Bernard Mandeville’s defence of private vices with public benefits

The Ear of the Beholder Huon Mallalieu (Thomas ...

Johannes Vermeer brightened his native Delft with luminous pictures of women caught in intimate moments, but the serenity of his work, of which he produced remarkably little, is at odds with a life mired in debt, as Carla Passino discovers

Andrew Graham-Dixon tells Carla Passino why he thinks we have read Vermeer wrong all along– and who the Girl with a Pearl Earring really is

From gleaming presents to inebriating parties, discover five artists’ interpretations of the festive season

The gargantuan, bewildering Louvre