Support your local PBS station in our mission to inspire, enrich, and educate.
Watch Civilizations
Survey the history of art, from antiquity to the present, on a global scale. Civilizations reveals the role art and creative imagination have played in forging humanity, and introduce viewers to works of beauty, ingenuity and illumination across cultures.
Watch Video from Episode 4 of Civilizations
Maria Sibylla's Encounter with the Natural World
Through illustration, Maria Sibylla explained and painted their life cycle, their metamorphosis from caterpillar to chrysalis, to butterfly.
Clip
2m
Clip
Maria Sibylla's Encounter with the Natural World
2m
Through illustration, Maria Sibylla explained and painted their life cycle, their metamorphosis from caterpillar to chrysa
Show More
Clip
Montezuma and Cortes
4m 8s
As the Spanish met the Aztecs in Central America, the riches intended to buy off the Spanish only intensified their lust f
Show More
Clip
Paving the Way for Maruyama Okyo's Masterpiece
2m 42s
In what's regarded as Maruyama Okyo's greatest work, "Cracked Ice" combines everything Okyo knew from both Eastern and Wes
Show More
Preview
Encounters
30s
See how advances in seafaring and a thirst for trade and exploration sent human beings around the planet. Distant and disp
Show More
- 1
- 2
- Next
The PBS 'What to Watch' Weekly Newsletter
What to Watch delivers the best shows and content PBS has to offer each week.
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy
Explore More
Exploring Thomas Cole's 'The Course of Empire'
by PBS | June 26, 2018
Sacred Blue: An Appreciation of Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne
by PBS | June 19, 2018
Exploring Li Cheng's A Solitary Temple Amid Clearing Peaks
by Sam Laney | June 12, 2018
Rembrandt's Declaration of Liberty: 'The Night Watch'
by PBS | May 15, 2018
Lisbon: The 16th Century Melting Pot
by PBS | May 08, 2018
The Basilica of San Vitale: How a Space Imbues Divine Status
by PBS | May 01, 2018