Lucien de Guise

Reappraising Rome’s rock-star emperor

The British Museum’s handsome Nero show burnishes his legacy but glosses over his treatment of Christians.
like the emperor nero, the british museum knows how to put on a show. that hangar of a space bearing the sainsbury name can sometimes overwh...

Even in Polynesia, Gauguin couldn’t escape his Catholic roots

when gauguin portraits ends its run at the national gallery this month, the artist will have emerged as a serious portraitist as well as a p...

When Western artists discovered 'the Orient', they forgot its Christians

there has been some fairly specific criticism of the latest exhibition at the british museum. "inspired by the east: how the islamic world i...

China and its critics should both take a close look at the past

in a recent article in this magazine, tim stanley upped the ante by suggesting that the government of china is “pure evil”. his observation ...

Places, people and ancient instability

st mark the evangelist by serena fass, filament publishing (distributed by aid to the church in need uk), 315pp, £25/$30 serena fass is a re...

The romantic novelist who lived like a nun

a recent issue of the spectator featured a surprising article. it was self-critical, apolitical and highly readable. commissioning editor ma...

Islam is everywhere in today’s art world

one of the most significant cultural events of the year took place at the british museum last week: the glitzy new albukhary foundation gall...

Fine arts: Primeval mysticism, dog teeth included

the royal academy’s new exhibition oceania is as big as the subject deserves. it’s a happy coincidence for this neglected field that 2018 ma...

The Tent Commandments

Lucien de Guise reflects on the devotional treasures that have become art pure and simple at Frieze Masters
the 15-minute walk from frieze london to frieze masters takes you back millennia in time. in the recent past it was almost like travelling f...

High Societies

Lucien de Guise reviews Peru: a journey in time at the British Museum
the british museum’s peru is a land of hallucinogenic flora and highly diverse fauna, albeit without paddington or any other bears. it’s a l...

It's the detail that is rewarding

less than a year after a major refurbishment, the courtauld gallery has already had exhibitions of two of the biggest names in early modern ...

British Museum's Nero exhibit is 'hair-flattening' take on infamous figure

"It’s not a whitewash of the man whose very name suggests darkness," writes <i>Lucien de Guise</i>. "This exhibition is more of a blank slate, trying to rehabilitate an individual whose reputation is unknown to younger visitors."
cover image: publicity for the british museum's&nbsp; nero: the man behind the myth exhibit, 27 may - 24 october 2021 (image formatted to fi...

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