0:00:02 > 0:00:06This programme contains scenes of a sexual nature.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09The fig leaf...
0:00:10 > 0:00:15The plant that Adam and Eve covered themselves with after the fall.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20From the fronds on antique gods...
0:00:21 > 0:00:26..to the carvings on Medieval cathedrals
0:00:26 > 0:00:30and the heroic nudes of Victorian Britain.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35The fig leaf is one of the great enduring motifs
0:00:35 > 0:00:36of Western sculpture.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39I am agog. I'm marvelling.
0:00:39 > 0:00:45In it long fruition, it's evolved into different shapes and sizes.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Can I just clarify one small point -
0:00:48 > 0:00:51a fig leaf isn't always a fig leaf.
0:00:52 > 0:00:57It can also be a drape, a gauze, a girdle, a corset,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01a skirt or, how about, a mighty python?
0:01:03 > 0:01:07The fig leaf is whatever hides the unmentionable in sculpture.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14It's a cover up,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16but that's not all.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19What's behind the fig leaf?
0:01:19 > 0:01:23Well, it's a piece of censorship, intended to divert the eye
0:01:23 > 0:01:27and the mind from man's bestial bits and pieces.
0:01:27 > 0:01:28Although, paradoxically,
0:01:28 > 0:01:32it's often had the opposite effect - of being titillating.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34But you know what? The more you study the fig leaf,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37as it's flourished and shrivelled on sculpture,
0:01:37 > 0:01:41it has actually been telling us everything we needed to know
0:01:41 > 0:01:44about our changing and conflicting attitudes to religion,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48to morality and to sex.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18I'm in a world that predates the fig leaf...
0:02:19 > 0:02:24..a world of sensuality and naked beauty.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30This is the Cast Gallery of Cambridge University...
0:02:31 > 0:02:36..packed with statues designed over 2,000 years ago.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44Well, you could almost be in ancient Greece,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48except if you were, you'd be dazzled by these statues.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53They were painted then and they had a vividness, a naturalness,
0:02:53 > 0:02:58that today we associate with, say, the waxworks of Madam Tussauds,
0:02:58 > 0:03:00rather than with pale marbles.
0:03:05 > 0:03:10It was a time when the human body wasn't a thing of shame or disgust.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14It was celebrated in all its glory.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18Although the statues were starkers,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22they weren't intended as objects of desire.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26Many works were modelled on naked athletes.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30These sculptures were telling a story
0:03:30 > 0:03:32about the people they were based on.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34They were vehicles, they were a way
0:03:34 > 0:03:38of transmitting a message in the public sphere.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Sort of Ancient Greek government information films,
0:03:43 > 0:03:44rendered in marble.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Key to this message was the small penis,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52a sign of restraint and control.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56This was the only time in history when having a small one
0:03:56 > 0:03:59was something to be proud of.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05According to classicist Caroline Vout,
0:04:05 > 0:04:07it helps add up to the perfect man.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11In a sense,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14it's the, sort of, ultimate 5th-Century BC body.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17So this is your classical pin-up.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21So it's got wonderfully exaggerated muscle tone.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24- He's pretty buff.- He is pretty buff and he's buff in a way
0:04:24 > 0:04:28that's actually, sort of, anatomically impossible.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31I've certainly never seen a man that looks like that, myself. Erm...
0:04:31 > 0:04:36And in Athens in the 5th century, these things are everywhere
0:04:36 > 0:04:39and having a buff body like this means that you are a good
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Greek citizen and it actually says something about your virtue
0:04:42 > 0:04:46and it's very much linked to your brain. I think showing these bodies
0:04:46 > 0:04:53naked like this means that they are, kind of, putting masculinity
0:04:53 > 0:04:56on the table and saying, "This is what we're about as a race."
0:05:04 > 0:05:06As far as the Ancient Greeks were concerned,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09there was nothing they liked better than the splendour
0:05:09 > 0:05:12of an unadorned, unadulterated nude.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16But something was about to happen that would bring those values
0:05:16 > 0:05:21and, indeed, many of the sculptures concerned, crashing down to earth...
0:05:27 > 0:05:29Christianity.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35From the first century AD onwards,
0:05:35 > 0:05:39this new religion put down roots throughout Europe.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49Its doctrine was embedded in the pages of the Bible.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52The very first book of the Old Testament leaves no doubt
0:05:52 > 0:05:56about the Christian view of the bare body and its weaknesses.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01As soon as Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge,
0:06:01 > 0:06:02they're punished.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05They become ashamed of their nakedness.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12From Genesis, chapter three, verse seven,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15"And the eyes of them both were opened,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18"and they knew that they were naked.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23"And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons."
0:06:23 > 0:06:25I can't think of another verse in the Bible
0:06:25 > 0:06:29that's had a more profound impact on the way we think of ourselves,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32our bodies and on art.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41And at the beginning of the 13th century,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44here at Notre Dame Cathedral, in the heart of Paris,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46this idea was etched into stone.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53The last thing you see as you leave Notre Dame
0:06:53 > 0:06:56is that climactic moment in the Garden of Eden.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02Here we see the serpent, disguised in female form,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05writhing around the Tree of Knowledge.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13Eve already has the fruit from the tree and she's sharing it with Adam.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21But the striking thing is they're aware of their nudity
0:07:21 > 0:07:24and we know that because they're covered up.
