Hidden literary references in the Mona Lisa?

Toronto: The famous Mona Lisa incorporates images inspired by Roman poet Horace and Florentine poet Petrarch, says a professor.

The technique of taking a passage from literature and incorporating it into a work of art is known as 'invention' and was used by many Renaissance artists, the Italian journal MEDICEA reports.

Delhi gears up for mega winter theatre festival

New Delhi: A repertoire of 82 plays from across the world, three photographic exhibitions, live theatre projects, an Asia-Pacific theatre showcase and new media theatre will be on display at the 13th edition of the Bharat Rang Mahotsav, the annual theatre festival of the National School of Drama (NSD), from Jan 7-22.

The festival will travel to Chennai Jan 11-19 after opening in the capital Jan 7.

Taj Mahotsav to focus on Ghalib, Mir

Agra: The ten-day heritage festival Taj Mahotsav, beginning Feb 18, will focus on doyens of Urdu poetry Mirza Ghalib and Mir Taqi Mir, an official here said.

The festival, which began in 1993 as a tourism promotion initiative, has over the years shrunk into just a local fair, with foreign tourists largely keeping away from the programmes at the Shilpgram complex, 500 metres from the Taj Mahal.

India Art Summit 2011 to draw best of global art

New Delhi: The capital will become a giant canvas for the international art fraternity to paint its hues, views and transact business Jan 21-23 when the country plays host to the third edition of the India Art Summit 2011.

The summit will be a "sprawling affair with 18 events, nine specially commissioned live art projects, 60 public art installations to save the tigers and 84 galleries from 20 countries exhibiting the best of modern and contemporary art by 570 artists from across the globe", summit director Neha Kirpal told IANS.

Efforts to save Pakistan's rock carvings

Islamabad: An effort has been launched to save nearly 50,000 rock carvings and inscriptions dating back to the Stone Age era in Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, following reports that many of them were facing

defacement.

The Neemrana Art of Resurrection

Name: Aman Nath and Francis Wacziarg

Profile: Founders Neemrana Hotels

Arpita Singh 'Wish Dream' sells for $ 2.24 mn

New Delhi: Arpita Singh is still an old-fashioned idealist at heart, unruffled by the hype of her work fetching millions at the auction mart. The 73-year-old painter says her art is constantly evolving and recalls how she was once inspired by a tea carton.

Singh made history this month by selling her "Wish Dream", an abstract figurative composition, for $2.24 million at the Saffronart international online auction but says the record does not mean much to her "personally".

Untrained man plays 9 musical instruments

Chandauli,UP: Siyaram, a small farmer in Uttar Pradesh, has created a unique musical instrument - a combination of nine different instruments including a steel plate and a glass bottle. Though he is untrained in music, Siyaram is much sought after at gatherings for his electrifying performances.

Siyaram, a resident of Bhatpurwa village in Chandauli, some 300 km from state capital Lucknow, took 14 years to create his nine-in-one musical instrument.

Original copy of Schindler's List to be sold

New York: An original copy of Schindler's List, that helped spare more than a thousand Jews from the Nazis during the Second World War, is to soon under the hammer in New York, a media report said.

A Manhattan judge has given upstate memorabilia dealer Gary Zimet the green light to sell the 13-page document - one of several original copies of the list of names compiled by German industrialist Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust,

Warhol, Lichtenstein prints stolen

New York: Police are seeking help in recovering nearly half a dozen pieces of art by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol stolen from a New York City apartment by burglars who who broke through a wall.

Thieves also lifted a Carl Fudge oil painting and other valuables in the heist over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend in late November. Police did not publicly report the crime until requesting public aid late on Thursday.