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The Winter Garden - XA001/AIP/02
What secrets are held by a priceless collection of watercolours, painted over five hundred years ago and, until recently, hidden deep inside a Polish library?American art historian Claudia Swan travels to Krakow on a mission to discover the purpose, artist and owner of these breathtaking botanical paintings. The quest to understand Renaissance art takes us to Leiden, where we discover that the paintings were used as a teaching tool at the medical school. The medical school's botanical gardens were a living laboratory where students had the task of learning the names and functions of hundreds of species of plants. The watercolours of these plants served as a winter garden, allowing study in the winter months.
But who owned the paintings? And who painted them? As the mysteries of the pictures are unfurled, we take a journey across the divide between art and science and another Renaissance secret is revealed.
There are three programmes in the 'Renaissance Secrets' series. Please see 'The Riddle of the Dome' (XA001/AIP/01) and 'A Most Mysterious Marriage' (XA001/AIP/03).
The series won a Broadcast Award at the annual Educational Television & Media Association dinner in 2000, triumphing in the 'non-compulsory audience' category.
Publication Year: 1999
Length: 30mins
ISBN: 9780749233365