First shown on Channel 4 from December 2002 to January 2003

Matt Collings drags the Old Masters out of the rarefied, hallowed atmosphere of the museum and into the light of the 21st century to ask: What do they have to offer us now in terms of meaning and pleasure?

In a campaign to get painting taken more seriously, Matt starts with Titian and the birth of modern painting and follows the painterly tradition through Rubens and Velasquez, finally reaching our own Hogarth, the bridge to where art and painting are now.