The Private Life of a Masterpiece Episode Rating Graph
Feb 2001 - Dec 2010
Feb 2001 - Dec 2010
5.0
Browse episode ratings trends for The Private Life of a Masterpiece. Simply click on the interactive rating graph to explore the best and worst of The Private Life of a Masterpiece's 30 episodes.
S5 Ep2
9.0
3rd Feb 2005
Perhaps the most reproduced of all 19th century paintings, The Sunflowers has a story that lies at the crux of the complex relationship between Van Gogh and Paul Gaugin. The programme reveals how Van Gogh started to paint sunflowers soon after he moved from Holland to Paris and how they became the emblem of his embrace of Southern France, warmth and the sun. It looks especially at the 8th of the Sunflower paintings, the one in the National Gallery in London which is arguably the best in the series. It was most admired and desired by Gaugin but denied to him by Van Gogh as their relationship deteriorated.
S4 Ep3
9.0
20th Jan 2004
The Scream tells the life-story of the painting more widely reproduced than any other, even the Mona Lisa. It shows exactly how and why the Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch arrived at his extraordinary image and how that image of the screaming person has reverberated down the decades to become an icon in modern culture.
S3 Ep3
9.0
28th Jan 2003
Perhaps the most celebrated of all Japanese pictures, the Great Wave's portrayal of a huge wave about to overwhelm three boats was only produced by Hokusai when he was old and broke and needed money badly. A print that cost little more than bowl of noodles to those who first bought it, the image has been hugely influential on later art.
S6 Ep1
8.0
15th May 2005
'My Brothel' is the title that Picasso gave to his masterwork Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, the painting of five towering prostitutes that began the art of the twentieth century. It was a work that shocked even his friends when they first saw it, with one saying that Picasso would be found hanged behind it one day. The programme relates how the painting grew out of a fierce rivalry between Matisse and Picasso and just why it was and remains so revolutionary.
S1 Ep1
5.5
16th Feb 2001
Botticelli's painting is extraordinarily beautiful; his portrayal of Flora, the central character, reveals a face you might find in London or Bologna or Boston today. But what the painting is about is a mystery which scholars devote their lives to solving. It is rich is sex, even rape, but it also about love and the highest aspirations of man.
S1 Ep2
7.0
17th Feb 2001
Among the greatest of all depictions of battle, these three panels were break throughs in painting technique, so that contemporaries must have viewed them in awe. Also they were the victims of an audacious art crime.
S2 Ep2
7.0
10th Feb 2002
Of all Vermeer's paintings, it was probably this picture that he held in greatest esteem. It was the painting he used to show off his skills to customers. A customer three centuries after he died was none other than Adolf Hitler
S3 Ep1
7.0
26th Jan 2003
Arguably the most powerful painting about war ever achieved. It portrays the slaughter of civilians after Napoleonic troops entered Madrid in 1808. The programme reveals the historical truths behind the painting and shows exactly how Goya achieved this masterpiece of protest.
S1 Ep1
5.5
16th Feb 2001
Botticelli's painting is extraordinarily beautiful; his portrayal of Flora, the central character, reveals a face you might find in London or Bologna or Boston today. But what the painting is about is a mystery which scholars devote their lives to solving. It is rich is sex, even rape, but it also about love and the highest aspirations of man.
S1 Ep2
7.0
17th Feb 2001
Among the greatest of all depictions of battle, these three panels were break throughs in painting technique, so that contemporaries must have viewed them in awe. Also they were the victims of an audacious art crime.
S1 Ep3
18th Feb 2001
The story of probably the most renowned painting in the world. The Last Supper revolutionized Western art and its power reverberates to this day in the courts and the bookshops and cinemas. Just how Leonardo Da Vinci broke with traditions in creating his supremely dynamic masterpiece is recounted, together with the tale of his disastrous attempt to use a new technique in wall-painting.
S1 Ep4
19th Feb 2001
The first moment in the Christmas story is the arrival of the Archangel Gabriel to tell Mary that she has been chosen to give birth to the son of God. Many painters have depicted this event, none better than the great Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck. As befits a man who seems to mixed espionage in with painting for his patron, Eyck’s picture is full of symbols and half-concealed messages. It has an extraordinary after-life - sold by the Soviets against the wishes of the Hermitage and bought by a secretive American millionaire who hid it away in a cellar.
The first episode of The Private Life of a Masterpiece aired on February 16, 2001.
The last episode of The Private Life of a Masterpiece aired on December 25, 2010.
There are 30 episodes of The Private Life of a Masterpiece.
There are 10 seasons of The Private Life of a Masterpiece.
No.
The Private Life of a Masterpiece has ended.