Smithsonian Magazine

What Secrets Lie Beneath This 17th-Century French Aristocrat’s Smile?

A portrait of Anne d’Alégre, a 17th-century French noblewoman who masked her poor dentition with gold wire and an elephant ivory false tooth Colleter et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science: ...
Smithsonian Magazine

A Renowned, But Forgotten, 17th-Century Japanese Artist Is Once Again Making Waves

A pair of six-panel folding screens entitled Waves of Matsushima, Tawaraya Sōtatsu, early 1600s Freer Gallery of Art A pair of six-panel folding screens entitled Waves at Matsushima, Tawaraya Sōtatsu, ...
The Conversation

How Dutch ‘Mad Men’ of the 17th century created the advertising industry

A young man in his prime, Johan Hoyel was a little shorter than most, but with a strong, lean build. Hoyel had killed a man during an argument, possibly after too much drink, and was due to be ...
The Atlantic

The 17th-Century Paper Social Network

It's snarky, constrained and incomprehensibly social! So, like, basically, Twitter for the 1670s. This month, 323 years ago, an English biographer scribbled notes to another scholar -- or rather, he ...
Architectural Digest

A Derelict 17th-Century British Factory Is Transformed Into an Avant-Garde Home

In Northamptonshire, a county 70 miles northwest of London, springtime is both familiar and changed. The quaint English towns are still present, now dotted with the trees that are coming into leaf as ...
Artnet

How a 17th-Century Power Struggle Over Caravaggio’s Art Anchors a Rare Exhibition in Paris

Caravaggio, Rubens, Raphael, Titian, Botticelli, Veronese, and Bernini: it’s a roll call of the greats, and just a handful of the artists whose Renaissance and Baroque works have traveled from their ...
Mental Floss

Archaeologists Are Recreating Recipes from 17th-Century Ships

If ships’ logs and sailors' diaries are to be believed, the gastronomic situation during early voyages across the Atlantic was dire. “Lady Sea will not tolerate or conserve meat or fish that is not ...
CNN

‘Extremely rare’ 17th-century painting of Black woman with White companion placed under export bar from UK

A 17th-century painting showing a Black woman with her White companion has been placed under a temporary export bar to reduce the risk of the artwork leaving the United Kingdom. The anonymous painting ...
The Guardian

Researchers read sealed 17th-century letter without opening it

‘Virtual unfolding’ is hailed a breakthrough in the study of historic documents as unopened letter from 1697 is read for the first time using X-ray technology In a world first for the study of ...