0:00:02 > 0:00:03So, this must go there...
0:00:03 > 0:00:07This must be...there.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10And this will be the last one, here.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14Oh, no.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41Who do you think that is?
0:00:41 > 0:00:42I'll give you a clue -
0:00:42 > 0:00:45it's a famous English king.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47So, who is it?
0:00:47 > 0:00:49MUSIC: Greensleeves
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Come on! No googling.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Who is this stern and bony monarch?
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Now, you smart people out there,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03the ones who come here to the National Portrait Gallery,
0:01:03 > 0:01:06you got it straightaway, I know.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10The giveaway, of course, is the nose.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12The way it's flattened.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15There's something walrusy about it.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21But some of you didn't get it, right?
0:01:21 > 0:01:27And the reason you didn't recognise immediately that this is Henry VIII,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30is because this isn't the Henry
0:01:30 > 0:01:36we've all got up here in our imaginations.
0:01:36 > 0:01:41The Henry who had six wives, who took on the Pope,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44who destroyed the monasteries.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52That Henry didn't look like this - he looked...
0:01:57 > 0:01:58..like this.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01Now, that's what you call Henry VIII.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05Look at the way he stands,
0:02:05 > 0:02:10like a Tudor gunslinger at Ye OK Corral.
0:02:10 > 0:02:15The mighty torso, the sheer width of the man.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19This is a king who could change history.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25That's the Henry who lives up here in our thoughts.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30Henry the Terrible, the widest king in Christendom.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34And he is the creation of a particularly important artist -
0:02:34 > 0:02:39an artist who I would argue didn't just record British history -
0:02:39 > 0:02:43he actually changed it.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49He was a funny little man, a German from Bavaria,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52a genius who looked like a farmer -
0:02:52 > 0:02:56called Johannes, or Hans, Holbein.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03This is Holbein's great gift to the world.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06The iconic image of Henry VIII,
0:03:06 > 0:03:09which everyone recognises.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12And Holbein didn't stop there.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17How do we know what Sir Thomas More,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20that conscious-full man for all seasons,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24who stood up to Henry, looked like?
0:03:24 > 0:03:25Because of Holbein.
0:03:27 > 0:03:33How do we know what Henry's unfortunate queens looked like?
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Because of Holbein.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40And how do we know what Thomas Cromwell,
0:03:40 > 0:03:45Henry's go-to man for destroying the monasteries,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47really looked like?
0:03:47 > 0:03:49Because of Holbein.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55Holbein didn't just describe Tudor England -
0:03:55 > 0:03:59he gave it an extraordinarily active presence,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02made it feel REAL.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07And by making Tudor England immortal, he changed history.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12Because a slab of history we could envisage so clearly
0:04:12 > 0:04:16will always trump all those other slabs of history
0:04:16 > 0:04:18we can't envisage at all.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25Why are we so obsessed with Henry VIII and his damned wives?
0:04:27 > 0:04:29Because of Holbein.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37Holbein was from here -
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Augsburg in Bavaria,
0:04:40 > 0:04:44where he was born in 1497.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46DOOR CREAKS
0:04:51 > 0:04:54His father was a painter, and a really good one -
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Hans Holbein the Elder.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59He painted religious pictures.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01This is one of his.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08He designed stained glass, as well.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11So, his son, trained by his father,
0:05:11 > 0:05:16would have imbibed all of these profound Catholic moods from birth.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Here at the museum in Augsburg
0:05:24 > 0:05:29they've got one of Holbein the Elder's finest pictures.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33This is the Basilica of St Paul, as it's called,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37an altarpiece which tells St Paul's story.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41Over here,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44he's having his head cut off on the orders of the emperor, Nero.
0:05:46 > 0:05:51Apparently, the head bounced three times when it hit the ground,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55causing three miraculous fountains
0:05:55 > 0:05:57to spurt from the earth.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03But what I really want to show you is this scene on the left.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06Because that old man, there, with the straggly beard,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09that's actually Holbein the Elder,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12and below him are his two sons -
0:06:12 > 0:06:16Ambrosius, the older one, with the curly hair,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20and next to him, little Hans Holbein,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23future painter of Henry VIII.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39So, the dad trains the son to be a painter.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45And when the son is 17, he comes here, to Basel,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47in modern Switzerland.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54Basel was famous for its printing - the European capital of books.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57And that must have been what brought the young Holbein here -
0:06:57 > 0:07:01he was looking for work as a book illustrator.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09Basel's greatest printer was a man called Johann Froben.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Froben was both a publisher and a scholar,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17so he was adventurous and informed -
0:07:17 > 0:07:20and Holbein was soon working for him.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Froben produced lots of important books,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29but he's particularly well known for publishing the work
0:07:29 > 0:07:34of that celebrated Dutch naysayer Erasmus of Rotterdam.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43And, yes, Holbein painted Erasmus, too,
0:07:43 > 0:07:48tucked up for winter in his study, busily writing.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58Erasmus actually came to Basel specifically to work with Froben,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01and it was Froben who published the best edition
0:08:01 > 0:08:05of Erasmus's most celebrated work,
0:08:05 > 0:08:09a hilarious send-up of the modern world
0:08:09 > 0:08:12called In Praise Of Folly.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Just about everyone gets a kicking in In Praise Of Folly.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20Young people... CHILD LAUGHS
0:08:20 > 0:08:23..women... WOMAN GIGGLES
0:08:23 > 0:08:25..gamblers... DICE RATTLE
0:08:25 > 0:08:30..but Erasmus comes down particularly hard on the clergy...
