THIS is the sixth episode of the seminal British television documentary series written and presented by the art historian Sir Kenneth Clark in 1969 that the New Yorker at the time described as revelatory. Over the 13 episodes Sir Kenneth traverses and explains the different elements and key developments of Western art, architecture and philosophy since the Dark Ages, communicating their meaning and beauty. You can read my fuller introduction to this extraordinary accomplishment, why it needs to be watched again (or for the first time) and to Part 1 of the series here. Part 2 is here, Part 3 is here, Part 4 is here and Part 5 is here.
By now viewers will recognise the immensity of the Civilisation project. ‘It was this word alone’ that persuaded him to undertake the commission. ‘I had no clear idea what it meant but thought that it was preferable to barbarism and fancied that this was the moment to say so.’
It involved an 80,000-mile journey visiting 13 countries, 117 locations, 18 libraries and 118 museums. Once again in this episode we see the breathtaking photography of the lighting camerman ‘Tubby’ Englander, Clark in the forefront of many of the shots, typically perched on a rock or a ruin, gazing up at a vaulted roof or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and delivering his scripts to camera as though he is talking you right there with him, intimately and seeming effortlessly.
In this episode Clark moves on from the period of ‘the hero as artist’ to the definitng features of the next era, the Reformation, protest and communication. This was the Germany of Albrecht Dürer and Martin Luther and the world of the humanists Erasmus, Michel de Montaigne and William Shakespeare.
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