The Private Life Of A Masterpiece - 3 episodes

NFO:

1: Renoir: Dance at the Moulin de la Galette
The Private Life of A Masterpiece reveals the fascinating stories of the creation of renowned pieces of art including Renoir's masterpiece, Dance At The Moulin De La Galette.

Renoir's most popular painting is often referred to as the most beautiful painting of the 19th century and is loved around the world for its joie de vivre. It is an emblem of the Impressionist movement, and has become one of the world's most reproduced works of art.

Painted by Auguste Renoir in 1876, it depicts a lively Sunday afternoon at the Moulin de la Galette dance hall in Montmartre. But, as this program reveals, though the painting has a celebratory tone, Paris was then still recovering from its most bloody and turbulent time, and the Moulin de la Galette dance hall had been the centre of it all.

This film tells how Renoir had grown to love the Moulin de la Galette, which was just a stone's throw away from his studio. He never missed Sunday afternoon dances and loved to paint the local girls, three of whom feature in the painting, as does his closest friend, Georges Riviere.

Dance At The Moulin De La Galette reveals that Renoir actually painted two pictures both dated 1876 that were virtually identical apart from the size. One is six feet across, and the other is half that size. It is not known which is the "original".

Dance At The Moulin De La Galette features contributions from Professor John House from The Courtauld Institute, London; Professor Patrice Higonnet from Harvard University; Christopher Riopelle from The National Gallery, London, and artist and art historian Eric Shanes.

RS:

http://rapidshare.com/files/52724836/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Renoir.Dance.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52725968/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Renoir.Dance.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52726894/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Renoir.Dance.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52728003/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Renoir.Dance.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52728997/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Renoir.Dance.part5.rar

2: La Primavera by Botticelli
The Private Life Of A Masterpiece features Sandro Botticelli's allegorical masterpiece, La Primavera.

The sister painting to The Birth of Venus, La Primavera was painted in Florence, probably in the 1480s, and was one of the first large secular works since Greek and Roman times. It featured the first sensual female figures of the Renaissance in a city awash with pious Christian images, and it remains one of the most perplexing and enigmatic of all the great paintings.

Throughout the ages, art aficionados have wondered why Botticelli, whose previous art was conventional Christian images and portraits of the wealthy and powerful, painted the groundbreaking La Primavera.

This program explains how, in the '70s, a painting, fixed above an ornamental day bed, cited in a centuries-old inventory from a Medici house, was recognised as being La Primavera, shedding new light on its creation.

For centuries, La Primavera was displayed in the homes of the Medici family and did not come into public ownership until the death of the dynasty in 1743. Even then, it was stowed in a storeroom in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, until the mid-19th century.

This program includes contributions from Jonathan Nelson from Syracuse University, Florence; Patricia Rubin of the Courtauld Institute, London; art historian Jenny Graham, and Camille Paglia, cultural commentator at the University of Arts, Philadelphia.

RS:

http://rapidshare.com/files/44249459/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Botticceli.Primavera.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/44249782/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Botticceli.Primavera.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/44250104/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Botticceli.Primavera.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/44250364/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Botticceli.Primavera.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/44250490/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.Botticceli.Primavera.part5.rar

3: Van Gogh: The Sunflowers
Perhaps the most reproduced of all 19th century paintings, The Sunflowers has a story that lies at the crux of the complex relationship between Van Gogh and Paul Gaugin. The programme reveals how Van Gogh started to paint sunflowers soon after he moved from Holland to Paris and how they became the emblem of his embrace of Southern France, warmth and the sun. It looks especially at the 8th of the Sunflower paintings, the one in the National Gallery in London which is arguably the best in the series. It was most admired and desired by Gaugin but denied to him by Van Gogh as their relationship deteriorated.


RS:

http://rapidshare.com/files/52740744/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.VanGogh.Sunflowers.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52741370/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.VanGogh.Sunflowers.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52741993/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.VanGogh.Sunflowers.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52742794/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.VanGogh.Sunflowers.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52743436/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.VanGogh.Sunflowers.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52744405/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.VanGogh.Sunflowers.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/52744642/BBC.Private.Life.of.a.Masterpiece.VanGogh.Sunflowers.part7.rar

Technical Specs
Video Codec: DivX 5.0
Video Bitrate: 1222
Video Resolution: 512x384
Video Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video Framerate: 29,97 fps
Audio Codec: MP3
Audio Bitrate: 178 kb/s /44kHz
Audio Channels: 2
Audio Language: English
Runtime: 49 mins
Number of Parts: 3
Part Size: 449mb
Subs: No
Capped by: Wonderful UK Nova capper