Route masters: William Blake’s Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims
Spring has sprung, and Jonathan Jones is choosing his favourite artworks that depict the new season. Today it's the turn of William Blake's famed engraving of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales crewJonathan Jones
Edgar Allan Poe and the art of squalor
From the 19th-century French avant garde to Damien Hirst, artists have revelled in Poe's world of bohemian depravityIn Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1943 film Le Corbeau – The Raven – a small French town is torn apart by anonymous letters that claim to e...
Why art will not suffer death by digital
Ebooks may be pushing print towards oblivion, but high-priced art is unique and in no danger of being replaced by a virtual substitute. Just ask Damien HirstWill art be the only serious cultural activity that survives in 50 years' time? And how serious...
Don’t call me Sir: why do artists snub royal honours?
From Lucian Freud to Roald Dahl, creative talents have long been rejecting honours from the Queen. But why? Maybe they just don't want to be part of an elite gang of Fred GoodwinsWhy are creative people so deeply sceptical of Britain's honours system? ...
Whisky tasting: the devil is in the detail
In preparation for Burns Night, Jonathan Jones learns how to savour the subtleties of whisky like a proThere's just one problem with participating in a whisky tasting, sampling some of Scotland's best whiskies as if they were fine wines – whisky...
Napoleon Bonaparte and Egypt’s lost scrolls
The recent destruction of an historic document in Cairo offers a stark warning that Egypt's art and history is under threatNapoleon Bonaparte was an extraordinary and contradictory man: a warlord who saw himself as a champion of civilisation. One of hi...
Sherlock Holmes is still a man for today
Conan Doyle's detective was born in an age of empire and intrigue, much like our own. That's why Sherlock is still relevantSherlock Holmes is back. As usual. This Christmas holiday, the engaging modern-times Sherlock returns to the BBC while a second G...
Why I have Great Expectations of a bleak Christmas from the BBC
The Beeb is bringing Dickens's greatest novel to our screens, but with a new ending. I just hope it has not tampered with this accurately primed clock that ticks towards catastropheThe great novels, by and large, end in disillusion and ashes – which ...
How Britain got its patriotism back | Jonathan Jones
From the monarchy to fashion to old-fashioned food, British culture is brimming with pride. But is there a dark side to this new patriotism?It takes a rare party leader to reach beyond the arid debates of the political elite and touch the passions of t...
Light reading: the illuminated manuscripts of the dark ages
In the digital age we should look back in wonder at illuminated manuscripts: medieval Europe produced some of the most moving images of readers and reading that existFrancesca da Rimini's beauty and suffering are portrayed with serpentine sensuality in...
Seeing the light on Caravaggio: Andrew Graham-Dixon’s portrait in words
Authors have struggled to translate Caravaggio's art into prose. But Andrew Graham-Dixon's biography looks at his subject with the same compelling intensity of the artistI've waited a long time for a decent book on Caravaggio to come along. For some pa...
Europe u-knighted: King Arthur proves how European the British are
With the EU in turmoil, David Cameron would do well to remember that King Arthur, hero of British folklore, has in fact enjoyed a long reign in European cultural historyKing Arthur must be turning in his grave – or emerging from his cave on Snowdon t...
