Domenichino, Saint John the Evangelist, late 1620s. On loan from a private collection, © Private collection 2010. One of the greatest works by the Italian Baroque master Domenichino (1581–1641) is to remain in Britain and is now on public display in Room 32 of the National Gallery, having been acquired by an anonymous private collector. [...]

John Deacon’s photograph of Francis Bacon Though he was primarily a painter of the human figure, Francis Bacon never drew from the nude, rarely worked from life, and painted directly onto the canvas without first making preliminary studies or using preparatory drawings. But however strange the ectoplsamic and ambiguously gendered creatures in his paintings appear [...]

At times using over 50,000 nails, this highly skilled and multifaceted artist has been banging his ideas onto large white wooden panels. LONDON.- Having turned his hand to craftsmanship, these days you’re more likely to find ex-businessman Marcus Levine ‘nailing it’ in the art world rather than the boardroom. This Yorkshire-born sculptor, and unwitting specialist [...]

Christian Kobke “View of Dosseringen near the Sortedam Lake Looking towards Norrebro” When Queen Margrethe II of Denmark opens the National Gallery’s luminous survey of the art of Christen Købke today, she will take her photo call in front of View of Dosseringen near the Sortedam Lake Looking towards Norrebro. This was inevitable: Købke is [...]

Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995). Photograph: Ai Weiwei The cavernous space of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall has been dwarfed by a massive spider, cleaved by a 167-metre crack and baked by an artificial sun. Now, the gallery has announced, the space is to be filled by its most politically adventurous commission yet.

The “five-to-10 good years” phenomenon, first articulated by former Tate director Alan Bowness, suggests that virtually all artists do their best work in a relatively short period, whether it was the 10 years Delacroix had between 1824 and 1834, Courbet’s six (1849 -1855) or Munch’s three (1892-95). After a major artist makes his breakthrough, he [...]

Some of the most magnificent drawings ever executed – physical manifestations of Michelangelo’s love and infatuation for a handsome and intelligent teenage boy – will on Thursday go on display as a group for the first time. The groundbreaking show at the Courtauld gallery in London, with loans from the Vatican and the Queen, is [...]