From 3,500 years ago ~ gold ‘usekh’ necklace of Egyptian Queen Ahhotep I, with hawk-head clasps, and separate strands featuring baboons, leaping animals, birds, crosses, bells and geometrical motifs (c 1,550 BC)

You may have seen this sculpture many times, without seeing it from this angle ~ this is the flung-back face of Christ in Michelangelo’s Pietà (1499). Incidentally, this is the only Michelangelo artwork that bears his name, inscribed on the sash across the Virgin’s chest

This is a 17C portrait of notorious gambler & womaniser Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset, but for me the real stars are his magnificent ‘hedgehog’ slippers (William Larkin, 1613)

It is a mist-shrouded night in Paris. From the balustrade of Notre-Dame Cathedral, the monstrous chimera named Le Stryge, harbinger of misfortune, gazes reflectively over the city (photo: Brassaï (Gyula Halasz), 1933)

Greens, yellows & whites pervade this view of an open rowboat with no oars ~ artist Charles Curran’s new bride Grace, sheltered by green parasol, picks exuberantly large water lilies which carpet the lake, & cousin Lottie gathers them on her lap (1888) collection.terraamericanart.org/objects/10?_...

Enter the calm, unhurried world of 20C National Living Treasure Kawase Hasui ~ this woodblock print of Benten Pond, Shiba, in the summer, depicts two women on a footbridge surveying the profusion of lotus leaves and flowers (1929)

Hellenistic mosaic glass bowl, cobalt blue with yellow/green spirals, fire-polished, with diameter of 5in (13 cm), dating from 2nd/3rd century BC. Convincing 3-D effect of spirals when seen in detail (at R). For details of the ancient technique used, see www.bonhams.com/auctions/113...

Jan van Kessel the Elder, a descendant of the Brueghels, was a meticulous chronicler of the natural world. Here’s his ‘Insects & a Sprig of Rosemary’ (1653), where you’ll find butterflies, a bumblebee, beetles, a moth & a cockchafer, with realistic shadows (NGA, Washington)

One seriously old sock ~ child’s split-toe left-foot sock, multi-striped with plant-based pigments, 1,700 years old, from ancient city of Antinoupolis, Egypt. (The right-foot one hasn’t been found, so maybe check your sock drawer) www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

Utagawa Hiroshige, 19th century master of Japanese woodblock prints, created this guide to making shadow puppets for children (or children at heart) (1842) www.openculture.com/2021/07/hiro...

The Daintree Forest in Queensland is said to be the world’s oldest tropical rainforest, dating back to the age of the dinosaurs. Here, artist Alice Mannheim’s ironically-titled oil painting depicts it both above and under water (“Log It!”, 2025) www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

When John Singer Sargent was asked to paint a portrait of his patron’s children, he declined, recommending Mary Cassatt instead. She had true mastery in this genre. Here’s her pastel portrait of her six-year-old family friend Marie-Thérèse Gaillard (1894)

Danish artist P S Krøyer depicts his wife Marie in their sunny garden in the artist colony at Skagen, which they had rented to provide peace and quiet for the birth of their daughter (1895)

In 1926, teenager Cressida Wearne posed for Harold Harvey’s ‘Girl on a Cliff’ by sitting on a rock inside Harvey’s studio ~ the outdoors background of the sea and cliffs was just added in later. At R, decades later, Cressida relives her pose (Penlee House Gallery & Museum)

It’s long been established that every well-equipped doghouse should have its own side chapel – from a late-15th century German book of fables thegetty.tumblr.com/post/3922779...

Most people know Dutch artist Piet Mondrian for his block colours and geometric abstraction, but here also are two of his earlier, naturalistic works created before 1910 ~ Apples, Ginger Pot and Plate ■ Still Life with Oranges

Here’s a kimono-clad dancer in a traditional Noh play, painted by Uemura Shōen (Jo-No-Mai, 1936). Shōen was the first female recipient of the Order of Culture award by the Emperor. I particularly like the way the pale cloud pattern emerges on the hem and sleeve

Millais’ sensational painting ‘Christ in the House of his Parents’ (1850) was described by Charles Dickens as “mean, odious, repulsive & revolting”, with a “hideous, wry-necked, blubbering” Jesus and a Mary who was “horrible in her ugliness”. Do you agree? www.artinsociety.com/millais-char...

JUST PUBLISHED! Millais’ painting Christ in the House of his Parents provoked howls of ridicule from critics, including an enraged Charles Dickens. Our latest article analyses what their hostility tells us about Victorian attitudes to religion and art www.artinsociety.com/millais-char...

24/7/26 French artist Jean Béraud, chronicler of life in late 19th century Paris, depicts a fashionable woman in black pausing ambiguously on a street corner (‘The Wait, Rue de Chateaubriand’, c1900). But is the man in the distance her lover, her client, or just a pedestrian?

Émile Friant, late-19C realist painter of provincial French life, first exhibited at age 15 and went on to create works such as this idyllic ‘Lovers, Autumn Evening’ (1888) Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy

Gustav Klimt became inreasingly interested in landscapes after seeing a van Gogh exhibition ~ here’s his exuberantly colourful close-up of a cottage flower garden “Bauerngarten” (1907)

Here's the first-ever appearance of “Twinkle, twinkle little star”, as the opening verse of “The Star” by poet/novelist Jane Taylor in 1806. Often sung to tune of 18C French melody “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman” (also the basis for Baa Baa Black Sheep) bl.uk/collection-i...

JMW Turner was accepted into the Royal Academy at 15, produced this watercolour view of the Avon Gorge on a trip to Bristol at age 16 and, at R, made his reputation with this dramatically-moonlit ‘Fishermen at Sea’ when he was just 20

Exhausted-looking young boy, warmed only by sackcloth and a small fire, shakes his wooden ‘clacker’ to deter crows from eating newly-sown seed (George Clausen, Bird Scaring, 1896) artuk.org/discover/art...

Claude Monet – here he is with his second wife Alice, festooned with pigeons, in St Mark’s Square, Venice 1908. Doesn’t Alice look thrilled!

Ancient Greek necklace of gold, amethyst, chalcedony, rock crystal and pearl ~ it was a personal burial ornament, with the butterfly pendant as the symbol of the soul. Found in tomb in Ukraine (attrib c 100 BC) (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore) art.thewalters.org/object/57.386/

Imagine having this as your work station ~ in 1963, Marion Ash worked at the Wall Court Floral Library in Corfe Castle, Dorset, and here she is in the flower drying room (photo: John Drysdale)

This sensitive study of an aged woman absorbed in her task was originally known as Rembrandt’s Mother Reading (1629), though the attribution is now disputed

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was Marie-Antoinette’s favourite painter. Here’s her Self Portrait in a Straw Hat (1782), which she modelled on Rubens’ Portrait of Susanna Lunden painted 160 years before (at R)