Today, the international feminist group FEMEN uses nudity as part of its protests. But appearing naked in public was also a tactic used by early dissenters.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, Europeans in the Middle Ages took pains to keep themselves clean.

In the Christian New Testament, Saint John the Baptist and Salome never meet. Why, then, does she appear at the bars of his cell in Guercino’s moody painting?

Was this revered female figurehead an empowered leader or a tragic victim in her father's wake?