Considered by her contemporaries to be one of the greatest and most influential painters of her time, Kaufman's reputation has since fluctuated. Now, with the revival of interest in the neo-classical era, she has regained her true position in the opi

In the past, the distinctions between art and science weren't as clear-cut as they are today, and philosophers, researchers, and artists often shared insights and ideas. It was in that heady atmosphere that Sir Joshua Reynolds first rose to prominence, initially through his "Grand Style" paintings, but later for his work as a promoter of scientific research and the president and co-founder of the famed Royal Society. This text outlines some of Reynolds' most groundbreaking ideas about art, scholarship, and the intersection between the two.

A word was coined to describe the condition of people stricken with a new kind of fever when the Swiss-born artist Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) came to London in 1766. 'The whole world', it was said, 'is Angelicamad.' One of the most successful women artists in history - a painter who possessed what her friend Goethe called an 'unbelievable' and 'massive' talent - Kauffman became the toast of Georgian England, captivating society with her portraits, mythological scenes and decorative compositions. She knew and painted poets, novelists and playwrights, collaborating with them and illustrating their work; her designs adorned the houses of the Grand Tourists she had met and painted in Italy; actors, statesmen, philosophers, kings and queen sat to her; and she was the force that launched a thousand engravings. Despite rumours of relationships with other artists (including Sir Joshua Reynolds), and an apparently bigamous and annulled first marriage to a pseudo Count, Kauffman was adopted by royalty in England and abroad as a model of social and artistic decorum. A profoundly learned artist, but one who is loved, above all, for her tender adaptations from classical antiquity and sentimental literature; a commercially successful celebrity yet also a founding member of The Royal Academy of arts; the virginal creator of sexually ambivalent beings who was one of the hardest-headed businesswomen of her age, Kauffman's life and work is full of apparent contradictions explored in this first biography in over 80 years.

In the age of the Grand Tour, foreigners flocked to Italy to gawk at its ruins and paintings, enjoy its salons and cafés, attend the opera, and revel in their own discovery of its past. But they also marveled at the people they saw, both male and female. In an era in which castrati were "rock stars," men served women as cicisbei, and dandified Englishmen became macaroni, Italy was perceived to be a place where men became women. The great publicity surrounding female poets, journalists, artists, anatomists, and scientists, and the visible roles for such women in salons, academies, and universities in many Italian cities also made visitors wonder whether women had become men. Such images, of course, were stereotypes, but they were nonetheless grounded in a reality that was unique to the Italian peninsula. This volume illuminates the social and cultural landscape of eighteenth-century Italy by exploring how questions of gender in music, art, literature, science, and medicine shaped perceptions of Italy in the age of the Grand Tour.

When Bob and Roberta Smith was elected a Royal Academician in 2013, he had a more complex relationship with the Academy than most. He remembered well the feeling of suspense as his parents, both artists, waited to find out if their submissions had been accepted for the annual Summer Exhibition. The outcome brought jubilation or despair, but rarely to both, which led to its problems. In The Secret to a Good Life, Bob and Roberta Smith introduces his mother, Deirdre Borlase, and her encounters with the often sexist and classist art establishment of postwar Britain. Her story has led her son to ruminate on drawing, politics and the challenge art can pose to authority, as well as to reminisce on his experience of growing up in a household with two painters for parents. In the colourful signwriting style for which he is best known, Bob and Roberta Smith tells a poignant and political family story and answers the question: what is the secret to a good life?00Exhibition: Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (20.03.2018 - 18.08.2019).

Considered by her contemporaries to be one of the greatest and most influential painters of her time, Kaufman's reputation has since fluctuated. Now, with the revival of interest in the neo-classical era, she has regained her true position in the opi