Skip to main content
Back to Show
Civilizations

The Protector of Civilization

ISIS destroyed ancient artifacts in the city of Palmyra, Syria, and museum curator sacrificed his life trying to save them.

Support Provided By
What Is Art Good For?
Unlock with PBS Passport
52:50
Explore art in the age of revolution, war and profound scientific change.
The Cult of Progress
Unlock with PBS Passport
53:18
Examine the rise and fall of “progress” as an ideology.
Color and Light
Unlock with PBS Passport
52:44
Explore light and color in art in the search for greater realism and spiritual ecstasy.
Paradise on Earth
Unlock with PBS Passport
53:00
Explore one of humanity’s deepest artistic urges: the depiction of nature.
Renaissances
Unlock with PBS Passport
53:20
Travel east and west— to Renaissance Italy and the contemporaneous Islamic empires.
Encounters
Unlock with PBS Passport
53:30
See how art became the great interface when distant cultures met for the first time.
God and Art
Unlock with PBS Passport
53:20
Consider how religion has inspired art and art has inspired divine representation.
How Do We Look?
Unlock with PBS Passport
53:20
Explore how we look at the human body in art.
The Second Moment of Creation
Unlock with PBS Passport
53:00
Examine the formative role of art and the creative imagination in the forging of humanity.
Active loading indicator