Rick Steves' Europe
Art Bites 144: Byzantine Art in Medieval Europe and Venice
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Medieval Europe was filled with bronze horses, rich mosaics, and magnificent churches.
While Rome fell in the West, it lived on through the Middle Ages in the East as the Byzantine Empire. Its capital, Constantinople, and Venice were filled with art treasures — much-coveted bronze horses, rich mosaics, and magnificent churches.
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Rick Steves' Europe
Art Bites 144: Byzantine Art in Medieval Europe and Venice
Clip | 5m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
While Rome fell in the West, it lived on through the Middle Ages in the East as the Byzantine Empire. Its capital, Constantinople, and Venice were filled with art treasures — much-coveted bronze horses, rich mosaics, and magnificent churches.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipIn the centuries leading up to this Romanesque Age, feudal Europe was mired in the relative darkness of the Early Middle Ages.
But sophisticated societies thrived to the east and south.
Shining like beacons of enlightenment, they inspired and fueled western Europe█s progress.
Way back in the 5th century, the Roman Empire had fallen in the West.
But, it lived on in the East eventually becoming the “Byzantine Empire.” Byzantium remained Christian and its capital was Constantinople (today█s Istanbul).
Throughout the Early Middle Ages — with its imposing walls -- for centuries, Constantinople was Europe█s leading city — ruling a vast empire that was relatively prosperous and stable.
While Western Europe built nothing nearly as grand during this period, Constantinople constructed this magnificent church — Hagia Sophia.
(The minarets were added later when it became a mosque.)
Built around the year 500 on the grandest scale possible, it symbolizes Byzantium█s glory days.
They used ingenious technology: a massive central dome supported by half domes that was the biggest anywhere — and remained that way for nearly a thousand years.
While a place of Muslim worship today, for centuries Hagia Sophia functioned as a church — perhaps the most exquisite church in all of Christendom.
The church tried to recreate the glory of the Byzantine heaven.
The vast interior gives the impression of a golden weightless shell, gracefully disguising the massive overhead load.
Forty arched windows shed a soft light on the interior, showing off the ancient building█s Christian legacy that has endured the test of time.
The Italian city of Venice is a reminder that the more advanced Byzantine culture reached westward, far into Europe.
In the 11th century, St. Mark█s Basilica was topped with Byzantine-style domes.
Its decoration reflects that connection with the east.
The basilica█s fanciful façade is decorated with mismatched columns and statues which were largely pillaged from elsewhere during the crusades.
The style?
I█d call it “Early Ransack.” A good example of such plunder is this ancient Roman statue carved of purple porphyry — a precious stone quarried in Egypt and symbolic of power.
By the way, the Crusades were a big deal back in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Lots of important art was pillaged from Constantinople by rampaging crusaders -- those Christian armies that stormed through Muslim territory in a series of religious wars through much of the Middle Ages.
While their mission was to be sure Christian pilgrims had access to their holy land in Jerusalem, the so-called “Holy Crusades” often got sidetracked with the rape, pillage, and plunder dimensions of war.
Of all the plundered art on this church, perhaps the grandest prize was a set of horses which overlooked Venice█s main square.
The precious originals — like so much of Europe█s greatest art--are now inside, safely out of the elements.
These much-coveted and exquisitely cast ancient bronze horses — so realistic -- are certainly well-traveled: According to legend, they were made for the Greek ruler, Alexander the Great, in the fourth century BC, taken by Emperor Nero to Rome, and then brought by Emperor Constantine to Constantinople, where the Venetian Crusaders stole them, took them home, and parked them here in their main church.
The church█s entire interior glitters with gold-leaf mosaic work.
In good medieval tradition, it█s slathered in the predictable Bible stories: The story of Adam and Eve, one of the most popular, unfolds like a cartoon strip: Adam lonely in the garden, the creation of Eve, and then trouble: from apple█ to fig leaf█ to banishment.
The Venetians learned mosaic technique from the Byzantines, who inherited it from the ancient Romans, who paved their villas with mosaics.
The Byzantines perfected the gold color, made of bits of glass with gold-leaf baked in.
These reflected the light to help illuminate an otherwise dark church, giving it the golden glow of the Byzantine heaven.
St. Mark█s Byzantine-style altarpiece is a stunning wall of gold, studded with precious rubies, emeralds, and pearls.
Some two hundred enamels — plundered from Constantinople — depict prophets, saints, and angels.
And in the glorious center of it all sits Jesus, the Ruler of the Cosmos.
