A Rent in the Clouds
Architectural historian Robert Harbison considers the fascination with clouds in the baroque period, exploring the depiction of ever-expanding spaces using cloud-ceilings.
In a series tracing the role of clouds in art, architecture and the cultural imagination, architectural historian Robert Harbison considers the obsessive fascination with clouds in the baroque period.
He explores the depiction of ever-expanding spaces, as architects tried to realise this vision with elaborate cloud-ceilings and extravagant multi-media designs. Harbison describes the experience of standing in these buildings that to him seem part-earthly material and part-cloud.
Last on
More episodes
Broadcast
- Tue 24 Feb 2009 23:00大象传媒 Radio 3
Death in Trieste
A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.
Watch: My Deaf World
Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.
The Book that Changed Me
Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.
Download The Essay
Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.
Podcast
-
![]()
The Essay
Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
