Disc 1
Episode 1: The Classical Ideal
The Greeks created a classical ideal against which all subsequent art would be measured; Rome’s genius lay in architecture and civil engineering.Featured:the Parthenon, the Altar of Zeus at Pergamon, the Pantheon, the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus.
Episode 2: A White Garment of Churches: Romanesque and Gothic Art
Romanesque art and architecture were shaped by two powerful forces: pilgrimage and the monastic movement. Later, Gothic cathedrals were filled with divine light.Featured:Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Vézelay, sculptures of Gislebertus, Paray-le-Monial, the cathedral at Chartres.
Episode 3: The Early Renaissance
In Florence, classical themes were reborn and merged with Christian values. In the north, the Flemish masters worked in a new medium: oils.Featured:Donatello, Fra Angelico, Brunelleschi’s dome, Claus Sluter, the Isenheim altarpiece, Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer.
Disc 2
Episode 4: The High Renaissance
Papal patronage made Rome a vibrant center of art once more. In Venice, the great artists were preoccupied with theatre, nature, and classical style.Featured:Da Vinci’sLast Supper, Michelangelo’sDavid, Titian, Tintoretto, Palladio’s villas.
Episode 5: Realms of Light: The Baroque
The Counter-Reformation inspired an artistic revival and an exuberant new style. In royal courts, artists expressed the power of the monarch.Featured:Caravaggio, Bernini’sEcstasy of St. Teresa, Belvedere Palace, Rubens, Velázquez, Vermeer, Rembrandt.
Episode 6: An Age of Reason, an Age of Passion
As society revolted against decadence and corruption, artists turned again to classical Greece. The romantic painters in turn elevated individual expression.Featured:Watteau, Syon House, David’sThe Death of Marat, Ingres, Delacroix, Goya’sThe Third of May, 1808.
Disc 3
Episode 7: A Fresh View: Impressionism and Postimpressionism
Once scorned and despised, impressionist paintings today are among the most familiar images in art. Postimpressionists broke new ground with their radical use of color.Featured:Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Seurat’sSunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
Episode 8: Into the 20th Century
Rapid advances in science, thought, and technology led to the secessionists, fauves, and cubists. Dada rejected everything, and architecture went international.Featured:Klimt, Matisse, Picasso, Mondrian, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.
Episode 9: In Our Own Time
The center of the art world moved to New York, home to abstract expressionism. Artists reacted to postwar society with a bewildering array of styles, and postmodernism mined the past for ideas.Featured:Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol.
