these altarpieces are gothic.being pre-renaissance, they simply tell their story through symbolism rather than realism. the gold-leaf sky isn't realistic, but it implies a rich and holy setting. the angels are stacked like a totem pole. flanking this cross, panels like painted pages tell the story of the crucifixion, but with little sense of depth. yet artists were trying. to show jesus' head leaning out, it actually does. giotto, while still gothic, is often considered the first modern painter. notice the progress. his more-realistic setting places mary and baby jesus on a throne occupying a believable space. the kneeling angels in front and peekaboo saints behind create an illusion of depth. if the renaissance was the foundation of our modern world, a foundation for the renaissance was classical art. sculptors, painters, and poets alike turned to ancient work for inspiration. 2,000-year-old roman and greek statues like these decorated gardens of the wealthy. this ancient art was considered the epitome of beauty.

she was very gothic. i thought, what a brilliant analysis from this man who is famous for the square -- knew a lot more than the square. what do we have here? >> i drew him already but i want to do him again. >> oh, i know. this is one of patrick's more celebrated images. i asked him if by chance this had emerged just from fooling with pencil. he said it had not. he has done more than one version of the president in this form. he was not asking is he romanesque or gothic. [laughter] but is he on an island somewhere far off in the pacific? [laughter] >> with no ears. he doesn't hear anything. >> oh, he doesn't hear! i missed that symbolism. >> i thought i'd put someone down here. >> is that punk? >> no. [laughter] >> oh! [applause] >> that will be $5. baron von rumsfeld. a perfect prussian general. a lot of this stuff, you know? >> yeah. [laughter] >> oh, and of course -- what's wrong with me? [laughter] [applause] i take issue with your supposition that there is no common thread. you think they are all di

of a goldsmith's craft, embodying lessons learned from antique statuary and combining that with a gothicrace learned from the art of northern europe. florence is still a thriving center for the goldsmith's art. this is the studio of signor giorgio chilleri at the ponte vecchio. he works here as a master with his apprentice craftsmen. a whole generation of florentine artists-- ghiberti, brunelleschi, donatello-- began work in studios not unlike this, working on just such meticulous and minute creations before moving on in their careers to their monumental works of art. in an environment where the craftsman's skill so is highly prized, it was inevitable that their status should rise. inevitable, too, that the most brilliant of them-- men like brunelleschi and donatello-- should resent the restrictions which the craft guilds could place on them and the implication that their work was menial, a mechanical craft. and so, increasingly during this century, such artists came to see themselves as the equals of their patrons-- no longer humble, anonymous craftsmen, but self-confident, ambitious, i

among the many great structures is the cadet chapel which resembles a gothic medieval fortress overlooking here on the hill and watch over the corps of cadets down on the plain. >> the chapel is one of five on post, each providing a spiritual home to cadets from different relijre religious backgrounds. >> they had irish and italian immigrants who were stone masons and they were brought in to be the special artisans to work on the chapel. they were told if they complete the chapel in five years they would get citizenship. well, they completed it in 14 months, so i would say they were pretty well motivated to get it done. >> each stained glass window pane is a memorial. >> as you go through the sanctuary there are 192 windows. they're each dedicated to one of the graduating classes beginning in 1802 and up until 1976 when they ran out of space for doing anymore windows. ♪ ♪ you better watch out, you better not cry ♪ ♪ better not pout, i'm telling you why, santa claus is coming to town ♪ ♪ he's making a list, he's checking it twice ♪ ♪ gonna find out who's naughty and nice ♪ ♪ santa claus is

it was the first institution in the country to adopt the gothic style of architecture.th and tenacity needed to lead them into the future. among the many great structures is the cadet chapel which resembles a medieval fortress over the campus. >> the building was built in 1909 and was finished in 1910. it was gee signed to sit here on the hill and watch over the core of cadets. >> the chapel is one of five on the post each providing a spiritual home for cadets with a religious background. this amazing building took more than a year to complete. >> they had the irish and italian immigrants who were stonemasons and they had been brought in to be the special artisans to work on the chapel. they were told if they complete the chapel in five years they would get citizenship. they completed it in 14 months so i say they were motivated to get it done. >> each stain glassed memorial is given in memory of fallen classmates. >> as you go through the sanctuary there are 192 windows. they are each dedicated to one of the graduating classes beginning in 1802 up until 1976 when they

