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The Medici: Makers of Modern Art

2008 Art

Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals how the Medici family transformed Florence through sculpture, painting and architecture and created a world where masterpieces fetch millions today. Without the money and patronage of the Medici we might never have heard of artists such as Donatello, Michelangelo or Botticelli, and Graham-Dixon examines how a famil ...y of shadowy, corrupt businessmen, driven by greed and ambition, became the financial engine behind the Italian Renaissance. Show More

Travels with Vasari 1

2009 Art

On a spectacular journey through Renaissance Italy, Andrew Graham-Dixon searches for the shadowy figure who wrote one of the most important books on art and looks at some dazzling works, including masterpieces of the early Renaissance by Giotto, Masaccio and Donatello. Giorgio Vasari was the grandaddy of all art critics, travelling Italy in t ...he 16th century for his definitive Lives of the Artists. It was a time of miracles that he named 'the Renaissance'. Show More

Series: Travels with Vasari

Travels with Vasari 2

2009 Art

Andrew Graham-Dixon retraces Vasari's footsteps for this captivating two-part film in a short Art of Italy season. He's an enthusiastic guide, lapsing easily into Italian conversation with the custodians of galleries and chapels who allow him a private view. From Brunelleschi's Duomo in Florence to less familiar marvels - a Donatello sculptur ...e; Masaccio frescoes - he illustrates how rapidly ideas developed. A final treat for him - and us - is a tour of the Vasari Corridor, a rarely accessed gallery that zigzags across the Florentine rooftops. Show More

Series: Travels with Vasari

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