Civilisation: Man--The Measure of All Things
Cast & Crew
Ann Turner
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Clark
Joe Cooksey
Roger Crittenden
Michael Shah Dayan
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Continuing his personal history of Western civilization, Sir Kenneth Clark discusses the Italian Renaissance. At the beginning of the 15th century, optimistic citizens of the Florentine republic revived the virtues of ancient Greece and Rome. The first 30 years of the century was the age of scholarship; new classical texts were discovered and old ones re-edited. To house these valuable texts, Cosimo de Medici built the library of San Marco. Architecture, under the influence of Brunelleschi, became light and economical, no longer directed toward God but toward the needs of man. Perspective, the rendering of the exact position of a figure in space through mathematical calculation, became central for artists such as Ghiberti and remained part of artists' training for centuries to come. Florentine craftsmen and artists were encouraged in a unique atmosphere of healthy criticism and a disdain for mediocrity. The idea of fame replaced the chivalric ideal, as wealthy Florentines attempted to immortalize themselves in realistic portraits, such as those of the Flemish artist, Jan Van Eyck. The middle part of the century was dominated by Lorenzo de Medici, a poet and politician, whose cousin Lorenzino commissioned paintings by Botticelli. In the last quarter of the century, activity centered in the small courts of northern Italy, especially Urbino and the famous Ducal Palace, which influenced the manners of the period, uniting medieval chivalry and the Platonic ideal. Artists began to develop a view of nature as an idyllic retreat, as reflected in the paintings of Giorgione. In Urbino, as in Florence, the Renaissance depended upon a small minority; consequently, the movement lost impetus after the death of the first two generations of humanists.
Director
Ann Turner
Crew
Kenneth Clark
Joe Cooksey
Roger Crittenden
Michael Shah Dayan
Colin Deehan
A. A. Englander
Michael Gill
Dave Griffiths
Basil Harris
Peter Heelas
Maggie Houston
Carol Jones
June Leech
Kenneth Macmillan
Peter Montagnon
Bill Paget
Jesse Palmer
Jack Probert
John Taylor
Ann Turner
Allan Tyrer
Malcolm Webberley
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Location scenes filmed in Florence, Urbino, and Mantua, Italy. First shown in Great Britain March 16, 1969 on BBC 2; the fourth in Sir Kenneth Clark's series on the history of Western civilization.
