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Episodes and Stories 9
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Civilisations The Vital Spark
Episode 9Simon Schama explores the fate of art in our machine-driven and profit-driven world, looking at the rise of art as a tradeable commodity. -
Civilisations The Second Moment of Creation
Episode 1Historian Simon Schama shows that art is an essential part of civilisation, both in general and specific terms. -
Civilisations How Do We Look
Episode 2Professor Mary Beard investigates images of the human body in ancient art. In doing so, she explores how the way we are portrayed can influence our ideas about what is civilised. -
Civilisations First Contact
Episode 6In the 15th and 16th centuries, many distant and disparate cultures met, often for the first time. David Olusoga shows how art was always on the frontline, and often left a mark on both sides. -
Civilisations Radiance
Episode 7Simon Schama starts his meditation on colour and civilisation with the great Gothic cathedrals of Amiens and Chartres. He then moves onto 16th-century Venice. -
Civilisations The Cult of Progress
Episode 8David Olusoga looks at the artistic reaction to imperialism in the 19th century. David also demonstrates how one artist in New Zealand used his skills to record Maori culture. -
Civilisations Paradise on Earth
Episode 3Simon Schama explores the depiction of nature. Simon discovers that landscape painting is seldom a straightforward description of observed nature, but rather a projection of dreams and idylls. -
Civilisations The Triumph of Art
Episode 5Simon Schama investigates how connections and rivalries between the east and west influenced art and traditions in the years that followed the Renaissances. -
Civilisations Picturing Paradise
Episode 4Professor Mary Beard broaches the controversial - and sometimes dangerous - topic of religion and art. How, and at what cost, do different religions make the unseen visible?
