Review Of The Art Of Gothic Documentary 1

The first episode of the 'Art of Gothic' documentary begins by outlining the main concepts surrounding the gothic era. Presenter Andrew Graham-Dixon lists the concepts whilst walking around an eerie graveyard. Sinister, supernatural, horror and gothic buildings dedicated to the glory of God, were some of them. He goes on to explain some of the new ideas that the gothic bought along with it such as new literature and paintings. He also explains how it originally was used in the Italian Renaissance as an insult that goes anything against the civilised world. He explores the gothic through looking at a variety of different subjects, such as Warpol’s mind, the establishment, the sublime and sex.

He looks at the first gothic novel ever written, 'The Castle of Otranto', by Horace Warpol. Horace was an, ‘eccentric literary wit’.  He goes and looks around Horace Warpol’s house, Strawberry Hill, to try to capture and understand what led a highly educated man and noble son to write a dark story. This was interesting as I think that it was exciting to learn, that even in the past, people were eccentric and wanted to go against the grain and be individual. It was also interesting to see someone who was aristocracy lash out against his society.

One of the other topics that he looked at was 'The Establishment'; he went and investigated how the gothic made its mark on them. He went to look at the old ruins of buildings that were a constant reminder to the Georgians of the past and their way of life. Graham-Dixon also goes back to look at a building built by Lord Cobbam who took inspiration from Britain’s past, which, ‘conveyed his ideas about freedom’. He tried to 'tether the meaning of gothic to his own political agenda, it helped to fuel a aristocratic fashion.’ It was interesting to see how this idea of the gothic touched and influenced even the most powerful people, who before this drew most of their architectural inspiration from Ancient Greece.

He also looked at 'The Sublime', and how people in the gothic era had a new idea and looked upon the natural world. ‘Landscape began to inspire new feelings of awe and dread’. He discusses Edmond Burck who gave the new feelings that people had towards nature the title of 'The Sublime'. This idea of the sublime created an interest in art, because as Burck noted, nature was, ‘best enjoyed at a distance’, containing dramatic events taking place in nature, such as Turner’s alpine storm, ‘because we can’t be touched’. This was interesting to learn about as I feel people now have more of an enjoyment of nature  rather than terror, as I feel that society sees itself above it, as we are always trying to manipulate and conquer it.  People are now also trying to highlight the joy and importance of nature, in a world that puts self gain in front of the health of the planet.

He also studies Shakespeare and how the playwright became so popular in the Gothic era. He discusses how he thinks it is because his stories, such as Hamlet and Macbeth, are all ‘steeped in the atmosphere of Gothic’.

Throughout the programme he also goes onto discuss 'Fantasy and Sex' and their power and importance throughout the gothic era.  I thought that this was a really interesting programme as it went in to more detail about some of the ideas that we have been learning about in lessons. I think that, up until watching this programme, I did not understand the power and movements caused by The Gothic.