With its stunning art, St. Mark█s Basilica is a vision of a highly cultured world that had been established by the Romans, was preserved by the Byzantines, and was now being re-infused into Western Europe.
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Art Bites 195: Social Realism, the Art of Communism
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Clip | 1m 51s | The art of Communism diligently promoted the heroic symbols of the state as propaganda. (1m 51s)
Art Bites 194: Picasso’s "Guernica"
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Clip | 2m 54s | With the large Cubist-inspired painting, Picasso put a human face on “collateral damage.” (2m 54s)
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Clip | 1m 36s | With heavy outlines and brilliant colors, Chagall celebrated nature and its creator. (1m 36s)
Art Bites 192: Surrealism and Salvador Dalí
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Clip | 2m 34s | Surrealists explored the subconscious painting everyday images in jarring juxtapositions. (2m 34s)
Art Bites 191: Edvard Munch and Expressionism
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Clip | 2m 6s | Expressionism captured emotions, trauma, and cynicism with distorted and garish works. (2m 6s)
Art Bites 190: Romanticism and Romantic Era Painting
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Clip | 2m 43s | Epic, melodramatic canvases, images that stir the emotions, and an embrace of nature. (2m 43s)
Art Bites 189: Pablo Picasso: Cubism, "Guernica," and Much More
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Clip | 5m 14s | Picasso invented Cubism, captured the horror of warfare, and found freedom in abstraction. (5m 14s)
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Clip | 1m 35s | Gustav Klimt, with paintings like “The Kiss” captured a simmering hedonism in Vienna. (1m 35s)
Art Bites 187: Toulouse-Lautrec
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Clip | 1m 46s | Toulouse-Lautrec painted the turn-of-the-century bohemian scene on Paris’ Montmartre Hill. (1m 46s)
Art Bites 186: Modern Art and the Isms of the 20th Century
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Clip | 4m 31s | 20th-century art was a parade of isms: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism. (4m 31s)
Art Bites 185: Art Nouveau, Mucha, and Gaudí
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Clip | 5m 3s | Art Nouveau went organic with willowy maidens, melting eaves, and an embrace of nature. (5m 3s)
Art Bites 184: Vincent van Gogh
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Clip | 3m 1s | Van Gogh’s wild brush strokes and vivid colors portrayed the world he felt so intensely. (3m 1s)
Art Bites 183: The Post-Impressionists: Seurat, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh
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Clip | 3m 51s | Dots, slabs, primitive Tahitian scenes, wild brush strokes, and vivid colors. (3m 51s)
Art Bites 182: Claude Monet and His Waterlilies
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Clip | 2m 10s | The true subject of Monet’s “Waterlilies” is the changing reflections on the pond. (2m 10s)
Art Bites 181: Rodin, Impressionism in Sculpting
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Clip | 1m 27s | Auguste Rodin brought Impressionism to stone with iconic statues like “The Thinker.” (1m 27s)
Art Bites 180: Impressionism, Monet, Renoir, and Degas
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Clip | 6m 20s | The Impressionists revolutionized art with a focus on nature: light, shadow, and color. (6m 20s)
Art Bites 179: Northern Baroque Painting: Hals, Steen, Vermeer
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Clip | 4m 53s | Hals, Steen, Vermeer painted slices of regular life and group portraits of city bigwigs. (4m 53s)
Art Bites 178: Baroque Music, Bernini for Your Ears
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Clip | 2m 5s | This mini piano concert demonstrates how Baroque music can be like Bernini for your ears. (2m 5s)
Art Bites 177: Rubens, a Master Painter of the Northern Renaissance
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Clip | 3m 28s | Rubens painted mythic battles, Catholic miracles, bloody hunts, and “Rubenesque” women. (3m 28s)
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Clip | 1m 53s | Gritty realism, stark lighting, and drama gave Caravaggio’s art an emotional punch. (1m 53s)
Art Bites 175: Bernini and Baroque Sculpture
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Clip | 5m 37s | Rome was Bernini’s gallery where you can see his squares, fountains, and finest statues. (5m 37s)
Art Bites 174: Baroque Art as Propaganda
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Clip | 3m 29s | Baroque art was propaganda for the state or for the Church. (3m 29s)
Art Bites 173: Baroque Art, the Catholic Church, and the Virgin Mary
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Clip | 3m 42s | Pro-Vatican Baroque featured big canvases, dramatic statues, and exuberant architecture. (3m 42s)
Art Bites 172: The Reformation and the Baroque Age
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Clip | 5m 6s | The roots of Baroque go back to the 1500s when it told the story of the religious wars. (5m 6s)
Art Bites 171: Neoclassical Art, the Age of Revolution, and Napoleon
