At the very centre of this painting, a woman holds a pair of weighing scales in one hand. She is finely dressed in a fur-lined jacket. On the table before her is an open box overflowing with pieces of jewellery made of pearls and gold, along with a bundle of richly-coloured blue cloth.

The woman is obviously wealthy. She adopts a contemplative expression as she judges the weight — and therefore value — of each item of jewellery. It is possible to detect a delicate smile on her lips as she does so, perhaps a look of satisfaction at the…

Here are a few clichés about writers and artists: they are guided by destiny to become who they are meant to be. They suffer because they are poor. They are inspired by nature. They are admirable and yet dangerous. They have great teachers but their greatness can’t be taught. They are independent thinkers. Diligence and labour only take them so far, since inspiration is the vital spark. They retain control over their work but they also surrender to it too. They love freely, believe passionately, and think without conventional boundaries. …

If you’ve ever wondered where we get so many of our ideals about art and artists — from the bohemian poet to the passionate artist inspired by nature — then it’s worth looking to the era of Romanticism for answers.

With its emphasis on individual subjectivity, the Romantic movement valued feeling and imagination more than imposed conventions and standards. …

What is striking about this work, Black Square, painted by the artist Kazimir Malevich in 1915, is that virtually all of the standard techniques of traditional painting are omitted. There is no tonal shading, no attempt at perspective or any description of three-dimensional space. There are no recognisable forms except for the square itself. Colour itself has been rendered in its most binary form: a roughly painted black square on a white linen canvas, measuring just under a metre in each axis.

As such, it is a picture that deliberately represents nothing. It is not unlike the silhouette left behind…

This painting shows a group of four people gathered together in a wooded grove. They are eating a picnic of fruit and bread among the dappled shade of the park. A small lake in the background has a rowing boat moored to its shore, indicating that this is a place of recreation.

The two men sat in the foreground are fully clothed and in the flow of a conversation. One of them gestures to the other as if enumerating on a point of philosophy or moral principle. …

The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche had an enormous influence on artists and writers who came into contact with his writing. Artists like Edvard Munch and Max Klinger, and writers such as Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse, responded directly to the work of the German philosopher, and countless others found inspiration in his themes.

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote prodigiously during the 1870s and 1880s. He was contemptuous of the tendency of modern cultures to value conformity over individual agency. …

This superb depiction of The Tower of Babel, painted by the Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1563, is teeming with intricate features for the viewer to explore. In fact the great, half-built tower is so enormous that it is easy to miss some of the finer details of the landscape around it. Notice, for instance, how behind the tower there is a large town surrounded by a wall, beyond which lies farmed countryside. The diminutive size of the town’s buildings tells us just how large the tower is becoming. …

If you’re a creative person, then you’ll know how inspiration can strike in the most unexpected moments, often at the most inappropriate times.

You’ll also know that the difference between intentional and unplanned inspiration is one of the more perplexing aspects of creativity. To create intentionally — to deliberately work towards a final result from a conceived design — can sometimes lead to a sterile outcome.

Yet it is serendipity that may help to tame the dilemma. Serendipitous creativity is about treating chance and happenstance as an deliberate aid to a better result, to help move away from the same…