The world's greatest paintings
By: the Teaching Company
Contributors: Aigret, Jaimée M., producer, film editor; Teaching Company
Series: Great courses (DVD). Music & fine arts; Great courses (DVD)
Publisher: Teaching Company; The Great Courses
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Chantilly, Va
Language: eng
Format: [videorecording] /
Number of pages: 720
ISBN-13: 9781598036596
Subjects: Fauvism; American Art; Abstract expressionism; French Art; Flemish Art; Dutch Art; Renaissance Art; Realism in art; European Art; Neo-impressionism (Art); German Art; Classicism in art; Painting; Artistic Masterpiece; Romanticism in art; Baroque Art; Symbolism (Art movement); Surrealism; Art nouveau; Modern Art; Italian Art; Impressionism (Art); Art appreciation; Cubism
Description: The aim of these lectures is to make viewers feel welcome and comfortable in the company of paintings. By focusing on 65 masterpieces of Western painting, Professor William Kloss offers a vivid, visceral encounter with genius, shining light on the unique technical, stylistic, and expressive achievements of each painting. From the 14th century to the 20th, the images are examined for their qualities of uniqueness, impact, and emotional and intellectual resonance. The lectures are arranged chronologically, showing what painters of contrasting traditions and cultures were doing in the same period, thus following the progressive unfolding of each painter's art. These lectures open rich perspectives on Western civilization through encounters with some of the most significant, daring, and sublime paintings in Western art.
Notes: Twenty-four lectures, 30 minutes each.

Course guidebook includes professor biography, statement of course scope, lecture outlines and notes, glossary, biographical notes, and bibliography.

Producer/editor, Jaimee M. Aigret ; content supervisor, Pamela Greer ; directors, Jonathan Leven, Wendy Scarbrough ; camera, Jim M. Allen, Alexis Doty, Robert Evans, Daniel Bloom.

Professor William Kloss, independent art historian, The Smithsonian Associates, Smithsonian Institution.

DVD, NTSC.
Table of contents: title: Disc 1.; title: Greatness in painting ;; title: Majesty of Duccio and Giotto ;; title: Acts of faith : Masaccio, Van Eyck, Van der Weyden ;; title: The Diversity of Piero, Mantegna, Botticelli ;; title: Devotion of Bellini, Geertgen, Dürer ;; title: Masterworks by Leonardo, Raphael, Correggio.; title: Disc 2.; title: Great ensembles : Michelangelo and Grünewald ;; title: Ideal and real : Giorgione, Titian, Holbein ;; title: Living and dying : Bruegel, El Greco, Caravaggio ;; title: Life stories by Ter Brugghen, Rubens, Steen ;; title: Inside Vermeer, Velázquez, Rembrandt ;; title: Spirit and thought: Hals, Rembrandt, La Tour.; title: Disc 3.; title: Serenity of Poussin, Claude, Watteau ;; title: In contrast : Chardin, Tiepolo, Gainsborough ;; title: Dark images of David, Goya, Friedrich ;; title: Worlds of Constable, Turner, Delacroix ;; title: Dark to bright : Courbet, Church, Monet ;; title: Alone and together : Whistler, Degas, Renoir.; title: Disc 4.; title: Unlike any other : Sargent, Manet, Seurat ;; title: Close observation : Cézanne, Van Gogh, Homer ;; title: Human condition : Munch, Matisse, Schiele ;; title: Art in time of war : Monet and Picasso ;; title: Time and memory : Magritte, Hopper, Gorky ;; title: Expressive abstractions : Pollock and Hofmann.