Civilisation: A Personal View
BBC Television, UK, 1969
BBC Television, UK, 1969
Lord Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) was an English art historian who served as director of the National Gallery in London for over a decade. In the public memory, he is most remembered for his epic BBC television series Civilisation: A Personal View, which, somewhat unexpectedly, garnered international audiences and widespread acclaim when it was first broadcast in 1969.
Lord Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) was an English art historian who served as director of the National Gallery in London for over a decade. In the public memory, he is most remembered for his epic BBC television series Civilisation: A Personal View, which, somewhat unexpectedly, garnered international audiences and widespread acclaim when it was first broadcast in 1969.
“I had no clear idea what ‘civilization’ meant, but thought it was preferable to barbarism, and fancied that this was the moment to say so,” said Clark of the genesis of Civilisation.
The ambition of the 13-part series is to chart the rise of Western civilization following the fall of Rome. Filming took three years and encompassed 117 locations in 13 countries. Civilisation paints a big picture with a range of brushes but always on a broad canvas, hence its depth, grandeur, and beauty.
Civilisation also reflects Clark’s repeated recognition of the pivotal cultural role played by Jesus Christ and his Holy Church over the past two millennia. As he observes, “The great achievement of the Catholic Church lay in harmonizing, civilizing the deepest impulses of ordinary, ignorant people.” While Marxism is dismissed as a fraud, so is the “heroic materialism” of Western capitalism, which Clark asserts “is not enough” to satisfy the human spirit. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Lord Kenneth Clark was received into the Catholic Church on his deathbed. May he rest in peace.
