| Summary: | Is Ancient Greek art just a collection of elegant works of marble, framed by a love of democracy and enlightened reasoning? Far from it. Art critic and journalist Alastair Sooke demonstrates it is in fact far more diverse and surprising -- a multi-cultural mix of styles, techniques and materials that left no subject matter unexplored. Filmed in sumptuous locations around the Mediterranean and across Europe, Alastair shows how a limited view of Ancient Greek art just does not hold up. His journey takes him from the bucolic beauty of early Minoan and Mycenaean art to striking works full of eroticism and drunken hedonism and culminates in some of the most breathtakingly exquisite art the world has ever seen. Considered, thoughtful and enthralling, this series offers a fresh understanding and new perspective on an incredible period of art. Alastair Sooke unpicks the reasons behind the dazzling revolution that gave birth to classical Greek art, asking how the Greeks got so good so quickly. He travels to the beautiful Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, and to the island of Mozia to see the astonishing charioteer found there in 1979, and marvels at the athletic bodies of the warriors dragged from the seabed - the Riace Bronzes. It was a creative explosion that covered architecture, sculpting in marble, casting in bronze, even painting on vases. Perhaps the most powerful factor was also its greatest legacy - a fascination with the naked human body.
|
|---|