This lecture integrates elements including color, line, shape, composition, light, symbolism, point of view, and focal point. Using the viewing tools you've developed, look deeply at four diverse masterpieces, including a sculpture by Thorvaldsen, a "vanitas" still life by Van Oosterwyck, a lithograph by Bonnard, and a painting by Van der Weyden.

In examining the diverse functions and types of portraits, study the important elements of facial presentation and the subject's position and gaze with relation to the viewer and the pictorial space. See how Rembrandt added dramatic power to his group "corporation" portraits, and how David carefully rendered Napoleon in symbolic terms.

In canvases of Millet, Courbet, and Manet, observe the Realist ideals of honesty, simplicity, and descriptive colors in revealing contemporary experience. Then, explore the phenomenon of Impressionism, highlighting Renoir, Monet, and Degas - their fascination with natural light, quest to capture the moment, and iconic subject matter of middle-class leisure life.

Many of us are terrified of public speaking, let alone performing! COMPOSED explores the many ways we experience and face performance anxiety, through the experiences of professional musicians. Faced with the judgment of peers, the audience, and themselves, these musicians spend years trying to understand and overcome their anxiety. Through their stories we find that we are not alone with our fear of failure.

Experience the majesty and beauty of the transcendent chorales, cantatas, masses, and oratorios of the Western sacred music tradition. Lectures are 45 minutes long and include examples of music discussed in the lecture.

A cookie art museum has just opened on Sesame Street. Surrounded by beautiful cookie painting, like "Girl with the cookie earring" and the "Muncha Lisa", Cookie Monster and his friends feel as if they're in a whole new world. But when art suddenly starts to disappear, Cookie Monster quickly becomes a suspect. Can Cookie Monster clear his name? Will they find the missing art in time or will Cookie Monster be banished from the museum forever?

Leonard Bernstein earned glory as a composer, conductor, and pianist (classical and jazz), but nothing gave him more pleasure than the joy of teaching. He presented the unique blend of spoken words and music. He is an intensely interactive teacher, getting his audience to sing, springing a quiz full of trick questions. He can take the most abstruse subject and present them to a young audience with clarity, without condescension, and with a clear sense...

"In Jane Austen's gentle parody of gothic fiction, romance novel addict Catherine Morland is invited to a medieval country house that appeals to her most lurid fantasies. She forms a close friendship with the younger son on the estate, Henry Tilney, but their budding romance is mysteriously cut short"--Container.

In these lectures Leonard Bernstein examines music from every age and place in the search for a worldwide, innate musical grammar. Includes performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Scholar and host Elisa New travels the country, joining up with distinguished poets, celebrities, and everyday Americans to create a fully immersive experience in hearing, reading, and interpreting twelve American poems.