Guides to art, architecture and design

Answers to the questions people actually ask: what a style is, how to recognise it and which works, buildings and objects belong to it. Each guide is a standalone article with facts, images and links further into the app.

• How to recognise a Chippendale chair
• Gustavian style – how to recognise it
• Karl Johan style – Swedish Empire
• Art Nouveau vs Art Deco – the difference
• What is the Bauhaus? The school that shaped modern design
• What was Arts and Crafts? William Morris and the return of craftsmanship
• What is Scandinavian design? History, characteristics and classics
• What is Memphis design? Sottsass and the colour explosion of the 1980s
• Rolex Submariner – history and models
• Omega Speedmaster – the watch that went to the Moon
• The Thonet chair No. 14 – the café chair that conquered the world
• Serif vs sans serif – the difference between typefaces with and without serifs
• Dieter Rams and the ten principles of good design
• What is Swedish allmoge? Folk art, furniture and craft
• Furniture styles in chronological order – from Baroque to Functionalism
• Biedermeier: the Home Style between Empire and Historicism
• Braun and the Ulm School
• Cartier Tank: The Watch That Became an Icon
• Casio F-91W: The Cheapest Design Classic
• Helvetica: The World’s Most Used Typeface
• How to Date an Antique Chest of Drawers
• René Lalique: From Jewellery to Glass
• Mid-Century Modern: Design of the 1950s and 60s
• Furniture Terms: A Glossary for Recognising Furniture
• Rococo Furniture: Curved Legs, Shells and Gilt Mounts
• Seiko Astron and the Quartz Crisis
• Chairs Everyone Should Know: from the Coronation Chair to Eames
• Swatch: The Plastic Watch That Saved Swiss Watchmaking
• The Tiffany Lamp and Coloured Glass
• Vespa and Lambretta: Italian Scooters
• Wiener Werkstätte: Arts and Crafts in Vienna
• Rococo or Gustavian? How to Tell the Furniture Apart
• Gustavian or Karl Johan? The Difference Between the Styles
• How to Date an Antique Chair
• How to Date a Wristwatch
• Porcelain, Faience, Creamware or Stoneware? How to Tell the Difference
• Porcelain Marks: How to Recognise and Date the Stamp
• Rörstrand Marks: How to Date Your Porcelain
• Gustavsberg Marks: Dating Porcelain from Värmdö
• Crystal or Glass? How to Tell the Difference
• Mouth-Blown or Pressed Glass? The Marks That Give It Away
• Glass Signatures: Orrefors, Kosta, Gallé, Lalique and Venini
• Real Silver, German Silver or Silver Plate? How to Tell the Difference
• Silver Hallmarks: Reading Town, Maker, Assay and Date Letter
• Automatic or Quartz Watch? How the Movements Work
• Baroque Garden or English Landscape Park? The Difference
• How to Date a Mora Clock or Longcase Clock
• Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grøndahl: marks and dating
• How to date a lamp: from oil lamp to LED
• Genuine lithograph or print? How to date a poster
• How to date a piece of jewellery: hallmarks, clasps and cuts
• The parts of a chair: seat rail, splat, spindles and front legs
• Recognising typefaces: Renaissance serif, Didone, slab serif and grotesque
• Famous gardens in Europe to visit
• Carl and Karin Larsson’s Sundborn: the home that became a style
• Rya and rölakan: the Swedish weaving techniques
• Chinoiserie: China in European design
• Kurbits and rosemaling: vernacular painting
• The cantilever chair: tubular steel without back legs
• Famous Finnish designers
• Women designers who changed design
• Rolex models explained: from the Oyster to the Sky-Dweller
• Swedish car classics: Volvo and Saab through the years
• Classic cameras: Leica, Hasselblad and the others
• Dovetails on antique furniture: handmade or factory-made?
• What are Graal and Ariel glass?
• Vackrare vardagsvara: Gregor Paulsson’s idea and the objects
• Famous Swedish designers – and the objects they made
• Famous Danish designers – from Georg Jensen to Verner Panton
• Famous designer lamps: the classics from Tiffany to the PH 5
• The most iconic watches: the wristwatches everyone recognises
• Famous porcelain services – from Musselmalet to Spisa Ribb
• William Morris patterns: Strawberry Thief, Acanthus and the others
• Empire or Biedermeier? The difference in furniture
• Is the furniture veneered or solid wood? How to tell
• Intarsia and marquetry – what is the difference?
