0:00:12 > 0:00:14'Lucifer,
0:00:14 > 0:00:15'Satan,
0:00:15 > 0:00:17'Beelzebub,
0:00:17 > 0:00:19'Old Nick.'
0:00:19 > 0:00:23The Devil has many names and faces. Sometimes he appears as a monster.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27Sometimes he's human. The arch fiend ruling over Hell, he's terrifying.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32'But it wasn't always this way.'
0:00:32 > 0:00:36If you go looking for the Devil that we would recognise in this period,
0:00:36 > 0:00:41you don't find anthropomorphising images of the Devil,
0:00:41 > 0:00:45sort of humanoid but with wings and a tail and cloven hooves -
0:00:45 > 0:00:47you don't find that.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50'That's because the Devil we know today is a human creation,...'
0:00:50 > 0:00:53This was probably the image they took
0:00:53 > 0:00:57to create the image of Lucifer or the Devil.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01'..owing more to the minds of artists than the pages of the Bible,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05'invented and reinvented by generations for whom he became
0:01:05 > 0:01:08'a tantalizing perverse muse.'
0:01:08 > 0:01:12It's a tumultuous sadomasochistic fantasy -
0:01:12 > 0:01:15this is as much porno as it is Inferno.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20'The Devil is a mysterious, seductive and ambiguous character,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23'but for nearly 1,000 years,
0:01:23 > 0:01:28'there was no consensus on what he looked like.'
0:01:30 > 0:01:33'From the end of the Roman Empire
0:01:33 > 0:01:35'to the Renaissance in Italy,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39'from the muddy fields of Gothic England
0:01:39 > 0:01:42'to the libraries of the grandest French chateaux,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45'this film is about how artists
0:01:45 > 0:01:49'invented Satan by taking the little the Bible says about him,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52'letting their imaginations run riot
0:01:52 > 0:01:57'and challenging our fundamental understanding of good and evil.'
0:01:57 > 0:01:59This is the mysterious story
0:01:59 > 0:02:03of one of the strangest yet most electrifying figures
0:02:03 > 0:02:07in all of Western art - the Devil!
0:02:22 > 0:02:25'This is Ravenna in Northern Italy.'
0:02:25 > 0:02:30'This unassuming town was once just about the most important place
0:02:30 > 0:02:32'in the world.'
0:02:32 > 0:02:35'It was the last capital of the Western Roman Empire
0:02:35 > 0:02:39'and in the early days of the Christian church,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43'its citizens wrestled over the great religious questions.'
0:02:43 > 0:02:45'Was Jesus divine?'
0:02:45 > 0:02:48'What was his relationship to God and the Holy Spirit?'
0:02:48 > 0:02:53'When the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo
0:02:53 > 0:02:55'was built in the sixth century,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59'many of the main beliefs of what we recognise today as Christianity
0:02:59 > 0:03:04'hadn't yet been decided - including who or what the Devil was.'
0:03:04 > 0:03:07'But I've come here because some people believe
0:03:07 > 0:03:09'this is where his story begins.'
0:03:11 > 0:03:17So if you come through this little doorway, you enter the Basilica.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23This is a spectacular church.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26These splendid, glittering mosaics
0:03:26 > 0:03:29are how they would have been
0:03:29 > 0:03:32when they were first created.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37'The sixth century is a critical era for Christianity
0:03:37 > 0:03:41'because the iconography of the religion wasn't yet secured.'
0:03:41 > 0:03:44'There's no crucifixion here, for example.'
0:03:44 > 0:03:49'Even the appearance of Jesus varies.'
0:03:49 > 0:03:53The important series of mosaics here for us is right at the very top -
0:03:53 > 0:03:56up near the roof,
0:03:56 > 0:04:01about a metre high where there are 26 scenes from the life of Christ.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04And somewhere in here -
0:04:04 > 0:04:09they say - is the first depiction of the Devil in Western art.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12And you have to look around to find it.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16It's not going to be on the side with the Passion.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18It's somewhere up here.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21In fact, here it is. If you look up there,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25there is a scene which may be the first Last Judgment in Western art
0:04:25 > 0:04:29and what we're looking at is Christ in purple in the middle
0:04:29 > 0:04:32and to his right is an angel dressed in red
0:04:32 > 0:04:36and to his left is an angel dressed in blue
0:04:36 > 0:04:41and that angel dressed in blue may well be Satan.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Why do we think it's Satan?
0:04:44 > 0:04:47The answer is because in front of him you have these three goats.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51Matthew's story in the Bible tells of when Christ comes in judgment
0:04:51 > 0:04:53at the end of the world
0:04:53 > 0:04:57and separates out the nations and humankind into the good - the sheep,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59who he places to his right -
0:04:59 > 0:05:02and the bad - the sinners, the goats, who go to the left.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04There you can see the goats.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06He's enacted that separation
0:05:06 > 0:05:10and it's bizarre because,...
0:05:10 > 0:05:14instead of the grizzly ruler of Hell who we're all familiar with,
0:05:14 > 0:05:19you have, from down here, someone who looks radiant, he's glowing.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22He is a beautiful angel. He's quite ephebic.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25'And, of course, he's blue not red,
0:05:25 > 0:05:30'which is exactly the opposite of what we might expect.'
0:05:30 > 0:05:33'In modern minds, red is the colour of Hell,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35'but in the sixth century,
0:05:35 > 0:05:39'blue was the colour associated with darkness, with error.'
0:05:39 > 0:05:41What's so strange about this image
0:05:41 > 0:05:45in particular is that, in a sense, it's an exception. It's a one-off.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48There are no depictions of the Devil that we know of
0:05:48 > 0:05:50which exist before this mosaic.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55'Which kind of makes you think.'
0:05:55 > 0:05:59'Satan, supposedly central to Christianity -
0:05:59 > 0:06:01'the personification of evil itself -
0:06:01 > 0:06:06'seems absent from the artistic world for hundreds of years.'
