Art of the Western World
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The Classical Ideal
1.Traces the origins of humanism and the immortal classical style to Ancient Greece.
2.The genius of Roman engineering and architecture was used to build an empire, while portrait sculpture exalted its rulers.
A White Garment of Churches - Romanesque and Gothic
1. With the fall of the Roman empire, Christianity flourished with the Church as patron of monumental Romanesque architecture and sculpture.
2. The origin of Gothic architecture is found in the choir of the Abbey Church of St. Denis and the Chartres Cathedral serves as a model of High Gothic style.
The Early Renaissance
1. The rebirth of classical themes and humanistic ideas marked the Renaissance in Italy, as seen in Florentines Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Ghiberti, and Botticelli.
2. Glowing color -- made possible by the new medium of oil paint -- and minute detail set the work of the Flemish masters Van Eyck and Grunewald apart from the Florentines.
The High Renaissance
1. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael displayed extraordinary talent working in a variety of media and elevated the status of the artist in Italian society.
2. Venetians like Titian, Tintoretto, and Palladio readapted the classical style with a theatrical flourish.
Realms of Light - The Baraque
1. The Church's campaign to counter the Reformation relied on dramatic depictions of religious scenes, such as those of Caravaggio and Bernini.
2. The royal courts in Spain and the wealthy burghers in the Netherlands commissioned major paintings by Velazquez and Rembrandt and shaped their content.
An Age of Reason, An Age of Passion
1. The playful fantasy and provocative subjects of the Rococo style practiced by Watteau, Fragonard, and Boucher gave way to strict Rationalism, which insisted on morality in art and the purity of classical form, as seen in the works of David.
2. Striving for individual expression, Romantic painters Goya, Gericault, and Delacroix demonstrated a range of styles and subjects.
A Fresh View - Impressionism and Post Impressionism
1. Courbet and his followers rejected the standard academic themes and techniques, Manet shocked Paris, and Impressionists represented the world bathed in color and changing light.
2. Post-Impressionists Seurat, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne broke new ground with daring and imaginative use of color and approaches to form.
Into the Twentieth Century
1. With modernity came new energy and forms in Viennese building and painting. Paris saw the emergence of the Fauves, and of Picasso and Cubism. Kandinsky and others experimented with color abstraction.
2. Modernism spawned not only Cubism, but also the abstract and the surreal. Le Corbusier and Wright applied the abstract principles to buildings. Dada responded to the devastation of WWI with nihilism; surrealists Dali, Magritte, and Miro showed Freudian influence.
In Our Own Time
1. The Abstract Expressionist movement established New York as a center for the visual arts. Works by Pollock, Warhol, Lichtenstein, and the sculptor Oldenburg are examined.
2. With many of the rules tested and discarded, the art world has become international. Art is now accessible to everyone to create and appreciate. Host Michael Wood looks over the past and forward to implications for the future.
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