A personal view by Kenneth Clark
*
'All the greatest exponents of civilisation, from Dante to Goethe, have been obsessed by light-perhaps one could take it as the supreme symbol of civilisation. But in the seventeenth century light passed through a crucial stage. The invention of the lens was giving it a new range and power.'
The telescope and the microscope revealed new worlds in space and in a drop of water; and the realism of Dutch painting carried a stage further the observation of human character. Sir Kenneth Clark's story takes him from the Holland of Rembrandt and Vermeer to the London of Wren, Purcell, and the Royal Society.
Shown on Sunday
The narrative of this programme is printed in 'The Listener' of April 17
(Colour)