0:06:06 > 0:06:10'And when he does turn up, he arrives
0:06:10 > 0:06:13'with no ceremony, almost hidden
0:06:13 > 0:06:17'amongst a grand programme of decorative mosaics.'
0:06:17 > 0:06:20'And not only that, he looks like an angel.'
0:06:22 > 0:06:27'But this blue angel doesn't convince everyone.'
0:06:27 > 0:06:32'Arguments have raged for decades about his significance.'
0:06:32 > 0:06:38'Giovanni Gardini is a local religious historian and writer.'
0:06:59 > 0:07:04- But what about this bloke up here - the blue angel, the Devil?- No...
0:07:04 > 0:07:07- It's the Devil.- No.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10I can see him. He has the goats.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36'This argument about the blue angel
0:07:36 > 0:07:41'encapsulates a big problem with the Devil in early Christian art.'
0:07:41 > 0:07:43'There's no clarity about his image
0:07:43 > 0:07:47'because there's no clarity about his role.'
0:07:47 > 0:07:50I don't think art historians will ever agree on whether or not
0:07:50 > 0:07:53that blue angel is meant to be the Devil.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57It seems accepted that his colour is about evoking shadows and the night
0:07:57 > 0:08:00to represent the erring ways of the goats or sinners in front of him.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04It's in contrast to Christ who's associated with the light,
0:08:04 > 0:08:09but no-one could argue that he is the personification of evil.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13He's got this mysterious, unsettling aspect.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15He emanates an aura of error,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18but there are no horns, no tail or a cloven hoof
0:08:18 > 0:08:21or even the merest whiff of sulphur,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25so he seems to be almost more like a heavenly functionary.
0:08:25 > 0:08:31He's a custodian of sinners and he's not Satan as we know him today.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42'But seeing the Devil as an angel isn't as surprising as it might seem
0:08:42 > 0:08:46'when you think of the theological context - a century before
0:08:46 > 0:08:49'the Ravenna mosaic was created,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52'Christian thinkers had fixed upon an ambiguous passage
0:08:52 > 0:08:54'in the Book of Isaiah.'
0:08:54 > 0:08:58'To them, it suggested that Lucifer, the most beautiful angel in Heaven,
0:08:58 > 0:09:03'had rebelled against God and been cast out of paradise.'
0:09:03 > 0:09:08'The fallen angel Lucifer had become the Devil.'
0:09:08 > 0:09:12'But that was just about all contemporary artists had to go on.'
0:09:12 > 0:09:15'Satan isn't even mentioned in Genesis.'
0:09:15 > 0:09:20'So does this mean the Devil was simply a beautiful angel gone wrong
0:09:20 > 0:09:25'and if so, how did he become the figure we recognise today -
0:09:25 > 0:09:27'the implacable enemy of God
0:09:27 > 0:09:30'and the tyrant who rules in Hell?'
0:09:59 > 0:10:03'Here on the Venetian island of Torcello,
0:10:03 > 0:10:07'there's a big clue about how the church and artists
0:10:07 > 0:10:10'began to shape the Devil and his role in the universe.'
0:10:12 > 0:10:14Thank you. Grazia.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16Perfect.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20I've come to Torcello,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23which is the oldest populated island in the Venetian lagoon
0:10:23 > 0:10:26and inside the Basilica, which was founded in 639,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30is a stunning, monumental Byzantine mosaic
0:10:30 > 0:10:32which dates from the 11th century.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34The thing is I can see it,
0:10:34 > 0:10:40but when I go in, it's so holy that I'm not allowed to talk about it.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43'Which is actually kind of appropriate
0:10:43 > 0:10:48'because the treasures inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta
0:10:48 > 0:10:50'really do leave you speechless.'
0:11:07 > 0:11:10'We don't know the names of the artists
0:11:10 > 0:11:14'who created this glittering mosaic,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17'but we do know that when it was completed in the 11th century,
0:11:17 > 0:11:22'this was a blueprint of how the medieval church saw the world,
0:11:22 > 0:11:27'the Underworld and the Devil's role in both.'
0:11:27 > 0:11:29'The crucial point for me
0:11:29 > 0:11:33'about this mosaic is that Hell is part of the cosmic hierarchy,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37'so in the second tier from the top,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41'you can see Christ in the middle of an elliptical shape, a mandala,
0:11:41 > 0:11:44'and beneath him, coming out of the mandala,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47'is a big red river of fire
0:11:47 > 0:11:53'that cascades down several tiers into the depths of Hell.'
0:11:53 > 0:11:57'Two of the biggest elements in that vision of Hell aren't demons at all,
0:11:57 > 0:11:59'they're angels.'
0:11:59 > 0:12:04'And the angels have long staffs prodding at kings and bishops,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08'nuns from all over the world as far afield as Egypt and the Orient -
0:12:08 > 0:12:12'their heads floating in the sea of fire -
0:12:12 > 0:12:18'and fluttering around them are these little blue anti-cherubs.'
0:12:18 > 0:12:22'The figure who sits on the throne is blue with wild hair and a beard.'
0:12:22 > 0:12:26'And the throne has serpents' heads coming out of either side,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30'eating, consuming sinners.'
0:12:30 > 0:12:35'And that blue ogre has a smaller figure sitting on his lap.'
0:12:35 > 0:12:38'Scholars disagree about who this could be.'
0:12:38 > 0:12:42'Maybe he's the personification of Hell.'
0:12:42 > 0:12:44'Maybe he's Judas the traitor.'
0:12:44 > 0:12:47'He could even be the Devil himself
0:12:47 > 0:12:49'sometimes known as the "little master",
0:12:49 > 0:12:54'but whoever that little guy is, I like to think of this blue giant
0:12:54 > 0:12:56'as the real Devil
0:12:56 > 0:13:01'because we're on the route to some of the more monstrous Satans
0:13:01 > 0:13:05'that would come to dominate the medieval imagination.'
0:13:05 > 0:13:09'I think this is a very revealing work of art.'
