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Rick Steves’ Europe: Art of the Early Middle Ages

Season 12 Episode 1205 | 25m 18s

After Rome’s fall, Europe’s Christians kept culture alive with art rooted in their deep faith. We visit sturdy Romanesque churches filled with art that reinforced the ruling order. Meanwhile, Europe was invigorated from the fringes: Byzantines to the East, with their dazzling mosaics; Spanish Muslims with their lush palaces; and fierce Vikings of the North—all part of Europe’s rich cultural stew.

Aired: 09/30/23
Distributed nationally by American Public Television
Extras
With Europe as our classroom, Rick shares the essential skills for smart, smooth travel.
Painters, such as Velázquez, were paid to make royals look more divine than they were.
Neoclassical was a stern, no-frills style that celebrated a new age of science and reason.
The French Revolution came with art that celebrated liberty, equality, and brotherhood.
Rococo art featured aristocrats playing in their Baroque palaces and bucolic backyards.
Versailles, with its heavenly painted ceilings, was the ultimate Baroque palace.
Baroque art was propaganda for the state or for the Church.
Gritty realism, stark lighting, and drama gave Caravaggio’s art an emotional punch.
Rubens painted mythic battles, Catholic miracles, bloody hunts, and “Rubenesque” women.
Pro-Vatican Baroque featured big canvases, dramatic statues, and exuberant architecture.
All
  • All
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 12
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 11
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 10
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 9
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 8
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 7
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 6
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 5
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 4
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 3
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 2
  • Rick Steves' Europe Season 1
Greece’s timeless art: Golden Age temples, alluring Venuses, and exuberant Winged Victory.
We marvel at Stone Age cave paintings, mighty megaliths, and mysterious goddesses.
Roaming Europe, we admire stately Neoclassical buildings and dramatic Romantic paintings.
The turbulent century and its rule-breaking art—Picasso, Surrealism and edgy architecture.
Shimmering Impressionist canvases by Monet and Renoir, plus Van Gogh, Gauguin and more.
From Portugal to Germany, booming economies and new technologies produce exquisite art.
We marvel at Baroque’s over-the-top churches, palaces, bubbly fountains, and theatric art.
Florence’s bold “rebirth” is powered by the genius of Leonardo, Rafael, and Michelangelo.
The grand cities of ancient Rome’s vast empire and majestic churches of its fall.
Soaring Gothic cathedrals of radiant stained glass, plus art celebrating worldly pleasure.