BBC - A Very British Renaissance (2014)

Art historian Dr James Fox makes the case for a singularly British renaissance, telling the stories of the artists and artisans who changed Britain forever.
Italians do it better: when Venice and Florence, Leonardo and Raphael led the Renaissance, shouldn't our murky backwater of an island at the far edge of Europe just accept its place in the cultural shadows? Not if art historian Dr James Fox has anything to do with it. In this edifying journey into Britain's cultural flowering, James is telling anecdotes and tales of the strange and wonderful immigrants who seeded the Renaissance. And so we learn that it was a punch-up with Michelangelo, which eventually graced England with the Florentine sculptor Pietro Torrigiano as court artist to Henry VII. The Italian was soon joined by Holbein from Switzerland, who taught us about lifelike portraiture, and his friend Nicholas Kratzer, who ushered in a new era of scientific thinking. And the Scottish Icarus, a man who called himself Giovanni Damiano de Falcucci, better known as John Damian the Birdman of Stirling Castle, an Italian at the court of James IV of Scotland.
In a series for BBC Two, Dr James Fox looks back at a forgotten British Renaissance, celebrating an age that saw Britain shed its medieval shackles and embrace a world of cutting-edge art, literature, architecture and science. Across three episodes, James reveals the painters, sculptors, poets, thinkers and figures who, he argues, brought a bold and beautiful artistic movement to our shores between the 1500s to the start of the English civil war.

Written and Presented by Dr James Fox ; A BBC Arts Production

Part 1: The Renaissance Arrives
We think of the Renaissance as something that happened only in Italy, or in continental Europe. Art historian Dr James Fox believes otherwise - that Britain had its own Renaissance - one that easily measures up to the explosion of art and ideas that happened on the continent.
In the first episode, James explores how the Renaissance arrived, with a handful of influential European artists bringing ideas from the continent in the early 16th century - from the inspiration of Torrigiano, who fled Florence after a fist fight with Michelangelo, to Holbein and his influence on painter John Bettes - thought to be the first English Renaissance-trained artist. Although impossible without this foreign stimulus, this renaissance quickly became quintessentially British - it was gaining momentum and sparked a cultural revolution in Britain.

Part 2: The Elizabethan Code
Art historian Dr James Fox continues his exploration of a Renaissance that he believes was as rich and as significant in Britain as it was in Italy and Europe. He tells the story of the painters, sculptors, poets, playwrights, composers, inventors, craftsmen and scientists who revolutionised the way we saw the world.
In this episode, he explores the Elizabethans' love of secrecy, codes and complexity, and the cultural revolution sparked by an age of discovery and exploration. Especially two extraordinary paintings from the Elizabethan Age are highlighted, a portrait of Sir Henry Unton, and Sir Christopher Hatton by an unknown artist, both filled with symbolism to decode, showing that English Renaissance painting was experimental, rich and sophisticated.

Part 3: Whose Renaissance?
Concluding episode of the programme celebrating an age that saw Britain embrace a world of cutting-edge art, literature, architecture and science. Art historian Dr James Fox continues his exploration of a Renaissance that he believes was as rich and as significant in Britain as it was in Italy and Europe. He tells the story of the painters, poets, playwrights, composers, inventors, craftsmen and scientists who revolutionised the way we saw the world.
In the final episode, he explores how the tension between two cultures - one courtly, classical and European, the other home-grown, innovative and vital - helped bring the country to civil war in the mid-17th century.