0:13:09 > 0:13:12'This blue giant looks like the prototype
0:13:12 > 0:13:18'of the medieval Satan with his wild hair and fiery domain.'
0:13:18 > 0:13:22'Five centuries after the blue angel of Ravenna,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24'there's nothing angelic about him.'
0:13:24 > 0:13:27'Nonetheless, the definite impression here
0:13:27 > 0:13:29'is that this Torcello Devil
0:13:29 > 0:13:33'is part of some medieval Christian work-flow diagram.'
0:13:33 > 0:13:36'He's part of the divine plan -
0:13:36 > 0:13:39'a cog in the cosmic machinery.'
0:13:39 > 0:13:42I remember coming to this church several years ago
0:13:42 > 0:13:44and being really taken
0:13:44 > 0:13:46by that figure of the blue giant
0:13:46 > 0:13:50because you can tell by looking into his eyes,
0:13:50 > 0:13:52which look in different directions,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55that there's something not right about this man.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59He's deranged. I think of him as like a psychotic jailer
0:13:59 > 0:14:03let loose in the dungeon of Hell with the blessing of God.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06The point about this figure is that, weirdly enough
0:14:06 > 0:14:12and as unexpected as it might seem, the Devil seems to be on God's side.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34'I've come to King's College in London
0:14:34 > 0:14:37'to meet Dr Sophie Lunn-Rockcliffe,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40'who studies the strange early days of Satan
0:14:40 > 0:14:42'to work out what role he played
0:14:42 > 0:14:45'in the first centuries of Christianity.'
0:14:45 > 0:14:47- He's a bureaucrat. - Yeah, exactly!
0:14:47 > 0:14:52There's no particular opprobrium attached to him as an individual,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55he's just doing his job. Even the nastiest judges
0:14:55 > 0:14:58and torturers who are taking a bit too much pleasure
0:14:58 > 0:15:02in stripping Christians of their flesh and burning them alive -
0:15:02 > 0:15:08quite often you'll find a sort of over-arching, distancing device
0:15:08 > 0:15:12of saying that this was all done according to the providence of God.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16Why do these early Christian fathers need to construct a Devil
0:15:16 > 0:15:18that we might recognise today?
0:15:18 > 0:15:23The need for a Devil is an important theological and philosophical one.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27So the problem that Christians face and indeed non-Christians as well
0:15:27 > 0:15:32is the big philosophical question, whence evil -
0:15:32 > 0:15:36how does bad come into a good, creative universe?
0:15:36 > 0:15:40And the Devil is important in helping to answer that question.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43And in the early Christian world, there is that sense
0:15:43 > 0:15:48that the Devil is everywhere, either in himself or through his minions,
0:15:48 > 0:15:52and that you can't trust the visible, tangible world
0:15:52 > 0:15:55because it's essentially deceptive.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02'Which may explain why no-one in this period - church or artists -
0:16:02 > 0:16:05'seems sure about what the Devil should look like?'
0:16:05 > 0:16:09If you go looking for the Devil
0:16:09 > 0:16:12that we'd recognise from later medieval art, you don't find him.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17So you don't find anthropomorphising images of the Devil -
0:16:17 > 0:16:21sort of a humanoid but with wings and a tail and cloven hooves.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24You don't find that in this period.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28'But there were plenty of other images around
0:16:28 > 0:16:32'which could give Christian artists inspiration
0:16:32 > 0:16:34'when they needed to depict Satan -
0:16:34 > 0:16:39images of pagan gods once worshipped in Greece, Rome and Egypt.'
0:16:39 > 0:16:41'Among them,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44'the Greek god Pan, who soon became a popular source of inspiration
0:16:44 > 0:16:46'for Christian artists.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50I think early Christians understood that the pagan gods existed
0:16:50 > 0:16:53and were demons, evil forces,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56and early Christian literature refers to this idea of a world
0:16:56 > 0:17:01humming with demons - there's a reference in Psalms which says
0:17:01 > 0:17:03the gods of the heathen are demons.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06It's something that's already there in scripture -
0:17:06 > 0:17:10associating the demonic with things worshipped by pagans as gods.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15It's the demonisation of that which what was once thought to be divine.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18And it's competitive - saying your gods are actually minor demons
0:17:18 > 0:17:20and our god trumps them all.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25'In the first millennium,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28'Christianity was still very much in competition
0:17:28 > 0:17:30'with ancient pagan religions.'
0:17:30 > 0:17:34'By demonizing the gods and monsters of the ancient world,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38'the church not only won converts to its own cause,
0:17:38 > 0:17:41'it had also finally found
0:17:41 > 0:17:44'a convenient model for Satan.'
0:17:44 > 0:17:47'The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford
0:17:47 > 0:17:51'has one of the finest collections of pagan artefacts in Britain.'
0:17:51 > 0:17:54'These are the remnants of ancient religions
0:17:54 > 0:17:57'that once stretched from Northern Europe to the Nile
0:17:57 > 0:18:00'and included gods like the Egyptian deity Bes,
0:18:00 > 0:18:05'who might provide clues as to why the Devil looks how he does today.'
0:18:05 > 0:18:07I have three Bes figurines,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11which is basically an Egyptian deity. Looks like little demon.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15'Curator of Antiquities Dr Anja Ulbrich has looked some out for me.'
0:18:15 > 0:18:18- He's quite ugly, isn't he? - Yes, he definitely is.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22- These are all representations of Bes?- Of the same deity, yes.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25- And they're all Egyptian?- Yes.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30- When do they date from? - From pretty late period, which means the first millennium BC.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34What's so noticeable is the sheer ugliness of this god.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37He's got very squat, flat features.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40He's heavily bearded
0:18:40 > 0:18:43and it's interesting to think about the possible connections
0:18:43 > 0:18:45with later representations
0:18:45 > 0:18:49in Western art of the Devil because there are some similarities.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53How much do you think that European artists were aware of Bes
0:18:53 > 0:18:57when they were thinking about representing the Devil?
