Clark states that the scene is an allegory for the power of ideal love and the “irresistible power of gentleness and beauty,” an idea that he says can be traced back three centuries. He claims that the figures of the unicorn and the lion are symbols for lust and ferocity, and that they are seated with arms raised in a display of deference for the central female figure, who symbolizes chastity.
In one example from the aforementioned episode, Clark introduces the sixteenth century French tapestry The Lady and the Unicorn. Clark expands upon this idea by pointing out examples in various paintings and buildings while seamlessly transitioning between subjects by way of his erudite narration. In episode three, “Romance and Reality,” Clark claims that the Gothic style’s use of fantasy and romantic motifs, notable in many great works of art, is representative of a contemporaneous belief that true reality is based on a prescribed ideal order. Each episode begins with Clark introducing his thesis on a period of art. Radio Times, a magazine produced by the BBC that listed the channel’s broadcasting schedules, described Civilisation as a show wherein Kenneth Clark “examines the ideas and values which to him give meaning to the term Western Civilisation.” Clark travels across Europe to visit the sites of great works of art and architecture, providing a broad historical and geographic perspective of the meaning of the term civilisation and the artistic, architectural, and literary productions of various exemplary civilisations. Television, as a medium, has the unique capability of manipulating through the sensory elements of different kinds of movement, music, and emotional appeals, which allows it to appeal to demographics that traditionally lack access to or initiative to seek out academic media. The success of Civilisation and Ways of Seeing, two art education programs that launched on a public service television channel shortly after the channel began broadcasting in colour, demonstrates that questions of evidence are fundamentally questions of display and perception. Clark and Berger’s use of television as an educational medium serves as a logical starting point for deeper investigations that examine how forms of imaging and narrative are used in art historical argumentation. The popular time slots of both shows allowed many people to watch, particularly working-class families who had leisure time on weekend evenings. Civilisation was broadcast on Sunday nights at 8:15 pm while Ways of Seeing was broadcast during a later times lot on Saturday nights at 10:05 pm.
By presenting their arguments regarding the history of art through the medium of broadcast television, Clark and Berger successfully attracted the viewership and attention of an audience hitherto ignored by academic programming: regular British civilians, many of who, thanks to the British manufacturing boom of the mid-60s, now had colour televisions in their home. Three years later, in 1972, art critic and author John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, another art historical program, launched on the same channel.
#JOHN BERGER WAYS OF SEEING WOMEN SERIES#
In 1969, art historian and museum director Kenneth Clark’s art history series Civilisation made its debut on the public-service network BBC2. Bruno Latour, "Visualisation and Cognition: Drawing Things Together," 1986. “Who will win in an agonistic encounter between two authors, and between them and all the other they need to build up a statement? Answer: the one able to muster on the spot the largest number of well aligned and faithful allies."