0:07:30 > 0:07:35The Medieval Church said, "Nudity was wrong."
0:07:35 > 0:07:39The fig leaf would become absolutely synonymous with original sin.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42This is like a Medieval piece of street furniture, saying,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46"Thou shalt not get thy kit off."
0:07:49 > 0:07:53In the light of Christianity, everything about nudity
0:07:53 > 0:07:55and sexuality was suspect.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01This is Saint Augustine, one of the fathers of the church.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04He preached that, since eating the forbidden fruit,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07man had lost control of his genitals
0:08:07 > 0:08:11and that an erection was a sign of disobedience.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16Suddenly, those exquisite nude statues,
0:08:16 > 0:08:18left over from the days of Ancient Greece and Rome
0:08:18 > 0:08:21were a source of embarrassment.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24The solution? Give 'em the chop!
0:08:28 > 0:08:30The clergy, in general,
0:08:30 > 0:08:35felt like hiding the genitals, because sex is supposed to be dirty,
0:08:35 > 0:08:40unless you are having sex in order to procreate,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44which is its only purpose, according to the clergy.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49And here you're on the church the first church of
0:08:49 > 0:08:52the Diocese of Paris.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56It's the church of the capital, of French kings.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01You can't show genitals on this facade.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06So the poor old fig leaf, the poor old fig tree, never hurt anybody?
0:09:06 > 0:09:12- No.- But it's come to be this symbol of shame, of sin, hasn't it?
0:09:12 > 0:09:18In a way, yes, because it's almost always used to hide Adam and Eve -
0:09:18 > 0:09:22- their genitals, especially. - And what do you think about that?
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Do you think it suited artisans and craftsmen
0:09:25 > 0:09:29that they didn't have to show this difficult, embarrassing part
0:09:29 > 0:09:31of the body, they just put a fig leaf on?
0:09:31 > 0:09:37- Or was it all about the religious control?- I guess you can say both.
0:09:39 > 0:09:45Religion tried to control, I mean, sex drives and people and so on.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50I guess they missed their aim, as usual.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56And when you put a fig leaf on this particular part of one's anatomy,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59you attract attention to it, more than anything else.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02So, it's a double-edged sword.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06But just one other thing,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09why the fig leaf and not the birch, the beech,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12the chestnut, or even the mighty oak leaf?
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Well, scholars believe that the Garden of Eden was probably set
0:10:18 > 0:10:22in modern-day Iran, where the fig grows abundantly.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24And now I look at the old leaf,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28it does have a certain meat and two vegginess about it, doesn't it?
0:10:28 > 0:10:32One of these chaps would do the job for most of us!
0:10:42 > 0:10:46The Middle Ages saw a great unfurling of the fig leaf,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50but there was still one way, one wrinkle in church doctrine,
0:10:50 > 0:10:55that allowed sculptors to get away with the odd naked body.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Dominating the town of Orvieto in Italy
0:11:13 > 0:11:16is its 14th-century cathedral.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26The glittering facade is one of the great masterpieces of the age.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35It was designed by the architect and sculptor, Maitani.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44The reliefs on the front wall show scenes from the Bible.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50One of the most prominent is this one, of The Last Judgement.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53And it's writhing with nudity.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01This was acceptable, because it sent the right message.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09What it was telling you was the wages of sin are death
0:12:09 > 0:12:13and not only death, but death with no clothes on.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21You've got to admire the sheer propagandising force
0:12:21 > 0:12:23of this tableaux here.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29It was a kind of Medieval screensaver,
0:12:29 > 0:12:31in your face the whole time,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33and what it was telling you was,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35"If you are virtuous, if you observe the sacraments
0:12:35 > 0:12:39"of Mother Church, you might just avoid a fate like this."
0:12:39 > 0:12:43Not only that, you could fee a little bit smug about your less
0:12:43 > 0:12:47virtuous neighbours. They were going to end up squirming in agony.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51And what was worse, perhaps, in some ways, in indignity,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54stark, you know what, naked.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06While I'm here, I can't resist going inside
0:13:06 > 0:13:09to see the cathedral's other great treasure.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15And it's one of the most powerful depictions
0:13:15 > 0:13:19of the sinfulness of nudity in all Western art.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27Lucas Signorelli's 15th-century tour de force
0:13:27 > 0:13:32shows the dammed cast into hell and received by demons.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48On a blazingly hot day here in Orvieto,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51you can practically smell the sulphur coming off this wall.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58You can see the slightly green, sulphurous devils
0:13:58 > 0:14:02in amongst those lost, poor souls,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05grappling with them, binding them, tying them up,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08cutting their throats and carrying them off.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20For a thousand years, the Church and artists had an understanding.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24The nude could be shown on one condition -
0:14:24 > 0:14:30that nakedness was seen as sinful, ugly, evil.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37But then, one sculptor broke the rules.