• Wegner and Jacobsen – two paths for Danish design
• Rolex or Tudor? The difference between the sister brands
• Arts and Crafts or Art Nouveau? The difference
• Orrefors and Kosta – the difference between the glassworks
• Plain weave, twill or satin? The weaves explained
• What is Rococo? Characteristics, artists and works
• What is Baroque art? Characteristics and the key artists
• The difference between Renaissance and Baroque
• What is the Renaissance? The art, the artists and the characteristics
• Impressionism – characteristics and the key painters
• What is Post-Impressionism? Cézanne, van Gogh, Gauguin and Seurat
• The difference between Impressionism and Expressionism
• What is Cubism? Picasso, Braque and the fractured forms
• What is Surrealism? Dreams, the unconscious and the great names
• What is abstract art? The pioneers, the movements and how to look at it
• Romanticism in art – characteristics, artists and works
• What is Neoclassicism? The art that rediscovered antiquity
• What is linear perspective? How it works and how to find it
• How to read a painting: a step-by-step method
• Fresco, tempera and oil – the difference between painting techniques
• Dada: Art as Protest against War and Reason
• Expressionism: Characteristics, Artists and Key Works
• Fauvism: Wild Colour, Matisse and Derain
• Futurism: Speed, Machines and Marinetti’s Manifesto
• The Golden Ratio in Art: Truth, Myths and Use
• The Dutch Golden Age: Rembrandt, Vermeer and Seventeenth-Century Painting
• Iconography and the Attributes of Saints: How to Read Symbols in Art
• Mannerism: the Style between Renaissance and Baroque
• The Mona Lisa: Leonardo’s Most Famous Painting Explained
• Pop Art: What Is It? Warhol, Lichtenstein and Key Works
• The Pre-Raphaelites: English Art before Raphael
• Realism in Art: Courbet, Millet and Pictures of Everyday Life
• Sfumato and Chiaroscuro: Light and Shade in Painting
• Still Life and Vanitas: the Hidden Language of Objects
• The Starry Night by Van Gogh: the Picture, the Place and the Techniques
• Symbolism in Art: Dreams, Myths and Inner Images
• What Is Modernism in Art? Ideas, Artists and Key Works
• The difference between Baroque and Rococo: in painting, architecture and furniture
• The difference between Romanticism and Realism in art
• The difference between Neoclassicism and Romanticism
• The difference between Dada and Surrealism
• Monet or Manet? The difference between two commonly confused names
• Woodcut, engraving, etching and lithography: the difference between the printmaking techniques
• The School of Athens: the figures in Raphael's fresco, who is who?
• Las Meninas explained: the figures, the mirror and the riddle
• Holbein's The Ambassadors: the skull and the symbols
• The Arnolfini Portrait: the symbolism of the mirror, the dog and the hidden signs
• Art to see in Stockholm: the Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museet and the churches
• Art to see in Paris: the Louvre, the Orsay and the Marmottan
• What Is Pointillism? Seurat, the Dots and Optical Mixing
• Complementary Colours in Art: How Painters Make Colours Glow
• What Is Aerial Perspective? How Painters Create Depth with Colour
• What Is Ukiyo-e? Japanese Woodblock Prints from Hokusai to Hiroshige
• Japonisme: How Japan Changed European Art and Design
• The most famous Swedish paintings – from the Sun Dog Painting to Hilma af Klint
• Famous Swedish artists – from Albertus Pictor to Mamma Andersson
• Women artists through history – from Anguissola to Kusama
• The difference between Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
• Leonardo and Michelangelo – rivals with different views of art
• Dutch or Flemish painting? The difference explained
• The difference between Expressionism and Fauvism
• Rembrandt and Vermeer – two ways of painting light
• From Gothic to Renaissance – the difference in painting
• The parts of an altarpiece: corpus, wings and predella
• How do you date a painting? Technique, layers and style
• The parts of a katana: blade, tsuba and hardening line
• Chinese vase shapes: meiping, yuhuchunping and gu
• The Last Supper by Leonardo: the apostles, the perspective and the decay
• Art to see in London: the National Gallery, Tate and the British Museum
• Art to see in Florence: the Uffizi, the Accademia and the churches
• Art to see in Rome and the Vatican
• Art to see in New York: MoMA and the Metropolitan
• What is contrapposto? The pose that brings statues to life
• Trompe l’œil and di sotto in sù: the art of deceiving the eye
• What is a readymade? Duchamp’s Fountain and the object as art
• En plein air: painting outdoors
• What is Abstract Expressionism? Pollock, Rothko and the New York School
• The Varberg School: Bergh, Kreuger and Nordström on the west coast
• The Gothenburg Colourists: colour as subject
• The Halmstad Group: Swedish Surrealism and Cubism
• The Opponents and the Artists’ Association: the revolt of the 1880s
• Swedish women artists
• The world’s most famous paintings – and where to find them
• Chinese art dynasty by dynasty
