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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.
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2m
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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
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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
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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
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Preview
Encounters
30s
See how advances in seafaring and a thirst for trade and exploration sent human beings around the planet. Distant and disp
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About the Author
Sam is the director of multiplatform discovery and production for PBS. When not geeking out about the latest Ken Burns documentary or Call the Midwife season, you can find him playing video games with the cool kids.