0:14:49 > 0:14:55On the 14 May, 1504, over five long days,
0:14:55 > 0:14:5940 men struggled through the streets of Florence.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05They were moving a giant five-metre stone statue.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09The workmen brought their massive payload
0:15:09 > 0:15:12through these narrow streets of Florence.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14It was so big, in fact, that, in places,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17the streets had to be widened...
0:15:17 > 0:15:19and whole archways torn down.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22A great multitude gathered to see the work,
0:15:22 > 0:15:27but their gasps of admiration soon turned to ones of horror
0:15:27 > 0:15:30and they began pelting the statue with rocks.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Small wonder. Not only was he a giant,
0:15:33 > 0:15:35he was butt naked.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38And not in the right way.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51The artist, Michelangelo, had cast the fig leaf aside
0:15:51 > 0:15:56and proclaimed the naked body a thing of wonder and beauty.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01In a world where everyone went to church
0:16:01 > 0:16:06and abided by the holy scriptures, a giant celebratory nude
0:16:06 > 0:16:10in the most public place in Florence was verging on blasphemy.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Michelangelo's David was shocking.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Of course, there's a character in the Old Testament called David,
0:16:20 > 0:16:22but he didn't look much like this fella.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27Yes, you can make out, over his shoulder, the slingshot he used
0:16:27 > 0:16:31to fell the mighty Goliath, but where's Goliath's severed head?
0:16:31 > 0:16:36And by the way, where does it say in the Bible that David was naked?
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Try to move back to 1504, when people saw this for the first time.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45It was absolutely revolutionary.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49Virtually every single David, before during or after Michelangelo's time,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52was clothed, which is what the story indicates.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Michelangelo doesn't follow the story
0:16:54 > 0:16:57and that's the importance of the work.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59So Michelangelo asked himself a question,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02"How do I show the most virtuous man?"
0:17:02 > 0:17:04And his answer was to say,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08"I'll show his inner beauty through his outer beauty."
0:17:09 > 0:17:13So what we see here is an embodiment of the Renaissance,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16it's a rebirth of the ancient nude,
0:17:16 > 0:17:18in a Christian context.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28Michelangelo wanted to recreate the classical statues,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31down to the tiniest detail.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38And speaking of tiny...
0:17:38 > 0:17:41Michelangelo shows David with a small penis, why?
0:17:41 > 0:17:44People ask about that. I think the answer is simple -
0:17:44 > 0:17:48he was looking at ancient statues. In comparison to ancient statues,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51the size of his genitalia is perfectly normal.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54The pubic hair, it's a little embarrassing to some people,
0:17:54 > 0:17:56but if you take a look at it,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59you see that there are three perfectly formed curls,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03that form a triangle. We know that's not the way pubic hair looked.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05He's not trying to show reality.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08He's trying to create a new ideal of male beauty,
0:18:08 > 0:18:13in order to show the inner virtue of this hero.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18But the Florentines didn't see inner virtue,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22they only saw the outer appendage.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26The offending member was covered up by not one fig leaf,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30but by a skirt of 28 - count them - copper leaves.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38But David isn't the end of Michelangelo's role
0:18:38 > 0:18:40in the story of the fig leaf.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53Michelangelo was passionate about showing the naked male body
0:18:53 > 0:18:58in all its glory and with rendering it in stone.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Was it about art, or sex?
0:19:03 > 0:19:08Rumours circulated about his preference for younger men
0:19:08 > 0:19:11and that was just the start of the scandal.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17Michelangelo was obsessed with human anatomy, with dissection,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21with cutting people, perhaps to an unhealthy and unlawful degree.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23You know that Johnny Cash song,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26"I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die."
0:19:26 > 0:19:28Well, it's even been said of Michelangelo
0:19:28 > 0:19:30that he had a model crucified,
0:19:30 > 0:19:34merely to observe the poor devil's death agonies.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39But Michelangelo didn't seem to care.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43His most provocative artworks were yet to come.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45# But I shot a man in Reno
0:19:45 > 0:19:48# Just to watch him die
0:19:51 > 0:19:54# When I hear that whistle blowin'
0:19:54 > 0:19:57# I hang my head and cry... #
0:20:05 > 0:20:09I'm following in Michelangelo's footsteps, to Rome,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11where he went to work in 1508.
0:20:19 > 0:20:24The invitation came from the very top of the Catholic Church,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28the Vatican, from Pope Julius II himself.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36He asked Michelangelo to create a work
0:20:36 > 0:20:38for the inner sanctum of St Peter's...
0:20:39 > 0:20:41..The Sistine Chapel.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49It would go on to become perhaps his most famous painting.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Even here in the bosom of the religious establishment,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Michelangelo dared to show Adam without his customary fig leaf.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10And he didn't stop here.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16Look at this statue for the tomb of Pope Julius II.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25Let's face it, it's a bit sexy for the interior of a church.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Some of the clergy certainly thought so.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36An archbishop, called Ambrosius Catharinus,
0:21:36 > 0:21:39spoke for his brother priests, when he said,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42"The most disgusting aspect of this age,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45"is that one comes across pictures of gross indecency
0:21:45 > 0:21:48"in the greatest churches and chapels,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51"with the effect of arousing not devotion
0:21:51 > 0:21:54"but every lust of the corrupt flesh."
