A History of European Art [repost]

The development of the arts in Europe from the Middle Ages to the modern era is an astonishing record of cultural achievement, from the breathtaking architecture of Gothic cathedrals to the daring visual experiments of the Cubist painters.

We all have our favorite artists, periods, or styles from this immensely rich tradition, but how many of us truly know the full sweep of European art? How many of us can connect the dots of influences and inspiration that link the Renaissance with Mannerism, or that tie the paintings of the creator of modern art, Edouard Manet, to masterpieces from centuries earlier?

A History of European Art is your gateway to this visually stunning story. In 48 beautifully illustrated lectures you will encounter all the landmarks you would expect to find in a comprehensive survey of Western art since the Middle Ages. Works such as Giotto's Arena Chapel, Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece, Leonardo's The Last Supper, Michelangelo's David, Vermeer's View of Delft, Van Gogh's The Starry Night, Picasso's Guernica, and hundreds more.

You will also find works that are completely new to you. Plus you'll be introduced to lesser-known artists—perhaps names you've heard but never connected to specific works—and you'll understand why they deserve to be classed among the great masters.

An Unrivalled Collection of Masterpieces

Your guide to this unrivalled collection of paintings, sculptures, architecture, drawings, and other media, created over a span of more than a thousand years, is Professor William Kloss, an independent art historian long connected with the seminar and tour programs of the Smithsonian Associates at the Smithsonian Institution.

Praised by Library Journal for his "perceptive 'readings'" of masterworks in his previous course for The Teaching Company, Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance, Professor Kloss once again gives intriguing insights into great works, including:

Mona Lisa: The famous smile in Leonardo's painting may be a pun on the sitter's married name, which means "joyous" in Italian. Renaissance ideals of decorum could also have influenced the expression. A 16th-century Italian writer suggested that a fashionable woman should smile "as if you were smiling secretly… not in an artificial manner, but as though unconsciously … and accompanied by … certain movements of the eyes."
Garden of Earthly Delights: Hieronymus Bosch's surreal triptych depicting scenes of the Garden of Eden, an earthly bacchanal, and Hell was probably painted for the private enjoyment of a nobleman, as a moralizing commentary on the relations between the sexes. It has been suggested that the work might have been commissioned on the occasion of a wedding. "One can only hope that it was a happy marriage," says Professor Kloss.
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte: Professor Kloss shows how this celebrated late 19th-century painting by Georges Seurat was influenced by the 15th-century works of Piero della Francesca, who was still relatively unknown in Seurat's day. Both artists imbue nearly immobile figures with stoic dignity and hints of otherworldliness. In fact, it is not just Piero but the entire monumental Italian tradition from Giotto to Masaccio to Piero that Seurat has revisited.

What You Will Learn

You begin by exploring the artistic riches of the Middle Ages, from the early architectural monuments of the Carolingian Empire to the massive cathedrals and exquisite sculpture of the French Gothic style. Then you move into the Renaissance by examining Giotto's approach to the illusionistic creation of space and tracing this accomplishment through the works of some of the greatest artists in history, from Masaccio and Donatello to the geniuses of the High Renaissance, including Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bellini, and Titian. You also study the magnificent architecture of the period, and you address the Renaissance in the north through the art of Jan van Eyck, Dürer, Bosch, and Bruegel, among others.

Next, you investigate the evolution of Baroque style in the works of Caravaggio and the Bolognese Carracci family. You focus in particular on the Baroque sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. You continue beyond Italy to Velázquez in Spain, to Rubens and Rembrandt in the Netherlands, and to Versailles and the court of Louis XIV in France. Then you cover reactions to the Baroque in the Rococo style of Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard.

In the last section of the course, you examine the beginnings of modern European art with the work of David, which defined the Neoclassical style. Then you explore the paintings of the great Romantic artists Goya, Géricault, and Delacroix. These styles gave way to the Realism of Courbet and Manet, which in turn, led to the Impressionist achievements of Degas and Monet. You study the reactions to Impressionism in the work of Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Seurat, and trace the influential contributions of Cézanne and Rodin. You conclude with a consideration of the early movements of the 20th century, including Fauvism, Cubism, German Expressionism, Dada, and Surrealism, and the pivotal role of the two towering geniuses of early modern art, Picasso and Matisse.

Lectures:

01. Approaches to European Art
02. Carolingian and Ottonian Art
03. Romanesque Sculpture and Architecture
04. Gothic Art in France
05. Gothic Art in Germany and Italy
06. Giotto and the Arena Chapel—Part I
07. Giotto and the Arena Chapel—Part II
08. Duccio and the Maestà
09. Sienese Art in the 14th Century
10. The Black Death and the International Style
11. Early Renaissance Sculpture in Florence
12. Early Renaissance Architecture in Florence
13. Masaccio and Early Renaissance Painting
14. Jan van Eyck and Northern Renaissance Art
15. Northern Renaissance Altarpieces
16. Piero della Francesca in Arezzo
17. Sandro Botticelli
18. Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini
19. High Renaissance Painting in Venice
20. The High Renaissance—Leonardo da Vinci
21. The High Renaissance—Raphael
22. The High Renaissance—Michelangelo
23. Albrecht Dürer and German Renaissance Art
24. Riemenschneider and Grünewald
25. Netherlandish Art in the 16th Century
26. Pieter Bruegel the Elder
27. Mannerism and the Late Work of Michelangelo
28. Annibale Carracci and the Reform of Art
29. Caravaggio
30. Italian Baroque Painting in Rome
31. Gian Lorenzo Bernini
32. Peter Paul Rubens
33. Dutch Painting in the 17th Century
34. Rembrandt
35. Poussin and Claude—The Allure of Rome
36. Baroque Painting in Spain
37. Louis XIV and Versailles
38. French Art in the 18th Century
39. Neoclassicism and the Birth of Romanticism
40. Romanticism in the 19th Century
41. Realism—From Daumier to Courbet
42. Manet and Monet—The Birth of Impressionism
43. Monet and Degas
44. Renoir, Pissarro, and Cézanne
45. Beyond Impressionism—From Seurat to Matisse
46. Cubism and Early Modern Painting
47. Modern Sculpture—Rodin and Brancusi
48. Art between Two Wars—Kandinsky to Picasso


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