Beckett, Wendy

From deep in the Laseaux caves, through ancient Egypt, across Europe and over the Atlantic to the galleries of New Your City, Sister Wendy reveals a panorama of Western art that is in itself a masterpiece"--Container.

Sister Wendy presents personal reflections and meditations based on works of art from the Renaissance to the present.

Sister Wendy Beckett has transformed public appreciation of art through her astonishing knowledge, insight and passion for painting and painters. Trace the development of 20th century art and its legacy to the future in this concluding segment of Sister Wendy's epic story. Modern art in the work of Cezanne, then to Paris to witness its fiery birth, as Picasso introduces cubism and Matisse and Kandinsky redefine artistic vision. Observe the bold lines of Mondrian and meet Dali and the artistic acrobats who twist time and reality, the surrealists. Attend the birth of the New York School as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning create Abstract Expressionism. Finally, view Rothko's monochromatic visions, the pop art of Andy Warhol, the minimalism of the 1960's, and their impact on art today.

Sister Wendy Beckett has transformed public appreciation of art through her astonishing knowledge, insight and passion for painting and painters. Two social cataclysms were about to shake art to its foundations, ushering in the groundbreaking work of the Impressionists. In England, the Industrial Revolution brought wealth that gave rise to the portraiture and pastoral paintings of Gainsborough, and Turner's stirring visions of progress. In France, the sensual, ornate style of Rococo art ended with the French Revolution. It paved the way for Manet, whose work and theories scandalized Paris. See how his colors and forms led to Impressionism, shown in the rich hues of Renoir and Monet, the cold eye of Degas and the powerful visions of the troubled genius Van Gogh.

Sister Wendy Beckett has transformed public appreciation of art through her astonishing knowledge, insight and passion for painting and painters. As the Reformation spread, the Church sought to use art to bring people closer to God. Artists responded by creating the glorious Baroque style. In Rome, meet the violent genius of Caravaggio, and Gentileschi, the woman whose own brutalization fueled an unquenchable artistic passion. Behold El Greco's unforgettable visions in Spain, and the work of the greatest of all Baroque painters, Peter Paul Rubens, in Antwerp. Baroque painting set the stage for three Golden Ages of art, producing Vermeer and Rembrandt in the Netherlands, Velazquez in Spain, and the work of the expatriate French painter Nicholas Poussin in Italy.

Sister Wendy Beckett has transformed public appreciation of art through her astonishing knowledge, insight and passion for painting and painters. From the mysterious cave paintings at Lascaux to the ecstatic spiritual visions of the Middle Ages, Sister Wendy traces the roots of Western art - the tomb paintings of ancient Egypt, Greek vases and statuary, the Roman paintings of Pompeii, Ireland's masterpiece, the Book of Kells, and France's Les Tres Riches Heures. Also see the dawn of artistic Enlightenment in the work of Giotto and the vibrant art and life of Tuscany, before traveling north across Europe to Bruge, where Flemish painter Jan van Eyck created miracles with oil and wood, and to Holland, where the horrific visions of Hieronymus Bosch marked the end of the Gothic era.

Provides brief essays about the lives and ordeals of thirty-five saints, including information about their feast days, iconographic emblems, and the subjects of their patronage; each complemented by an illuminated manuscript image of the featured saint.

Sister Wendy Beckett has transformed public appreciation of art through her astonishing knowledge, insight and passion for painting and painters.Witness the awakening that would transform the Western world - the Renaissance, where Fra Angelico and Botticelli redefined art. See the genius of Leonardo da Vinci and discuss the sly smile on his Mona Lisa. In Rome, see masterpieces commissioned by the Popes - Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling and the works of Raphael - and in Venice, the works of Titian and Giorgione. Then follow the Renaissance north across the Alps, where religious strife brought a new purpose to painting, and where in Nuremberg, Durer redefined the role of the artist in society - even as the Inquisition forced others to flee their countries in search of artistic freedom.