0:21:58 > 0:22:01Over the next three decades,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Michelangelo continued to cross the line.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08The murmurs of protest grew to a clamour.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17The Vatican was appalled by the flagrant nudity of his art
0:22:17 > 0:22:19and by the fashion it was setting.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Time to call in the Leaf Police.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25I'm not joking. There really was a special operation mounted
0:22:25 > 0:22:27to clothe naked art.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35It would become known as the Fig Leaf Campaign.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40In December 1563, just weeks before the death of Michelangelo,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43an official papal decree was issued.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48It forbade the depiction of all "lasciviousness" in Church art.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54For Michelangelo's work, the affect was devastating.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57One sculpture in particular
0:22:57 > 0:23:00would suffer the hammer blow of censorship.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06I'm going to see one of the most controversial statues
0:23:06 > 0:23:08Michelangelo ever created.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14It's a nude, but more provocatively even than that, it's a nude Christ
0:23:14 > 0:23:20and he was rendered "con tutti atributi", as the Italians say.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23"With all his attributes."
0:23:23 > 0:23:25I'm meeting Padre Baliccu,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Father of the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Bongiorno et benvenuto. Bene.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45- This is the Michelangelo? - Si, si, si, si.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51Michelangelo's statue is called Christ The Redeemer.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56After the Fig Leaf Campaign,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00a bronze girdle was placed over it and can never be removed.
0:24:05 > 0:24:11Do you think Michelangelo was right to produce this sculpture,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13showing the atributi? Was that right?
0:25:05 > 0:25:08At first, Christ's lower body
0:25:08 > 0:25:12had been simply obscured by a fabric skirt,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14but the bronze girdle was needed
0:25:14 > 0:25:17after the statue became a victim of vandalism.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04The backlash against Michelangelo's brazen displays of nudity
0:26:04 > 0:26:07severely dented his work, that's putting it mildly,
0:26:07 > 0:26:09and his reputation.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13Now, goodness knows, there are precious few
0:26:13 > 0:26:16nailed-on honest-to-God geniuses in this world,
0:26:16 > 0:26:20but you'd have thought Michelangelo qualified as one of them.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22At this time, though, he was slandered as,
0:26:22 > 0:26:27"l'inventor delle porcherie" - the inventor of pork things.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Perhaps the greatest man ever to hold a chisel,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34written off as the maker of pork scratchings.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41Hello. Thank you.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44Let's go.
0:26:44 > 0:26:50The Fig Leaf Campaign continued to cast its shadow over Western art.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53But in the 17th century, one sculptor
0:26:53 > 0:26:59found a way to turn censorship into a new form of sensuality.
0:27:01 > 0:27:07His name was Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14Some of his best-known works are here in the Borghese Gallery.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30One of them is Bernini's very own version of David.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35I can't help thinking that he chose the subject
0:27:35 > 0:27:37as a deliberate response to Michelangelo.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Where Michelangelo's David is nude,
0:27:41 > 0:27:45Bernini cleverly kept the ticklish bits under wraps,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48but in a way that's all the more provocative.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55If you know your Old Testament, or even if you don't,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58you wouldn't have any difficulty recognising this David.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02The whole centrepiece, the whole thrust of the action,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06the tension of him about to release that thunderbolt,
0:28:06 > 0:28:09that brick that's going to knock down and kill Goliath.
0:28:09 > 0:28:15The eyes drawn to that taut slingshot and all the other details
0:28:15 > 0:28:17are accurate, as we read them in the Bible.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22The clothes that he fought in, a simple sheepskin,
0:28:22 > 0:28:26but notice how Bernini has arranged it, has draped it.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30There's just a glimpse of what would hitherto have been obscured
0:28:30 > 0:28:32by a regular fig leaf.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40Bernini knew that the more you cover things up,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43the more you want to know what's underneath.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47With his slipping drape affect,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51he'd come up with an ingenious and eroticised twist on the fig leaf.
0:28:57 > 0:29:02And, in the process, he'd revitalised Western sculpture.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Anna Coliva is the curator of the museum.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19How can you explain your view that it's more sensual,
0:30:19 > 0:30:26more erotic, even though you can't see the crucial bits of the anatomy?
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Bernini did more than eroticise sculpture,
0:31:22 > 0:31:24he eroticised Rome itself.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32The streets and squares of the city are still full of his work.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41This is the Fountain of the Four Rivers, in Piazza Navona.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49By using his trademark peek-a-boo effect,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52Bernini kept on the right side of decency.
0:31:56 > 0:31:57Only just!
0:32:02 > 0:32:07As enchanting as it is, this square is also home to touts,
0:32:07 > 0:32:10hustlers, and escapologists,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13and it's no slight on the mighty Bernini
0:32:13 > 0:32:17that he fits in here rather well. After all, what are those
0:32:17 > 0:32:20artful folds of fabric just over the crotch,
0:32:20 > 0:32:22those wisps of clothing,
0:32:22 > 0:32:24if not fool-the-eye devices?
0:32:26 > 0:32:27He got away with murder.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36As the sun went down on the 17th century,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40the marble manhoods, teasingly hinted at by Bernini,
0:32:40 > 0:32:42remained in the shadows.
