Born in 15, van dycks remarkable career took him from his native flanders to italy, and then to england as Court Painter to charles i, before the artists death there in 1641. Reesenll range o van dycks artistic creation, which allowed us to realize the imposing s of many of his compositions, react to the sensuous color, and perceive the touch of the artist in the rich brushwork. The pangsthemsees came. In this program, well try to recreate the experience of the exhibition itself, moving through the various phases of van dycks career and discovering his magnificent art. Van dycks earliest family portrait sets the stage for our look at the artists life and work. Aintedn 19n anerp, when v dyck was only about 20 yearsld. In this closeknit group, we sense intimacy and informality. The child looks up at h father, who leans protectively toward his young wife and daughter. This deep sympathy for families would be one of van dycks great contributions to the art of portraiture. In 1609, when van
From ancient sumer clay tablets reveal astonishing details about daily life 5,000 years ago, and tell the story of the invention of writing. Symbols can be the gateway to the hearts and minds of ancient people. Their decipherment is one of the greatest challenges facing archaeologists today. We humans are social animals. Our need to communicate is universal. Some of our messages can be easily understood. But we communicate, too, through abstract symbols that have meaning only within a particular culture. These symbols take many forms. The flag is a symbol. A gesture says were number one. The uniform is a symbol that identifies the official and the player. The game itself is symbolic ritualized combat with clearly defined rules. Even sound can be a symbol. [ whistle blows ] the whistle signals the end of play. But why a whistle . Why not a gong . Why a striped shirt and not a plaid one . The choice is arbitrary. But within this culture, the meaning is mutually accepted. The use of symbo
At palenque, tonina bonampak and other cities, dynastic kings ruled absolutely, controlling trade and tribute. They presided over intricate hierarchies of nobles and officials at courts resplendent with works of art. Maya culture, shrouded in a mystery as dense as the forests in which it took root, revealed itself fitfully over three centuries. When the ruins in the jungle were first discovered, there was no way of understanding how the civilization was organized. So its really through the inscriptions that weve been able to identify kings to find out their capitals their seats of power. And through this we recognize now that there were many kingdoms. There was no unified maya state. There wasnt even just a few states. There were many, many states. narrator the first inroads into understanding the maya were made by spanish missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries who followed in the imperial wake of hernan cortes. Their discoveries included the ruins at copan. But interest in the st
In the forests and jungles of other realms, maya kings rule great cities with the force of their own personalities. They build temples and huge stone billboards to prop up royal dynasties that have little actual power. They perform gruesome rituals that require the skins of other people. They go to war and capture players for their ball games games where the losers never play again. Today, inside ancient pyramids archaeologists face real danger to bring the story of these kings and their politics out of the past. Before the arrival of europeans two extraordinary civilizations flourished in mesoamerica. Both the aztecs and the maya had cultures of startling sophistication, and political systems that were enormously complex. Archaeologists are intrigued by ancient political systems. They want to know how these systems were organized and how they evolved. Archaeologist Arthur Demarest. Throughout the course of Human History societies have bece ever more complex. Political systems have dev
music narrator the thousand yearsgo in souern mexico an urecedent culture flourished in the jungle nearhe gulf coast. Rivers meandering through the hot, tropical lowlands were the regions lifeblood. Theswaterwayfor transportion and tra encouraged agriculture. Annual floods left deposits of fertile soil ideal for growing maize, squash and beans. More than two thousand years later, the aztecs called this region olman, or rubber country, for its many rubber trs. The name of the people who dwelled there in antiquity is lost but they have become known as olmec. To express their political and religious beliefs, the ancient olmec invented imagery of spellbinding power. They carved monumental sculptures fm volcanic rock without mel tools, ing hamms and chisels made ostone. They transported massive blocks of basalt weighing up to 2ns across miles of teory thout benefit of the wel. They built the First Pyramid in the americas, rising 100 feet anma of ren the half millionubic f ofpa th fasoned de