Culture

Civilizations

Survey the history of art, from antiquity to the present, on a global scale. Civilizations reveals the role art and creative imagination have played in forging humanity, and introduce viewers to works of beauty, ingenuity and illumination across cultures. Liev Schreiber narrates.

What Is Art Good For?

52m 50s

Explore art in the age of revolution, war and profound scientific change and consider the question: Should art create a separate realm, a place of escape, or should it plunge into the chaos, transforming the way we see and live in the world?

Episodes

  • What Is Art Good For?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    What Is Art Good For?

    S1 E9 - 52m 50s

    Explore art in the age of revolution, war and profound scientific change and consider the question: Should art create a separate realm, a place of escape, or should it plunge into the chaos, transforming the way we see and live in the world?

  • The Cult of Progress: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Cult of Progress

    S1 E8 - 53m 18s

    Examine the rise and fall of “progress” as an ideology, and see how the “civilizing” project that arose from Enlightenment ideas was fraught with contradictions that troubled European artists in different ways.

  • Color and Light: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Color and Light

    S1 E7 - 52m 44s

    Explore the story of light and color in art - both in the search for greater realism and spiritual ecstasy. Journey from Gothic cathedrals and Indian courtly painting to modern art.

  • Paradise on Earth: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Paradise on Earth

    S1 E6 - 53m

    Explore one of humanity’s deepest artistic urges: the depiction of nature. But landscape painting is seldom a straightforward portrayal of observed nature; it's a projection of dreams, idylls, escapes and refuges—the elusive paradise on earth.

  • Renaissances: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Renaissances

    S1 E5 - 53m 20s

    Travel east and west to explore the connections and rivalries between Renaissance Italy and the Islamic empires that experienced their own cultural flowering in the 15th and 16th centuries. Both spheres were open to influences flowing both ways.

  • Encounters: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Encounters

    S1 E4 - 53m 30s

    See how advances in seafaring and a thirst for trade and exploration sent human beings around the planet. Distant and disparate cultures met for the first time, and art became the great interface by which civilizations understood each other.

  • God and Art: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    God and Art

    S1 E3 - 53m 20s

    Trace the relationship between religion and art, which has inspired some of the most ingenious, affecting, majestic and breathtaking works of art ever made. Yet beneath great works of religious art often lie conflict, intrigue and divine mysteries.

  • How Do We Look?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Do We Look?

    S1 E2 - 53m 20s

    Explore the many functions of the human image in art. Portraits, paintings and sculptures, both life-size and colossal, perform a role—assuaging loss, expressing strength, inspiring fear—and were instrumental in depicting the human body today.

  • The Second Moment of Creation: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Second Moment of Creation

    S1 E1 - 53m

    Examine the formative role of art and the creative imagination in the forging of humanity itself. Images and artifacts found in Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and South America testify to the urge to develop civilizations. Liev Schreiber narrates.

Extras + Features

  • Goya's Harmony and Chaos: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Goya's Harmony and Chaos

    S1 E7 - 2m 7s

    In his 60s, Goya abandoned his role as court artist to bare witness to the irrational forces unleashed by Napoleon's invasion of Spain.

  • Color and Light: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 7 Preview | Color and Light

    S1 E7 - 30s

    Explore the story of light and color in art - both in the search for greater realism and spiritual ecstasy. Journey from Gothic cathedrals and Indian courtly painting to modern art.

  • Nature Becomes the Story: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Nature Becomes the Story

    S1 E6 - 3m 1s

    Albrecht Altdorfer sidesteps religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics by using nature.

  • Landscape as Ideology: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Landscape as Ideology

    S1 E6 - 34s

    In Li Cheng's hands, landscape art became not a depiction of the natural world, but a kind of official ideology, promoting order.

  • Paradise on Earth: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 6 Preview | Paradise on Earth

    S1 E6 - 30s

    Explore one of humanity’s deepest artistic urges: the depiction of nature. But landscape painting is seldom a straightforward portrayal of observed nature; it's a projection of dreams, idylls, escapes and refuges—the elusive paradise on earth.

  • Renaissances: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 5 Preview | Renaissances

    S1 E5 - 30s

    Travel east and west to explore the connections and rivalries between Renaissance Italy and the Islamic empires that experienced their own cultural flowering in the 15th and 16th centuries. Both spheres were open to influences flowing both ways.

  • Building the Suleymaniye Mosque: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Building the Suleymaniye Mosque

    S1 E5 - 2m 26s

    Mimar Sinar became the greatest military engineer of his day, but he always felt himself destined for something greater than being the builder of bridges and fortresses.

  • Artemisia's Most Subversive Work: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Artemisia's Most Subversive Work

    S1 E5 - 2m 8s

    Rebelling against any notion that women shouldn't speak until spoken to, Artemisia refuses to shut her portrait up.

  • The Madonna Di Loreto: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Madonna Di Loreto

    S1 E5 - 1m 55s

    At the Church of San Agostino in Rome, Caravaggio breaks the social and aesthetic rules of his generation.

WETA Passport

Stream tens of thousands of hours of your PBS and local favorites with WETA Passport whenever and wherever you want. Catch up on a single episode or binge-watch full seasons before they air on TV.