0:08:30 > 0:08:31BELL TOLLS
0:08:31 > 0:08:33..the priests,
0:08:33 > 0:08:34the bishops
0:08:34 > 0:08:36and the friars.
0:08:40 > 0:08:46Holbein was just 17 when he got hold of a copy of In Praise Of Folly,
0:08:46 > 0:08:51and in the margins, he drew all these funny little drawings.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58It's like something a naughty schoolboy might do -
0:08:58 > 0:09:01draw all over a famous book.
0:09:02 > 0:09:09This chap here is walking along the road, when he sees a beautiful woman.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11And he's so busy staring at her,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15he steps into a basket of eggs.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Eurgh!
0:09:19 > 0:09:23And this is a monk who's taken the vow of poverty,
0:09:23 > 0:09:29so he can only touch money with this weird money-touching implement.
0:09:29 > 0:09:35However, with his other hand, he can touch whatever he wants.
0:09:35 > 0:09:36As you can see.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42It's impressively rude.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47How can a 17-year-old boy know this much already about sex, greed,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50human stupidity?
0:09:50 > 0:09:55The Holbein who emerges here is an instinctive subversive -
0:09:55 > 0:10:00a mickey-taker who sides with Erasmus to poke fun at the world around him.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07So, a good question is, where did it all go?
0:10:08 > 0:10:13Did Holbein suppress all this precocious knowledge of the dark
0:10:13 > 0:10:15workings of men,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19or did it sometimes poke out and reveal itself?
0:10:22 > 0:10:25When you're as talented as this,
0:10:25 > 0:10:31and you've got this much speed and inventiveness in your fingers,
0:10:31 > 0:10:33people quickly notice,
0:10:33 > 0:10:37so Holbein was soon busy.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38CHOIR SINGS
0:10:40 > 0:10:44The thing he was really good at was religious painting.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50This is the dead Christ that the young Holbein painted
0:10:50 > 0:10:52for the base of a Basel altarpiece.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59It's a coruscating piece of religious realism.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04But he could do Catholic fluffiness as well.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Like this gorgeous Madonna and child, standing in a niche in Darmstadt.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17Look at the brilliant foreshortening of Jesus' hand.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23Leonardo himself would have been proud of that.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29So, it was all going spiffingly.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34His religious art was in demand, the book trade was keeping him busy,
0:11:34 > 0:11:39when along came Martin Luther and his Protestant Reformation.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Suddenly, everything changed.
0:11:42 > 0:11:43MEN SHOUT
0:11:43 > 0:11:45WEAPONS CLASH
0:11:45 > 0:11:49In a Lutheran world, there was no longer much demand
0:11:49 > 0:11:55for Catholic Madonnas standing ornately in golden niches.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02The printing industry, too, began to flounder.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04Who should it publish?
0:12:04 > 0:12:08The Protestants...or the Catholics?
0:12:12 > 0:12:15With the publishing world caught in this dangerous crossfire,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18and the religious commissions drying up,
0:12:18 > 0:12:23Holbein needed to find work somewhere else.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26And that's where Erasmus made himself useful.
0:12:29 > 0:12:35Erasmus had actually written In Praise Of Folly in England.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40He'd spent several years there, teaching at Oxford and Cambridge.
0:12:42 > 0:12:50And in 1526, Holbein, armed with a letter of introduction from Erasmus,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52set off looking for work...
0:12:52 > 0:12:54to England.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59When he gets here to England, he's in his late 20s,
0:12:59 > 0:13:02so, he's still a young artist,
0:13:02 > 0:13:04but already very experienced.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06The unexpected thing, though,
0:13:06 > 0:13:08about Holbein's arrival
0:13:08 > 0:13:10in Henry VIII's England
0:13:10 > 0:13:14is that the one thing he didn't have much experience of
0:13:14 > 0:13:16was painting portraits.
0:13:19 > 0:13:24In Basel, Holbein had been known chiefly as a religious artist.
0:13:26 > 0:13:31He'd painted one or two portraits, yes, and they were really good...
0:13:31 > 0:13:34but they were exceptions in his output.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39England, though, had never had much of an appetite
0:13:39 > 0:13:42for Madonnas and Christs.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46That kind of thing was best left to the Italians.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50In England, the art form that was most esteemed,
0:13:50 > 0:13:54and which seemed most in tune with the national psyche,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56was portraiture.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03The staircases of England were lined with ancestors
0:14:03 > 0:14:05showing off their bloodlines.
0:14:07 > 0:14:13To succeed in England, Holbein needed to change tack.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21Erasmus had given him
0:14:21 > 0:14:26an introduction to one of the most influential men at the court -
0:14:26 > 0:14:29writer, statesman, theologian
0:14:29 > 0:14:34and, as it later transpired, Catholic martyr,
0:14:34 > 0:14:36Sir Thomas More.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44Holbein seems to have spent most of his first year in England
0:14:44 > 0:14:47living in More's house in Chelsea.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51He was working on this -
0:14:51 > 0:14:57a hugely ambitious group portrait of More and his very large family.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Unfortunately, this is a copy...