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Clip | 5m 6s | The French Revolution came with art that celebrated liberty, equality, and brotherhood. (5m 6s)
Art Bites 170: Neoclassical Art and Architecture, the Age of Enlightenment
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Clip | 5m 49s | Neoclassical was a stern, no-frills style that celebrated a new age of science and reason. (5m 49s)
Art Bites 169: Rococo Art and Architecture, Baroque Gone Wild
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Clip | 2m 7s | Rococo art featured aristocrats playing in their Baroque palaces and bucolic backyards. (2m 7s)
Art Bites 168: Royal Palaces of the Baroque Age and Versailles
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Clip | 5m 36s | Versailles, with its heavenly painted ceilings, was the ultimate Baroque palace. (5m 36s)
Art Bites 167: Royal Portraits and Velázquez
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Clip | 3m 33s | Painters, such as Velázquez, were paid to make royals look more divine than they were. (3m 33s)
Art Bites 166: Rembrandt, The Great Dutch Master
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Clip | 3m 51s | Rembrandt earned a living painting and told Bible stories with a subtle mastery of drama. (3m 51s)
Art Bites 165: Sandro Botticelli
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Clip | 2m 24s | Botticelli painted big colorful celebrations of the Renaissance like a fertile springtime. (2m 24s)
Art Bites 164: The Medici Family, Patrons of the Florentine Renaissance
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Clip | 3m 27s | The Medici family nurtured and employed the great Florentine Renaissance artists. (3m 27s)
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Clip | 2m 6s | A humble monk, Fra Angelico frescoed exquisite sacred scenes for his monastery. (2m 6s)
Art Bites 162: Early Renaissance Painting: Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Angelico
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Clip | 5m 26s | These painters brought art from medieval two-dimensional to more life-like 3-D. (5m 26s)
Art Bites 161: Donatello and Early Renaissance Statues
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Clip | 3m 12s | The sculptor Donatello gave his proud statues unprecedented realism and emotion. (3m 12s)
Art Bites 160: Renaissance Artists: Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello
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Clip | 4m 58s | Florence, home of the Renaissance, was also home to three early artistic heroes. (4m 58s)
Art Bites 159: The Renaissance Defined
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Clip | 3m 30s | For two centuries, the Renaissance was an explosion of secular learning, art, and culture. (3m 30s)
Art Bites 158: Hieronymus Bosch and "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
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Clip | 2m 7s | Bosch’s three-paneled masterpiece takes you from earthly delights to a nightmarish Hell. (2m 7s)
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Clip | 2m 6s | Weyden’s exquisitely detailed Last Judgment is filled with symbolism. (2m 6s)
Art Bites 156: Pieter Brueghel the Elder for a Slice of Flemish Life
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Clip | 2m 14s | Brueghel was a master of slice-of-life scenes capturing country folk at play. (2m 14s)
Art Bites 155: Oil Painting, an Improvement over Tempera
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Clip | 2m 9s | Oil paints freed artists like Jan van Eyck, Raphael, and Leonardo to raise the bar. (2m 9s)
Art Bites 154: The Northern Renaissance, Flemish Painting, and Jan van Eyck
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Clip | 3m 10s | Flemish paintings were happy slice-of-life scenes, feel-good, and affordable. (3m 10s)
Art Bites 153: Albrecht Dürer, Realism, Humanism, and the Master Engraver
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Clip | 1m 54s | Albrecht Dürer’s meticulous attention to detail was ideal for his work as an engraver. (1m 54s)
Art Bites 152: El Greco and Mannerism
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Clip | 4m 8s | El Greco painted supernatural visions, faces that flicker, and otherworldly altarpieces. (4m 8s)
Art Bites 151: The Age of Discovery: Portugal and Spain
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Clip | 5m 52s | Portugal had lacy Manueline architecture and Spain’s emperor had far-flung tastes. (5m 52s)
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Clip | 6m 53s | Michelangelo sculpted “David,” painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and designed St. Peter’s. (6m 53s)
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Clip | 3m 36s | Raphael’s sweet Madonnas set a new standard in High Renaissance painting. (3m 36s)
Art Bites 148: Building a Gothic Cathedral Out of 13 Tourists
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Clip | 2m 2s | Gothic church design is best illustrated by building one with 13 travelers. (2m 2s)
Art Bites 147: Gothic Church Architecture, the Pointed Arch and More Light
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Clip | 6m 51s | The Gothic Age was famed for its towering churches filled with glorious stained-glass windows. (6m 51s)
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