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When scientists said that they had used artificial intelligence to determine that Raphael had, in fact, painted a work whose attribution had long been contested, they received rapturous praise in publications across the globe. But now a more complicated picture of the situation has emerged, with some experts questioning the accuracy of the attribution. One scientist’s study of the attribution suggested a completely different result from the one used to certify the Raphael attribution, and two museum professionals told the Guardian Saturday that AI had a high likelihood of being incorrect. Related Articles A narrow tower of perhaps five stories...

Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Chinese authorities have arrested two construction workers accused of using an excavator to dig a hole through the Great Wall in central Shanxi province, according to local reports. The Shanxi Cultural Relics Bureau said Monday that the two people used the excavator to dig a shortcut through the 32nd Great Wall, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644, in Youyu county, Shanxi province, state-run China Daily reported. The suspects have been identified by local police as a 38-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman, according to Sina. Local police were notified of the damage at...

Anne Boleyn was a beautiful woman who died for an effectively polygamous man, Henry the VIIIth. In 1532, on September the first, he made Anne the Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry created this title for her. These words attributed to her suggest she was very much a woman who was ready for a man: “Seduce me. Write letters to me. And poems, I love poems. Ravish me with your words. Seduce me.” Anne married Henry but when he did not have a son by her to be heir to his throne he had her executed. She spoke...

A new book tells the rollicking and relatable history of cosmeticsHow to be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity. By Jill Burke. Profile; 336 pages; £25. To be published in America by Pegasus in January; $28.95 Three litres of blood from a healthy red-headed man “no older than 25 or 30” could fix bad skin. Eating nettles was a trick for rosier cheeks. A paste made from marble, wheat and bryony, a poisonous plant, could whiten skin. Most beauty products in Renaissance Italy were made from ingredients that seem strange or foolhardy to modern eyes.

High school English teachers today face prison in Florida if they have their class perform a Shakespeare play in period dress. Every Shakespeare play at the Globe required cross-dressing.Women were not allowed on English stages 400 years ago, so women’s roles were played by cross-dressing men, whether at The Globe, the Blackfriars or, what was it called? O, yeah, the Roxy. This led to the delightful scene in “The Merchant of Venice” in which Portia, played by a cross-dressing man, criss-cross-dresses as a woman playing a man, to save his/her/its friend’s friend Antonio. Right: a man playing a woman playing...

A complex network of tunnels located near the northeastern French town of Braye-en-Laonnois, houses the memories of thousands of World War One soldiers who left their mark on the walls the Froidmont quarry.A maze-like network of tunnels can be found near the northeastern French town of Braye-en-Laonnois.These extraordinary tunnels house the memories of thousands of World War One soldiers who left their mark on the walls of the Froidmont quarry, not far from the scene of the horrific Second Battle of the Aisne.More than 20 kilometres of limestone walls bare over 1,000 inscriptions, drawings and carvings from German, French and...

One of the many distressing videos circulating on social media showed a devastating scene of rioters in France setting ablaze the largest public library in the city of Marseille. The footage shows flames engulfing the institution, symbolising the loss of knowledge, culture, and community resources. This act of destruction represents a tragic blow to the city's cultural heritage and a deeply concerning manifestation of the ongoing unrest.

BREAKING In Marseille, migrants burned one of the largest libraries in France. The Alcazar Library's collection contained almost a million documents, 350,000 of which were in the public domain. In particular, medieval manuscripts and unique editions.

Asian sailors came to the west coast of America in 1587. Within a century they were settled in colonies from Mexico to Peru Cape Sebastian in Oregon perches above two forested declivities along a rocky patch of the state’s southern coast. Travel there today, and you are likely to miss a roadside marker that reads:Spanish navigators were the first to explore the North American Pacific Coast. Beginning fifty years after Columbus discovered the Western continents, Sebastian Vizciano [sic] saw this cape in 1603 and named it after the patron saint of the day of his discovery. Other navigators, Spanish, British,...

Attacks on art have been in the news fairy often in recent months. In July, climate activists glued themselves to a copy of The Last Supper believed to have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci’s students and scrawled “no new oil” beneath the image, and in May, the Mona Lisa made the headlines when a museum visitor smeared cake all over the protective glass that guards the famous painting. That incident was just the latest in a series of attacks on the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece.

