Civilisation
Civilisation is a documentary on BBC4. An extraordinary cultural tour through the centuries. Kenneth Clark's landmark 1969 series, offering his personal perspective on the history of western art and philosophy. The program has been available since 2024. A total of 13 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in May 2024.
Last episode
Civilisation
Kenneth Clark traces the progressive disillusionment of the artists of the Romantic movement during the 19th century.
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Kenneth Clark considers the ways in which the heroic materialism of the past hundred years has been linked to an equally remarkable increase in humanitarianism.
Kenneth Clark looks at the beginnings of revolutionary politics in the 18th century.
Kenneth Clark examines a new force - the belief in the divinity of nature. Clark visits Tintern Abbey and the Alps and discusses the landscape paintings of Turner and Constable.
Kenneth Clark's story takes him from the Holland of Rembrandt and Vermeer to the London of Wren, Purcell and the Royal Society.
Kenneth Clark reflects on the nature of the 18th-century music and how some of its qualities are reflected in rococo architecture, the pilgrimage churches and palaces of Bavaria.
Kenneth Clark investigates the Protestant Reformation in northern Europe. He looks at Holbein, Thomas Moore, Erasmus, the printing press and Durer.
Sir Kenneth Clark visits Rome in search of grandeur and finds a city that gave rise to Michelangelo, Bernini and the Counter Reformation.
April 2024
Kenneth Clark continues his personal reflections on civilisation with a look at Renaissance man.
Kenneth Clark continues his personal reflections on civilisation with a look at individuals of genius, notably Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci.
Kenneth Clark journeys from the Loire through Tuscany and Umbria, to Pisa, as he explores the aspirations of the later Middle Ages in France and Italy.
Classic 1969 series. Kenneth Clark looks at at how European art survived the Dark Ages after the fall of Rome.