Giorgione: The Poet Of Vision; Leonardo Da Vinci: The Visionary Intellect; The Trecento: Italian Art & Architecture In The Fourteenth Century

"But above the narrative value shines the tactile power of an instant visual recognition, the almost pantheistic and physical reality of a living experience." Got that? That's one of those zero-right-to-the-heart-of-the-matter remarks about Giorgione's painting of "The Three Philosophers." Born in 1478, Giorgione died before he turned 35, and we know next to nothing about him or his work, except for this: he had a profound influence on Western art. Only a handful of paintings are known to have been completed by Giorgione, and these are trotted out accompanied by the kind of remarks that make your ears glaze over. On "Trial By Fire," for instance, we are informed that what we are seeing is "mood, taking place for the first time." Pretty ethereal stuff. I think it's safe to say that Giorgione: The Poet Of Vision will be palatable to fine arts students period. Leonardo da Vinci: The Visionary Intellect was certainly that and more, and this program offers a generous sampling of both his paintings and his sketches (both mechanical and anatomical). The rough outline of da Vinci's life is proffered, as well as some astute commentary on his work. The problem with Leonardo, the video, is that it's, well, funny. The voiceover narration is pure scholarly monotone which, in itself, is no problem; but the filmmakers have added a hip New Age soundtrack (not attributed) which runs incessantly in the background, abruptly switching from one musical piece to the next. It's kind of an aural Keystone Kops routine. So, a little off in the "tone" department, Leonardo suffers from strange production choices. The final program, The Trecento, basically takes the catalog showroom approach to the art and architecture of the 14th century. Some of the same high-octane prose, as is found in Giorgione, is on hand here as well as a lot of talk about plasiticity in Florentine painter, sculptor, and architect Giotto's work. There's no real rhyme or reason to the arrangement of the program, and the ending is so abrupt that one suspects the editor looked up at the clock and said "wow, lunch already." None of these are really necessary for public libraries, although universities with strong fine arts sections may want to consider. (Available from: Academy Entertainment Video, 433 East 51 Street, Suite 4A, New York, NY 10022.)