• Art to see in Gothenburg: the art museum, Poseidon and the Colourists
• The Düsseldorf School and the Swedish painters
• The most important artworks of the 20th century
• How to recognise Gothic architecture
• Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns – the difference
• What is Functionalism in architecture? Funkis explained
• The difference between Romanesque and Gothic architecture
• Baroque architecture – how to recognise it
• Renaissance architecture – characteristics and key buildings
• Neoclassical architecture – how to recognise the style
• Art Nouveau in architecture – how to recognise it
• National Romanticism in architecture – characteristics and examples
• What is Nordic Classicism? Swedish Grace in architecture
• What is Brutalism? Concrete architecture explained
• What is Postmodern architecture? Characteristics and examples
• What is Deconstructivism? Gehry, Hadid and Libeskind
• The parts of a church – from apse to porch
• Roman architecture – arches, concrete and domes
• Alvar Aalto: Humanised Modernism in Finland
• Byzantine Architecture: Domes, Mosaics and Hagia Sophia
• Frank Lloyd Wright: Master of Organic Architecture
• Gaudí and Catalan Modernisme: Buildings that Grow
• Greek Architecture: the Temple, the Theatre and the Ideals
• High-Tech Architecture: When the Structure Becomes the Expression
• Historicism in Architecture: When the Nineteenth Century Borrowed Styles
• How a Gothic Cathedral Was Built: from Quarry to Spire
• How to Read an Architectural Drawing: Plan, Section and Elevation
• Islamic Architecture: Mosques, Domes and Patterns
• Japanese Architecture: Wood, Tatami and Modern Masters
• Le Corbusier: Modernism’s Most Influential Architect
• Mies van der Rohe: Less Is More in Glass and Steel
• Palladio and Palladianism: Villas, Temple Fronts and Symmetry
• The History of the Skyscraper: from Chicago to the Burj Khalifa
• Urban Planning through History: Grids, Boulevards and Garden Cities
• Arches and Vaults: How Buildings Carry Their Roofs
• Gothic or Gothic Revival? How to Recognise Neo-Gothic Architecture
• The difference between Greek and Roman architecture
• Art Nouveau or National Romanticism? The difference in Swedish cities
• Bernini and Borromini: the rivals of Baroque Rome
• Pillar, column or pilaster? The difference explained
• What style is my house? How to date a building
• Roof types: gable, hipped, mansard and säteri roofs
• The parts of a façade: avant-corps, pediment, cornice and dormer
• Architecture in Stockholm: buildings worth seeing from the 17th century to today
• Architecture in Rome: sights from the Pantheon to MAXXI
• Architecture in Paris: from Notre-Dame to the Centre Pompidou
• Architecture in London: cathedrals, Victorian and High-Tech
• Vienna 1900: the Secession, Otto Wagner and Art Nouveau in Viennese architecture
• Acropolis Buildings: The Parthenon, the Erechtheion and the Propylaea
• The Million Programme: Swedish Housing, Ideas and Architecture
• Form Follows Function: Sullivan, Modernism and the Misunderstanding
• The Most Famous Gothic Cathedrals and What Makes Them Special
• Famous Buildings in Sweden: from Dalby Church to Sara Cultural Centre
• Famous Swedish Architects from Tessin to Wingårdh
• Swedish Grace or Funkis? The Difference Explained
• Funkis or Brutalism? From White Boxes to Raw Concrete
• Asplund and Lewerentz: the Two Architects of the Woodland Cemetery
• The Parts of a Greek Temple: from Crepidoma to Acroterion
• Recognising the 19th-Century Stone City: Façades, Courtyards and Styles
• How Old Is the Church? Dating a Medieval Parish Church
• The Architecture of the Record Years: Vällingby, Hötorget and Concrete
• Architecture in Berlin: Schinkel, Bauhaus and the Reichstag
• Architecture in Helsinki: Engel, Saarinen and Oodi
• Architecture in Florence: Brunelleschi and the Birth of the Renaissance
• The Churches of Gotland and Visby: the Middle Ages in Stone
• The Most Famous Villas of Modernism: from Robie House to Farnsworth
• The ABC City: Vällingby and the Idea of the Neighbourhood
• Gesamtkunstwerk: When the Architect Designs Everything
• Buttresses and Flying Buttresses: How the Gothic Buttress System Works
• The Pendentive: the Trick That Put a Dome on Four Piers
• Mass Timber and CLT: When Tall Buildings Are Built of Wood Again
• Swedish Timber Houses: Log Construction, Panelling and Falu Red
• The World's Tallest Buildings Through History
• The World's Most Famous Museum Buildings
• Famous Opera Houses and Concert Halls
• Sweden's Most Famous Churches – Architecture from the Middle Ages to the 1960s
• The Most Important Buildings of the 20th Century
• Byzantine or Romanesque? Domes and Round Arches
• Postmodernism or Neoclassicism? Columns with a Twinkle in the Eye
• Gustavian Neoclassicism or 1920s Classicism?
• Architecture in New York: Bridges, Skyscrapers and the Guggenheim
• Architecture in Skåne: From Lund Cathedral to the Turning Torso
• Bavaria's Baroque and Rococo Churches
• Architecture in Copenhagen and the Øresund
• Swedish Palaces and Their Architecture