Perhaps the best known mosaics of the ancient Roman world are images of girls wearing an ancient version of a bikini and so they have been nicknamed ‘bikini girls’.

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Today with the natural world under threat and in many places rapidly disappearing, the role of the conservatory and greenhouse has become more important than ever before. It is not so much any more about conserving individual plants, which have been transplanted from their native habitat, but rather the conservation of nature itself.

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Awesome, was the reaction on twitter when viewing British Design 1948 – 2012 Innovation in the Modern Age, which is now running until August at the V & A London

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Napoleon – destiny power and passion – the legend comes alive in the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces Exhibition 2012 at the NGV (National Gallery Victoria). The show Napoleon: Revolution to Empire is sure to engage all observers, who will more than likely be completely overwhelmed at the magnificence and quality of the over 500 art works and objet d’art featured.

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High on a hill in NSW artist Amelia (Mealie) Batchelor is caught between hues of blue and violet as she watches the light of the sun drift through the mountain range she can view from Mealie’s Art House Studio.

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Twentieth century designs of Dutch landscape architect Mien Ruys combined clarity of concept with richness of detail, particularly in the planting. The objective was to bring about a profound happiness that can never be surpassed by an accumulation of wealth and power. In this way the garden art of Japan devotee can approach his or her ultimate destiny calmly and with great dignity, glorying in the beauty and majesty of the creation and creator.

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The first Mayor at Brisbane guided a community of free men in a city yet to be made. In just 150 short years their vision has been exceeded many times. The change they encouraged others to embrace has been constant as well as socially progressive and today Brisbane is the capital of Queensland, which is a state of great optimism and a dynamic crucible for change.

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In the annals of garden history design Monet’s Passion by Elizabeth Murray is a worthy contribution to the conservation of creativity, the preservation of art, of nature, and a celebration of human achievement. Importantly, it is also a splendid tribute to the man, and the artist Claude Monet, whose life was so passionately devoted to the cultivation of beauty.

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The exhibition Monet’s Garden in The New York Botanical Garden from May 19 to October 21 2012 is sure to be a treat for all seasons, ravishing the senses and providing a fabulous feast for the soul.

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Greek sculpture was the first, the only ancient art to break free from conceptual conventions, for that of representing men and animals. Artisans wanted to explore consciously how art might imitate nature, or even improve upon it. There was no conscious striving towards realism at first, especially until it was understood to be a possible and desirable goal. This began six centuries before the Christ event.

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It was during the Yuan dynasty (c1260-1368) that knowledge of ancient Cathay (China) first filtered through to the west. Mongolian leader Kublai Khan gained the title Great Khan, by defeating his brothers and embracing Chinese culture. In 1260 Kublai Khan (1215-1294) set about rebuilding the city of Peking as his winter capital, governing along Chinese [...]

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Professor David O’Connor and Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill have spent a great deal of time excavating and conserving the sites of Abydos in Egypt and Herculaneum in Italy respectively. Both continue to yield spectacular discoveries invaluable to classical historians and the world at large.

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Jeanne Becu managed to make Louis XV forget his sorrows and, the fact that he was sixty. By all accounts she displayed genuine compassion and affection for the melancholy old man so haunted by death. Even the discovery she was not married did not dissuade the King arranging a fraudulent marriage that would make her the very infamous Comtesse du Barry. Marie Antoinette as wife and consort of his successor Louis XVI was painted several times by the artist Marie Élisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun (1755-1842). Woman of complexity and contradictions, the Queen and the Consort lived during a time of society scandal and political turmoil.

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Changes in the economic order and the social structure of society brought into favour in England and Europe during the second half of the eighteenth century a new style in architecture, literature and the arts. Today it has become more generally known as neoclassicism. Its tenets were based on the considerable legacy of the remains and ruins of the societies of ancient Greece and Rome. This sophisticated style of grace by and large, favoured simplicity of form over complexity. It had a taste for structural clarity and it is this emphasis that worked its way into the world of music, taking it forward towards a style in which melody was preferred.

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Four panels inlaid with brass by George Bullock on a cabinet at Martyn Cook Antiques Sydney, come from a pair of doors at Thomas Hope’s house Deepdene in Surrey

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A labyrinth is an ancient symbol relating to wholeness, with powerful patterns within a sphere that merge the sublime and beautiful where heaven and earth meet.

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