0:18:57 > 0:19:01Since these amulets were exported all over the Eastern Mediterranean,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04people definitely knew the image of Bes,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07but he actually was worshipped
0:19:07 > 0:19:10as a demon who protects you against evil.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13- It's a protective deity. - So he's the opposite of the Devil?
0:19:13 > 0:19:16He's the opposite of the Devil because, as I said,
0:19:16 > 0:19:18this is a protective deity.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21We wouldn't consider the Devil protective in Christianity.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25'So not only did early Christians appropriate the imagery
0:19:25 > 0:19:28'of a pagan god like Bes,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31'but they also trashed his reputation.'
0:19:31 > 0:19:36'Bes - the lucky charm, the protector - became Bes the monster.'
0:19:36 > 0:19:42'They demonized him and other pagan gods suffered a similar fate.'
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Right, so who is this?
0:19:45 > 0:19:48Well, this was a Greek satyr,
0:19:48 > 0:19:54so he's one of the demons - half goat, half horse sometimes,
0:19:54 > 0:19:59erm,... with a goat tail -
0:19:59 > 0:20:01who celebrate the good life.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05Big beard, pointed ears - goat ears -
0:20:05 > 0:20:09often hairy flanks lower half of their body, cloven hooves, a tail.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13These are all attributes that were later co-opted by the Devil.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16- Exactly. - This guy looks like Lucifer.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18- Yes. Indeed. - Or rather Satan.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21This was probably the image they took
0:20:21 > 0:20:25to create the image of Lucifer or the Devil in early Christianity.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29So when we're thinking about the gradual evolution
0:20:29 > 0:20:31of the way the Devil looks in art,
0:20:31 > 0:20:36these could be the chief figures in that hinterland of influences
0:20:36 > 0:20:39- that went into it? - Yes, because Christianity draws
0:20:39 > 0:20:41on the imagery known
0:20:41 > 0:20:45to create Christian images with new connotations.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48It's almost like he's the grandfather of the Devil
0:20:48 > 0:20:51- if this is his dad... - Yes, possibly!
0:20:51 > 0:20:54So there's the progenitor, that's his offspring
0:20:54 > 0:20:58- and his offspring is the Devil we know today.- Indeed.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16What I'm discovering is that the early history of the Devil
0:21:16 > 0:21:18is much murkier than I imagined.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23In the Bible, Satan has this role as God's accuser or attorney general.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26He does God's dirty work, he tests and he obstructs.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31But his duties are surprisingly bureaucratic and also minimal.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34He's got more of a walk-on part than a star turn.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37'As long as Christianity is in flux,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40'then, Satan's role and image are also ambiguous,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43'but when the imagery of pagan gods like Bes and Pan
0:21:43 > 0:21:48'is borrowed by the church, then, all Hell breaks loose.'
0:21:48 > 0:21:52'Satan not only gets a more definite look,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56'but also becomes characterised with things Christianity wishes to reject
0:21:56 > 0:22:00'or considers morally dubious.'
0:22:00 > 0:22:04'This new Devil is as much a human as a religious creation.'
0:22:04 > 0:22:09'He's leaving the Bible's pages and entering the control of the church
0:22:09 > 0:22:11'and that makes the Devil
0:22:11 > 0:22:13'and the church much more powerful.'
0:22:13 > 0:22:16This is one of the most memorable paintings to have survived
0:22:16 > 0:22:20from the Middle Ages - it's known as the Winchester Psalter.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24There's a collection of manuscripts and this is one of the paintings.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26At the end of the world,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29the angel has cast that old wily serpent known as Satan
0:22:29 > 0:22:33down into this bottomless pit - the bottomless pit of Hell -
0:22:33 > 0:22:38and he's sealing it and locking the door so that no-one can get out.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Inside, you have all of the poor sinners
0:22:41 > 0:22:46and the reason I love it is because they're all topsy-turvy.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48They're going in every direction.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50It's as if the sinners are sizzled
0:22:50 > 0:22:52in this infernal tumble dryer.
0:22:52 > 0:22:58'In Torcello, the angels punished the sinners as the Devil looked on.'
0:22:58 > 0:23:01'Here the Devil has a new role.'
0:23:01 > 0:23:03'He's in the thick of the torture
0:23:03 > 0:23:06'and seems much more powerful than previous Devils.'
0:23:06 > 0:23:11'Now he commands legions of terrifying demons
0:23:11 > 0:23:15'all of whom are helping him in his diabolical work.'
0:23:15 > 0:23:20Inside the jaws of the Hellmouth, as this great beast is known,
0:23:20 > 0:23:26are all these sinners in this fetid, cramped, claustrophobic condition
0:23:26 > 0:23:28where they're being tormented
0:23:28 > 0:23:31by demons and Devils, some with big bushy beards,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34which put you in mind of that Egyptian deity Bes,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38some with Pan-like bestial hair coating their bodies.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40A few have horns, some don't.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44They're delighting in tormenting all of these sinners.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48So we imagine within Hell all of these people being chewed up.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51You can see the great jaws, the teeth -
0:23:51 > 0:23:54they're not even canine teeth, they're molars,
0:23:54 > 0:23:59to make that excruciating grinding process continue for longer.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01'When the Winchester Psalter
0:24:01 > 0:24:05'was created in the middle of the 12th century, the artist behind it
0:24:05 > 0:24:09'strained every sinew to make the Devil more powerful and terrifying
0:24:09 > 0:24:14'than ever before - the tyrannical leader of armies of crazed demons!'
0:24:14 > 0:24:17'And they wanted to bring the real world
0:24:17 > 0:24:19'into Hell too.'
0:24:19 > 0:24:24'The Devil's victims include secular leaders like kings and queens
0:24:24 > 0:24:26'as well as heretical monks.'
0:24:26 > 0:24:32'The Winchester Psalter is the medieval church's enemies list.'
