The protesters who threw pumpkin soup at the world’s most famous painting have made headlines around the world. But what is it that makes Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece so alluring?

Some argue this painting depicts the artist’s subject in her younger years and is the first version of his iconic work. Others are less convinced

From Bosch’s crazed party to the homoerotic images Michelangelo smuggled into the Vatican, this was an age of taboo-busting. And, as our writer argues in a new book, it sparked its own culture wars