Laura Gascoigne

From Botticelli to Marvel: why artists love St Francis

In the century after his death, 20,000 paintings were made of this celebrity saint, whose contradictions only made him more accessible

El Greco’s ‘Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata’, 1590-95. Credit: Roy Hewson/National Gallery if Ireland
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Mark Galeotti

Why Timur Ivanov was arrested

Mark Galeotti
The universal corruption of the Russian elite suits Vladimir Putin. When everyone has a skeleton in their closet, power rests with whoever decides which closets get searched. The arrest on corruption charges of Timur Ivanov, deputy minister of defence, is noteworthy not because he was infamously corrupt, but because it raises the question: why him,

Because you read about botticelli

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