Historian Dr David Starkey examines how royal portraiture from Henry VIII to Princess Diana has had an enduring influence on the iconic power of personality.
Henry was enamoured with the imperial power reflected by the art of Rome. His break with the Catholic Church prompted him to embrace the supreme artist of the Reformation, Hans Holbein, and form a partnership whose influence resonates to this day.
Starkey shows how first Henry and Holbein, and then Charles I and his court painter, Anthony van Dyck, set an enduring template for the depiction of power - a template that has been brilliantly adapted in our time by the renegade royal, Princess Diana. Thanks to her own 'Holbein', the photographer Mario Testino, Diana stripped away the pomp of monarchy to promote her own personality in the same way Henry VIII had pioneered 500 years earlier.
Far from being the also-rans in today's age of celebrity, the royals can truly be said to have invented it.
SERIES:
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Series 1 Episode 1
Power and Personality
Historian Dr David Starkey examines how royal portraiture from Henry VIII to Princess Diana has had an enduring…
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Series 1 Episode 2
Art for the People
Dr Gus Casely-Hayford shows how our sense of identity was changed forever by the most distinctively British artist this…
- This programme has episodes with subtitles available.
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Series 1 Episode 3
Flesh
Writer Howard Jacobson celebrates the way British artists depict sex and desire, and argues that the most compelling…
- This programme has episodes with subtitles available.
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Series 1 Episode 4
Visions of England
At a time when Britain's contemporary art world has been dominated by the 'Sensation' generation of Damien Hirst and…
- This programme has episodes with subtitles available.
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Series 1 Episode 5
Modern Times
Modern Art has made us who we are and it has certainly made Janet Street Porter who she is.
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Series 1 Episode 6
The Art of War
Former war reporter Jon Snow presents a timely reminder of how British artists have expressed and defined our response…
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