0:32:44 > 0:32:46But something was about to happen
0:32:46 > 0:32:49that would make sculptors think again.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Taxi!
0:32:53 > 0:32:58In the 18th century, the new science of archaeology was all the rage.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Suddenly, all of Europe was fascinated
0:33:04 > 0:33:07by its pre-Christian past
0:33:07 > 0:33:12and it was being dug up right here, in and around Rome.
0:33:15 > 0:33:20It made the eternal city the highlight of the Grand Tour,
0:33:20 > 0:33:25that educational rite of passage for young British men of means.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32They came in search of spectacular archaeological finds
0:33:32 > 0:33:36and the statues they discovered were all naked.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43A funny thing happened on the way to the forum -
0:33:43 > 0:33:45nudity became OK again,
0:33:45 > 0:33:47and there was nothing finer
0:33:47 > 0:33:49than admiring a recently dug up Roman marble.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53Apart perhaps from having it shipped off to your own living room.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56The American novelist Henry James, who visited here a lot,
0:33:56 > 0:34:00caught the mood of wonder and exoticism when he wrote,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02"These relics were coming up
0:34:02 > 0:34:06"like long-lost divers from the sea of time."
0:34:10 > 0:34:14The rediscovery of the Classical World
0:34:14 > 0:34:19inspired an artistic revolution with the nude taking centre stage.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25But those living on one cold, rainy island
0:34:25 > 0:34:30in the middle of the North Sea - they were in for a shock!
0:34:37 > 0:34:40Britain at the start of the 19th century -
0:34:40 > 0:34:44a nation in the grip of an identity crisis.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50With the largest empire in the world,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53it saw itself as the natural heir to Rome
0:34:53 > 0:34:56and inheritor of the Classical Tradition.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02But it was also a nation, which had long prided itself
0:35:02 > 0:35:07on Christian morality and stiff-upper-lip propriety.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15These two strands of the British character came head-to-head
0:35:15 > 0:35:18here in Hyde Park, in London.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33I'm going to see the first public nude in Britain since antiquity.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36When it appeared in the summer of 1822,
0:35:36 > 0:35:40this beast was the biggest bronzed sculpture anyone had ever seen
0:35:40 > 0:35:43and I tell you something else that was big about it,
0:35:43 > 0:35:48the huge row over public decency that it provoked.
0:35:57 > 0:36:03It's a strapping youth in the guise of Greek warrior Achilles.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08It was created in honour of Britain's great war hero,
0:36:08 > 0:36:09the victor of Waterloo.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16And here's the inscription -
0:36:16 > 0:36:21"To Arthur, Duke of Wellington, and his brave companions in arms.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24"This statue of Achilles, cast from cannon
0:36:24 > 0:36:31"taken in the victory of Waterloo, is inscribed by their countrywomen."
0:36:31 > 0:36:35Now the countrywomen were a patriotic committee of ladies,
0:36:35 > 0:36:39perhaps an unlikely source for a statue like this,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42particularly when you know that their leading light, Lady Spencer,
0:36:42 > 0:36:47had been called the "most prudish of all the great English Ladies."
0:36:47 > 0:36:50And yet it was this group of womenfolk who were saying
0:36:50 > 0:36:52the statue should be nude.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55They didn't get their way, though.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02It was the men of the monument committee who had the final say.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07One of them implored, "Every feeling of public decency and decorum
0:37:07 > 0:37:10"renders it indisputably necessary
0:37:10 > 0:37:12"that some covering should be applied."
0:37:14 > 0:37:16And so, the fig leaf was attached,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18and you might suppose that was the end of matter.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22Oh, no it, wasn't. Not by a long chalk.
0:37:22 > 0:37:27This tiny leaf that doesn't even hide the pubic hair
0:37:27 > 0:37:30was hardly enough to save the statue from ridicule.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39This print shows William Wilberforce
0:37:39 > 0:37:42hiding Achilles' tackle with his hat.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47Wilberforce was famous as a scourge of slavery
0:37:47 > 0:37:51but evidently he didn't like everything to go free.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56Leading satirist George Cruikshank
0:37:56 > 0:38:00described the statue as "The ladies' fancy-man."
0:38:03 > 0:38:06And had them queuing up to buy their leaves.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12There was a tremendous fuss about this in all the papers
0:38:12 > 0:38:15and I've got one or two of the choicer quotes here.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20One woman wrote to Society for the Suppression of Vice,
0:38:20 > 0:38:23complaining about "A naked and indecent figure
0:38:23 > 0:38:26"now erecting in Hyde Park."
0:38:26 > 0:38:31While another critic said, "We must join the majority of our countrymen
0:38:31 > 0:38:34"in wishing that so unmeaning and disgusting a thing
0:38:34 > 0:38:38"had not been the gift of the ladies of England."
0:38:38 > 0:38:40One thing was clear -
0:38:40 > 0:38:44the nude just wasn't welcome in the public spaces of Britain.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56In 1857, the great doors of what would later become
0:38:56 > 0:38:58the Victoria and Albert Museum
0:38:58 > 0:39:02creaked open to the public for the first time.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09In the same year, it enquired a new exhibit -
0:39:09 > 0:39:14a gift for Queen Victoria that was going to raise an eyebrow or two.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23Well, here he is. Our old friend David, again.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25This time, I can see him up close and personal.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27It could scarcely be more personal.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32Now he's an almost exact replica, a cast of the more famous David
0:39:32 > 0:39:38in Florence, except that this chap has his own very special accessory.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45- Hello, Amy!- Hi, Steven.- How are you?
