 24 Mar 2019.

Ann Demeester, director of the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, selects a painting exhibited by Nicholas Hall as one of the best 17th century paintings at TEFAF Maastricht 2019.

The first exhibition in the United States to focus on the portraiture of Giovanni Battista Morini, an innovative Northern Italian painter of the Renaissance. On view between 21 Feb - 2 Jun 2019.

A symposium accompanying the exhibition Endless Enigma: Eight Centuries of Fantastic Art that took place at The Kitchen, New York.

Yuan Fang presents at the inaugural Museum 2050 symposium at the Long Museum in Shanghai, an initiative that seeks to investigate the future of the cultural institutions in China.

Old Master sales maintain momentum in the first auction season after the record-shattering sale of Leonardo da Vinci's 450 million dollar Salvator Mundi.

Making sense of the the $450 million record-shattering Leonardo da Vinci, which made over $300 million profit for the seller who originally felt to have overpaid at $127 million.

An intimate lecture on Carlo Maratti, 'one of the most understudied of Italian Baroque artists.'

Nicholas Hall reviews the focus exhibition 'Giovanni da Rimini: A 14th-Century Masterpiece Unveiled at the National Gallery, London' on view between 14 June – 8 October 2017.

Nicholas Hall reviews exhibition Raphael: The Drawings at the Ashmolean Museum.