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Art

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Stories in this category

• The perfect deception: the contest that wrote the rules of art

  Two painters from ancient Greece, Zeuxis and Parrhasius, challenge each other to determine who is the greatest. Zeuxis paints a b…

• The woman who painted the first abstract painting

  In 1906, Swedish painter Hilma af Klint, guided by spiritual voices during séances, created abstract works, spirals, weaves, form…

• The hidden face of Venice: the masks of the Serenissima

  Venetian masks were not born for Carnival, but were a much broader social and political phenomenon. For centuries, in Venice, mas…

• The line challenge: the showdown of who could see the thinnest line

  In the 4th century BC, the famous painter Apelles travels to Rhodes to meet his rival Protogenes. Finding him absent, he draws an…

• The incredible story of the $12 million shark in formaldehyde

  In 1991, Damien Hirst created a preserved tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde, titling it "The Physical Impossibility of Death i…

• The angel who silenced the master

  According to Vasari, in 1475 the young Leonardo painted an angel in Verrocchio's "Baptism of Christ" so perfect that the master,…

• The theft that created a myth: the "Mona Lisa", from forgotten masterpiece to global icon

  Before 1911, the Mona Lisa was a masterpiece admired by few connoisseurs, kept in the Louvre without any particular security meas…

• The bronze giant of Benvenuto Cellini

  Benvenuto Cellini, a goldsmith and sculptor of indomitable temperament, was commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici to cast in a sing…

• The Tower Paris didn't want

  In 1889, for the Paris Universal Exposition, Gustave Eiffel built an iron tower over 300 metres high, despite fierce opposition f…

• The moving of Abu Simbel: the feat that saved a temple from the water

  In the 1960s, the construction of the Aswan Dam threatened to submerge forever the temples of Abu Simbel, a masterpiece carved in…