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1 of 3 Dream Of Plenty 2013

Andrew Graham-Dixon shows how the art of Renaissance Flanders evolved from the 
craft of precious tapestries within the Duchy of Burgundy into a leading 
painting school in its own right. Starting his journey at the magnificent 
altarpiece of Ghent Cathedral created by the Van Eyck brothers, Andrew explains 
their groundbreaking innovation in oil painting and marvels at how the colours 
they obtained can still remain so vibrant today. 

Andrew describes how, in the early Renaissance, the most urgent preoccupation 
was not the advancement of learning, humanist or otherwise, but the Last 
Judgment. People believed they were living in the end of days; a subject 
popular with preachers and artists and intensely realised in swarming 
microscopic detail by Hieronymus Bosch.

2 of 3 Boom And Bust 2013

Andrew Graham-Dixon looks at how the seemingly peaceful countries of Holland 
and Belgium - famous for their tulips and windmills, mussels and chips - were 
in fact forged in a crucible of conflict and division. He examines how a period 
of economic boom driven for the first time by a burgeoning and secular middle 
class led to the Dutch golden age of the 17th century, creating not only the 
concept of oil painting itself, but the master painters Rembrandt and Vermeer 
combining art and commerce together as we would recognise it today. 

3 of 3 Daydreams And Nightmares 2013

Following a brief period of decline, the entrepreneurial and industrious region 
of the Low Countries rose again to become a cultural leader in the modern age. 
Despite its small and almost insignificant size it produced important forward-
thinking artists like Van Gogh, Mondrian, Magritte and Delvaux, who changed the 
face of art forever. 

Andrew's journey takes him to a remote beach in north west Holland that 
inspired Mondrian's transition to his now-renowned abstract grid paintings. 
Andrew digs deep into the psychology and social history of the region, 
exploring how the landscape of the past has informed the culture and identity 
of the Low Countries today and the impossibility of the Dutch drive to turn the 
philosophy of Mondrian's geometric order into a way of living.