0:15:02 > 0:15:04and not a very good one.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09The original was destroyed by a fire in the 18th century.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14All that's left of the real Holbein
0:15:14 > 0:15:18is a stack of these astonishingly vivid drawings.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27Oh, and there is something else, of course.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30This.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Holbein's great portrait of More,
0:15:34 > 0:15:38which they have here at the Frick Collection, New York.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46More was the man who famously stood up to Henry,
0:15:46 > 0:15:51who refused to accept the king as the new head of the church.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54So, Henry had him beheaded.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Now, I was brought up believing that Sir Thomas More
0:16:00 > 0:16:02was a man of great principle.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07That's why the Catholic Church made him a saint in 1935.
0:16:10 > 0:16:16But, more recently, a different Thomas More has been proposed to us.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18In today's histories,
0:16:18 > 0:16:23he's often presented as a demented, religious bigot -
0:16:23 > 0:16:27a cruel slayer of the heretics.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34That's what modern novelists and playwrights have been making of More.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37But it's not what Holbein makes of him.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39And Holbein was there.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46I know it's a cliche, and it's been said a thousand times,
0:16:46 > 0:16:51but you really do feel he's standing there before you.
0:16:52 > 0:16:57One of the most resolute presences in British art.
0:16:59 > 0:17:05Just look at the details - the way the velvet has been painted,
0:17:05 > 0:17:09or his perfectly-observed skin tones,
0:17:09 > 0:17:13or that utterly convincing five o'clock shadow.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20This sense of actuality is new.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Not just in British art, but anywhere.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31These first English portraits of Holbein's
0:17:31 > 0:17:34make Doctor Whos of us all.
0:17:34 > 0:17:40Tardis-ing us back in time to meet a Tudor cast
0:17:40 > 0:17:43that feels astonishingly present.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Just there, right in front of us.
0:17:50 > 0:17:51BELLS CHIME
0:17:51 > 0:17:52BICYCLE BELL RINGS
0:17:53 > 0:18:00Holbein's first visit to England lasted just two years,
0:18:00 > 0:18:05before the fates conspired to bring him home to Basel.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11He was busy enough - that wasn't the issue.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13But as a citizen of Basel,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16he could only leave the city for a short time,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18or he'd lose his citizenship.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22So, in 1528 he had to come back.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31It was probably now that he painted his wife and children.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36He'd had to leave them behind when he left for England.
0:18:36 > 0:18:42And, as you can see, he's made them into a holy family, hasn't he?
0:18:43 > 0:18:47A suffering Madonna and her infants,
0:18:47 > 0:18:50dreading what lies ahead.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58Basel in 1528 was not a nice place to be
0:18:58 > 0:19:01if you were a painter or a Catholic.
0:19:02 > 0:19:07Holbein had seen the Protestant revolution arriving in Basel -
0:19:07 > 0:19:10it was one of the reasons he'd left for England.
0:19:10 > 0:19:16But in the time he was gone, it had all gotten so much worse.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19MEN SHOUT
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Basel officially became a Protestant city
0:19:23 > 0:19:24in 1529.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28To celebrate... WEAPONS CLASH
0:19:28 > 0:19:30..gangs of rabid iconoclasts
0:19:30 > 0:19:33rampaged through the churches
0:19:33 > 0:19:36looking for Madonnas to trample
0:19:36 > 0:19:38and Christs to smash.
0:19:40 > 0:19:41FIRE CRACKLES
0:19:43 > 0:19:47On the 9th of February, 1529,
0:19:47 > 0:19:52a gang of some 200 angry Lutherans broke into here,
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Basel Cathedral,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57and began attacking the art.
0:19:58 > 0:19:59Statues...
0:20:00 > 0:20:03..crucifixes...
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Holbein paintings.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11And they didn't stop until all this "superstitious idolatry",
0:20:11 > 0:20:14as they saw it, was destroyed.
0:20:19 > 0:20:24There's no official record of Holbein's own religious views.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29Not surprisingly, he kept them to himself.
0:20:31 > 0:20:36But he was born a Catholic, in very Catholic Bavaria.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42And my hunch, based on the odd visual clue here and there,
0:20:42 > 0:20:45is that he never crossed over fully
0:20:45 > 0:20:47to the Lutheran side.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56What's definite is that work was now hard to come by.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59The iconoclasts had seen to that.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03In a world without images, there was no longer much need for a painter.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Holbein didn't leave immediately.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13There was his wife and children to worry about.
0:21:14 > 0:21:21But, in 1532, having put his affairs in order, he left Basel again
0:21:21 > 0:21:26and set off once more for England.
0:21:26 > 0:21:32And this time he'd be working not just in royal circles,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35but for the king himself.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38And what a king he was.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43Holbein came to England because he was following the money,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45as artists do.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49Getting away from Basel, getting away from the iconoclasts,
0:21:49 > 0:21:54he came here looking for prosperity and peace.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57Instead, he found Henry VIII.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05And for him to be here while Henry beheaded his wives,
0:22:05 > 0:22:11took on the Pope, brutally enforced his new religion,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14is so damn fortunate
0:22:14 > 0:22:17it almost feels preordained.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31Holbein didn't begin working for the king
0:22:31 > 0:22:33as soon as he returned to London.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39His first patrons actually came from here.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45It's changed a bit, of course, but in Tudor times,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49this was a very important location for Holbein,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53because where I'm standing now was the centre of a huge urban
0:22:53 > 0:22:58complex called the German Steelyard.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05The Steelyard wasn't a steelyard -
0:23:05 > 0:23:07it was a city within a city.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10A kind of German Hong Kong,
0:23:10 > 0:23:17created by German merchants for the purposes of international trade.