The Turkish DNA Project, an online endeavor to track Turkish genetics, is enraged at the popular genealogy site Ancestry.com and has called for it to be boycotted for stating an inconvenient truth: many, and possibly most, modern Turks are the descendants of the Greeks who once formed the overwhelming majority of the population of the land that is now Turkey. In this as in so many other instances, the truth hurts, but that doesn’t make it any less the truth.

A Cambridge University scholar was examining medieval manuscripts in the hushed rooms of the National Library of Scotland when he found himself laughing out loud. What he'd found were some jokes written down in the 15th century by a priest and scribe who had heard them during a live performance. Host Marco Werman speaks with James Wade, the scholar who discovered them, who is a medieval literature professor at Girton College at the University of Cambridge in England.

At least one Medici was plagued by a deadly strain of malaria, analysis of organ tissue from the Medici family tomb reveals...The researchers found evidence of the parasite that causes malaria, and made the first observation of a parasite from that time in history that remains structurally intact.The Medicis were an ultra-powerful, wealthy banking family that exerted great influence in Renaissance Florence, eventually becoming rulers of the Duchy of Tuscany in the 16th century.Because of their power and status, they buried their dead like monarchs in the San Lorenzo Basilica in central Florence, keeping the skeletal remains of the bodies...

Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625) was a well-known portraitist during the Italian Renaissance, studying with a variety of artists from the age of 14. Upon receipt of a drawing she made for him, Michelangelo informally tutored her for a couple of years. A young Van Dyck visited her the year before her death at the age of 93, and wrote that she had taught him more than all of his teachers had up till then. Lost to history in the centuries since her death, the quality of her work is becoming known again. Music is from: Early Venetian Lute Music: “O Mia...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - The former principal for a Tallahassee charter school resigned after what she called a “series of miscommunications” regarding a 6th grade art class lesson that included an image of Michelanglo’s ‘David.’ The situation drew several complaints from parents, and has launched debate over the school’s policies. Tallahassee Classical School confirmed to WCTV the art lesson took place last Friday, and several parents reached out to express concerns that same day. Board Chair Barney Bishop confirmed that as part of an emergency meeting on Monday, a few days after the lesson, former principal Hope Carrasquilla was given...

Italian Portraiture, including Raphael, to Early Venetian Lute Music Art sleuths have created a 3D reconstruction of the face of Italian painter Raphael, solving an age-old mystery over his final resting place, Rome's Tor Vergata University said. The artist, a child prodigy and part of a trinity of Renaissance greats along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, died in 1520, aged only 37. A red rose graces his tomb in Rome's Pantheon all year round. His body was exhumed in the 19th century, at which point a plaster cast of his skull was made. But experts were not sure the...

The woke war on the past reaches historic proportions.After canceling most people who lived in the last two centuries for not being sufficiently accepting of the current dogma, woke academia has turned its attention to the distant past.After accusing Isaac Newton and Robert Burns of being complicit in slavery, the British woke war on the past has gone bigger. Edinburgh University had already renamed David Hume Tower after Black Lives Matter activists accused the philosopher, born in 1711, of racism. The Sir Francis Drake Primary School had to change its name and William Gladstone is next.But even when you get...

The Romans have censored themselves to make visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani feel more comfortable during his historic stop in Italy. Rouhani -- the first Iranian leader to visit Europe in almost 20 years -- met Tuesday with Pope Francis at the Vatican, but another stop on his agenda was the famed Capitoline Museum, where classic Italian nude sculptures were covered with plain white boards to avoid offending the Muslim president.

The Forum in Rome, dedicated to Julius Caesar, was completed in 46 B.C. as a site for conducting public business generally related to the Roman Senate. Much later, during the 16th century, the site was still usable—Renaissance-era people used it as a hospital. Doctors of the time knew that diseases could be infectious, so they set up protocols for dealing with them and the clothes and tools used to treat ill patients.Prior research has shown that doctors and medical researchers in Italy played a major role in establishing protocols, such disposal of instruments after a single use, and disposing of...

Despite costing €9 million, the campaign has been slammed by art critics and government officials.For many, Botticelli’s Venus embodies the Renaissance ideal of beauty, but have you ever wondered what that might look like today? Italy’s ministry of tourism has launched a campaign that reimagines the iconic figure as an influencer—and it has been swiftly ridiculed on social media. “Hi there, everybody. My name is Venus,” the ad’s digitally altered protagonist announced on her Instagram. “But that’s something you probably already know. I’m 30, ok maybe just a wee bit more than that… And I am a virtual influencer. What...