0:24:32 > 0:24:36Whoever's created it has let their imagination run riot.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41That's what's wonderful about this. It's a topsy-turvy, scatalogical,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45highly energetic, volatile, big fantasy
0:24:45 > 0:24:48of what happens in Hell in the afterlife.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54'We'll probably never know the names of the individual artists
0:24:54 > 0:24:56'who created this Psalter.'
0:24:56 > 0:25:01'While their vision of Hell may have chimed more or less with the church,
0:25:01 > 0:25:06'it also looks like these artists really embraced this new Devil.'
0:25:06 > 0:25:10'They seem to love the opportunity 'to depict gruesome scenarios
0:25:10 > 0:25:14'featuring Satan and assorted unfortunate sinners.'
0:25:17 > 0:25:22'This was true across medieval England where even great cathedrals
0:25:22 > 0:25:24'like Lincoln
0:25:24 > 0:25:28'became canvases on which artists could project some dark fantasies.'
0:25:31 > 0:25:36'Dr Nicholas Bennett is Librarian of Lincoln Cathedral.'
0:25:36 > 0:25:38I'm a 13th century pilgrim,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41approaching the cathedral from the south,
0:25:41 > 0:25:46but before I go in, I'm confronted by this sculptural design.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51- What am I looking at? - This is a reminder of what happens to those who are not good in life
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and what happens to those who ARE good.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58There's one of the damned. You can see his bum sticking out.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03- Exactly. That's right. - Really quite close to the genitals of the demon next to it.
0:26:03 > 0:26:09Yes, having a very satisfying experience, one would think.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12That's actually quite prominent.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15- No, there's no messing about... - We can't sidestep that.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Above the door into the cathedral
0:26:17 > 0:26:21is a very explicit, erect Devil's penis...
0:26:21 > 0:26:23- Yes.- Why?
0:26:23 > 0:26:29Well, it's all part of this very in-your-face sort of style.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31It's showing them
0:26:31 > 0:26:35that it's not a pleasant experience going to Hell.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39You're going to be manhandled by these grotesque, horrible demons.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43It's going to be totally removed from the love of God.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46CHORAL SINGING
0:26:46 > 0:26:51'Arts like this make Satan a recognizably medieval character.'
0:26:51 > 0:26:57'The punishments he inflicts would have been immediately recognised
0:26:57 > 0:27:02'by people whose lives were themselves tough and violent.'
0:27:02 > 0:27:05'While God remained ethereal and unknowable,
0:27:06 > 0:27:08'Satan, in contrast, was found
0:27:08 > 0:27:13'in amongst all the sex, violence and brutality of medieval life.'
0:27:13 > 0:27:15I feel like I've stumbled
0:27:15 > 0:27:20- into a filming of The Wicker Man or something. - ..worship me as thy Lord... >
0:27:21 > 0:27:24'This is a mystery play.'
0:27:24 > 0:27:27'These were first performed in France more than 900 years ago
0:27:27 > 0:27:32'as a way of bringing important passages of the Bible to life.'
0:27:32 > 0:27:35I am a devil...
0:27:35 > 0:27:40'They became popular across Europe from Germany to Italy to England.'
0:27:40 > 0:27:43- Show the might... - 'Lay people knew little
0:27:43 > 0:27:46'about the arcane theological arguments of the church fathers,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49'but they knew a Devil when they saw one, so these plays
0:27:49 > 0:27:53'became the most influential representations so far
0:27:53 > 0:27:55'of the Devil in art.'
0:27:55 > 0:28:00'Often painters copied the costumes and look that lay people created.'
0:28:00 > 0:28:05'The next incarnation of the Devil's appearance came, not from priests,
0:28:05 > 0:28:11'but from the terrified imaginations of medieval lay people.'
0:28:12 > 0:28:14AUDIENCE APPLAUDS
0:28:22 > 0:28:24Right, well...
0:28:24 > 0:28:27I think it maybe conjures some of the spirit
0:28:27 > 0:28:30of the mystery cycle plays whereby cosmic grand themes
0:28:30 > 0:28:36were made comprehensible in quite broad brush strokes to the masses
0:28:36 > 0:28:41and this was the great tradition of popular culture of the day.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45'When mystery plays were at their height
0:28:45 > 0:28:47'in the 13th and 14th centuries,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51'they reinforced an image of Satan in people's minds -
0:28:51 > 0:28:56'the all-powerful source of evil, the ruler of Hell.'
0:28:56 > 0:28:59'And a tyrant standing in opposition to God.'
0:28:59 > 0:29:06'The subtle ambiguity of the Ravenna and Torcello Devils was long gone.'
0:29:06 > 0:29:08Lo! I nourish sin
0:29:08 > 0:29:11for the confusion of Man.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Draw him to my dungeon
0:29:14 > 0:29:15in fire!
0:29:24 > 0:29:28'This Devil perfectly fitted a world
0:29:28 > 0:29:31'where death could come quickly and horribly.'
0:29:37 > 0:29:42'Cities all over Europe were regularly savaged by the plague
0:29:42 > 0:29:44'with devastating consequences.'
0:29:44 > 0:29:50'One of the most vivid first-person accounts of this terror
0:29:50 > 0:29:53'was written by the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio.'
0:29:53 > 0:29:56"Few of those who caught it ever recovered
0:29:56 > 0:29:58"and, in most cases, death occurred
0:29:58 > 0:30:01"within three days from the appearance of the symptoms,
0:30:01 > 0:30:04"some people dying more rapidly than others."
0:30:04 > 0:30:07"The stench of dead bodies, sickness and medicines
0:30:07 > 0:30:11"seem to fill and pollute the whole of the atmosphere."
0:30:11 > 0:30:15"In the face of so much affliction and misery,
0:30:15 > 0:30:20"all respect for the laws of God and Man have virtually broken down."
0:30:22 > 0:30:26'As death raged across the continent,
0:30:26 > 0:30:28'the plague was seen as nothing less
0:30:28 > 0:30:30'than the work of the Devil.'