the artist proclaims his witnessing presence in a bold, gothic legal inscription in latin. this reads "jan van eyck was here." while italians were developing their illusionistic art with the assistance of mathematically reasoned perspective, northern painters, led by jan van eyck, used many translucent layers of pigments in quick-drying oils to produce uniquely convincing pictorialism. among jan's most compelling portraits, this man's features may be the artist's own. they have that fixed almost hypnotic quality that sometimes results from staring into a mirror for self-portrayal. we know that artists in the 15th century often wore such flamboyant red turbans which is another reason for suspecting that the identity of the sitter is jan van eyck himself. the most famous european painter of his day, jan van eyck was also a diplomat, mapmaker, and chemist. enormously learned, he was concerned with latin and greek and studied hebrew mysticism. here, jan van eyck depicts the most powerful figure at the burgundian court-- chancellor rolin-- kneeling before the madonna. in such wo

he concentrated the vast space of the gothic church of the franciscans with another image of woman-- woman as madonna. the culture itself had set up the perimeters of interpretive possibility, that is, a scheme that talks about love on a scale of values-- love that, at its basest is mere lust. love on that level being the love of the beast, of the animal. that then rises through a series of progressive stages through culturally licit lust, which is, of course, marital love. and that eventually arrives at the highest level which is divine love. titian's assumption of the virgin is 20 feet high. in 1518, it was the largest oil painting ever produced on the scale to match ambitious roman artists. titian had never been to rome and he was developing the potential of a new medium. painting on this scale had previously been done in fresco, where the colors are absorbed into the plaster but fresco in venice was vulnerable to dampness. only oils could give the brilliance and permanence that titian needed. ♪ alleluia ♪ ♪ alleluia ♪ ♪ alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ alleluia ♪ ♪ a

military academy was the first institution in the country to adopt the gothic style of architecture.orps of cadets, down on to plain. >> the chapel provides a spiritual home to cadets from different religious backgrounds. amazingly, this magnificent building took just over a year to complete. >> they had irish and italian immigrants who were stone masons, brought in to work on the chapel. they were told if they completed the chapel in five years, they would get citizenship. they completed it in four months. >> each stained glass window was a memorial, given over time by their classmates. >> as you go through the sanctuary, there are 192 windows. they're each dedicated to one of the graduating classes, beginning in 1802 and up until 1976 when they ran out of space for doing anymore windows ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ you better watch out you better not cry ♪ i'm telling you why ♪ santa claus is coming to town ♪ he's making a list ♪ he is checking it twice ♪ going to find out who is naughty and nice ♪ santa claus is coming to town ♪ he sees you when you're sleeping ♪ he knows when you're awake ♪ he know

so that was, you know, the kind of gothic mother i grew up with. >> what a backdrop, creatively. >> wonderful. you know, if i had a balanced childhood, a mother who, you're so beautiful, darling, no, you don't have to play the piano, don't worry about that, no. you know, my father, people asked me, well, why don't you ever write about your father? my father in my memory is perfect, and perfect characters do not make for good -- >> sadly boring. >> sadly boring, started off with a good citizen metal and went from there. so my mother created a lot of turmoil in the way i think about myself, and also over time i think that it's mostly good things. her emphasis on independence, about thinking of my own opinion and not taking anybody else's. she had a very strong reaction to condescension. she had very strong geiger counter for sincerity, to genuine -- >> that's the kind way to say it. >> yeah, for, you know, whatever. yeah, the opposite -- detector. >> did hdetector. hers was properly functioning. >> always. as a kid you think, why are you so negative? why are you looking for the worst in people?

changing from the garamond ink from times new roman or century gothic will save on print costs.government printing office has praised the work and says it will review the suggestion. today is the deadline to file your tax return if you don't do it by midnight, you face a penalty. but just last week, the tax collector missed a major dead lightning of its own. that will cost millions of dollars. despite having ample advance notice, the irs failed to update windows on nearly half of its 110,000 computers before microsoft phased out it's xp operating system. that means computers not updated will no longer get security updates or tech support from microsoft. slate.com reports that could cost you $11.5 million a year. an irs spokesperson tells "the washington post" none of the computers processing tax returns is affected by the xp expiration. >>> last friday on the grapevine, the story about military funding, we said the planting where army tanks were built is in the district of ohio congressman mike toomey. it's actually in the fourth congressional district. we regret that error. the

it was william beckford's son, the gothic novelist, who built it. west indians were well-known and live in. this is a caricature of a west indian who's in the middle temple. and one final reason why the islands might have stayed loyal to britain although i do not put a lot of stress on this, but the church of england, the anglican church, was essentially the only organized religion on the islands before the american revolution. this changed rapidly afterwards. there were huge numbers of scots on these islands but they were presbyterians. as many complained there was virtually no organized presbytery though -- there had been baptists, quakers. the religious origins of these islands is as diversified as north america. but most of the quaker meetings had closed. so the church of england was really the only organized religion. and the the church of england of course, preached authority and obedience. i say that. i don't stress this too much because we should remember that washington and jefferson in terms of their own churchgoing were members of what wa

and also american gothic one twitter user even wrote that the christmas card isn't just for christmas, it can also be used for halloween. >> maybe it is a camera problem, buzz his wife's face look as little misaligned. >> some people saithe looks angry. >> all right, see you back at 6:00. inside story is next on al jazeera america. >> in the last week an egyptian court hosni mubarak was not guilty of some of the most serious charges brought against him since his overthrow. we look back at the last four years and figure it was all worth it. it's inside story.

