The Renaissance Unchained, BBC 4, 9pm, 15 Feb.

[Nick Armstrong]

most diverting

He instantly diverted me to other activities. I did try - I couldn't stand him for even a minute.

[Nevilevelis]

He instantly diverted me to other activities. I did try - I couldn't stand him for even a minute.

Oh, you poor thing! What a pity. It was excellent.

[DublinJimbo]

A glorious breath of fresh air. I hugely enjoyed the first episode and look forward to the rest. I loved the blend of light-hearted presentation style with really informative content (but then again, I've long been a sucker for the Flemish masters especially).

[Richard Tarleton]

Brilliant, virtuoso use of the medium, last night's programme delighted the eye and amazed the mind (mine anyway ).

[Anna]

Brilliant, virtuoso use of the medium, last night's programme delighted the eye and amazed the mind (mine anyway ).

Although I missed the first 15 minutes I totally agree, and so looking forward to the next programme (confess I'd never come across him before so had no inbuilt prejudice!)

[jean]

Yes, he is well worth persevering with - he really does know his stuff.

Don't miss his Saturday Classics - not many visual arts critics know as much about music.

And don't miss him on yesterday's Start the Week, and his outrage when another guest lamely tries to argue that the term Primitive isn't really pejorative.

Of course he is right that the Flemish masters are quite as wonderful as anything happening in Florence at the same time, but the problem with the name remains; they don't represent a rebirth of anything, however superb Waldemar shows them to be. Vasari compounded the problem in that he contrasted the rebirth of Classical art with the barbarous German style, though I cannot find that he ever used the term Gothic. He represents a discredited historiographical model, where all progress is onwards and upwards, except where it looks back to and rediscovers a lost 'Golden Age'.

But once the terms Renaissance and Gothic are in circulation, it's very hard to get rid of them - especially when we can look at a Flemish painting and see all that Gothic architecture in the background, while the Italian Madonna is equally clearly sitting in a chapel adorned with detail derived from Greek models.

We don't have the same problem in describing sixteenth-century composers as Renaissance, because there's nothing to see.

.

[jean]

If the rediscovery of Classical models really was a benchmark in the progress of Art to a state of perfection, Waldemar might have mentioned that the Florentines didn't even get there first - the Pisanos were producing figure sculpture in in a remarkably Classical style as early as the thirteenth century. But he doesn't agree with Vasari about the primacy of the Classical models, so he doesn't mention it.

It would hardly be surprising if the Italians did get there first, whether in sixteenth-century Florence or thirteenth-century Pisa, as the originals were all around them.

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[Nevilevelis]

'The dragon tree, Satan's tropical succulent of choice'.

[jean]

Indeed- Waldemar is also very funny.

God retained his special dispensation during the various Renaissances, it seems. His bad press has been quite recent.

But don't forget Pugin, for whom God's original absence from Greek architecture damned it utterly. See his Contrasts for examples of Gothic architecture (good) contrasted with Renaissance (self-evidently bad):

https://www.fulltable.com/vts/c/contd/im/06.jpg

http://www.sacredarchitecture.org/images/uploads/contrasts_thumb.jpg

(Looks as though Waldemar has given up the huge bulbous rings!)

[Nick Armstrong]

(confess I'd never come across him before so had no inbuilt prejudice!)

A judgment or feeling based on previous experience surely isn't prejudice - it's a reaction.

Mine to this bloke is obviously my loss ... but there it is. Plenty of other good stuff out there!

[Quarky]

Absolutely brilliant programme. In HD the images were crystal clear.

I had seen the Lamb of God Altar screen in Gent (not Bruges) Cathedral, but I still don't believe it was the real thing, because it wasn't protected.

As regards voice and presentation, I couldn't help being reminded of Bear Grylls!

[eighthobstruction]

....bet WJ's children just hope he doesn't do any Dad dancing....

[Richard Tarleton]

Well he is also I believe co-author of a book on (and fan of) the Rolling Stones, so it has to be a possibility

[eighthobstruction]

....How many squirrels??

[Richard Tarleton]

Indeed - who knew? And pine martens. Convex mirrors, lenses....amazing stuff.