1. The Skin of Our Teeth in the
Lindisfarne Gospels In this first episode Clark—travelling from
Byzantine Ravenna to the
Celtic Hebrides, from the Norway of the
Vikings to
Charlemagne's
Palatine Chapel at
Aachen—tells the story of the
Dark Ages, the six centuries following
the fall of the
Western Roman Empire, and "how European thought and art were saved 'by the skin of our teeth'". :*Expressions of an Ideal :*
The Fall of Rome :*
Skellig Michael :*
Iona :*
The Norsemen :*
The Baptistry at Poitiers :*
Charlemagne :*
The Cross of Lothar (US broadcast title:
The Frozen World)
2. The Great Thaw Clark tells of the sudden reawakening of European civilisation in the 12th century. He traces it from its first manifestations in
Cluny Abbey to the
Basilica of Saint-Denis and finally to its high point, the building of
Chartres Cathedral in the early 13th century. :*The Triumph of the Church :*the Abbeys of
Cluny and
Moissac :*
St Bernard of Clairvaux :*
St Foy :*
The Abbey of Vézelay :*
Gislebertus :*
The Abbey of St Denis :*
Abbot Suger :*
Chartres 3. Romance and Reality 's
The Kiss of Judas Beginning at the
Château de Sully-sur-Loire by the river
Loire in France and then travelling through the hills of
Tuscany and
Umbria to the
Pisa Baptistery at
Pisa, Clark examines the aspirations and achievements of the
Late Middle Ages in 14th-century
France and Italy. :*The
Gothic Spirit :*
Courtly Love :*
The Siege of the Castle of Love :*
The Duke of Berry :*
St Francis of Assisi :*Civic Life :*
Giotto :*
Dante and
Pisano 4. Man: the Measure of all Things 's
The Three Graces Visiting
Florence, Clark argues that European thought gained a new impetus from its rediscovery of its classical past in the 15th century. He visits the palaces at
Urbino and
Mantua and other centres of (
Renaissance) civilisation. :*
Early Renaissance :*
Leonardo Bruni :*
David (Donatello) :*
Perspective :*
Leon Battista Alberti :*
Jan van Eyck :*
Botticelli :*
The Palace of Urbino :*
The Court of Mantua :*A Civilised Countryside
5. The Hero as Artist 's
David Clark takes the viewer back to 16th-century papal
Rome—noting the convergence of Christianity and antiquity. He discusses
Michelangelo,
Raphael, and
Leonardo da Vinci; the courtyards of the
Vatican;
the rooms decorated for the Pope by Raphael; and the
Sistine Chapel. :*Giants and Heroes :*The Decadence of the Popes :*
Michelangelo :*Bound Captives :*
The Sistine Chapel :*
Raphael :*
Leonardo da Vinci :*Man as a Mechanism
6. Protest and Communication by
Hans Holbein the Younger Clark discusses the
Reformation—the Germany of
Albrecht Dürer and
Martin Luther and the world of the humanists
Erasmus,
Michel de Montaigne, and
William Shakespeare. :*
Riemenschneider :*
Erasmus :*
Holbein :*
Albrecht Dürer :*
Melancholia :*
Luther :*
The Destruction of Images :*
Michel de Montaigne :*
William Shakespeare 7. Grandeur and Obedience in
St Peter's Basilica, Rome, by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini In the Rome of Michelangelo and
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Clark tells of the
Catholic Church's fight—the
Counter-Reformation—against the Protestant north and the Church's new splendour symbolised by the glory of
St Peter's Basilica. :*The Church of Rome :*The Rome of the Popes :*
St Peter's :*
The Catholic Church :*The Art of
Baroque :*
Bernini :*
Baldacchino :*
The Ecstasy of Teresa 8. The Light of Experience , London Clark tells of new worlds in space and in a drop of water—worlds that the telescope and microscope revealed—and the new realism in the Dutch paintings of
Rembrandt and other artists that took the observation of human character to a new stage of development in the 17th century. :*
The Light of Holland :*
Frans Hals :*
Rembrandt :*
Descartes :*
Vermeer :*
The Royal Society :*
Sir Christopher Wren :*
St Paul's Cathedral 9. The Pursuit of Happiness Clark talks of the harmonious flow and complex symmetries of the works of
Johann Sebastian Bach,
George Frideric Handel,
Joseph Haydn, and
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the reflection of their music in the architecture of the
Rococo churches and palaces of
Bavaria. :*
French Classicism :*
Johann Sebastian Bach :*
Balthasar Neumann :*
Handel :*
Watteau :*
Haydn :*
Rococo Buildings :*
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 10. The Smile of Reason by
Jean-Antoine Houdon Clark discusses the
Age of Enlightenment, tracing it from the polite conversations of the elegant Parisian salons of the 18th century to subsequent revolutionary politics, the great European palaces of
Blenheim and
Versailles, and finally
Thomas Jefferson's residence
Monticello. :*
The Enlightenment :*
England :*
The Parisian Salon :*
Chardin :*
Scotland :*
Voltaire :*
Thomas Jefferson :*
George Washington 11. The Worship of Nature 's
The Cornfield Belief in the divinity of nature, Clark argues, usurped Christianity's position as the chief creative force in Western civilisation and ushered in the
Romantic movement. Clark visits
Tintern Abbey and the Alps and discusses the landscape paintings of
J. M. W. Turner and
John Constable. :*The Ruins of Religion :*
Rousseau :*
The Cult of Sensibility :*
Wordsworth :*
Constable :*
Turner :*The Sky :*
Impressionism 12. The Fallacies of Hope 's
The Kiss Clark argues that the
French Revolution led to the dictatorship of
Napoleon and the dreary bureaucracies of the 19th century, and he traces the disillusionment of the artists of
Romanticism—from
Ludwig van Beethoven's music to
Lord Byron's poetry,
Eugène Delacroix's paintings, and
Auguste Rodin's sculpture. :*
An Escape from Reason :*
The French Revolution :*
Napoleon Bonaparte :*
Beethoven :*
Byron :*
Turner and
Gericault :*
Delacroix :*
Rodin 13. Heroic Materialism by
Robert Howlett Clark concludes the series with a discussion of the
materialism and
humanitarianism of the 19th and 20th centuries. He visits the industrial landscape of 19th century England and the skyscrapers of 20th-century
New York City. He argues that the achievements of the engineers and scientists—such as
Isambard Kingdom Brunel and
Ernest Rutherford—have been matched by those of the great reformers like
William Wilberforce and
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. :*
The Abolition of Slavery :*
The Industrial Revolution :*
Humanitarianism :*
Isambard Kingdom Brunel :*
Courbet and
Millet :*
Tolstoy :*Our Urge to Destruction :*God-given Genius == Production ==