Simon Schama's Power of Art

Caravaggio didn’t just confine drama to his remarkable, shadowy masterpieces. His whole life was drama. He spent years on the run after killing someone during a duel, trying to paint his way out of trouble. And this passion for life spills out on to the canvas in his spellbinding, breathtaking works. Art expert Simon Schama explains how the great man changed the way the divine was witnessed.

The meeting of Heaven and Earth is illustrated by what can only be described as orgasmic bliss. For centuries, many tried to ignore the obvious sensual overtones of Bernini’s masterpiece, The Ecstasy of St Theresa. But one glimpse of the sculpture, and in particular the sainted nun’s facial expression, gives the game away. Art expert Simon Schama explores this wild mixture of sex and the sacred.

Rembrandt needed a break. His career was on the skids, but a new, important commission was set to redeem him. The painting that became known as Claudius Civilis was supposed to be triumphant, but instead the painter made it ugly and vindictive. It practically ended his career, and the canvas was destroyed by Rembrandt’s own hand. Art expert Simon Schama tries to unravel the mystery behind it.

Jacques Louis David’s Death of Marat is the defining image of the French Revolution. But for decades it was hidden away, ignored and almost feared. The painting was unsaleable and the painter reviled. What made this brutal work so dangerous? And where does art end and propaganda begin? Acclaimed art historian Simon Schama tells the story of an artist, an artwork and a bloody revolution.

JMW Turner painted from the heart. Though his paintings, both the technique and subject matter, often confounded critics, the sheer passion and quality of his work meant it could never be ignored. One of his most powerful works, The Slave Ship, was supposed to highlight American hypocrisy towards slavery, but instead portrayed British barbarism. Simon Schama recounts its creation and criticism.

It may have been his final painting. Certainly it was created in the last days of his life. But how much can be read into Van Gogh’s masterpiece, Wheat Field with Crows? He wrote of feeling like a bird trapped in a cage. But the painting also harnesses the rush of life that so many of his later works possessed. Art expert Simon Schama weighs up the despair and triumph contained in the painting.

You can almost feel the anger, the shock and the sheer disbelief pouring off the canvas of Picasso’s Guernica. Painted with ordinary house paints mainly in black and white, it’s the artist’s furious response to the Nazi bombing of civilians. It became a sensation, touring the world and bringing the Spanish Civil War to global attention. Art historian Simon Schama digs into this masterpiece.

Do paintings need to have human forms in them to represent humanity? Mark Rothko didn’t think so. In fact, he felt the people in paintings got in the way and that connection should be through a completely new language. He certainly achieved this with his masterful Seagram murals, a commission that was never delivered. Art historian Simon Schama tries to make sense of Rothko’s vision.