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Private Notes
Mary Beard and Simon Schama reveal the inside story of writing and presenting the BBC Two series Civilisations.
Three years in the making and filmed in 31 countries across six continents, Civilisations’ nine episodes offer a global perspective on the role that art has played in shaping civilisations around the world. In conversation with Kirsty Wark, two of the presenters share their thoughts and experiences, illustrated with their favourite clips from the series, in this special event in front of a live audience at the National Gallery in London.
From Roman marbles and Egyptian mummies to Renaissance masterpieces and African sculptures, in this special accompanying programme to Civilisations, Mary Beard goes in search of extraordinary works of art from all over the world that can be seen here in Britain.
Investigating the stories behind them - how they were brought here, why and by whom - Mary also asks some deeper questions about what they say about our relationship to the outside world. Starting with the last surviving cabinet of curiosities from the 17th century, Mary then tells the story of how our national collections came together - from their aristocratic beginnings and their subsequent democratisation to a more public 20th-century debate about what these collections represented and who they were for.
Along the way, Mary tackles some of the debates and controversies embedded in the very idea of what 'civilisation' is and asks some fundamental questions - how were our national collections built up? Through purchase or plunder? By collecting the art of the world, were we taking civilisation to others or civilising ourselves? And, most importantly of all, what do our collections tell us about who we are?
For our prehistoric ancestors, finding food and shelter would have been top priorities. So why spend hundreds of hours carving this figure?
Simon Schama introduces us to Pylos Combat Agate - one of the finest works of prehistoric Greek art ever discovered.
Simon Schama travels to Petra, which he describes as 'one of the most spectacular civilisations in all of human history'.
This mammoth ivory carving is one of the earliest known representations of the human face.
Mary Beard argues that a 2,000 year-old sculpture of a brutalised boxer represents an attack on the body culture of the ancient Greeks.
Harvard's Maya Jasanoff explains how European colonialists moved from 'smugness' to 'humility' as they started to redefine civilisation.