0:39:45 > 0:39:47- Good to meet you. - Very nice to meet you.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51Is it true this fellow has some concrete lingerie?
0:39:51 > 0:39:53- He does indeed. - Could I possibly see it?
0:39:53 > 0:39:55Yes, let's go the store and have a look.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57If that's where it is, lead on!
0:39:59 > 0:40:03I'm about to see what's rumoured to be the biggest fig leaf
0:40:03 > 0:40:05in the history of sculpture.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12This is real behind the scenes of the museum stuff.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15- It is indeed! - Do we need a special key here?
0:40:27 > 0:40:30I'm going to put the light on.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32Yeah, OK. Well, that will kill the romance
0:40:32 > 0:40:35but we'll be able to see what we're looking at.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38- It's like Fingal's Cave in here, isn't it?- It is rather, isn't it?
0:40:42 > 0:40:45- So there we are.- It's a good size. - It is a good size.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47- It's correctly proportioned. - Fantastic!
0:40:47 > 0:40:50I can pop it on the table for you, for a closer look.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54Don't let me put you off. This is an important moment.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01- Is that heavy for you?- It's not very heavy at all, actually,
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Not anywhere near as heavy as one might expect.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07I'll just take it over here.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09I'm agog! I'm marvelling.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Now, clearly they couldn't get Michelangelo on the phone
0:41:13 > 0:41:15and get him to produce something.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17- This was done in London?- Yes.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20The firm of Domenico Brucciani and company produced
0:41:20 > 0:41:22this particular object.
0:41:22 > 0:41:27Now luckily the firm themselves had moulds of Michelangelo's David
0:41:27 > 0:41:29so they could already...
0:41:29 > 0:41:32They already had a basis on which to produce something that was going to
0:41:32 > 0:41:37- be a nice...- Snug fit. - Snug fit - precisely!
0:41:37 > 0:41:40And it's not until you see the underside that you can understand
0:41:40 > 0:41:44how it was actually fixed to the sculpture.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46But if we just carefully flip it round...
0:41:46 > 0:41:48Oh, I see!
0:41:48 > 0:41:53You can see how it was moulded and kind of carved out.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56- You can see the tool marks here. - Well, it's early
0:41:56 > 0:41:59and we haven't known each other too long, Amy,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02but I feel I must ask you to expand a little bit
0:42:02 > 0:42:04about these indentations.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07- Yes.- What they were intended for, in layman's terms?
0:42:07 > 0:42:09In layman's terms.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13Well, these are the indentations of the sculpture's genitalia,
0:42:13 > 0:42:18I suppose, and they would have fit quite snugly against that
0:42:18 > 0:42:22but at the same time not causing any damage to the object itself.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32Do you know whose idea that was?
0:42:32 > 0:42:35- Does history tell us or not? - Well, it doesn't,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38and that's what's really fascinating because the way that the story goes,
0:42:38 > 0:42:41it was the Queen herself that was shocked by this
0:42:41 > 0:42:44and it was presumably upon her request.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47But none of the documentation really supports that.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50In fact, behind closed doors,
0:42:50 > 0:42:53the Queen enjoyed these types of works of art.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56She didn't faint or have a fit of the vapours?
0:42:56 > 0:42:59No, not at all. In fact, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
0:42:59 > 0:43:03often exchanged gifts between them of paintings or sculptures
0:43:03 > 0:43:07in which the nude figured quite significantly.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16But when it came to her public image,
0:43:16 > 0:43:19I think there was an expectation that
0:43:19 > 0:43:23a degree of decency and morality
0:43:23 > 0:43:26kind of surround her as a public figure.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28It wasn't necessarily on her demand -
0:43:28 > 0:43:33it was something that I think was perhaps imposed upon her.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47We tend to think the Victorians preferred a nice cup of tea
0:43:47 > 0:43:50rather than sex. Actually, that wasn't true in private.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54But in public they had a global reputation to think of -
0:43:54 > 0:43:56the British Empire.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59So it was a case of "No sex, please. We're British!"
0:43:59 > 0:44:02And the fig leaf worked as a brilliant screen
0:44:02 > 0:44:07for keeping sexuality and nudity out of the public realm.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09But not for much longer.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20By the end of the 19th Century, Victorian values were under assault.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25The French were coming.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38This is the Paris studio of Auguste Rodin,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41father of modern sculpture.
0:44:50 > 0:44:51In works like The Thinker...
0:44:54 > 0:44:56..The Gates Of Hell,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02..and The Kiss...
0:45:03 > 0:45:09..he created a new language for sculpture.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14At the heart of his vision was a frank attitude to human sexuality.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19And there was none franker than this.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26Iris, Messenger Of The Gods
0:45:26 > 0:45:28exhibited in 1898.
0:45:31 > 0:45:35What was he thinking of, Rodin, when he created Iris?
