The accepted wisdom seems to be that it was McSweeney who got Mandelson in. I wonder if it was, ultimately, Blair. Who, perhaps not unrelatedly, seems these days to spend much of his time shilling for US tech firms.

$27.2m for Michelangelo’s foot at Christie’s. That’s $1.15m per square inch.

Today on the podcast, I take a deep dive into Turner's extraordinary painting, 'The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16 1834'. And I ask, is it the beginning of modern art? Link in next post. 1/2

Anybody else finding Google Books has stopped working? I can't get a thing!

Would any of this Mandelson stuff matter a jot for the PM, if he'd had his own ideas about what to do in power? He tried to be Blair 2.0, and here we are.

Just a few seats left for this at Keswick on 12th March. I'll be talking about British landscape painting, the Lakes and Wordsworth. www.theatrebythelake.com/event/bendor...

This week's podcast is on the Wilton Diptych; what it's all about and who may have painted it. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...

We tried The Mastermind but didn’t last long. It’s going straight into my top five worst films about art. Anyone make it to the end? (Though I’ll always be a massive Josh O’Connor fan).

Have a good Burns Night everyone. The first in which we can see him through the eyes of one of Scotland's greatest painters, Henry Raeburn.

Visiting the Old Master sales and Tate's Turner & Constable show... my Diary piece for The Art Newspaper. www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/22/c...

Here’s the beginning of our film about Raeburn’s rediscovered portrait of Robert Burns. Watch the whole film at blackiehouse.org

This week on the podcast* I discuss the magic of art restoration with Simon Gillespie, including some of his triumphs from the BBC series Britain's Lost Masterpieces. *(Waldy and Bendy's Adventures in Art, available on all the usual platforms).

There's a wonderful short film made by Ishbel Grosvenor all about the portrait and its discovery here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=StBu...

Some breaking art historical news for you - a lost portrait of Robert Burns by Sir Henry Raeburn was unveiled today at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. It’s been missing for more than 200 years. 1/3

An extra special episode of Waldy & Bendy’s Adventures in Art this week, as we take a deep dive on Holbein’s Ambassadors. Available now on all the usual platforms. (Who needs Holbein when you’ve got ChatGPT?)

Our producer, Thea, is putting the finishing touches to our deep dive on Holbein's Ambassadors. We solve its mysteries - finally! Out Thursday.

What an amazing survival (from the Sint Janskerk in Gouda).

There seems to be an inverse correlation between the amount of time someone holds one of the great offices of state and their brazen lack of shame afterwards.

“Could be cleared within a decade” seems not much of a boast in return for trashing people’s right to jury trial

Priceless.

Pleased to learn today the origin of, 'know which side your bread is buttered on'. I thought it was something archaic and literal, but it's in a poem about an arguing couple from John Heywood's 1562 'Epigrams & Proverbs'. The man says his wife can't tell who's bad or good for her, and she says:

Constantly amazed at the lobbying he's allowed to get away with.

The ICE agent who killed her was also filming the whole thing. Chances we'll ever see that footage?

Today is Epiphany, when Western Christianity celebrates the three kings' visit to the infant Christ. Peter Bruegel the Elder's 'Adoration of the Kings' [National Gallery] is one of my favourite imaginings of that moment. It's also full of mystery. Quick Epiphany 🧵

Edinburgh airport; cash-cow for a French company, and an embarrassment to Scotland.

I am amazed at the number of foreign policy analysts and pundits who’ve taken US action in Venezuela at face value, and in isolation.

Spineless, hopeless. (It was Mike Tapp, but can’t imagine the PM doing different).

On the podcast this week, Waldemar and I look ahead at some of this year's top exhibitions. Including Rembrandt, Zurburan and Joan Eardley.

Today’s hill fort climb was Sundhope Kipp in the Cheviots. Iron Age. We saw some v rare wild, Cheviot goats, descendants of the herds there when the forts were built.

Finally found my target audience.

For the British Art Journal @britishartjournal.bsky.social, I reviewed the National Gallery's, 'Joseph Wright of Derby: From the Shadows'. It's a fine show, yet repeats a number of mistaken assumptions about Wright, and British 18thC art in general. 1/4 britishartjournal.co.uk/wright-of-de...

A date for your diary!* On Thursday 19th February I'm giving a talk at St Margaret's, Westminster Abbey. I'll focus on two of our most famous paintings - the Wilton Diptych and Holbein's Ambassadors - proposing new interpretations based on their settings within the Abbey. 1/2

There’s a Waldy & Bendy question time special just uploaded, if you’re needing arts content over the holidays.

My cunning plan to slow cook the turkey overnight means we’re now ready to have Christmas breakfast.😬

‘So halllow’d, and so gracious is the time.’ Have a fine evening everyone, and a happy Christmas morning when it comes.

Our Christmas special is now up. Waldemar explains how art invented Santa Claus. And I look into Peter Bruegel the Elder's mysterious and brilliant Adoration of the Magi. Waldy & Bendy's Adventures in Art, on all the usual platforms.

Waldemar and I enjoyed dressing up for our Christmas podcast. As you can see, no effort was spared.

We’re doing a question time special for our Christmas podcast offering. Send in yours below!

This week’s Adventures in Art podcast is up. Waldemar and I explore our favourite gothic cathedrals, ask why museum staff are on strike, and celebrate the Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil. On all the usual platforms.

Sorry for the late upload, this week’s podcast is now live. We discuss Constable vs Turner, Caravaggio (and for some reason, rats in art 🐀).

I'm afraid the latest episode of the podcast will be out tomorrow, not today as usual. We're squeezing in an extra special discussion of Turner and Constable at the Tate.

The getting rid of juries has, in my opinion, a darker rationale. It means protestors, who are more likely to get let off when juries are involved, will now all be found guilty. Part of a sinister cross party agenda of slowly criminalising protest.

At Sothebys, I chanced upon possibly the worst painted dog in British art history.

Had a fine time in the Turner & Constable exhibition at Tate. A superb display of brilliant pictures by two of our greatest artists. Poor Constable; still so misunderstood in the labels and catalogue, but, in his own modest and subtle way, he more than holds his own.

The subjectiveness of art history: at the Tate show, Constable is condemned for presenting a misleadingly pleasant view of rural life. In the same room, one of his paintings shows two labourers literally shovelling shit.

I’ve written for the FT on art and AI. Can we use it to find lost Rembrandts? www.ft.com/content/8f07...

New episode of the podcast just out. Waldemar solves the mystery of Bosch’s masterpiece, I wonder why a gold toilet is worth $12m, and we explore what made Hans Holbein so brilliant with Elizabeth Goldring.

Right.

It's 2029, and a Reform government has sworn in its first batch of politically appointed judges. Suddenly, the Labour Party remembers why jury trials mattered.

Can't believe they're going to end trial by jury. It's one of our most fundamental rights. Literally Magna Carta stuff.