Renaissance Episode Guide

Episode Guide

• Apocalypse

  Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the period at the end of the 15th-century when Pope Julius II set about restoring the glory of Rome. He pays particular attention to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and to the work of artists in Northern Europe

• Body and Soul

  The greatest intellectual and artistic movement of the past 2,000 years. Exploring the origins of the revival of classical learning, art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon embarks on a journey from the troubled state of Macedonia, through the prosperous low countries to Venice : during which he makes a few surprising revelations

• The End of the Renaissance

  In the final part of the most expensive arts programme ever made, Andrew Graham-Dixon examines the circumstances that led to the end of the movement as well as searching modern culture for traces of its legacy

• The End of the Renaissance

  Andrew Graham-Dixon explores works from the final part of the period : including the fountains of the Villa d'Este and the frescos of the Palazzo Te : before analysing modern culture in search of its legacy

• Journey of the Magnus

  Andrew Graham-Dixon continues his odyssey by assessing the role of Italy's princely courts in the rise of artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and Piero della Francesca, who all depended on the whims of patrons for work. But as competition increased, artists began to have a say in the masterpieces they wanted to create, raising their status in society and laying the foundations for today's lucrative art market

• Light and Liberty

  Andrew Graham-Dixon focuses on Venice, and in particular the artistic genius of Bellini, Titian, Giorgione and Tintoretto who, through their paintings of light and colour, influenced the course of Western art

• Mystery of the Marriage

  Insight into the stories behind famous works of art, beginning with The Arnolfini Marriage, by Jan Van Eyck, one of the most influential Renaissance paintings in the world. Speculation that the masterpiece may have been created as a marriage certificate, or even the record of an exorcism, have prompted scientific investigations and the uncovering of new evidence which has forced leading experts to question whether they've got anything right at all

• The Pure Radiance of the Past

  Andrew Graham-Dixon visits Florence to explore the city's reputation as cradle of the Renaissance. Here the patronage of the fabulously wealthy Medici family encouraged the flowering of talents as diverse as all-round genius Michelangelo, sculptor Donatello, painter Masaccio and architect Brunelleschi, whose experiments with perspective remain a hallmark of the age

• The Riddle of the Dome

  One of the greatest monuments of the Renaissance, the dome of Florence Cathedral, also poses one of the greatest mysteries of the time : how was it built? An Italian architect believes he has at last solved the riddle after 27 years of painstaking study which included building a house-sized replica to find the answer which historians felt was unattainable