DVD

Progam 1: The Metropolitan Museum Of Art (60 min.): Sister Wendy Beckett introduces the museum and looks at a fragmentary sculpture of an Egyptian queen, Islamic art and a page from the Koran, Watteau, porcelain figures from the Commedia dell'Arte, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, art from New Guinea, Balthus, Medieval Art and the Cloisters, Velazquez, Egyptian art, women as artists, Marie-Denise Vill

Program 1: Kimble Art Museum (60 min.): Sister Wendy Beckett introduces the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth and looks at several artists and works including Maillol, a terracotta head of a Nigerian king, Cezanne, Hindu scultpture, Piet Mondrian, a Japanese screen, Caravaggio, George de la Tour, Caspar David Friedrich, Standing Maitreya Bodhisattva from Thailand, sculpture from Pakistan, Ercole d

Program 1: Art Institute of Chicago (60 min.): Sister Wendy Beckett looks at American Gothic by Grant Wood, Chimu (pre-Incan) art from Peru, Joan Mitchell, Edward Hopper, Picasso, 18th century ceramic art, a West-African drum, Manfredi, pre-Columbian art from Central America, Manet, Marc Chagall, Renoir, Chinese sculpture, 12th century Korean pottery, George Innes, Puryear, Georges Seurat.

Investigates the driving forces behind this brilliant period of artistic and scientific achievement. Discover how humanists like Petrarch pioneered the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture, sparking an explosion of creativity and innovation. Changes abound in politics and religion as well.

What was it like to live during the Renaissance? This program explores the typical homes, diets, and clothing of the period. Examines how due to a surging economy, many people had more money to spend on new household items, spices, and clothing. Witness the changing roles of work, education, religion, art, and family life over three centuries across Europe.

Explores the newly discovered uses of realism, mathematics, and perspective in art; the introduction of new musical instruments and changes in musical style; and how literature flourished thanks to the innovation of the printing press. Explores Leonardo, Machiavelli, and Shakespeare, whose works continue to be admired and emulated today. DVD divided into chapters.

Explores the people, ideas, and inventions behind the major scientific breakthroughs in astronomy, physics, anatomy, and mathematics. Examines scientific greats including Galileo, Kepler, and Brunelleschi, and discusses how the life of a scientist often conflicted with existing religious beliefs. DVD divided into chapters. Includes discussion questions and Spanish soundtrack option.

During the Renaissance, sailors set off into uncharted waters in search of new trade routes and lucrative luxury goods. Advancements in navigational tools, including lateen sails and the astrolabe, aided explorers such as Columbus and da Gama on their journeys.

This program, divided into segments, presents a biography and visual analysis of Marc Chagall's major works. Born in Russia in 1887, Marc Chagall came to Paris in 1910 and entered the arena of European painting. From his Belorussian and eastern Jewish origins, Chagall brought into play entirely new vistas of irrational perception from dreams, visions and legends.

This program, presents a biography, plus images of Matisse's greatest works. Born in 1869 in France, Henri Matisse is regarded as one of the most influential figures in 20th-century art. He studied law and was working as a clerk when he became seriously ill and was confined to bed for nearly a year. He began drawing to fill the time and soon after, made art his career.

This program presents a biography and visual analysis of Pablo Picasso's major works. In the history of modern art, Pablo Picasso is a nearly mythological figure. Born in Malaga, Picasso was an innovative master of various media and as one of the most prolific artists in history, creating more than 20,000 paintings, sculptures, prints and ceramics using all kinds of materials.

This program presents a biography plus images of Giacometti's greatest works. The son of a painter, Alberto Giacometti was born in 1901 in Italian-speaking Switzerland. At 18, he left school to find himself and soon announced that he would devote his life to art. At 21, Giacometti went to Paris to study with sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, who had been a student of August Rodin.

The works of Belgian surrealist painter Rene Francois Ghislain Magritte make unusual use of common images juxtaposed with unusual contexts that transform the meaning in the familiar.

The early works of Spanish-born Joan Miro shows wide-ranging influences, including the bright colors of the Fauves, the broken form of Cubism and the two-dimensionality of the Catalan folk art. In his early 20s, he settled in Paris, where he met Picasso and fell under the influence of the Surrealist poets and writers. Miro drew on memory and fantasy to create works of visual metaphor.

Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky is generally regarded as an originator of abstract painting and one of the most important innovators in modern art, both as an artist and as a theorist. He began painting at the age of 30 after training as a lawyer in Moscow. His talent quickly tested the constraints of art school, and he began exploring his own ideas.