Art Archives - Page 23 of 32

Tales of Winter – The Art of Snow and Ice

Art / 2 minutes of reading / December 9, 2019 / By HDclump

Tales of Winter – The Art of Snow and Ice: A look at how mankind’s struggle with winter has been reflected in western art throughout the ages, with contributions from Grayson Perry, Will Self, Don McCullin and others. Art of Snow and Ice Part 1 Art of Snow and Ice Part 2 Winter was not always beautiful. Until Pieter Bruegel painted Hunters in the Snow, the long bitter months had never been transformed into a thing of beauty. This documentary charts how mankind’s ever changing struggle with winter has been reflected in western art throughout the ages, […]

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Travels with Vasari

Art / 2 minutes of reading / December 4, 2019 / By HDclump

Travels with Vasari: Andrew Graham-Dixon searches for the shadowy figure who wrote one of the most important books on art and looks at some dazzling works, including masterpieces of the early Renaissance by Giotto, Masaccio and Donatello. Travels with Vasari part 1 The first part of an exploration of the extraordinary achievement of the chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari, author of the monumental Lives of the Artists. Travels with Vasari part 2 Concluding the exploration of the extraordinary achievement of the chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari, author of the monumental

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Picasso’s Last Stand

Art / 2 minutes of reading / December 2, 2019 / By HDclump

Picasso’s Last Stand: documentary revealing the untold story of the last decade of the great artist’s life, through the testimony of family and close friends – many of them the people he allowed into his private world in the 1960s. As his health declined in these final years, Picasso faced damaging criticism of his work and intimate revelations about his bohemian lifestyle for the first time. And yet, in the midst of disaster, he rediscovered his revolutionary spirit with a creative surge that produced some of his most sexually frank and comic work. Exhibitions of the new style

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The Taking of Christ

Art / 2 minutes of reading / November 20, 2019 / By HDclump

The Taking of Christ: The extraordinary story of one of world’s great, lost masterpieces: Caravaggio‘s “The Taking of Christ”. This film traces the painting’s journey from its birth in Rome in 1602 to its amazing re-discovery in 1990. “The Taking of Christ” by Italian Baroque master Caravaggio today holds pride of place in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. Its subject is the arrest of Jesus, the moment when the son of God, is betrayed with a kiss – the Judas kiss. 400 years ago the painting was one of the most costly and celebrated artworks of

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The Mystic Nativity

Art / 2 minutes of reading / November 18, 2019 / By HDclump

The story of the Mystic Nativity – Sandro Botticelli’s beautiful image of hope in troubled times. This masterpiece was painted 500 years ago in Florence, at the height of the city’s fame & influence. Botticelli’s Mystic Nativity is a painting that lovers of mystery fiction should like: a Renaissance masterpiece crammed with cryptic symbols disguising a dangerous message. But it is much more besides. Painted in 1500 by one of the most famous artists of all time, it is a supremely beautiful vision of maternal love, earthly harmony and heavenly ecstasy. But the painting also has a dark

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Schama on Rembrandt: Masterpieces of the Late Years

Art / 2 minutes of reading / October 22, 2019 / By HDclump

Simon Schama celebrates the masterpieces of Rembrandt’s last years. Although the artist fell into bankruptcy and scandal in later years, it took him to new creative heights. Icarus-like, Rembrandt flew ever higher towards the sun – the most successful artist in the richest city on earth, 17th-century Amsterdam. He lived like a prince and he loved living like a prince. But when his fall came – deep into bankruptcy and scandal, poverty and unfashionability – far from destroying him, it took him to new creative heights and a sense of humanity and the human condition that speaks more

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Bute: The Scot Who Spent a Welsh Fortune

Art, History / 3 minutes of reading / October 16, 2019 / By HDclump

Documentary telling how the fabulously rich Scottish aristocrat, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, spent a Welsh fortune and left a dazzling architectural legacy in Scotland and Cardiff. John Patrick Crichton Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, was one of the richest men in the British Empire in the late 19th century. With an annual income in excess of £150,000 – around £15 million in contemporary currency – he pursued his passion for architecture with a vengeance. Narrated by Suzanne Packer, The Scot Who Spent a Welsh Fortune delves into the extraordinary world of Lord Bute and reveals what

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Treasures of Chinese Porcelain

Art / 2 minutes of reading / September 4, 2019 / By HDclump

Treasures of Chinese Porcelain: Lars Tharp, the Antiques Roadshow expert and Chinese ceramics specialist, sets out to explore why Chinese porcelain was so valuable then – and still is now. In November 2010, a Chinese vase unearthed in a suburban semi in Pinner sold at auction for £43 million – a new record for a Chinese work of art. Why are Chinese vases so famous and so expensive? The answer lies in the European obsession with Chinese porcelain that began in the 16th century. Treasures of Chinese Porcelain Lars Tharp goes on a journey to parts

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In Search of Arcadia

Art / 3 minutes of reading / August 29, 2019 / By HDclump

Dr Janina Ramirez goes ‘In Search of Arcadia’ discovering the origins of the English landscape movement in a 12-mile stretch of the Thames between Hampton and Chiswick with waterman and historian John Bailey. In the early 18th century this stretch of the river was home to a group of writers, poets, artists and garden designers who were inspired by classical landscapes of antiquity and the ancient idea of Arcadia. Janina discovers the people and the ideas at the heart of this transformative movement and the landscape of the Thames – Nicholas Poussin’s painting Et in Arcadia Ego, the

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Bauhaus 100

Art / 2 minutes of reading / August 26, 2019 / By HDclump

In 1919 an art school opened in Germany that would change the world forever. It was called the Bauhaus. A century later, its radical thinking still shapes our lives today. Bauhaus 100 is the story of Walter Gropius, architect and founder of the Bauhaus, and the teachers and students he gathered to form this influential school. Traumatised by his experiences during the Great War, and determined that technology should never again be used for destruction, Gropius decided to reinvent the way art and design were taught. At the Bauhaus, all the disciplines would come together to create the

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Civilisation episode 8 – The Light of Experience

Art, History / 2 minutes of reading / August 21, 2019 / By HDclump

Civilisation episode 8 – The Light of Experience: Kenneth Clark’s story takes him from the Holland of Rembrandt and Vermeer to the London of Wren, Purcell and the Royal Society. Kenneth Clark’s classic 1969 series tracing the history of Western art and philosophy. Civilisation episode 8 – The Light of Experience Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch draughtsman, painter and printmaker. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history. Unlike most

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Civilisation episode 7 – Grandeur and Obedience

Art, History / 2 minutes of reading / August 20, 2019 / By HDclump

Civilisation episode 7 – Grandeur and Obedience: Sir Kenneth Clark presents one of the classic episodes of his history of the civilised culture of the western world. He examines the Catholic world in the 16th Century, especially the city of Rome which blossomed architecturally and sculpturally during the Counter Reformation under the hands of the baroque artist Bernini. This programme features the celebrated and stunning tracking shot through Raphael’s Loggia. Kenneth Clark’s classic 1969 series tracing the history of Western art and philosophy. Civilisation episode 7 – Grandeur and Obedience The Counter-Reformation, also called the Catholic

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