Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark (1969) - Parts 1 through 5

Update - BBC has blocked my second and third videos - which cover the remainder of Clark’s series - in many countries. But in case you’re able to view them, the links are here: Parts 6 to 9: Parts 10 to 13: 00:00:00 Part 1 - The Skin of Our Teeth 00:50:04 Part 2 - The Great Thaw 01:38:28 Part 3 - Romance and Reality 02:28:17 Part 4 - Man: the Measure of all Things 03:17:48 Part 5 - The Hero as Artist Civilisation—in full, Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark—is a 1969 British television documentary series written and presented by the art historian Kenneth Clark. The thirteen programmes in the series outline the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy since the Dark Ages. The series was produced by the BBC and aired from February to May 1969 on BBC2. Then, and in later transmissions in Britain, the US and other countries it reached an unprecedented number of viewers for an art series. Clark’s book of the same title, based on the series, was published in 1969. Its production standards were generally praised and set the pattern for subsequent television documentary series. The New Yorker magazine described it as revelatory for the general viewer. 1. The Skin of Our Teeth: In this first episode Clark—travelling from Byzantine Ravenna to the Celtic Hebrides, from the Norway of the Vikings to Charlemagne’s chapel at Aachen—tells the story of the Dark Ages, the six centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire, and “how European thought and art were saved by ’the skin of our teeth’”. Sections: Expressions of an Ideal The Fall of Rome Skellig Michael Iona The Norsemen The Baptistry at Poitiers Charlemagne The Cross of Lothar 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 St 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: Beginning at a castle in the Loire and then travelling through the hills of Tuscany and Umbria to the cathedral baptistry at Pisa, Clark examines the aspirations and achievements of the later 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: 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: Here 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