Waldemar Januszczak "From St. Peter’s to St. Paul’s

RonPrice · Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 53 Location: Launceston

BAROQUE

The television series, Baroque! From St. Peter’s to St. Paul’s, written and produced by British art critic Waldemar Januszczak, is about the Baroque. The series is, for me, a rich educational experience. Januszczak has been described as a passionate art lover, art critic and writer. His presentation style is casual but informed, enthusiastic, evocative and humorous. He bumbles about on our TV screens doing for art what David Attenborough has done for the natural world. He is someone who acts, as one writer put it, “out of a refusal to present art as elitist in any way. He makes it utterly accessible and understandable."2

This three-part BBC Four documentary series is, as I say, about the painting, sculpture and architecture of the Baroque period. It was first broadcast in the UK in March 2009 and more than a year later the series is here for us to enjoy in Australia. The series is named after its opening shots in the square of Saint Peter's Basilica and the final scenes at St Paul's Cathedral.-Ron Price with thanks to 1“From St. Peter’s to St. Paul’s: Parts 1 to 3,” ABC1, 8:30-9:35, 17, 24 and 31 August 2010 and 2 Wikipedia, 18 August, 2010.

You brought it alive for me, Waldemar!!
Tonight it was Michaelangelo Caravaggio,
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Francesco Borromini
and the reinvention of religious art after the
Renaissance. Baroque made its art: tangible,
real, vivid, cinematic, believable, physical,
emotional, & propagandistic for the Counter
Reformation of those 16th and 17th centuries.1
It was a revolution that began in Rome & spread
over the known world, part of our modern world.

1 The Counter-Reformation, also referred to as the Catholic Reformation or Catholic Revival, denotes the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.–Ron Price, 18/8/’10

Ron Price
18 August 2010

art8dave · Joined: 01 May 2006 Posts: 1333 Location: Sydney

Yes, viewing this program was time well spent.

His attire, as presenter, could do with a re-think, particularly the sandals Rolling Eyes

RonPrice · Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 53 Location: Launceston

Indeed, art8dave, indeed. Thanks for the response......There were so many aspects of the Part 1 of this 3 Part series that moved me, I find it hard to know where to begin.-Ron Price, Australia

velvet · Joined: 14 Oct 2005 Posts: 1655 Location: Hunter Valley

Yes, I watched it and it was glorious.

Wasn't that Andrea Pozzo ceiling amazing? It went on forever. Talk about triumphant trompe l'oleil!

I love Waldemar, his blend of bouncing enthusiasm and erudition.

RonPrice · Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 53 Location: Launceston

Yes, velvet, one gets an impression of a good degree of erudition in the presenter but, of course, erudition is a relative term. Apologies for not getting back to you sooner.-Ron Cool

Eug · Joined: 15 Jun 2010 Posts: 206 Location: Melbourne

I loved this series as well, and I had the foresight to record all three episodes. Just another thing eating into my painting and study time...

RonPrice · Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 53 Location: Launceston

Yes, Eug, the world gives us so much, "getting and spending" as Wordsworth used to write(or was it Mathew Arnold?) "we lay waste our powers."-Ron