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By
LESLIE ATWATERS
What do eight works of art
from different eras have in common? Why choose
these eight as, ostensibly, the most significant?
Does art (or rather "Art") still have anything to
tell us about human nature and civilization? Is
visual imagination still relevant?
Well, Simon Schama aims to tell you. The eight
works of art he chose to profile in this gorgeous
series are Caravaggio's David and Goliath,
Bernini's The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Rembrandt's
The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, David's Death
of Marat, Turner's The Slave Ship, Van
Gogh's Self-Portrait, Picasso's Guernica, and
Rothko's Seagram Building Murals.
Superficially, nothing ties these pieces of art
together, except perhaps fame -- and in some cases
infamy. We can also disagree whether they are all
beautiful and emotionally rewarding. And many will
undoubtedly disagree on whether they are all
spiritually uplifting.
Indeed, traversing time from the world of baroque
Rome to revolutionary Paris via the civil-war
massacres of 20th century Spain and the
excitement of avant-garde 1950s New York, Schama
uses a combination of dramatic reconstruction,
spectacular photography and his idiosyncratic
personal style to tell stories that provide
necessary context to these masterpieces. He does a
splendid job in bringing disparate narrative
threads together and shedding new light to the
eight artists and their work.
Extras features include revealing and funny
commentary tracks by Schama and his co-producer. |