0:23:20 > 0:23:26It had been here since 1320, growing bigger and bigger,
0:23:26 > 0:23:30and the German merchants in here - they didn't pay any tolls,
0:23:30 > 0:23:31or customs.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33They were privileged foreigners,
0:23:33 > 0:23:37and inside this walled community of theirs,
0:23:37 > 0:23:42they had warehouses, shops, offices, taverns.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48So, this was a home from home for Holbein.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53And when he returned to England in 1532,
0:23:53 > 0:23:59the rich German merchants of the Steelyard were his fist customers.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08This handsome young chap, who now hangs in Windsor Castle,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11is Derich Born from Cologne,
0:24:11 > 0:24:18who supplied the court of Henry VIII with military equipment for the Army.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21In Holbein's time, just like today,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25if you wanted precision, quality
0:24:25 > 0:24:28and "Vorsprung durch Technik",
0:24:28 > 0:24:30you bought German.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39The paintings that Holbein made of the merchants of the German Steelyard
0:24:39 > 0:24:43seemed to speak a different language than his other English pictures.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47It's as if some of that different mind-set,
0:24:47 > 0:24:51that had poked out in In Praise Of Folly,
0:24:51 > 0:24:53pokes out here, as well.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02This exceptionally fine fellow is Georg Giese,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05a merchant from Danzig.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10He's sitting in his office in the German Steelyard
0:25:10 > 0:25:14surrounded by the accoutrements of his trade.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18His pens, his documents,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21the box in which he keeps his money.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27All these details which had been described
0:25:27 > 0:25:31so perfectly by Holbein have other meanings.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35Secret little messages that have been smuggled into the picture.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43In particular, notice the beautiful Venetian vase
0:25:43 > 0:25:46with its fragile pink carnations.
0:25:47 > 0:25:54How skilfully Holbein has painted the shifting reflections in the glass -
0:25:54 > 0:25:58and how precariously the vase is balanced
0:25:58 > 0:26:00on the edge of the table.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04Whenever you see something...
0:26:06 > 0:26:11..on the edge of a table in art, it always means the same thing.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13"Isn't life precarious?"
0:26:14 > 0:26:17It's the same with the money box.
0:26:17 > 0:26:23How easily Georg Giese's stash of cash
0:26:23 > 0:26:24could topple and fall.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35The precarious vase, the lovely reflections
0:26:35 > 0:26:41are all brilliant Holbeinian reminders of the shortness of life.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Just like the reflections in the glass,
0:26:45 > 0:26:49all this can disappear in an instant.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53It's a message that's always relevant.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57But it was particularly relevant
0:26:57 > 0:27:03in the shifting, fracturing England of Henry VIII.
0:27:03 > 0:27:04CROW CAWS
0:27:08 > 0:27:14Holbein obviously didn't know what he was letting himself in for
0:27:14 > 0:27:16in Henry VIII's England.
0:27:16 > 0:27:22Had he known, he would surely have turned tail and returned home.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28You know, between the age of five and 11,
0:27:28 > 0:27:33I used to walk down this road pretty much every day of my life.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36We lived up there in Caversham, in Reading,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38and this was my way to school.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Every day for six years.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45And not once in that time did I ever consider
0:27:45 > 0:27:47the significance of this road.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56My school was down here, down the alley.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58I used to love walking down here.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07The school was a Catholic primary school run by nuns
0:28:07 > 0:28:09called St Anne's.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14A nice, friendly, ordinary school
0:28:14 > 0:28:16next door to a church.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21The church was also called St Anne's,
0:28:21 > 0:28:25and back then, I didn't know what had actually happened here
0:28:25 > 0:28:27in Holbein's time.
0:28:27 > 0:28:28But I do now.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36St Anne's, Caversham had a famous statue in it.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40She was called Our Lady of Caversham,
0:28:40 > 0:28:45and she was said to have miraculous powers.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51The shrine of Our Lady of Caversham
0:28:51 > 0:28:56was one of the most visited locations in Tudor England.
0:28:56 > 0:29:02Pilgrims would travel hundreds of miles to pray to her for help.
0:29:03 > 0:29:09One of them was the rightful queen of England, Catherine of Aragon,
0:29:09 > 0:29:17who came here to Caversham on the 17th of July, 1532,
0:29:17 > 0:29:21to pray for her husband, Henry VIII.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29It was the Queen's final plea to her God,
0:29:29 > 0:29:34begging him to intervene and stop Henry from divorcing her
0:29:34 > 0:29:37and marrying Anne Boleyn.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41Of course, it didn't work.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43Henry went ahead with his divorce.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45He married Anne Boleyn
0:29:45 > 0:29:50and made himself the supreme head of a new English church.
0:29:51 > 0:29:57And a few years later, he took his revenge on Our Lady of Caversham.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05On the 14th of September, 1538,
0:30:05 > 0:30:09a gang of government agents arrived at St Anne's
0:30:09 > 0:30:12and closed down the famous shrine.
0:30:14 > 0:30:20Our Lady of Caversham was bundled into a cart and taken to London.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28The gold and the silver in which the statue was covered
0:30:28 > 0:30:31was stripped off and sent to the king,
0:30:31 > 0:30:33and the actual wooden statue -
0:30:33 > 0:30:35well, that was burned.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41The man who organised all this destruction,
0:30:41 > 0:30:44and who jotted off a quick note to his agents
0:30:44 > 0:30:48to congratulate them on a job well done,
0:30:48 > 0:30:52was, of course, Cromwell.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54Thomas Cromwell.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58I bet you were wondering when we'd get to him.
