Counterpoints

‘Jusepe de Ribera went beyond palpability — the way the paint becomes flesh — to the visceral. He sought to engage all our senses at once’

‘There once was a Tudor woman with flaming red hair. Her name was Elizabeth, but she wasn’t the queen. Her reputation preceded her — Bess of Hardwick’

This year’s Passion for Freedom exhibition asks: “What is freedom? How do you preserve it? How do you celebrate it?”

Georg Simmel was prescient: he realised that the freedom to pose as who we like helps in high-pressure mass societies

William Simmonds was a modest but extraordinary artist, whose reputation rested on his marionettes and puppets

Why does sacred music remain popular at a time when the Church, its historical home, does not?

The British media has labelled anti-Semitism in the Labour Party a “scandal”. This seriously understates the problem

“Every time I read of a new algorithm for producing a hit pop song, or software for writing a Man Booker-worthy novel, I know I’m in for a disappointment”

What are the duties of the modern author? To tweet hourly, to Instagram daily, to podcast weekly, to pen a monthly TinyLetter