0:30:30 > 0:30:34In many ways, the Middle Ages were a period of calamity and woe.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38War, poverty, pestilence, famine - these were ever-present threats.
0:30:38 > 0:30:43Europe suffered epidemics - the bubonic plague or the Black Death.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47In 1348, for instance, Tuscany was convulsed by the plague.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50Half of the citizens living in Florence were wiped out.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54In Sienna, 65 per cent of the population were killed.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56You can imagine fevers, running sores,
0:30:56 > 0:31:00the stench of rotting flesh and forgotten carcasses.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04It must have been a dreadful, precarious time to be alive.
0:31:04 > 0:31:09'And that dreadful, dangerous nature of life in medieval Europe
0:31:09 > 0:31:13'erupted in terrifying artistic visions
0:31:13 > 0:31:15'of the Inferno.'
0:31:18 > 0:31:22'The original version of this Devil is found in the Baptistry -
0:31:22 > 0:31:26'one of the most sacred churches in Florence.'
0:31:26 > 0:31:31'It was created around 1260 by an artist called Coppo di Marcovaldo.'
0:31:31 > 0:31:36This is a Satan that is very close to my heart.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39He dates from a period where the look of the Devil
0:31:39 > 0:31:41is starting to become crystallised.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45There are various attributes which point him out to be the Devil.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47The strange, paradoxical thing
0:31:47 > 0:31:51is those attributes are actually quite miscellaneous.
0:31:51 > 0:31:56He's surrounded by animals - the serpents on the throne, locusts,
0:31:56 > 0:31:58a fat toad, his head - his horns,
0:31:58 > 0:32:03it's bald, it's bright blue. His torso is green.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07He has a thick beard with snaking goat's hair curls, and it's clear
0:32:07 > 0:32:11that this work of art was inspired by the bestiaries -
0:32:11 > 0:32:14the anthologies of fabled magical animals
0:32:14 > 0:32:17that were so beloved of medieval readers.
0:32:17 > 0:32:22'The result is one of the most persuasive visions of Satan
0:32:22 > 0:32:26'as the tyrant of Hell.'
0:32:26 > 0:32:30To the medieval onlooker, this was a thing of terrifying awe.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33They would have looked up at this Devil and been scared witless
0:32:33 > 0:32:40and you get a sense from this of the instability of the medieval world.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44'Surely Coppo di Marcovaldo drew on the ravages he saw around him
0:32:44 > 0:32:48'when he created this warped, terrifying, grotesque Devil.'
0:32:48 > 0:32:50'This is the ultimate
0:32:50 > 0:32:53'diabolical image - a perfect horrible example
0:32:53 > 0:32:56'of art reflecting the dreadful mood of the times.'
0:32:56 > 0:32:58And this image
0:32:58 > 0:33:02was seen by a number of extremely important Italian artists
0:33:02 > 0:33:04and writers and thinkers.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07Two of them would go on to define
0:33:07 > 0:33:12the way we still think about the Devil today.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25'One of them was the Florentine artist and architect Giotto,
0:33:25 > 0:33:29'who's often called the father of modern Western art.'
0:33:29 > 0:33:31'It was said of Giotto
0:33:31 > 0:33:36'that he translated the art of painting from Greek into Latin,
0:33:36 > 0:33:40'changing for ever what painting could achieve.'
0:33:45 > 0:33:48'And his own greatest achievement
0:33:48 > 0:33:54'is the interior of this chapel in the northern Italian town of Padua.'
0:33:57 > 0:33:59I'm feeling exceptionally fortunate
0:33:59 > 0:34:02because it's very early in the morning
0:34:02 > 0:34:05and I've been allowed in here before the crowds come
0:34:05 > 0:34:11to have a look at Giotto's famous fresco cycle in the Arena Chapel.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14And it's completely spectacular. It's almost overwhelming.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Behind me here
0:34:16 > 0:34:20is the most monumental fresco of all of the frescos in this great cycle.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24It's a vision of the Last Judgment, which dominates
0:34:24 > 0:34:27the entire western wall of the chapel.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30'Here in the Arena Chapel
0:34:30 > 0:34:32'at the turn of the 14th century,
0:34:32 > 0:34:36'Giotto created the quintessential medieval vision of Hell
0:34:36 > 0:34:39'with its monstrous, pot-bellied Satan
0:34:39 > 0:34:42'consuming then excreting sinners.'
0:34:42 > 0:34:45'You can see the influence of the Florentine Devil,
0:34:45 > 0:34:48'completed only a few decades before Giotto started work
0:34:48 > 0:34:51'and there are older influences as well.'
0:34:51 > 0:34:54'We first saw these rivers of fire in Torcello
0:34:54 > 0:34:57'more than two centuries ago.'
0:34:59 > 0:35:03'Like the real world around him, Giotto's Devil is vicious
0:35:03 > 0:35:08'and the Hell he inhabits is a nasty, brutal place.'
0:35:08 > 0:35:13You see people being tortured in very specific ways.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16They're manacled, whipped, hanged.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20There's a bloke who's being skewered on a spit.
0:35:20 > 0:35:25You can see Judas hanged with his bowels hanging out.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29He's been eviscerated. There's a number of sinners here
0:35:29 > 0:35:33who seem to be punished for sexual sins.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35The church has always had
0:35:35 > 0:35:39a problematic relationship with sexuality and we see that here.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43For example, by Satan's left hip, there's a tiny, lizard-like,
0:35:43 > 0:35:48green, scaly monster that's chewing on a man's penis
0:35:48 > 0:35:50and if you look up behind Satan,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53there are four of the damned hanging
0:35:53 > 0:35:57and two of them have been strung up by their genitals.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02'It's a catalogue of inventive, diabolical sanctions,
0:36:02 > 0:36:04'but the real story of the Arena Chapel, I think,
0:36:04 > 0:36:09'is that this Devil is the least innovative part of the whole cycle,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12'both theologically and artistically.'