0:31:02 > 0:31:03Now, when I was at school,
0:31:03 > 0:31:08Cromwell was recognised by everyone as a terrible man -
0:31:08 > 0:31:10Henry VIII's enforcer,
0:31:10 > 0:31:13the destroyer of the monasteries.
0:31:13 > 0:31:18In recent years, though, there's been this big reassessment,
0:31:18 > 0:31:20and the modern image of him,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23the one you find today in plays and books,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26is of a decent and brilliant man
0:31:26 > 0:31:30who's trapped in a difficult situation.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34Cromwell, we're now told,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37was an early civil servant
0:31:37 > 0:31:41who channelled power away from the monarchy,
0:31:41 > 0:31:46and who invented the modern bureaucratic state.
0:31:49 > 0:31:55These days, we're encouraged to see Thomas Cromwell as a good guy.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58But in this film, I'm not going to do that -
0:31:58 > 0:32:01for two important reasons.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03This is one of them.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10What Cromwell did to Our Lady of Caversham,
0:32:10 > 0:32:16the ruination he visited upon England's artistic past,
0:32:16 > 0:32:18is unforgivable.
0:32:20 > 0:32:25And the second reason for not whitewashing Thomas Cromwell
0:32:25 > 0:32:28is this...
0:32:28 > 0:32:31Holbein's portrait of him.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37Just look at him.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40What a hard and charmless presence.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45Those piggy eyes, that blank expression.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49Cromwell is surely the least attractive sitter
0:32:49 > 0:32:52in the whole of Holbein's art.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58This was painted at the outset of Cromwell's campaign
0:32:58 > 0:33:03against the monasteries, in 1533.
0:33:04 > 0:33:10It shows him in his office with his quills and his documents,
0:33:10 > 0:33:14inventing the modern bureaucratic state.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21According to various conspiratorial whispers doing the rounds,
0:33:21 > 0:33:23Cromwell actually used Holbein
0:33:23 > 0:33:28to spy on the German community in the Steelyard.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33That's how Holbein ended up working for the English court.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39It's certainly true that Cromwell had spies everywhere.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45But is Holbein really thanking him for his assistance
0:33:45 > 0:33:47in this grim portrayal?
0:33:47 > 0:33:51Was he really the good guy?
0:33:51 > 0:33:54And was Thomas More, over here,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57really the bad guy?
0:33:59 > 0:34:05Fortunately, because of Holbein, who was actually there,
0:34:05 > 0:34:07who knew them both,
0:34:07 > 0:34:11who happened to be the greatest portraitist of his times,
0:34:11 > 0:34:15here at the Frick Collection in New York,
0:34:15 > 0:34:19we are in a perfect position to decide.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24So, who is the goody here,
0:34:24 > 0:34:26and who's the baddie?
0:34:27 > 0:34:34Where Holbein stands on the matter is surely pretty obvious.
0:34:40 > 0:34:47Holbein officially entered the service of the king in 1535.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51He was paid £30 per year -
0:34:51 > 0:34:53which, even in those days,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56wasn't very much.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00And since this was the court of Henry VIII,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03there were, immediately, problems.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Holbein's first supporter in England, Sir Thomas More,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10had risen to the rank of Lord Chancellor,
0:35:10 > 0:35:13but he refused to accept the king's new position
0:35:13 > 0:35:17as head of the church, so Henry had him beheaded.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19MUSIC: The Old Year Now Away Is Fled
0:35:19 > 0:35:23Poor Holbein had no choice, really,
0:35:23 > 0:35:27but to disassociate himself from his first supporter.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35He needed a new patron, and at some point,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39probably with the connivance of Cromwell, he managed to get...
0:35:41 > 0:35:43..on the good side ...
0:35:44 > 0:35:46..of Anne Boleyn.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51How did he do that?
0:35:51 > 0:35:54With his art, of course.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58There's a drawing in the Basel Museum
0:35:58 > 0:36:02of a magnificent gold table fountain he designed
0:36:02 > 0:36:04for the king's new wife.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10It would have been covered in pearls and rubies,
0:36:10 > 0:36:15and the water would have flowed from the breasts of the women below.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21So, he wasn't just the court portraitist -
0:36:21 > 0:36:27to earn his £30 a year, Holbein had lots of duties at the court.
0:36:29 > 0:36:35He designed the royal jewellery and the royal pendants,
0:36:35 > 0:36:40the royal cutlery and the royal daggers.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45He even designed the royal fireplace.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56But his chief duty, the one we all know him for today,
0:36:56 > 0:37:02was to invent a look for Henry VIII that was instantly recognisable.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11Henry needed portraits of himself to hand out to passing dignitaries,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14people he was trying to impress.
0:37:14 > 0:37:19So, this wasn't portraiture as a record of how he actually looked -
0:37:19 > 0:37:24this was portraiture as a weapon of propaganda.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31Holbein painted Henry on various occasions.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36Henry VIII, the extra-wide monarch,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39ruler of all he surveys.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45They're splendid, of course - jewel-like and perfect...
0:37:46 > 0:37:50..but they're not exactly revealing, are they?
