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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Alexander Larman

What on earth is Jaguar thinking?

Along with Aston Martin and Rolls Royce, Jaguar is, for most people, one of the great British blue chip motoring brands. When Inspector Morse drove around the not-so-mean streets of Oxford in his burgundy Jaguar Mark II, the implicit association between the terribly English detective and the quintessentially stylish car was one that lingered on

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