0:36:12 > 0:36:15'Though there are fascinating elements
0:36:15 > 0:36:17'of the real world here,
0:36:17 > 0:36:20'the power of this Last Judgment as a piece of art
0:36:20 > 0:36:25'pales in comparison to what Giotto has been able to achieve elsewhere.'
0:36:25 > 0:36:31'In the other panels, there's a revolution going on.'
0:36:31 > 0:36:35'The way that people are depicted as three-dimensional,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38'as beautifully and vulnerably human,
0:36:38 > 0:36:42'marks a fundamental change in art.'
0:36:42 > 0:36:45'This is what they mean when they say that Giotto changed for ever
0:36:45 > 0:36:48'the language of painting.'
0:36:49 > 0:36:51'Seen in this wider context,
0:36:51 > 0:36:55'Giotto's Devil seems a little bit, well, unconvincing
0:36:55 > 0:37:00'and he isn't the only troublesome Devil in the chapel.'
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Giotto didn't just paint one Devil in the Arena Chapel.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08He painted two and the second one is just up there
0:37:08 > 0:37:13where we see the scene in which Judas is taking money
0:37:13 > 0:37:17and it's the moment that we know he's going to betray Christ
0:37:17 > 0:37:19and you see in that image,
0:37:19 > 0:37:22in that fresco,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26part of the problem that Giotto faced when he was painting the Devil
0:37:26 > 0:37:29because his genius in this spectacular space
0:37:29 > 0:37:35was that he was taking art history away from its Byzantine traditions,
0:37:35 > 0:37:40which were a bit more abstract where things were not naturalistic
0:37:40 > 0:37:44and he's introducing a much more recognisably everyday human sense
0:37:44 > 0:37:46into the way
0:37:46 > 0:37:49that artists perceived the world.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53These are real people located in real space.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55And then he paints the Devil,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59a figure who isn't from the real world, who isn't a human actor,
0:37:59 > 0:38:03and it's almost like he can't quite work out how to render him
0:38:03 > 0:38:07if he's not thinking about the pictorial
0:38:07 > 0:38:11and psychological reality of OUR world.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14Taking this being from Western imagination,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18from the church's teaching of the afterlife
0:38:18 > 0:38:20and its panoply of cosmic beings,
0:38:20 > 0:38:25doesn't quite work here because you can see that Devil
0:38:25 > 0:38:28is almost two-dimensional.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31He's a shadowy cardboard-cutout Devil.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34What that fresco foretells is that
0:38:34 > 0:38:37Satan was going to have to evolve
0:38:37 > 0:38:39otherwise he risked being eliminated
0:38:39 > 0:38:44from the art historical story altogether.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02'But Satan was rescued by another Florentine
0:39:02 > 0:39:04'who'd visited Giotto
0:39:04 > 0:39:08'while he was completing his frescoes in the Arena Chapel.'
0:39:08 > 0:39:11'Dante Alighieri was a young poet
0:39:11 > 0:39:14'who found himself on the wrong side
0:39:14 > 0:39:18'of a bitter political power struggle in Florence.'
0:39:18 > 0:39:23'By the start of the 14th century, he was in exile, never to return.'
0:39:23 > 0:39:26'By then, he'd begun work on an immense trilogy of poems
0:39:26 > 0:39:29'called The Divine Comedy
0:39:29 > 0:39:33'and the most famous of these was Inferno - Hell.'
0:39:34 > 0:39:37'This epic poem would transform
0:39:37 > 0:39:40'the way that artists thought about Satan.'
0:39:40 > 0:39:42It has a very famous beginning.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45"Halfway through our trek in life,
0:39:45 > 0:39:50"I found myself in this dark wood, miles away from the right road."
0:39:50 > 0:39:53He's lost, spiritually lost,
0:39:53 > 0:39:58and he encounters a guide - the Roman poet Virgil - who leads him
0:39:58 > 0:40:01into the Underworld.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06And Dante imagines this very schematic vision of Hell.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10He sees it as a succession of circles, almost in a funnel shape,
0:40:10 > 0:40:14narrowing as we move towards the centre of the Earth
0:40:14 > 0:40:18and in each circle, he encounters different sets of sinners.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21Some are famous figures from classical mythology,
0:40:21 > 0:40:24others - and this is part of the poem's brilliance -
0:40:24 > 0:40:26are contemporary political figures
0:40:26 > 0:40:30so that society of Italy at the time is referenced throughout the poem.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34Dante's almost getting his revenge, his own back, on various people
0:40:34 > 0:40:36and the climax of Inferno
0:40:36 > 0:40:41comes right towards the end, in Canto 34,
0:40:41 > 0:40:45when eventually, Dante and Virgil happen upon
0:40:45 > 0:40:47Satan himself.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51"The emperor of that dire empire was stuck chest deep in the ice
0:40:51 > 0:40:54"and I'd come nearer to a giant than a giant would to his arm,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57"so you see how enormous he was with all of him on this scale."
0:40:57 > 0:41:01"If he's as ugly as he was lovely when he stood up to his maker,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04"all pain indeed derives from him."
0:41:04 > 0:41:06"And his six eyes weep,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09"his three chins drip with tears and gory slaver."
0:41:09 > 0:41:13"In each mouth, his teeth grind away at a sinner."
0:41:13 > 0:41:18One difference about this Satan is we're moving away - it's 1300 -
0:41:18 > 0:41:22from the medieval conception of the Devil as this odd overlord of Hell,
0:41:22 > 0:41:24the "ruler of Hell" idea.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28Here it's quite different. We're invited to imagine
0:41:28 > 0:41:31how beautiful he was as Lucifer before he fell
0:41:31 > 0:41:34and to imagine him as the origin of all sorrow in the world.
0:41:34 > 0:41:40We're being invited to have... to imagine his own mental health.
0:41:42 > 0:41:44'Dante does what Giotto doesn't -
0:41:44 > 0:41:47'he makes Satan three-dimensional.'
0:41:47 > 0:41:51'There are some hints of empathy with the Devil in this poem.'
