About This Course
This is a video instructional series on art history for
college and high school classrooms and adult learners. There are 9 one-hour video
programs
Free sign up required for first-time users.
To hear the sound and view video, you should have Windows Media Player, DSL, a cable
modem, or a LAN connection to a T1 line or greater, and have Javascript enabled.
You can download a free copy of the player from here:
Acknowledgements
Video for Art of the Western World and the
individual program descriptions are provided courtesty of Annenberg/CPB.
This site is not affiliated with nor endorsed by
Annenberg/CPB |
Programs
(Select One)
- 1. The Classical Ideal
- Part I: Traces the origins of humanism and the immortal classical style to
Ancient Greece.
Part II: The genius of Roman engineering and architecture was used to build an
empire, while portrait sculpture exalted its rulers.
- 2. A White Garment of Churches—Romanesque and Gothic
- Part I: With the fall of the Roman empire, Christianity flourished with the
Church as patron of monumental Romanesque architecture and sculpture.
Part II: 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.
- 3. The Early Renaissance
- Part I: The rebirth of classical themes and humanistic ideas marked the
Renaissance in Italy, as seen in Florentines Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Ghiberti, and
Botticelli.
Part II: 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.
- 4. The High Renaissance
- Part I: Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael displayed extraordinary talent
working in a variety of media and elevated the status of the artist in Italian society.
Part II: Venetians like Titian, Tintoretto, and Palladio readapted the classical
style with a theatrical flourish.
- 5. Realms of Light—The Baroque
- Part I: The Church's campaign to counter the Reformation relied on dramatic
depictions of religious scenes, such as those of Caravaggio and Bernini.
Part II: The royal courts in Spain and the wealthy burghers in the Netherlands
commissioned major paintings by Velazquez and Rembrandt and shaped their content.
- 6. An Age of Reason, An Age of Passion
- Part I: 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.
Part II: Striving for individual expression, Romantic painters Goya, Gericault, and
Delacroix demonstrated a range of styles and subjects.
- 7. A Fresh View—Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
- Part I: 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.
Part II: Post-Impressionists Seurat, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne broke new
ground with daring and imaginative use of color and approaches to form.
- 8. Into the Twentieth Century
- Part I: 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.
Part II: 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.
- 9. In Our Own Time
- Part I: 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.
Part II: 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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