Great Artists - DVD 1 (Giotto, Leonardo)

Giotto (1266?-1337)
The son of a Tuscan shepherd, Giotto di Bondone rose to become the most important artist of his age, kick starting the Renaissance with his naturalistic and emotive treatment of medieval Christian iconography. Giotto enjoyed fame never before known to an artist, receiving commissions from princes, kings and Popes, and in doing so raised the status of the artist from that of a mere craftsman to that of a poet or philosopher. Through his immense talent with a brush and his visionary artistic style, Giotto made the vital departure from the Byzantine style of painting that had dominated Christian iconography for close to a thousand years. Instead of following his artistic predecessors, Giotto took nature as his teacher and narrative as his guide, creating a precedent that would be followed by the leading artists of the high Renaissance. For the first time an artist had developed an individual style, something which would come to epitomise the spirit of artistic endeavour in the centuries to come. Giotto is truly the first great artist in the history of Western art.
Works featured in this program include the frescoes of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (1304-1306), the Church of St Francis in Assisi (1295-1300) and the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels (1320s) in Santa Croce in Florence as well as the Ognissanti Madonna and Child altarpiece (1305-1310) in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Leonardo (1452-1519)
Leonardo da Vinci's great masterpiece the Mona Lisa is undoubtedly the most famous painting in the history of art. Yet as is often remarked, Leonardo was much more than an artist. He was a scientist, engineer and inventor, a man who drew plans of flying machines and made accurate studies of human anatomy. Yet the ten or more paintings he completed and the many more left unfinished were enough to establish him as one of the towering figures of the Italian Renaissance, alongside his younger contemporaries Michelangelo and Raphael. As well as painting startlingly emotive and intimate religious scenes, Leonardo led the way in two new genres of painting, that of portraiture and history painting. In his methodical approach to art, Leonardo developed several significant painting techniques. Leonardo's genius, not just in art but in science and elsewhere, meant that his was a truly unique contribution to the development of art in Europe.
Works featured in this program include the Mona Lisa (1503-05, Louvre, Paris) The Last Supper (1495-1498, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan) The Annuciation (1472-1475, Uffizi Gallery, Florence), Portrait of Ginevra de'Benci (1474-76, National Gallery of Art, Washington), The Virgin of the Rocks (1482-1486, Louvre, Paris) and St. John the Baptist (1513-16, Louvre, Paris).