Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Vol. 1: Programs 1, 2 & 3: This tape includes Program One: The Skin of Our Teeth Traveling from Byzantine Ravenna to the Celtic Hebrides, from the Norway of the Vikings to Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen, Lord Clark illuminates the Dark Ages, the six centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Program Two: The Great Thaw The sudden reawakening of the twelfth-century European civilization is traced from the first manifestations at the Abbey of Cluny to its high point, the building of the cathedral at Chartres. Program Three: Romance and Reality Lord Clark journeys from a castle in the Loire, through the hills of Tuscany and Umbria to the cathedral baptistry at Pisa as he explores the aspirations and achievements of the later Middle Ages in France and Italy.
Vol. 2: Programs 4, 5 & 6: This tape includes Program Four: Man—The Measure of All Things Lord Clark visits Florence, where European thought enjoyed new impetus by rediscovery of its classical past. He also journeys to the palaces at Urbino and Mantua, centers of Renaissance civilization. Program Five: The Hero as Artist Papal Rome in the sixteenth century, where Christianity and antiquity begin to converge, provides the focus for this look at Michelangelo, Raphael, and da Vinci. Join Lord Clark as he explores the courtyards of the Vatican, the rooms decorated for the Pope by Raphael, and the Sistine Chapel. Program Six: Protest and Communication The Reformation is explored. Lord Clark tours the Germany of Albrecht Durer and Martin Luther, the world of Erasmus, the France of Montaigne, and visits Shakespeare’s Elizabethan England.
Vol. 3: Programs 7, 8 & 9: This tape includes Program Seven: Grandeur and Obedience Visit the Rome of the Counter-Reformation—The Rome of Michelangelo and Bernini. The Catholic Church in its fight against the Protestant north developed a new splendor symbolized by the glory of St. Peter’s. Program Eight: The Light of Experience The telescope and microscope revealed new worlds in space and in a drop of water. The realism found in Dutch painting took the observation of human character to a new stage of development. Program Nine: The Pursuit of Happiness The harmonious flow and complex symmetry of eighteenth-century music—the compositions of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart—are reflected in the best rococo architecture of that period, as seen in the churches and palaces of Bavaria.
Vol. 4: Programs 10 & 11: This tape includes Program Ten: The Smile of Reason The polite chat in the elegant salons of eighteenth-century Paris became the precursor of revolutionary politics. This theme takes Lord Clark from the great European palaces like Blenheim and Versailles to Jefferson’s Monticello. Program Eleven: The Worship of Nature The belief in the divinity of nature usurped Christianity’s position as the chief creative force in Western civilization, ushering in the Romantic movement. Examining this force, Lord Clark takes us to Tintern Abbey, the Swiss Alps, and the landscapes of Turner and Constable.
Vol. 5: Programs 12 & 13: This tape includes Program Twelve: The Fallacies of Hope The French Revolution led to the dicatorship of Napolean and the dreary bureaucracies of the nineteenth century. The disillusionment of the Romantic artists is traced through the music of Beethoven, the poetry of Byron, the paintings of Delacroix, and the sculpture of Rodin. Program Thirteen: Heroic Materialism Lord Clark’s thoughts on the materialism and humanitarianism of the past century take him from the English industrial landscape of the nineteenth century to the towering skyscrapers of New York City in the twentieth.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Greatest of All Art History Series,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Civilisation Box Set [VHS] (VHS Tape)
There have been many fine video lecture series by prominent cultural figures, from Joseph Campbell to Robert Hughes, but for me, the finest is still the first, Kenneth Clark's landmark, "Civilization, A Personal View". The sub-title is important, for Clark's survey of western civilization through its art and architecture is certainly opinionated. And this gives the series a wonderful intimacy that previous televised surveys never approached.Not only is there a wealth of information and insight in this beautiful production, but there is Kenneth Clark himself. A scholar of culture and art, admirer of Ruskin and student of Bernard Berenson, Clark was director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the National Galley in London. This man is one of the great teachers of the 20th century. "Civilization, a Personal View" has been criticised by some art critics being a bit "facile". I disagree. Clark's argumentation is always reasoned and never arbitrary. It certainly is facile for pop commentators to repeat the old tourist-pleasing but phony assertion that Michelangelo designed and built St. Peter's dome. But it is Clark who points out that St. Peter's dome is the work of Giacomo della Porta, not Michelangelo. Is it facile for Clark to confess that when he was young he scorned Frans Hals out of snobbery, but later, "as i grew older," began to appreciate Hals's "convivial" figures? Facile indeed. Everything Clark says carries weight. Aside from questions about Clark's personal views, it cannot be denied that he delivers them in such a lucid, congenial and engaging manner, that only the pedantic and churlish could fail to be delighted with a dapper, eloquent, beautifully spoken gentleman's tour through western history. Where else do pronunciations like caPITalism and "lie of the land" sound so wonderful than from the mouth of this erudite Scotsman? "And please allow me two minute's digression on the subject of tulips." I love it! Clark's series is by far the best televised course in Western Civilzation ever created. I doubt if it will ever be surpassed. There are two men I dearly miss having met before they died - Joseph Campbell and Kenneth Clark. Upon meeting Clark in "Civilization, a Personal View," I think you'll understand why.
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Walk Through Art and Time with Kenneth Clark,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Civilisation Box Set [VHS] (VHS Tape)
There have been many attempts at a comprehensive history of Western art on film, but none have succeeded as well as this wonderfully opinionated and often-wrongheaded series. The photography remains among the best in the genre, with skillful use of contemporaneous music adding to the charm. What comes through most clearly is Clark's love of his subject, a warmth which covers a multitude of sins. One cannot always agree with his conclusions, and subsequent scholarship has not always borne out his theories, but the series is never less than stimulating, and a powerful incentive to further study.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Lifetime Companion,
By Steven M. Wolf, Esq. (Villanova, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Civilisation Box Set [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I first saw this series when it was released by the BBC to Public Television over thirty years ago, and would beg my local station, WHYY, to keep running it until their money ran out. Why? Quite simply, to my mind, it is the most superior series ever seen on television, public or not. Lord Clark was not only brilliant, witty and engaging, but he was a teacher and, surprisingly, a most charming television presence. Of course he was opinionated; that was part of his charm. But every "personal view" came well defended. He has become my lifetime companion, and if this series ever comes out on DVD, I will buy it again. Also, were it not for this groundbreaking series, we would never have seen its many imitators, fine creations in their own right - the Ascent of Man, America, Cosmos, Life on Earth, The Living Planet. Need I go on? Do not wait for this video to become unavailable. For anyone with a need to know about the visual arts, history, music and how they all should share space in our lives, let this program be your companion as well.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
|
