History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
Francis Bacon's chaotic studio was moved piece by piece
Conservators catalogued more than 7,000 items and reconstructed the London workspace at Dublin's Hugh Lane Gallery. Preserving it meant treating the apparent…
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New Zealand's cave lights are bait for hungry larvae
The glowing larvae of fungus gnats lure flying insects toward dangling sticky threads. The light comes from the larva, not from the fishing lines themselves.…
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Rouault burned 315 unfinished paintings in front of a notary
In 1948, after recovering works through a dispute with his dealer's heirs, the 77-year-old artist destroyed paintings he felt he could not finish. The notary…
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The composer who counted leaves on trees
Composer Anton Bruckner's arithmomania led him to count everything from colleagues' coat buttons to leaves on trees.
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This artist let gravity make his collages
He dropped squares of colored paper onto a canvas and glued them where they landed, letting gravity determine the composition.
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A preserved philosopher attended a university meeting
Jeremy Bentham's dressed skeleton and wax head form the 'Auto-Icon' kept at UCL. In 2013, it made a special appearance at a council meeting for the outgoing…
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New Zealand is the tip of a sunken continent
Most of Zealandia lies beneath the Pacific; New Zealand is the part high enough to stay above water. Nearly all of this continent is hidden below the ocean,…
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A lost continent is hiding under Mauritius
Geologists found fragments of ancient continental crust buried beneath Mauritius’s volcanic rock: remnants of a microcontinent hidden under the island.
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Tintoretto entered an art competition with the painting already installed
In 1564, Venice's Scuola Grande di San Rocco asked artists for drawings for a ceiling commission. According to Vasari's account, Tintoretto instead put a…
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This volcano burns with blue fire
The blue rivers aren’t lava: sulfur gases ignite when they meet the air, sending flames down the mountainside. The volcano’s eerie glow comes from burning…
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A 20-year-old Mendelssohn helped bring Bach back to the stage
His 1829 Berlin performance of the St. Matthew Passion drew an enthusiastic audience and helped spark a wider Bach revival. He adapted the work for the…
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Chopin wanted his unfinished music burned
He feared his unfinished drafts fell short of his standards and asked his family to destroy them. They ignored him and saved some of the music, preserving…
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Rembrandt's bankruptcy put his own collection up for sale
The painter collected art and objects while earning his living making art for others. When his finances collapsed in 1656, his possessions—including that…
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Mount Erebus grows ice chimneys around warm volcanic vents
Moist air escaping from the Antarctic volcano freezes in the surrounding cold, building towers around the outlets. The outside can be ice while heat continues…
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Foucault turned prison research into a microphone for prisoners
In 1971, Michel Foucault helped found the Prisons Information Group in France. It collected accounts of daily prison life and circulated information from…
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Matisse painted massive murals using a charcoal stick
As his mobility declined, Matisse attached charcoal to a long bamboo pole and drew on his studio walls from his chair. When the wall was out of reach, he made…
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The ordinary funeral that scandalized the art world
Courbet painted ordinary townspeople on a monumental canvas, the kind of scale usually reserved for saints and heroes. The scandal was that he insisted a…
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Ravel refused the Legion of Honor
In 1920, the composer declined France's prestigious decoration instead of adding it to his public identity. The refusal became part of his reputation for…
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Vivaldi wrote concertos for orphaned girls
He spent much of his adult life at a Venetian home for abandoned girls, composing hundreds of concertos for its exceptionally talented young musicians.
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Why old paintings have eerie yellow sunsets
A distant volcanic eruption sent ash and gases into the atmosphere, tinting sunsets far from the volcano. Painters captured the strange yellow light: the…
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Modigliani traded sketches for meals
In Paris, Modigliani often sketched café patrons and bar owners in exchange for a simple meal.
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Cézanne made bare canvas do some of the painting
In Trees and Houses Near the Jas de Bouffan, he left patches of the prepared canvas exposed among spare strokes of yellow and green. Those gaps participate in…
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Nietzsche's final collapse became inseparable from a story about a horse
The familiar account says he embraced a horse being beaten in Turin before collapsing in 1889. The horse episode is uncertain, but the breakdown and his…
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Tchaikovsky's patron funded him without meeting him
For 13 years, Nadezhda von Meck gave Tchaikovsky a substantial allowance on one condition: they never meet. The arrangement kept him funded while keeping his…
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