Description

Being an interesting person is about introducing people to new thingsIf I had to come up with a personal definition of what makes someone interesting, it’s that they have knowledge that other people would want to have, but don’t yet. It doesn’t have to be straight-up facts either. It could be things such as: little pieces of trivia, ideas, tastes, concepts, philosophies, perspectives, or world views. You can probably think of a time where you met someone with a unique job or lifestyle and you were eager to pick their brain and take in all their stories and little anecdotes. Or you likely know someone who looks at things just a little differently and you enjoy hearing his little opinions about the world. Or, you could know someone with unique style and tastes. This person’s taste indirectly introduces you to new things, and you’re drawn towards it. Watching Simon Schama’s Power of Art is like taking an Ivy League course in art appreciationwith the folksy but knowledgeable Schama as guide and interpreter. A collection of hour-long films on eight seminal artists and their groundbreaking works, which originally aired on British television, this boxed set is as entertaining as it is enlightening, with Schama doing for Western art what, say, Steve Irwin did for Australian natural history. Eight artists are featured–Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Rothko–and each portrait of the artist weaves biography and historical context to help explain the true power of his works. Beautiful. Fascinating. Emotional. Art is all of the above. But only a few are powerful. These are the works that not only lift you off your feet in their sheer artistry, they forever alter the human psyche. Focusing on eight iconic works of art, Power of Art reveals the history of visual imagination through the ages, from the murderous world of baroque Rome to paranoid, revolutionary Paris; from the carnage of civil-war Spain to the paradox of 1950s New York, caught between Cold War jitters and Manhattan glitter. A combination of dramatic reconstruction, spectacular photography and Simon Schama’s unique, personal style of storytelling transport the viewer back to the intense moments that great works were conceived and born. The eight works of art profiled in this series are: Caravaggio’s David and Goliath; Bernini’s The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Rembrandt’s The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis; David’s Death of Marat; Turner’s The Slave Ship; Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait; Picasso’s Guernica and Rothko’s Seagram Building Murals. 7 MP4s1. Caravaggio – David with the Head of Goliath2. Bernini – Ecstasy of Saint Theresa3. Rembrandt – The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis4. David – The Death of Marat5. Turner – The Slave Ship6. Van Gogh – Wheatfield with Crows7. Picasso – Guernica    Rothko – Black on Maroon Actors: Simon Schama Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC Language: English Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only) Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Rated: NR (Not Rated) Studio: BBC Warner DVD Release Date: June 19, 2007 Run Time: 400 minutes BitRate: 1000 kbps frame Rate: 25 fps Video Compression: MPEG4 Audio Bitrate: 128 kbps Channels: 2 Sample Rate: 48000 HzI’ve compressed these videos to an average of 480MB per video. The quality is very good considering they were originally 700MB videos.