0:37:54 > 0:37:56This is the most celebrated of them -
0:37:56 > 0:38:01Henry in the classic Henry pose.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05And this is actually a cartoon, or preparatory drawing,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08for a life-sized mural
0:38:08 > 0:38:11that Holbein painted in Whitehall Palace.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17There's a copy of it in Hampton Court -
0:38:17 > 0:38:23Henry and his parents welcoming visitors to his Privy chamber.
0:38:24 > 0:38:30Imagine walking into a room and being confronted by this lot -
0:38:30 > 0:38:32life-sized.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37The actual painting, the Holbein mural,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40was destroyed by a fire in the 17th century.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43There's just this drawing left.
0:38:43 > 0:38:48But one thing you do get from this is a sense of scale.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52Look how big the king is.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59Holbein was no longer in the business of telling the truth.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05Instead, he's invented a Henry VIII
0:39:05 > 0:39:08so imposing and wide
0:39:08 > 0:39:11that no-one dared argue with him.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17It was a task accomplished in the Mao Tse-tung manner,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20with constant repetition,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24and huge exaggerations of scale.
0:39:33 > 0:39:39By the time the Whitehall mural was painted in 1537,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43Anne Boleyn had had the Henry treatment.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47Accused, on trumped-up charges,
0:39:47 > 0:39:53of incest, adultery and witchcraft,
0:39:53 > 0:39:58she was beheaded on the 19th of May, 1536...
0:39:58 > 0:40:02while Cromwell watched from the wings.
0:40:04 > 0:40:11The next day, Henry was betrothed to one of her maids-in-waiting -
0:40:11 > 0:40:15the pale and placid Jane Seymour.
0:40:17 > 0:40:22Jane Seymour would actually be standing about here
0:40:22 > 0:40:26in the Whitehall mural, in the bit that's missing.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Don't worry, we know exactly what she looked like,
0:40:29 > 0:40:34because Holbein has also left us a portrait of her.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41It's a lovely thing, and hangs now in Vienna,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47But here, too, there's a distance,
0:40:47 > 0:40:50a lack of touchable humanity.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56A beautiful queen in beautiful clothes,
0:40:56 > 0:40:58she's like one of those precious pendants
0:40:58 > 0:41:01that Holbein designed for the court.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04A human jewel.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14Jane Seymour didn't last long - just one year.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19Having given birth to the male heir that Henry craved so desperately,
0:41:19 > 0:41:21she died, tragically,
0:41:21 > 0:41:24from complications brought on by the royal birth.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29The son she bore,
0:41:29 > 0:41:31the future Edward VI,
0:41:31 > 0:41:34was also painted by Holbein,
0:41:34 > 0:41:37in this fiercely frontal image.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41He's got Henry's cheeks, that's for sure.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45But his real face is hiding in the middle.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53With the death of Jane Seymour,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57that was three wives down and three to go for Henry.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01But having run out of maids-in-waiting at court,
0:42:01 > 0:42:07he widened the search for wife number four by assembling a new list
0:42:07 > 0:42:09of the best European princesses.
0:42:11 > 0:42:18Poor Holbein found himself involved intimately in this hunt
0:42:18 > 0:42:21when he was sent across the Channel to paint portraits
0:42:21 > 0:42:24of Henry's prospective brides...
0:42:25 > 0:42:28..so the king could choose the prettiest.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Welcome to the Hans Holbein Dating Agency.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41The first princess, Christina of Denmark,
0:42:41 > 0:42:45was just 16 when Henry approached her.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48Christina was famously beautiful.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54Just how beautiful you can see immediately
0:42:54 > 0:42:59from Holbein's superb full-length portrait of her.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07Although she was so young, Christina was already a widow,
0:43:07 > 0:43:13having been married briefly to the Duke of Mantua.
0:43:13 > 0:43:18That's why she's wearing black in Holbein's towering likeness.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25Apparently, Holbein had just one sitting with Christina in Brussels,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28which lasted three hours.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31The drawing he produced in those three hours,
0:43:31 > 0:43:34with those lightning-fast fingers of his,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37was all he needed to paint this.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44It's his finest and most ambitious female portrait.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47Not surprisingly,
0:43:47 > 0:43:53Henry wanted immediately to marry Christina of Denmark -
0:43:53 > 0:43:54who wouldn't?
0:43:56 > 0:43:58But Christina was lucky.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00She turned him down.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06So, Holbein was sent back across the Channel
0:44:06 > 0:44:10to search further for prospective brides.
0:44:12 > 0:44:17And this time, it was a French princess, Anne of Cleves,
0:44:17 > 0:44:19who needed to be examined.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26Interestingly, Anne of Cleves was painted on paper -
0:44:26 > 0:44:30presumably so the picture could be rolled up more easily
0:44:30 > 0:44:32and taken back to England.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35And it was painted with egg tempera,
0:44:35 > 0:44:39which dries much more quickly than oil paints.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41So, this was done in a hurry.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47It's a peculiar picture.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50Look how she stares straight out at us.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54You can't look natural, staring like that.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00Holbein's art was beginning to stiffen.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04The king didn't mind.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09He liked Holbein's portrait of Anne so much he married her.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14But the marriage was a famous disaster.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18When Henry saw what she really looked like in the flesh,
0:45:18 > 0:45:20rather than in Holbein's portrait of her,
0:45:20 > 0:45:22he found her...
0:45:22 > 0:45:24and this is his word, not mine,
0:45:24 > 0:45:26"repulsive".
