We may consider animal painting as a minor tributary of art history, something decorative, a background element. D’Hondecoeter invites us to look carefully at other creatures, to resist the habit of treating them as a background or supporting characters, and to find in their behaviour something that reflects our own. 

Hendrick Goltzius was a Dutch engraver and painter whose astonishing technical skill shaped the work of his contemporaries and generations beyond. Today, we’ll look closely at two of his signature engraving techniques, the swelling line and the dot and lozenge method, exploring how they work, why they matter, and studying some beautiful examples along the way.

Today we're looking at five iconic examples of protective imagery in art history and its lasting influence on artists and designers.

Grisaille comes from the French gris, meaning grey. It refers to artworks made entirely in shades of black and grey, or in a narrow range of neutral tones. You’ll find the technique across manuscripts, panel paintings, and decorative schemes from the Middle Ages onward. Artists used it to imitate carved stone, to separate sculptural forms from full-colour scenes, or to map out the tonal structure of a composition before colour was added. Today, we’ll look at a few examples of this technique in practice and explore what artists can learn from it.

In the quiet corners of libraries, rare book rooms, and private collections, a few volumes hide a strange and unsettling secret. These innocent-looking, often beautiful books were bound with pigments so toxic they still pose a risk more than a century later. What was once considered tasteful design has become something closer to hazardous material. In this article, we're diving into the eerie history of arsenic-laced books—how they came to be, why they were so popular, and the modern-day conservators trying to track them down. Let's go!

Italian printmaker Filippo Morghen created a series of surreal engravings depicting a fictional journey to the moon, blending scientific curiosity with whimsical fantasy. His prints show pumpkin houses in trees, giant butterflies, and strange machines. At Vault Editions, we’re drawn to forgotten works like Morghen’s that inspire imagination and creative reinterpretation. This article explores his creative vision and why it still resonates with artists today. Let's go!

In this article, we explore how animals were embedded into the art and artefacts of the ancient world, and offer inspiration for artists and designers today looking to bring more profound meaning and add visual impact to their work. Let's go!

In The Flowers Personified (Les Fleurs Animées, 1847), a garden blooms with far more than petals and leaves. This illustrated work combines the imaginative drawings of J. J. Grandville and the playful text of Taxile Delord. Flowers take on human form with personalities, moods, and moral inclinations. What begins as a charming floral fantasy unfolds into a subtle critique of 19th-century ideals around femininity, beauty, and social behaviour.

Clavis Artis stands out as a particularly mysterious work among the enigmatic texts of the alchemical tradition. Written in German and Latin, it is often attributed to the late 17th or early 18th century. The manuscript serves as both a practical guide and a philosophical treatise on alchemy, but what makes it truly remarkable is its rich collection of illustrations.