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  • 1989-10-01T23:00:00Z on PBS
  • 1h
  • 10h 52m (12 episodes)
  • United Kingdom
  • English
  • Documentary
Season 1 has 18 original episodes, each 30-minutes long.

12 episodes

Series Premiere

1989-10-01T23:00:00Z

1x01 The Classical Ideal

Series Premiere

1x01 The Classical Ideal

  • 1989-10-01T23:00:00Z1h

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 Juius Bassus.

1x02 A White Garment of Churches

  • 1989-10-08T23:00:00Z1h

Romanesque art and architecture were shaped by two powerful forces: pilgrimage and the monastic movement. Gothic cathedrals elaborated and improved upon Romanesque design. Includes: Gislebertus, St.-Denis, Chartres, etc.

1989-10-15T23:00:00Z

1x03 The Early Renaissance

1x03 The Early Renaissance

  • 1989-10-15T23:00:00Z1h

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, Durer.

1989-10-22T23:00:00Z

1x04 The High Renaissance

1x04 The High Renaissance

  • 1989-10-22T23:00:00Z1h

Rome became a vibrant center of art again with papal patronage. 16th-century Venice sought to present itself as the ideal city-state, infused with spectacle and idealism. Includes: Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, etc.

1x05 Realms of Light: The Baroque

  • 1989-12-31T00:00:00Z1h

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's Ecstasy of St. Teresa, Belvedere Palace, Rubens, Velazquez, Vermeer, Rembrandt.

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's The Death of Marat, Ingres, Delacroix, The Third of May.

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, Cezanne, Deurat's Sunday Afternoon.

1x08 Into the Twentieth Century

  • 1989-12-31T00:00:00Z1h

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.

1989-12-31T00:00:00Z

1x09 In Our Own Time

1x09 In Our Own Time

  • 1989-12-31T00:00:00Z1h

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, Warhol.

1989-11-05T00:00:00Z

1x10 The Age of Gothic

1x10 The Age of Gothic

  • 1989-11-05T00:00:00Z1h

This episode explores and celebrates the origins, development, innovations, and glory of Gothic cathedrals, including one of its highest achievements, the cathedral of Chartres.

1989-12-03T00:00:00Z

1x11 The Play of Light

1x11 The Play of Light

  • 1989-12-03T00:00:00Z26m

16th-century Venice sought to present itself as the ideal city-state, and was infused with poetry and spectacle. Venetian art and architecture mirrored this and proclaimed it to the world.

1x12 Imperial Stone: The Art of Rome

  • 1989-10-21T23:00:00Z26m

Ancient Roman architecture, sculpture, art, and engineering and their roots and influences from Greece. The Roman Empire as expressed in its great public monuments. Roman art, like that of Greece, is the cornerstone of all Western art.

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