Looking beyond a familiar painting
Beyond the Brush explores the stories behind well-known paintings with art historian Siân Walters and writer James Payne. The six-part Sky Arts series gives each work a separate episode, making a familiar image the starting point for a closer examination of creativity, personal experience and cultural context.
The first series brings together paintings that are recognizable for very different reasons. Its range includes The Scream, The Starry Night, Saturn Devouring His Son, The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Birth of Venus and The Last Supper. The work-by-work structure allows viewers to begin with a particular artist or image.
Different questions behind different works
The episode guide connects Edvard Munch’s The Scream with anxiety and raw emotion, while the Van Gogh chapter examines The Starry Night through the relationship between his circumstances and visual imagination. Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son introduces darker visions of human nature. These are different routes into how a painting acquires its force.
Other chapters turn towards symbolism, mythology and the construction of an image. Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Leonardo’s Last Supper offer subjects for considering how ideas and technique work together. The programme’s broad appeal lies in explaining why a familiar masterpiece may hold more than its first impression suggests.
