Civilisation 1: The Skin of Our Teeth: 5

Charlemagne ruled "an empire stretching from Denmark to the Adriatic" and "amassed treasure from all over the known world" (Clark, 1969, p. 23).  "In the end", however, "it was the books that mattered- not only the texts but the illustrations and the bindings" (Clark, K., 1969 p. 23). Knowledge is power. 

Despite some of my reservations about the series and the book, its conservatism and sometimes dubious claims, it does show a great deal of insight into our European artistic and cultural past. It is quite enlightening. It is intelligent and sometimes witty. It is also important to remember that Clark's anxiety about the fragility of (Western) civilisation is not limited to cultural conservatives. 

Sources:

Clark, K (1969) Civilisation: A personal view, London: BBC/J. Murray

Civilisation 1: The Skin of Our Teeth: 4

"Charlemagne is the first great man of action to emerge from the darkness since the collapse of the Roman world" (Clark, 1969, p.18).

The clip chronicles the rise of the Frankish Kingdom after the defeat of the Moors in 732AD by Charles Martel. Without Martel's victory "Western Civilisation may never have existed" and without Charlemagne the great administrator and tireless campaigner  "we would never have had the notion of a United Europe" (Clark, 1969, p.18).

Clark, K., (1969) Civilisation: A personal view. London: BBC/J. Murray

Civilisation 1: The Skin of Our Teeth: 3

Western civilisation according to Clark, was kept alive by holy men in places like Iona, the centre of Celtic Christianity. Here we see examples of the amazing designs of manuscripts and crosses produced by the Celtic Church, in what is known as the Irish style. It is not clear whether the manuscripts were designed in Iona or Lindisfarne.  The book of gospels with its “pure pages of ornament are almost the richest and most complicated pieces of abstract decoration ever produced”, and is Clark suggests “more sophisticated and refined than anything in Islamic art” (Clark, 1969 p.11). Clark does seem to generally ignore the contribution of Islamic art and science on Western European thought. It is worth remembering that in Victorian Britain Islamic and Celtic design seem to fuse in the arts and crafts.

With the Norseman on the move places like Iona became unsafe so the Abbott of Iona fled to Ireland. What we see from this chaos are clear differences between “Atlantic man” and the “Mediterranean man” and the new technical skills of the Viking’s journeys, which represent a new achievement of the western world” (Clark, 1969 p.14).  The symbol that distinguishes “Atlantic man” from the Greek temple of “Mediterranean man” is the Viking ship. Clark states that “the Greek temple is static and cold” while “the ship is mobile and light” (Clark, 1969 p.14).

These oppositions of permanence and mobility are themes that run through Civilisation. There are tensions between cultural restlessness and a need to settle and create order out of the flux of experiences.

This particular clip ends with the rise of the Frankish Kingdom and the creation of the Holy Roman Empire.  "Incidentally", says Clark  "drawings of the ninth century show, almost for the very first time, that the horsemen have stirrups, and people who like mechanical explanations for historical events maintain that this was the reason why the Frankish cavalry was victorious" (Clark, 1969 p.14).

Sources:

Clark, K (1969) Civilisation: A personal view. London: BBC/J. Murray

Civilisation 1: The Skin of Our Teeth: 2

The above is the second clip from the first episode “The Skin of our Teeth” and begins waves and waves of barbarians crossing the Danube. Some become romanized and then other more destructive forces arrived: Huns amongst them. Rome had practically collapsed and Civilisation according to Clark “might have drifted downstream for a long time”, if it had not been for the appearance of “a new force” in the middle of the 7^th Century, “with faith, energy, a will to conquer and an alternative culture: Islam” (1969, p.7).  The classical world was overrun in about fifty years: “only its bleached bones stood out against the Mediterranean sky” (1969, p.7). 

                So now the new civilisation would have to face the Atlantic. For now the old source of civilisation was sealed off.  The experience according Clark was one of melancholy and boredom. Christian scholars would seek out refuge in “the most inaccessible fringes of Cornwall, Ireland and the Hebrides” (Clark, 1969 p.7). Places “on the edge of the world” like Skellig Michael in the West of Ireland were places where fragments of Western Civilisation found take refuge from Viking raiders  and survive (Clark, 1969 p.7). 

Sources:

Clark, K (1969) Civilisation: A personal view. London: BBC/J. Murray

Civilisation 1: The Skin of Our Teeth: 1

“ 'Civilisation’…. an ambiguous term, denoting on the one hand enlightened and progressive development and on the other hand an achieved and threatened state, becoming increasingly retrospective and often in practice identified with the received glories of the past (Williams, R., 1977 p.15).

I received the box set of Civilisation for Christmas from my girlfriend. It is a fantastic present and I have already got through the first disc. It is a shame that I did not get it earlier, because some of the series deals with things relevant to the Media Technologies and Public Spheres unit. 

I cannot help recall the first time I saw it on television, which must have been when I was about ten years old and staying at my grandmother’s house (a repeat of series no doubt after the death of Kenneth Clark). I watched it with a mix of boredom and a sort of negative feeling, not because I disliked history or art, but because I was suspicious of elites and uncomfortable about the grandeur of the state (something that I would feel when viewing the Great Court of Blenheim Palace on a school trip. The West and East Facade’s are far warmer and inviting). There also was something frivolous about it (I do not fully believe this now)…. and who was this posh bloke telling me what civilisation was?

Civilisation- or more accurately titled Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark is a thirteen part series originally shown on BBC 2. The scope of this series is incredible. It deals with architecture, art music, philosophy, poetry, religious thinking, engineering and science. The first episode introduces the series and explains that it deals with the achievements of Western Man. So, according to this series, women “made almost no contribution to European culture or thought” (Walker, J., 1993, p. 80). I love the series for its visual content and its breadth and care for history and art, but ideologically it is at times quite loathsome and far from being disinterested.

This first episode is called “The Skin of our Teeth” and deals with the period around the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and discusses the waves of barbarians that entered Western Europe following the Empires stagnation and decline.  The title refers to Clark’s belief that Western European civilization was lucky to survive the collapse of Rome. The above clip deals with Rome and Greek culture as “An Expression of an Ideal” (Hearn, M., 2005p.20). This ideal becomes stagnant. Its failures do not stop Clark from comparing African art unfavourably to Greek and Roman antiquity. Unlike Roman and Greek statues African masks “could not be regarded as manifestations of civilisation” (Clark, K., 1969 and Walker, J., 1993, p. 80). This was, according to Clark “because they signified darkness and superstition rather than rationality” (Clark, K., 1969 and Walker, J., 1993, p. 80). Yet no evidence was provided to support this contentious judgement.

Sources:

Clark, K (1969) Civilisation: A personal view. London: BBC/J. Murray

Hearn, M., (2005) Civilisation: A personal view, Viewing Notes, London: BBC DVD

Walker, J., (1993) Arts TV, London: John Libbey

Williams, R., Marxism and Literature, Oxford, OUP, 1977.