Season 1 · Episode 1
Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture. Simon looks at the eternal power of portraiture and sees how it can foster loyalty and control.
Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture. Simon looks at artists who have created images of people who would otherwise have been forgotten.
Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture. Simon looks at portraits of the famous and examines the celebrated faces of Britain's past and present.
Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture. Simon explores how love portraits allow us to fulfil our craving to keep the ones we love close to us.
Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture. Here, Simon looks at the complex motivations behind some of the most intriguing self-portraits.
The greatest art works of all time - born of war and bloodshed - as rival artists Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael compete to craft beauty from chaos. Starring Charles Dance.
2024
In this three-part documentary series Waldemar Januszczak discovers paintings, sculptures and architecture of the Baroque period. Starting from the square of Saint Peter's Basilica in Italy to St Paul's Cathedral in England.
2009
Nigel Spivey reveals how the images which surround us today come from the ancient world. It's an epic journey spanning five continents and a hundred thousand years of history.
2005
Art historian Waldemar Januszczak uncovers the secret meanings hidden within some of the greatest paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Seurat .
2020
Women write art history – but in turn are systematically ignored by it. LOST WOMEN ART tells the story of the suppressed female avant-garde and by doing so introduces a new art history.
2021
During the turbulent 19th century, a number of brilliant French artists developed the Romantic movement in Paris: writers Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, George Sand, Honoré de Balzac and Charles Baudelaire, painter Eugène Delacroix and composer Hector Berlioz, among others, changed the way of looking at art and created enduring works that have inspired the world to this day.
Comedian Anh Do loves to paint portraits and loves getting to know people, this new series combines the two.
2016
In an absorbing study, Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of a national art that conveys passion, precision, hope and renewal. He juxtaposes escapism with control and a deep affinity with nature against love for the machine. The fascinating story takes us from the towering cathedral of Cologne, the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer and paintings of Grünewald to the gothic fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle, the Baltic landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich and the industrialisation lent expression of Adolph Menzel and Käthe Kollwitz. As the series progresses, it presents a rare focus on the cultural impact of Hitler's obsession with visual art, reveals how art became an arena for the Cold War and examines the redemptive work of the "visionary" Joseph Beuys – the most influential artist of modern times.
2010
No description available.
2023
In his most personal project to date, Simon Schama looks back at the dramatic history that has played out in his lifetime. Best known for writing history, he has lived a fair bit of it too. Born in 1945, on the night of the bombing of Dresden, Simon grew up as part of a generation determined to rebuild the world from the ashes of war. In this film, he reveals the stories of artists and writers who have been at the forefront of the fight for truth and democracy, often at great personal cost.
2022
Ten programs filmed across Europe explore the history of European art through masterpieces of architecture, sculpture, and painting. The series spans from Greek and Roman art to Christian, Byzantine, and Gothic styles, followed by the Baroque, Rococo, and the artistic movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.
1989
Andrew Graham-Dixon examines the history of French art, revealing how it emerged from a struggle between tradition and revolution, and rulers and citizens. He compresses centuries of culture into three thematically linked chapters.
2017
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how a group of 19th-century architects and artists spurned the modern age and turned to Britain's medieval past to create iconic works and buildings.
2014
The series Houses of Art takes viewers to places where great artists lived, worked, and found inspiration. It is in these settings that masterpieces were created and personal dramas unfolded—offering a cinematic journey of discovery through the landmarks of European art history. Far from the bustle of the world, artists found creative momentum in homes that still bear the imprint of their genius today, attracting visitors from all corners of the globe.
Documentary series in which historian Simon Schama recounts the story of eight moments of high drama in the making of eight artistic masterpieces.
2006
In the show, selected applicants each present a curiosity, rarity or antique they have brought with them. Once they have received their expertise, they will have the opportunity on site to offer their exhibit to a changing five-person podium for sale and, ideally, to sell it to the highest bidder for „Bares“ ("cash").
2013