Rick Steves' Europe

Culture Series / 11 Seasons

Catch Rick Steves' latest one-hour special on Iceland. Explore Reykjavík, with endearing sights and thermal pools, plus a side-trip to the Golden Circle's gorges, geysers, and waterfalls.

25m / TV-G

Art Bites 156: Pieter Brueghel the Elder for a Slice of Flemish Life

2m 14s

The master of the slice-of-life scene captured the simplicity of country folk at play, celebrating humanity’s quirks and foibles. With Brueghel’s “Peasant Wedding” and “Peasant Dance” there’s not a saint in sight…just life with gusto and perhaps a small moral.

Art Bites 155: Oil Painting, an Improvement over Tempera

2m 9s

Around 1500, painters in Flanders mastered the use of oil-based paints rather than the standard of the day tempera or egg-based paints. Oil paints freed artists like Jan van Eyck, Raphael, and Leonardo to raise the bar.

Art Bites 154: The Northern Renaissance, Flemish Painting, and Jan van Eyck

3m 10s

The North featured the art of merchants and businessmen. The paintings were happy slice-of-life scenes, not preachy but feel-good and affordable. Masters like Jan van Eyck painted with rich symbolism and astonishing detail.

Art Bites 153: Albrecht Dürer, Realism, Humanism, and the Master Engraver

1m 54s

This German Renaissance master brought home Italy’s embrace of realism, humanism, and respect for artists. His self-portraits celebrated his genius, and his meticulous attention to detail was ideal for his work as an engraver — which made Albrecht Dürer the first best-selling artist ever.

Art Bites 152: El Greco and Mannerism

4m 8s

El Greco, fusing influences from Greece, Venice, and Holy Toledo, painted supernatural visions, faces that flicker like candles, and otherworldly altarpieces with a disregard for realism that feels modern even today. While hard to put El Greco in a box, he’s part of the Mannerist style that followed the Renaissance.

Art Bites 151: The Age of Discovery: Portugal and Spain

5m 52s

Discoveries stoked the Renaissance with confidence, bold new ideas, and plundered New World gold. Portugal had its own lacy Manueline architecture and Spain’s rich and art-loving emperor had far-flung tastes, including Titian the Venetian.

Art Bites 150: Michelangelo

6m 53s

Michelangelo, another multi-talented “Renaissance man” was a world-class sculptor, painter, and architect. He sculpted “David” and the “Pietà,” painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and designed St. Peter’s Basilica. I rest my case.

Art Bites 149: Raphael

3m 36s

Raphael combined the grace of Leonardo, the power of Michelangelo, and the humanist spirit of the age. The master of High Renaissance painting, his sweet Madonnas set a new standard and his “School of Athens” brought pre-Christian thinking into the Vatican.

Art Bites 148: Building a Gothic Cathedral Out of 13 Tourists

2m 2s

Gothic churches were taller and brighter than the earlier Romanesque. They had a skeleton of support — columns, buttresses, and pointed arches — as can be unforgettably illustrated by building a Gothic church with 13 travelers.

Art Bites 147: Gothic Church Architecture, the Pointed Arch and More Light

6m 51s

The Gothic Age was famed for its towering churches filled with colorful light shining through glorious stained glass and devout pilgrims. The revolutionary skeletal Gothic church design is best illustrated by building one with 13 travelers.

Art Bites 146: Art and Architecture of the Vikings

4m 3s

While the Vikings are best known as fierce marauders, a thousand years ago they built sleek ships and stately stave churches. Surviving artifacts show a society with an impressive artistic flair.

Art Bites 145: The Moors of Spain: Islamic Art in Medieval Europe

3m 58s

Muslim Moors ruled Spain and Portugal for centuries and that civilization was a bright spot as much of Europe was in a medieval slump. The highly cultured Moors built dazzling mosques and palaces decorated with intricate designs and calligraphy.

Art Bites 144: Byzantine Art in Medieval Europe and Venice

5m 54s

While Rome fell in the West, it lived on through the Middle Ages in the East as the Byzantine Empire. Its capital, Constantinople, and Venice were filled with art treasures — much-coveted bronze horses, rich mosaics, and magnificent churches.

Art Bites 143: Romanesque Art

3m 46s

In the 11th and 12th centuries Romanesque churches were filled with beautiful art. And that art served the church. Statues and paintings didn’t need to be realistic so long as they illustrated Bible lessons: teaching, inspiring, and scaring the faithful.

Art Bites 142: Romanesque Architecture: Three Great Churches

6m 3s

European culture finally kicked into gear in about the year 1000 and mighty Romanesque churches with the finest art of the day were built across the continent. Great examples are in Florence, Pisa, and Durham (where the style was called Norman).

Art Bites 141: Feudalism, Christianity, and the Art of Monks

5m 18s

From the chaos and power vacuum that followed the fall of Rome rose feudalism and Europe’s monastic movement. For centuries monasteries were the center of culture and monks were the great artists beautifully illustrating the books they transcribed.

Art Bites 140: Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel

2m 14s

Giotto, arguably the greatest medieval painter, covered this glorious chapel with frescoes telling Bible stories with a new realism. Each scene is a slice of the real world as we can see why Giotto is considered the first modern painter.

Art Bites 139: Saint Francis of Assisi and a New Spirit in Italy

2m 48s

Toward the end of the Middle Ages a new spirit and confidence was blossoming. At the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Gothic frescoes capture realism and powerful emotions as never before.

Art Bites 138: "The Lady and the Unicorn" Tapestry

2m 28s

One of the finest works of late medieval art is the “Lady and the Unicorn” tapestry. It’s a celebration of the senses —taste, hearing, sight, and touch — as a woman savors Europe’s blossoming appreciation of sheer, sensual beauty.

Art Bites 137: Secular Medieval Art: Castles and Tapestries

5m 37s

With rising prosperity, Europeans created more secular art and architecture: grand city halls and luxurious-for-the-day castles and palaces, with their stony walls warmed by finely woven tapestries (like the 500-year-old “Lady and the Unicorn”).

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