0:45:26 > 0:45:32So, the marriage was never consummated, and quickly annulled.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36But at least Anne of Cleves got out of it alive.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40FLY BUZZES
0:45:40 > 0:45:43Not everyone was as fortunate.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48Cromwell, who'd sent Holbein to Europe to paint Anne,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51was blamed for the mistake,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54and a few weeks after the wedding,
0:45:54 > 0:45:58he was accused of treason and beheaded.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05Holbein had fetched up in a historical nightmare.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10This is Catherine Howard, wife number five.
0:46:12 > 0:46:19She lasted just over a year before Henry got crazily jealous again,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22and she, too, was beheaded.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29As for wife number six, Catherine Parr,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32there is no Holbein portrait of her,
0:46:32 > 0:46:35so we have no idea what she looked like.
0:46:38 > 0:46:44So, that's, "One generation goeth, and another generation cometh,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47"and the earth abideth for ever."
0:46:48 > 0:46:49Ecclesiastes.
0:46:54 > 0:46:59Holbein's most famous painting, in the National Gallery in London,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03is usually called The Ambassadors.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06But that's just its modern name.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13It's only been called that since the end of the 19th century.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18A more revealing and more accurate name would be something like
0:47:18 > 0:47:21Don't Worry, It'll Soon Be Over.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28The Ambassadors shows two of Holbein's most suave sitters.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32He is Jean de Dinteville,
0:47:32 > 0:47:36French ambassador to the court of Henry VIII.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42And this is his French friend, Georges de Selve,
0:47:42 > 0:47:44Bishop of Lavaur.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50These two commissioned the picture,
0:47:50 > 0:47:55and now they're standing there leaning casually on this shelf, here,
0:47:55 > 0:47:58packed with all these symbols.
0:48:00 > 0:48:05Interestingly, very relevantly, we know exactly how old they are,
0:48:05 > 0:48:08because Holbein's put it in the picture.
0:48:08 > 0:48:14Over here, on de Dinteville's dagger, it says, "Aet suae 29",
0:48:14 > 0:48:17"He is 29" in Latin.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20And up here, on this book on which de Selve is leaning,
0:48:20 > 0:48:24"Aetatis suae 25", "He is 25".
0:48:26 > 0:48:32So, an ambassador who's 29 and a bishop who's 25.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34Now, that's young, isn't it?
0:48:36 > 0:48:38So, that goes there...
0:48:38 > 0:48:43'Lots of complex meanings have been proposed for The Ambassadors.
0:48:45 > 0:48:50'Trying to understand the picture has become a mini industry.'
0:48:53 > 0:48:58Most of the mystery has centred on this thing here,
0:48:58 > 0:49:02the famous Holbein skull,
0:49:02 > 0:49:07which is distorted so heavily you can only see it from the side,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10from over here, and from pretty high up.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14CAMERA CLICKS
0:49:16 > 0:49:20Why the skull is distorted is pretty obvious,
0:49:20 > 0:49:22as I'll be showing you in a moment.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27Why it's in the picture, what it's doing here,
0:49:27 > 0:49:29is more than obvious.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33It's completely unmissable.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Here, I'll show you.
0:49:39 > 0:49:40Oh!
0:49:41 > 0:49:45And you also need to notice that crucifix
0:49:45 > 0:49:48hidden behind the curtain at the top,
0:49:48 > 0:49:52because that is the most important symbol in the picture.
0:49:57 > 0:50:02This is by Harmen Steenwyck - painted much later,
0:50:02 > 0:50:06but as you can see, it's got another skull in it -
0:50:06 > 0:50:12and this messy heap of objects, just like The Ambassadors.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18It's what's called a "vanitas" picture.
0:50:18 > 0:50:24Vanitases appeared in Northern Renaissance art in the 15th century.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30This word "vanitas" comes from here - from the Bible,
0:50:30 > 0:50:32and the Book of Ecclesiastes.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36There's a wonderful doomy passage right at the beginning
0:50:36 > 0:50:42which goes, in Latin, "Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas."
0:50:42 > 0:50:47"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
0:50:51 > 0:50:55This, though, isn't about vanity in the modern sense -
0:50:55 > 0:50:59all those TV presenters looking at themselves in the mirror -
0:50:59 > 0:51:04this is biblical vanity,
0:51:04 > 0:51:07where nothing lasts for ever.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12So, what this picture's doing is reminding us all
0:51:12 > 0:51:15of the ultimate uselessness of life.
0:51:15 > 0:51:20And all this stuff in here, the flute, the books,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23that beautiful Japanese sword,
0:51:23 > 0:51:28all that is here today, gone tomorrow.
0:51:28 > 0:51:33Because what awaits us all, where we're all heading,
0:51:33 > 0:51:34is here.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41You can see the same meaning in another famous
0:51:41 > 0:51:44picture at the National Gallery
0:51:44 > 0:51:46by Frans Hals.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51In the Frans Hals, a young man is looking at a skull
0:51:51 > 0:51:53because that's his future.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57However young you are, this is where it'll end.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00So, back at the Holbein...
0:52:04 > 0:52:07..all this stuff here, the things on the shelves,
0:52:07 > 0:52:11are like the objects piled up in the Steenwyck.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16Earthly goodies - wonderful while you're here,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19useless when you're not.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25The top shelf is packed with scientific instruments
0:52:25 > 0:52:28for working out the time.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31Sundials...
0:52:31 > 0:52:32clocks...
0:52:32 > 0:52:34celestial globes.