0:45:35 > 0:45:39Of course he was thinking of an offered woman, in a way, and...
0:45:39 > 0:45:42- A what women? - Offered, er...offered
0:45:42 > 0:45:46- Legs.- I see, yeah.- Legs open.- Mmm.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48And how was that received?
0:45:48 > 0:45:50For some people, it was unacceptable.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53It was impossible, "I don't want to see that."
0:45:53 > 0:45:56- "This is..."- Too much. - Yeah, it is a nightmare...
0:45:56 > 0:45:59But for some people it was, it was great.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06The fact that it has no head and no left arm, this was for Rodin,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09this was very much connected with antique sculpture.
0:46:09 > 0:46:16- In the state where they arrived to us...- With bits missing?- Yeah.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19The right arm holding the foot
0:46:19 > 0:46:22is a part of this very compact composition.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26So, it is still here, but the others are not.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29There not necessary so they're not here.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32It's a different way of composing the female body.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36I mean, we were more used to seeing nudes lying
0:46:36 > 0:46:39with their legs together more.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41This is a complete break from that, isn't it?
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Yeah, this is much more dynamic.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48He wanted it to stand in the air.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52To me, it's just like a women jumping
0:46:52 > 0:46:59and her sex, um, jumping to us, in a way.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16Rodin was a breath of fresh air in the garden of sculpture.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18Actually, make that a hurricane.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21Suddenly, all the fig leaves shrivelled and fell off
0:47:21 > 0:47:23and they weren't about to go back on again.
0:47:23 > 0:47:29From now on, the human body in all its grizzly majesty was fair game.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48From the moment Rodin let the cat out of the bag -
0:47:48 > 0:47:49Some cat! Some bag! -
0:47:49 > 0:47:54each generation has vied to outdo the previous one
0:47:54 > 0:47:57in provocation and shock value.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04These aren't the virtuous nudes of the ancient Greeks.
0:48:13 > 0:48:19Sex in ever more-convoluted forms has been taking centre stage.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27It seems to me, what's happened is that in today's art
0:48:27 > 0:48:32the shock of the nude is more important than meaning or beauty.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42Now I'm going to see a sculptor
0:48:42 > 0:48:47with an extraordinary body of work, herself.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53- Orlan? Steven, enchante.- Enchante, nice to meet you.- How are you?
0:48:53 > 0:48:55- Excellent and you?- Yes, I'm fine
0:48:58 > 0:49:01'Since the '60s the artist, Orlan
0:49:01 > 0:49:04'has been creating ever more-outrageous works.'
0:49:07 > 0:49:10Here's one where she gives birth to a mannequin.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17Another where she used her own pubic hair
0:49:17 > 0:49:20and a nude body suit in a performance piece.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25In this work, she made her body into a slot machine
0:49:25 > 0:49:28and snogged people who paid up.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35Am I right in thinking, Orlan, that this work provoked an outrage,
0:49:35 > 0:49:36it was a scandal at the time?
0:49:36 > 0:49:40SHE SPEAKS IN FRENCH
0:49:59 > 0:50:02- French kiss?- French kiss.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Do you think the fig leaf still has a purpose?
0:50:15 > 0:50:19Still has a role or is it finished? Throw it away?
0:50:47 > 0:50:50So you might think that's the end of the story.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55Just going into a modern art exhibition these days
0:50:55 > 0:50:57seem to prove Orlan's point.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59But you don't get rid
0:50:59 > 0:51:03of 2,000 years of artistic tradition that easily.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06The fig leaf lingers on in unexpected places.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11I'm at The White Cube Gallery in Hoxton, London
0:51:11 > 0:51:14to see the latest sculptures by Marc Quinn.
0:51:19 > 0:51:24In this show, he's chosen subjects who've had plastic surgery
0:51:24 > 0:51:27to change or enhance their sexuality.
0:51:29 > 0:51:35Thomas Beatie is a transgender man who's given birth to three babies.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41Meanwhile Chelsea Charms is a breast entertainer,
0:51:41 > 0:51:45who's said to have the largest ones in the world.
0:51:46 > 0:51:51Do you think there's any need now any, any role for a fig leaf?
0:51:51 > 0:51:52You mean for moral reasons?
0:51:52 > 0:51:54For moral reasons or even artistic reasons.
0:51:54 > 0:51:59Does it free the artist in some way, or is it only a constraint?
0:51:59 > 0:52:00I think it depends, doesn't it?
0:52:00 > 0:52:03I mean, if you have a clothed figure,
0:52:03 > 0:52:07it's... You don't have to deal with explicit sexuality.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11If you have an unclothed figure, in some way you are dealing with it
0:52:11 > 0:52:16and also you can have, like, for instance in this figure of Thomas.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19- Yeah.- He's wearing shorts.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23And what's great, to me, about the shorts is the ambiguity.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28That it somehow forces you to wonder what is under his shorts.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32- Mmm.- So, again, that's a fig leaf, in a sense,
0:52:32 > 0:52:36working to create meaning in the work.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43This is Buck Angel and Allanah Starr,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46two transsexual porn stars.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51Buck here was born a woman...
