Sparks Commentary: A review of “Great Epochs of European Art: Art of the Ancient Greeks & Romans”

The difficulties of learning about Greek and Roman art from textbooks

For many years now, I’ve been interested in Ancient Greece and Rome. I read some textbooks about their respective histories, and even learned the Ancient Greek language from some other textbooks. (More about that here.) From these endeavors, I learned some basic things about their culture. But there was one thing that was hard to get from books, which was proper visuals. Textbooks have only so much ability to include pictures, particularly when they’re trying to stay affordable for their readers. Color pictures in particular can be very expensive to produce for textbooks, and so some textbooks include very few of them. This meant that it was difficult (even if technically possible) to learn much about Greek and Roman art from textbooks. Thus, I felt like I needed something else to compensate for this.

The comparative ease of learning about this from a documentary (like this one)

Fortunately, there is an alternative to textbooks for this kind of thing. It’s called the “television set” (technically a DVD video in my case). I found this two-hour DVD online, and invested the time in watching it. It’s fairly low-budget, and the narration is delivered in a somewhat-uninspiring way. Indeed, I actually found the narration style to be a little amateurish (apologies to whoever the narrator was). But the information is solid despite this, and I learned something from these episodes that textbooks might have had trouble giving me. That is to say, I got to see a number of works of art on my television screen, the next best thing to seeing them for myself in person.

The Theatre of Dionysus – Athens, Greece

This is a German documentary, which presumably has been dubbed into English

First of all, some basic things about this documentary. This is a German documentary, whose opening and closing credits are each in the German language. Thus, I presume that the original narration was in German – although, if so, it must have been dubbed into English for this DVD. It’s possible that the German narrator may have done a somewhat more skillful job than his or her English counterpart, although I have no way of knowing this for certain. There are no talking heads in these episodes – just pictures of art and architecture with occasional narration and music. In their discussions of Roman art, I recognized some musical score from the 1959 movie “Ben-Hur,” which was an interesting choice for the Roman art that they were talking about at the time. I’m a big fan of that movie’s musical score, by the way, and of the movie itself. (More about that here.) This post will focus more on this documentary, and on the art itself.

Relief scene of Roman legionaries marching, from the Column of Marcus Aurelius – Rome, Italy, 2nd century AD

This was part of a larger series, covering other periods than this one …

The makers of this film seem to have made a number of other episodes about the history of European art. For example, these two episodes are sometimes sold together with other episodes under the same brand. Their respective topics are: “Early Christian And Byzantine Art,” “Romanesque Art,” “Gothic Art,” “The Art of the Renaissance,” “The Art of the Baroque Era,” “The Art of Rococo,” “The Art Of The 19th Century,” and “The Art Of The 20th Century” (as shown here). But it was the episodes on the “Art of the Ancient Greeks and Romans” that most interested me personally, as I will explain in just a moment.

DVD of the complete series

… but these are the particular episodes that I wanted to see

However, I suspect that the art of these other periods has been covered better by other documentaries, such as the BBC’s “The Dark Ages: An Age of Light” – and, especially, Kenneth Clark’s epic series “Civilisation.” I have reviewed these other documentaries here and here, for anyone who is interested. But I’m not aware of any other documentaries about Ancient Greek and Roman art, so people interested in this topic unfortunately have rather limited options to choose from. If you know of a better option, please leave a comment below for me and my readers, telling us something about it. Suffice it to say that I haven’t seen any other coverage of this topic. Likewise, I have not seen any of the other episodes about other topics by these filmmakers. Therefore, I will just review the first episode (entitled “The Art of the Ancient Greeks”), and the other episode (entitled “The Art of the Romans”).

The Theatre and Temple of Apollo in mountainous country at Delphi in Greece

An overview of Episode 1: “The Art of the Ancient Greeks”

The episode entitled “The Art of the Ancient Greeks” covers a number of their best-known artistic specimens. For example, it covers their sculptures of humans, gods, and mythical creatures. It covers their decorated pottery, and their influential architectural styles. It tries to place these works of art into the context of their times. One doesn’t learn a lot from this, but that is an inevitable problem, given the episode’s short length. However, they do make the point that Greek artists were fascinated by the human body. Few other artistic traditions have produced such idealized portraits of human beings, or such sensuous portraits of their gods and goddesses. As with other periods, the viewer should be warned that many of these statues are nudes. Viewers of more conservative tastes may thus feel a little uncomfortable. But on a different note, some of their works (including many of the clothed statues) are known only from Roman copies, since the originals were destroyed in the twenty-odd centuries since this time. Thus, we can count ourselves fortunate that some of the originals were preserved despite these things, and that many copies survived – even when the originals did not.

Interior of an Attic Greek red-figure cup, about 450 BC

An overview of Episode 2: “The Art of the Romans”

The episode entitled “The Art of the Romans” covers a number of the Romans’ best-known artistic specimens, and they have plenty of their own to talk about. As with most other aspects of classical culture, Roman art shows a strong influence from their Greek contemporaries, and from the prior stages of Greek history. In particular, they focus on Roman architecture, and their highly original advances in civil engineering. This was most prominent in their great theatres, baths, and circuses – notable for the pleasing appearance of the buildings themselves. But the Romans also had a highly innovative system of roads and aqueducts, some of which are still used today. They are known primarily for their practical utility, but some of the aqueducts are also admired as works of art. This is where the Romans seem to have had their greatest artistic influence. They also talk about the statues of Roman gods and goddesses, and statues of their “semi-divine” emperors and other civic leaders. In particular, Roman art has a strong focus on propaganda, glorifying the conquests of their military. Some things, it seems, may never change.

Roman aqueduct at Pont du Gard in France

This is made in an older style, but it’s still the next best thing to seeing these things for yourself

But even if I didn’t learn much from this discussion, I still benefited from seeing actual examples of the things discussed. They are able to show Greek and Roman buildings from many angles, and show reliefs and frescoes within them. They are also able to show statues from many angles, and zoom in and out as appropriate. It’s still a low-budget documentary, made in a somewhat older style. The episode entitled “The Art of the Ancient Greeks” was made in 1988, while the episode entitled “The Art of the Romans” was made in 1989. When you combine this with low budgets, some mostly-uninspiring music (except for the Ben-Hur music), and a rather amateurish English narration, it’s a small wonder that this documentary is rather unknown. But if you can’t afford to visit these places for yourself, this documentary may be the next best thing. Greece and Italy are pretty far away from my home in Arizona, so this documentary was much cheaper for me than tickets to Athens or Rome, which are not really within my price range (although I can certainly dream).

The Colosseum, one of the most famous buildings in the city of Rome (or in all of Italy)

Conclusion: This documentary is still enlightening despite its limited budget

So this documentary may still be enlightening despite its limited budget, if you’re interested in art history or in the classical world. You will see how the Greek and Roman cultures are intimately connected, in their art as much as they are in anything else. Indeed, it’s hard to do justice to such connections in this post. But you may gain some passing familiarity with the subject, if you invest the two hours in watching this documentary. You won’t become an expert simply by watching this film, but you might get a good introduction to the subject for whatever money you have to spend on it (and I got it for fairly little myself). Moreover, you’ll have an appreciation for how the Greeks and Romans have influenced us, right down to the present day.

DVD at Amazon

If you liked this post, you might also like:

A review of Bettany Hughes’ “The Spartans”

A review of Bettany Hughes’ “Athens: The Dawn of Democracy”

A review of “The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization” (PBS Empires)

A review of “Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire” (History Channel)

A review of “Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire” (BBC)

A review of “The Roman Empire in the First Century” (PBS Empires)

A review of “The Dark Ages: An Age of Light” (BBC)

A review of “The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance” (PBS Empires)

A review of Kenneth Clark’s “Civilisation”

A review of “Civilizations” (BBC, shown on PBS)