Did the Renaissance in the visual arts end with a flourish or did it go into decline? In this program, Andrew Graham-Dixon proposes that the Renaissance slowly faded away due to pressure from the Council of Trent, the industrialization of northern Europe, and the ending of Venetian mercantile hegemony. The program ends with a discussion of perhaps the most persistent Renaissance legacy of all: the vivid representation of the human form in art. The works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Benvenuto Cellini, Correggio, Michelangelo, Jacopo da Pontormo, and Jan van Eyck are featured. A BBC Production. (60 minutes)