0:52:55 > 0:52:57..Allanah was born a man.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05There's a sense of Adam and Eve here.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08- Yeah, yeah.- Or an allusion to that.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11And they're very upfront and unashamed.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14Yeah, well, isn't that the idea of Adam and Eve?
0:53:14 > 0:53:15Before the fall.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18Before the fall, there's kind of innocence and...
0:53:18 > 0:53:21- Indeed. No fig leaf here. - If you put a fig leaf on,
0:53:21 > 0:53:22it would be a different sculpture.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25- What would it be then? - It would be a normal couple.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28You wouldn't understand the sculpture.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36Some of today's artists might like us to believe
0:53:36 > 0:53:40we're beyond taboo and that you can take or leave the fig leaf.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46But step away for the confines of the modern art market
0:53:46 > 0:53:48and the same old rules apply.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52There are still "no show" areas in public sculpture.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58This is a statue of the ancient Greek god Priapus,
0:53:58 > 0:54:02god of fertility and it's in Pimlico, London.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07In ancient times, he was symbolised by a penis.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12Hence the word priapic, meaning phallic.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18So here's Priapus and in places you can see that old Priapus
0:54:18 > 0:54:21has got it going on, he's got some moves.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23In his hair, bunches of grapes,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26in one hand, a little bell,
0:54:26 > 0:54:30summoning people, men particularly, to the Bacchanalian revel.
0:54:30 > 0:54:32But in the other hand, a pair of shears.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35Now speaking as a man, I don't find that particularly priapic.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37But I don't know, if he's supposed to be the god of sex,
0:54:37 > 0:54:42there's something missing here that I can't quite put my finger on.
0:54:45 > 0:54:50There should be an erect penis right here.
0:54:50 > 0:54:51So where is it?
0:54:53 > 0:54:56I've come to find out from the sculptor Sandy Stoddart
0:54:56 > 0:55:00who has the plaster cast original in his studio in Paisley.
0:55:00 > 0:55:01Hello, Sandy, how are you?
0:55:01 > 0:55:04- Hello, Steven. Are you well?- Yes.- Good.
0:55:04 > 0:55:09- Now, I've seen your Priapus in Pimlico.- Yeah.- And I'm engrossed.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12'Sandy did make a phallus for the statue,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17'but he's kept it hidden from view for fear of prosecution.'
0:55:17 > 0:55:21So you solved the problem by rendering Priapus complete
0:55:21 > 0:55:24- and then, as it were, separating... - Yeah.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Was that because of the law, basically?
0:55:26 > 0:55:29Well, of course, you see if you put a thing like this up,
0:55:29 > 0:55:33you've got no end of contumely will fall on your head.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36There'd be outrage and general furore.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38I think it might be time
0:55:38 > 0:55:41to grapple with the elephant in the room, what do you think?
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Gosh, it's got a decidedly Hindu quality about it, hasn't it?
0:55:50 > 0:55:55- That's one way of putting it. - And it plugs on, you see,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59to the two dragonflies here.
0:56:08 > 0:56:14We cannot, in a world today, erect an entire image of the god.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17Because, you know how we live in such a puritanical,
0:56:17 > 0:56:21strangely puritanical world nowadays?
0:56:21 > 0:56:25Yet it is overflowing with a hyper sexuality
0:56:25 > 0:56:27in the most inappropriate of places.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31We are allowed to walk down the high street of any town
0:56:31 > 0:56:35with the letters "FCUK" written on our chest.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40We can have 20ft-high-advertisements of women in underwear,
0:56:40 > 0:56:42you know, or men in their underwear.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46In other words it seems to me that there's an uber indecency everywhere
0:56:46 > 0:56:49and yet in the context of this,
0:56:49 > 0:56:53a little image of the god must remain neutralised.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57- Could you have done a Priapus... - With a fig leaf?- ..with a fig leaf?
0:56:57 > 0:56:59In a way this is what this is, you see.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02It has been, as it were, removed.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05The times are incapable of dealing with this.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10What do you feel, how do you reflect on this work now?
0:57:10 > 0:57:12This is how it should be?
0:57:12 > 0:57:16One of these days, I'll go down by train to London
0:57:16 > 0:57:18and overnight slot it on
0:57:18 > 0:57:21and then run for the border.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28In a time when we think we're all free and easy
0:57:28 > 0:57:32in our attitudes to sex, it seems to me that we're not.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38We're more easily shocked than we care to admit.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42And just like in the past, there are still rules and regulations
0:57:42 > 0:57:43about what you can...
0:57:45 > 0:57:48..and what you can't show.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58All of which brings us back to our old friend, the fig leaf.
0:57:58 > 0:58:00For hundreds of years,
0:58:00 > 0:58:03it was a crude but effective form of censorship.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06But contrary-wise, it also provoked artists
0:58:06 > 0:58:09to new heights of creativity.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13Sex was there, sure, but not dominant.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16The problem with modern art is it's too upfront.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20It's in your face, it leaves nothing to the imagination.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24How do we go about restoring the gaze to where it should be,
0:58:24 > 0:58:27on the beauty and the meaning of art?
0:58:27 > 0:58:31What leaves something to the imagination?
0:58:31 > 0:58:32Fig leaves.
0:58:48 > 0:58:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:51 > 0:58:54E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk