Civilisation

Sir Kenneth Clark begins his classic 1969 history series by looking at how European art survived after the fall of Rome. He travels from Byzantine Ravenna in Italy to the Celtic Hebrides, examining aqueducts, cathedrals, the lives of the Vikings and of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. He reveals how European art, thought and civilization nearly perished during this time.

Kenneth Clark traces the reawakening of European civilization in the 12th century from its first manifestations in Cluny Abbey to the Basilica of St Denis and, finally, to its high point, the building of the magnificent Chartres Cathedral. He reveals how the history of civilization at this time reflects the growth in power of the Church and how religion became increasingly political.

Kenneth Clark journeys from the Loire Valley through Tuscany and Umbria to the iconic cathedral at Pisa. He explores the aspirations of the later Middle Ages in France and Italy, looking at the work of Giotto and Dante, among other artists. He explores the history of the Gothic, the influence of St. Francis of Assisi and the Italian city states, where some believe civilization began.

Kenneth Clark visits Florence, the richest city in Europe during the late 14th century. It seems a surprising place for the Renaissance to begin, but that’s exactly what happened. He then journeys to the palaces of Urbino and Mantua, where the Renaissance manifested itself in glorious architecture. He talks of humanism and of perspective, of Donatello, Botticelli, and Van Eyck.

Kenneth Clark continues his personal reflections on the history of civilization with a look at Papal Rome in the early 16th century. Three great artists, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci, are identified by Clark as 'Individuals of Genius'. He then journeys through the gardens and courtyards of the Vatican, to the rooms decorated for the Pope by Raphael, and to the Sistine Chapel.

Kenneth Clark investigates the history of the Protestant Reformation in northern Europe, a time which saw a more significant exchange of ideas, coupled with religious hysteria. He looks at Holbein, Thomas More, Erasmus and Durer, artists and thinkers who traveled widely across Europe to develop their learning. The introduction of the printing press accelerated the evolution of civilization.

Sir Kenneth Clark continues his history of the civilized culture of Europe. He examines the Catholic world in the 16th Century, especially the city of Rome which blossomed architecturally and sculpturally during the Counter Reformation under the hands of the baroque artist Bernini. But as these wild imaginations were allowed to flourish, artists struggled to find a new direction.

Kenneth Clark explores how new worlds in space and in the world around us, revealed by the telescope and microscope, revitalized 17th century civilization. New realism in the Dutch paintings of Rembrandt took the observation of human character to a new stage of development. Clark then travels from the Holland of Vermeer to the London of Wren, Purcell, and the Royal Society.

Kenneth Clark reflects on the 18th-century music of Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart, with their complex, innovative structures. These qualities are reflected in the best rococo architecture, the pilgrimage churches, and palaces of Bavaria. While French classicism reflected the imposition of grandeur via the state, rococo was driven by an entirely new idea: the pure pursuit of happiness.

Kenneth Clark looks at the history of revolutionary politics during the 18th century and its effect on civilization. The Age of Enlightenment began as polite conversations in elegant Parisian salons but resulted in fervent revolutionary politics. Clark travels from great palaces like Blenheim and Versailles, via Edinburgh, and to the hills of Virginia where Thomas Jefferson.

Kenneth Clark examines a new force in the history of civilization, the belief in the divinity of nature. This takes him to Tintern Abbey and the Lake District of the poet Wordsworth, to the Swiss Alps and the ideas of Rousseau, and to the landscapes of Turner and Constable. Did the beliefs of the Romantic movement usurp Christianity's position as the chief creative force in Western civilization?

The storming of the Bastille and the subsequent French Revolution led not to freedom but to the Terror, the dictatorship of Napoleon and the dreary bureaucracies of the 19th century. Kenneth Clark continues his history of civilization by tracing the progressive disillusionment of the artists of the Romantic movement through the music of Beethoven, the poetry of Byron and the sculpture of Rodin.

Kenneth Clark concludes his history of civilization by considering the ways in which the advances of industry during the past hundred years have been linked to an equally remarkable increase in humanitarianism. The achievement of engineers and scientists has been matched by the work of great reformers. As Clark notes, the concept of kindness only became important in fairly recent times.