Arts & Culture
Why Is the Mona Lisa So Famous?
Five centuries after Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa (1503–19), the portrait hangs behind bulletproof glass within the Louvre Museum and draws thousands of jostling spectators each day.
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Is 27 a Deadly Age for Musicians?
Many of the music world's biggest legends, such as Robert Johnson, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Amy Winehouse, died at 27.
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Editor's Picks
These 5 Goya Paintings Range from Horrifying to Regal
Learn before you look.
Did Mozart Write “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”?
How I wonder if he did.
7 Everyday English Idioms and Where They Come From
How did the proof get in the pudding? Britannica spills the beans on some of the most common idioms!
Who killed Tupac Shakur?
Who killed Tupac Shakur?
Stealing Beauty: 11 Notable Art Thefts
Check out these eleven high-class heists.
The Bizarre Origins of the Words Nerd and Geek
On the nature of nerdiness…or geekiness.
What Do the Olympic Rings and Flame Represent?
These iconic symbols hold special significance to the Olympic movement.
Art Abuse: 11 Vandalized Works of Art
These are not improvements.
Spotlight: Women of the Blues
When blues music was first recorded in the 1920s, many of its most popular artists were women—including Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, and Ethel Waters. As the genre matured, the vocal stylings of singers such as Big Mama Thornton, Etta James and Koko Taylor carried the torch for the next generation.
Quizzes
What Are You Wearing? Clothing Quiz
Roll up your sleeves and identify these garments.
Name That Pattern! Quiz
Fifteen questions designed to test your knowledge of designs.
The Muppets Trivia Quiz
What EGOT winner won an Emmy for their work on The Muppet Show? Find out in this most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational quiz.
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz
Needless to say, spoiler alert.
Videos
What do the melting clocks mean in Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory?
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Galleries
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Paris
Leonardo da Vinci
Featured Categories
Art
13 Artists Who Died Untimely Deaths
Live fast and leave beautiful art behind.
Art Restoration: Beyond Canvas
How do restorers of wall paintings save art exposed to the elements and other forces?
10 Modernist Art Movements
Is this high art, or could your kid do that?
Abstract Expressionism
Abstract Expressionism, broad movement in American painting that began in the late 1940s and became a dominant trend in Western painting during the 1950s. The most prominent American Abstract Expressionist painters were Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko. Others
Literature
Ada Limón
Ada Limón, American poet who is best known for creating intimacy with readers through her emotional sincerity and thoughtful observations of nature and humans’ place within it. Limón was born into a family of artists and teachers. She is the second child and only daughter of Stacia Brady, an artist
11 Banned Books Through Time
Some books have been banned for reasons that may surprise you.
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist and one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 (see Nobel Lecture: “The Solitude of Latin America”), mostly for his masterpiece Cien años de soledad (1967; One Hundred Years of Solitude). He was
The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe’s death remains one of the great mysteries of American literature.
Music
10 Musical Acts That Scored 10 #1 Hits
One of pop music’s most exclusive clubs contains some of its biggest stars.
the Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground, American band of the 1960s whose primal guitar sound and urban noir lyrics, influenced by avant-garde art and modern literature, inspired the punk and alternative rock movements of the 1970s and ’80s. The principal members were Lou Reed (original name Lewis Allan Reed; b.
Did academia kill jazz?
Academia may have had a role in the decline in popularity of jazz music by trying to elevate the genre to the ivory tower, however, today’s artists are proving that the spirit of jazz is alive and well.
What’s That Sound?: 8 Intriguing Early Musical Instruments
What exactly is a sackbut? Which early instruments require water? Does the rackett make a racket?