DECODING THE MASTERWORKS

Dr Janina Ramirez presents a three-part series on BBC Radio 4, examining three great masterworks in minute detail. Recorded in the galleries in which the pictures hold pride of place, Janina is joined by experts who can provide context, biographical background and artistic insight, all combining to decode these masterworks for today’s audience.

MANET'S A BAR AT THE FOLIES-BERGERE

Decoding the Masterworks begins at the Courtauld gallery in London with Edouard Manet's 'A bar at the Folies-Bergère'. Joining Janina are Professor Griselda Pollock of the University of Leeds and Dr Karen Serres of the Courtauld Institute who explain why the girl at the centre of the picture was more than just a reflection of a moment in Parisian cultural history....

DALI'S METAMORPHOSIS OF NARCISSUS

Janina visits Tate Modern on London's South Bank, with Professor Dawn Ades and the Tate's own Matthew Gale. It was completed in 1937 and not long after Dali brought it to London where he showed it to Sigmund Freud.  Discover what  the picture told Freud about the subconscious of its creator and what that creator wanted to reveal is the subject..

Paolo Uccello's The Hunt in the Forest

Janina is joined by Professor Martin Kemp and Professor Catherine Whistler of the Ashmolean museum to examine and decode the perspective brilliance of Paolo Uccello's The Hunt in the Forest. Believed to be one of the last major works completed by Uccello before his death in 1475, the painting is rich in the work he had done involving perspective.