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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.

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Watch Video from Episode 7 of Civilizations

Venetians Embrace Color Over the Drawn Line

For Renaissance art theorists, drawing always came before color. But Venetians see art and the world quite differently.

Clip 1m 56s

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Venetians Embrace Color Over the Drawn Line

1m 56s

For Renaissance art theorists, drawing always came before color. But Venetians see art and the world quite differently.

Full Length

Color and Light

52m 44s

Explore the story of light and color in art - both in the search for greater realism and spiritual ecstasy. Journey from Gothic cathedrals and Indian courtly painting to modern art.

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Color and Light

30s

Explore the story of light and color in art - both in the search for greater realism and spiritual ecstasy. Journey from Gothic cathedrals and Indian courtly painting to modern art.

Clip

Goya's Harmony and Chaos

2m 7s

In his 60s, Goya abandoned his role as court artist to bare witness to the irrational forces unleashed by Napoleon's invasion of Spain.

Clip

Japan's 18th Century Commercial Art Revitalizes Color

1m 53s

Ukiyo-e began with only a few colors, but combined them in increasingly sophisticated ways to create vivid depictions of a rapidly growing urban life. Wildly popular in all its forms, it demonstrated that every day transitory objects could be considered art.