How Art Made the World

The series consists of five episodes, each of which deals with a different theme of visual art: the first episode "More Human than Human" looks at why humans, throughout human history, are obsessed with images of the body that are so unrealistic; the second episode "The Day Pictures Were Born" reveals how the very first pictures ever made were created; the third episode "The Art of Persuasion" tells of the role of imagery or visual art as a political tool throughout human history; the fourth episode "Once Upon a Time" is about the role of visual art in storytelling; and the fifth and final episode "To Death and Back" is about the image of death that terrifies and yet reassures us.