0:52:35 > 0:52:39"The sun riseth", says Ecclesiastes, doomily,
0:52:39 > 0:52:47"and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he ariseth."
0:52:50 > 0:52:54So, all these beautiful instruments for working out the time,
0:52:54 > 0:52:59all this knowledge, is basically useless.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01Just a heap of stuff.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06The bottom shelf, meanwhile, is full of earthly pleasures,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08things we enjoy.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11A lute for playing music,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14this bag of flutes over here,
0:53:14 > 0:53:19and look - a book of hymns...
0:53:19 > 0:53:21by Martin Luther.
0:53:25 > 0:53:29And this is where the picture gets sneaky.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32Very sneaky.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34Look again at that lute.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37Look really carefully.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39See?
0:53:39 > 0:53:43One of the strings is broken.
0:53:43 > 0:53:50And, traditionally, a broken string is a symbol of discord.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52Something's gone wrong.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58What's gone wrong is Luther.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02It's no accident that the Lutheran hymn book
0:54:02 > 0:54:06is directly below the lute with the broken string.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11That is a deliberate piece of vanitas symbolism.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18Remember, when this picture was painted in 1533,
0:54:18 > 0:54:20no-one was sure yet
0:54:20 > 0:54:24that the Protestant revolution was going to succeed.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29How could they have known that? It hadn't happened yet.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33So, what a lot of people would have assumed,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36particularly a Catholic bishop
0:54:36 > 0:54:39and a French Catholic ambassador,
0:54:39 > 0:54:44is that Luther's revolt was just a flash in the pan.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49That is where the skull comes in.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54The skull, right at the front of the picture,
0:54:54 > 0:54:58is so big it trumps everything else.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00Compared with this big skull,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04this little bit of discord, here, is nothing.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08So, why is this skull so distorted?
0:55:08 > 0:55:10Ah!
0:55:10 > 0:55:11That's where it gets clever.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20This is Boy Bitten By A Lizard, by Caravaggio.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22So, it's another young man,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25and the lizard is biting him,
0:55:25 > 0:55:29because the lizard in art is traditionally a symbol of old age.
0:55:32 > 0:55:37And to amplify that meaning, that life is short - very short -
0:55:37 > 0:55:43Caravaggio's also included this beautiful reflection in the vase.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50The reflection,
0:55:50 > 0:55:52like youth itself,
0:55:52 > 0:55:56will only last a moment.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58It's another vanitas symbol.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03So, in the Holbein...
0:56:07 > 0:56:10..the skull is like the reflection.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14It can only be seen for a moment, and only...
0:56:16 > 0:56:18..if you're over here.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25I reckon this must have been hanging in a room
0:56:25 > 0:56:27that you entered from the side, from over here,
0:56:27 > 0:56:31and when you looked over, you saw the skull,
0:56:31 > 0:56:33and that was a shock.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37But then, when you saw the picture from the front,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40the skull wasn't there any more.
0:56:40 > 0:56:41It was gone,
0:56:41 > 0:56:45because the skull - death itself -
0:56:45 > 0:56:48is just another vanity.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56Like the Lutheran hymn book, like the broken string,
0:56:56 > 0:57:00like the lifetimes of the bishop and the ambassador,
0:57:00 > 0:57:04death means nothing in the end -
0:57:04 > 0:57:07it's just another illusion.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09All that really matters -
0:57:09 > 0:57:12and I told you the crucifix was important -
0:57:12 > 0:57:17is the eternal truth hidden behind the curtain.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23In this great and sneaky masterpiece,
0:57:23 > 0:57:27Holbein is reminding us that the world of Henry VIII...
0:57:27 > 0:57:32WEAPONS CLASH ..all that discord, all that death,
0:57:32 > 0:57:36is just like everything else -
0:57:36 > 0:57:39here today, gone tomorrow.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54Holbein himself didn't last long.
0:57:54 > 0:58:01He died in 1543, from what they called "the sweating sickness" -
0:58:01 > 0:58:03the plague.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06He was 45.
0:58:07 > 0:58:12He left behind some of the greatest portraiture of the Renaissance.
0:58:14 > 0:58:20A Tudor cast so vivid you can feel their breath on your cheek.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28If Holbein hadn't fetched up in England when he did,
0:58:28 > 0:58:30I'm absolutely certain
0:58:30 > 0:58:34that we wouldn't be as obsessed with the Tudors as we are.
0:58:34 > 0:58:40By making the age of Henry VIII so damn tangible,
0:58:40 > 0:58:44Holbein forced it into our thoughts for ever.
0:58:46 > 0:58:50But, you know, when I flick through this,
0:58:50 > 0:58:54that marvellous folly book he drew when he was a boy,
0:58:54 > 0:58:57I can't help wondering
0:58:57 > 0:59:00how much more there could have been.
0:59:02 > 0:59:08When you remember the coruscating realism of his religious art,
0:59:08 > 0:59:14or the pathos and sadness he found in the face of his own wife...
0:59:15 > 0:59:20..when you consider the devious complexity of The Ambassadors...
0:59:21 > 0:59:24..that's a lot of might-have-beens.
0:59:26 > 0:59:30It wasn't just Anne Boleyn...
0:59:30 > 0:59:32or Anne of Cleves...
0:59:32 > 0:59:35or Sir Thomas More...
0:59:35 > 0:59:41whose misfortune it was to encounter Henry the Terrible.
0:59:41 > 0:59:44That was Holbein's misfortune, too.