Civilisation: Grandeur and Obedience
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Peter Montagnon
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Clark
Joe Cooksey
Roger Crittenden
Michael Shah Dayan
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
This chapter of Sir Kenneth Clark's history of Western civilization explores the grandeur of Rome during the Counter-Reformation. Papal Rome, a magnificent example of town planning, was constructed only 50 years after the city was almost totally destroyed by northern barbarians. As a result of the reconstruction, the Church regained much of its spiritual force; and a belief in its authority, inspired by the saints of the 16th century, sparked a renewal of creative energy between 1620 and 1660. The quality of architecture remained superior because architects such as Della Porta, Michelangelo, and Bernini were artists whose aesthetic principles found their greatest expression in the completion of St. Peter's Basilica. The Church's response to Protestant criticism was to glorify the very beliefs attacked during the Reformation. Baroque art, commissioned by affluent papal families, appealed to deep-seated religious impulses and gained more popularity than the intellectual art of the Renaissance. The grandeur of the period concealed a certain hollowness, however, since the wealthy families competed among themselves out of greed and vanity rather than idealism. Art exploited the popular feelings of its time and lost touch with the humanism of the Renaissance.
Director
Peter Montagnon
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
Ann Turner
Allan Tyrer
Malcolm Webberley
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Location scenes filmed in Rome and Vatican City. First shown in Great Britain April 7, 1969 on BBC 2; the seventh in Sir Kenneth Clark's series on the history of Western civilization.