isn't that american gothic, the couple standing in front of the house of a man holding a pitchfork staringof the canvas and the woman giving a dirty look. i remember that one. he says the painting may be a little bit of a clichÉ. it is as realistic as a photograph but still it seems to tell you something about the two people that the photograph wouldn't be able to do. it is pretty abstract because it is realistic enough that they've shown this weird line and angle and this blue color scheme it's a whole different take on the human form. it looks more modern and effectively painted about 30 years earlier. both paintings depict people in the trades. both communicate something deep and true about humanity intellectually committed emotionally in ways that a book couldn't. but neither tries to tell you everything about its subject. each painting selects and exercises only certain things and leaves out other stuff that is a relevant word that would've her get in the way. and science does the same thing. science involves selective observation. science involves paying special attention to certain

soldiers home was actually an institution for disabled army veterans of the first family inhabited this gothic revival structure. the hilltop property was as simply an escape from the heat and humidity of summer in washington. arriving after dark borit ann could see little of the houses but a servant ushered them into a neatly furnished drawing room they had no prearranged appointment at lincoln soon appeared. borit described him as a long lanky figure with ice or very sleepy. although they had gotten them out of bed borit was still surprised that he was wearing carpet slippers. he was very sallow wrote lincoln very ugly and awkward and ungainly but there they were handshakes all around and borit found all my uneasiness and awe finished in a moment before the holy greeting of the president in the genial smile which accompanied it. a brisk conversation ensued and lincoln asked us guess what he thought of our great country. he spoke of franklin's political aspect and the constitution before discussing it in detail, points to the difference between the governance of the two countries. borit thoug

one twitter users swapped faces with the famous american gothic.teeth follow him around the room. it's the uk's version of the nightmare before christmas and we just had to share it with you. what better time for jeanne moos, right? ever heard of a getaway skateboard? we hadn't, either, until a suspect in a police chase got caught up in traffic. cnn's jeanne moos has the story. >> reporter: it started out as just another los angeles police chase, a stolen bmw driving in the wrong lane against traffic doing 90 miles an hour at one point, weaving and squeezing and then -- boom. >> he just crashed! >> but the rear ending one the surprise ending to this story. lug ago getaway skateboard was. the alleged car thief ran across three lanes of traffic clutching the long board and then came the move worthy of a movie. if only it had worked. for five seconds, the suspect tried to skateboard away from officers in hot pursuit on foot. experienced skateboarders we talked to gave the suspect low marks. his technique was described as "not very good." the chase hys

we see the tim bill weirton movies as the gothic illustration.h. and out it comes. and so -- so -- especially in this story. and in stories about relationships. we -- we know what's going on from our own experience. but we don't really always dare to face it. >> and there it is. and there he is. now it's quite remarkable. you can't believe that it's actually real stories. the things that went on with them. before we go, i want to congratulate you on your star on the walk of fame. >> thank you. >> that is a big honor, i would imagine. >> i was a little overwhelmed. >> i bet. and to have your buddy, quentin tarantino with you. it was special. >> wouldn't want to do it without him. he was the initiator about it. so having a star on the walk of fame wouldn't make sense without him. >> can't wait to see you on the new bond films. you can't talk about it. >> i can talk about anything. you can't talk about it. >> i can talk about anything. >> womaand the way it made me chronic feel,ipation, the discomfort, the bloating, the straining. i'd just felt this

didn't want it to be gothic. it's a really compelling, heartwarming story poll this family. also our expectation. but it's a good, quick read. >> you're so specific, brooke shields. >> we asked you to be. >> i know. >> stephen king. >> is there a bad steven king book? . no this one is a complete page turn. love it i would give it to my significant other so i could borrow it. yes. so stephen king, by the way. books for kids? you both picked the same one. >> the same one. "dj's book," the book with no pictures. >> compels you as a rearder to engage. i wrote children's books and i love the artist. that is a whole other thing, artists themselves but this without this really makes you compelled to be involved. >> kids will love this book, it may bug parents to read it, but it is -- right, but it is a great book. >> imagination. >> such a great idea. yes, ma'am >> even my 11-year-old enjoyed it >> let's go to boxes for friends, okay? you guys have chosen your own books here. >> andy cone diaries." >> about my mother. >> let's start with you. you wrote this book this year, you came