0:41:51 > 0:41:54'His Satan is fundamentally different
0:41:54 > 0:41:57'from either of Giotto's Devils in the Arena Chapel
0:41:57 > 0:42:00'and it's no accident, I think,
0:42:00 > 0:42:04'that artists who came later took Dante as their inspiration,
0:42:04 > 0:42:06'not Giotto.'
0:42:08 > 0:42:11'Romantic artists like Gustave Dore loved the Inferno
0:42:11 > 0:42:14'and they played on the tragedy of the Devil
0:42:14 > 0:42:18'when they illustrated the poem centuries later.'
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Dante's Satan is a vision
0:42:21 > 0:42:24that rang down through the ages.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27Milton was thinking directly about The Divine Comedy
0:42:27 > 0:42:29when he wrote Paradise Lost
0:42:29 > 0:42:33and I don't think you could find his Satan with all of his grandeur
0:42:33 > 0:42:37without a conception of the Devil which Dante offers,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40which moves us forwards towards the modern world.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45'And this is important
0:42:45 > 0:42:48'because as soon as Satan enters the real world,
0:42:48 > 0:42:53'as soon as he is physically defined and treated in a human way,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56'then, in a sense, he ceases to be Satan
0:42:56 > 0:43:00'and becomes something else - a much more human,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03'much less supernatural image of evil.'
0:43:03 > 0:43:06BELL TOLLS
0:43:06 > 0:43:09'This is such a radical change
0:43:09 > 0:43:12'that it poses an important question -
0:43:12 > 0:43:17'who's now in charge of what the Devil looks like or represents?'
0:43:17 > 0:43:22'Is it the church or is it the artists?'
0:43:22 > 0:43:25'By the 15th century,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28'this battle was being waged on the streets of Italy.'
0:43:28 > 0:43:32'In Florence, an apocalyptic preacher called Girolamo Savonarola
0:43:32 > 0:43:35'took over the city - he was obsessed with Satan,
0:43:35 > 0:43:41'blaming him for turning Florentines into corrupt, avaricious sinners.'
0:43:41 > 0:43:45'His followers burnt books and art that they considered subversive.'
0:43:45 > 0:43:50'Even for the 15th century, this was pretty old-time religion.'
0:43:54 > 0:43:56Savonarola led a revolution
0:43:56 > 0:43:59that saw him become virtual dictator of Florence.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03You might think the church would support his puritanical campaigns
0:44:03 > 0:44:05against Satan and lust, but it didn't.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08In fact, it excommunicated him
0:44:08 > 0:44:13and burnt him and two of his lieutenants at the stake.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17'But Savonarola's revolution
0:44:17 > 0:44:20'had caused political chaos in Italy
0:44:20 > 0:44:23'and his hellish sermons resonated in towns and cities
0:44:23 > 0:44:27'riven by clannish violence and famine.'
0:44:27 > 0:44:30'Among the crowds watching his death
0:44:30 > 0:44:32'had been the artist Luca Signorelli
0:44:32 > 0:44:38'whose apocalyptic frescoes in the cathedral of the town of Orvieto
0:44:38 > 0:44:41'captured the dangerous, uncertain mood
0:44:41 > 0:44:43'of the times.'
0:44:46 > 0:44:52It's a beautiful cathedral. I love the stripy effect of the brickwork.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58Anyway, the thing I'm coming to see
0:44:58 > 0:45:01is in a chapel down at one end of the cathedral.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07This is it.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10With a bunch of tourists.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23It's kind of... On the outside, it's relatively spare -
0:45:23 > 0:45:26there's a geometric feel of the cathedral itself,
0:45:26 > 0:45:31but in here, there's supreme embellishment everywhere you look.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41A spectacular, tumultuous effect,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44where every single fresco has been overloaded with figures
0:45:44 > 0:45:46and the composition is fit to burst.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50We see here a scene in which the Antichrist
0:45:50 > 0:45:52is giving one of his false sermons,
0:45:52 > 0:45:57reckoning in the final period of the Apocalypse.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00To the right are the elect - the people who are chosen for Heaven,
0:46:00 > 0:46:05they're being lifted up to Heaven as we go over the altar.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08On the other side, people - sinners -
0:46:08 > 0:46:11are being plunged down towards Hell
0:46:11 > 0:46:15and then we see the punishment of the damned.
0:46:15 > 0:46:17Really brightly coloured.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19You come in and it's quite hard
0:46:19 > 0:46:23not to feel excited by this quite vigorous,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26quite modern, contemporary-feeling approach.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29What's interesting about it that strikes me immediately
0:46:29 > 0:46:32is that Hell is quite bright.
0:46:32 > 0:46:34There's no darkness.
0:46:34 > 0:46:39There is claustrophobia, with bodies all writhed and massing together,
0:46:39 > 0:46:41but there isn't that sense
0:46:41 > 0:46:47of the surrounds being some horribly oppressive sensation upon them.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52What you see are demons who are brightly coloured,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56but, in many ways, they're not that different to the sinners.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00It's a tumultuous,
0:47:00 > 0:47:03sadomasochistic, almost kinky,
0:47:03 > 0:47:05fetishistic fantasy.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09This is as much porno as it is Inferno.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13And right in the middle, clutching a woman
0:47:13 > 0:47:17with her breasts not so far from his face
0:47:17 > 0:47:22is a blue demon with a horn in the middle of his head
0:47:22 > 0:47:26and lots of people, tradition has it, say that
0:47:26 > 0:47:31it's a self-portrait of Signorelli - one demon doing the tormenting.
0:47:31 > 0:47:36If that isn't an example of artistic sympathy for the Devil,
0:47:36 > 0:47:38I don't know what is.
0:47:38 > 0:47:43'Signorelli had recreated Hell right here on Earth.'
0:47:43 > 0:47:47'Outside, people were dying in vicious political feuds
0:47:47 > 0:47:50'or succumbing to the plague.'
0:47:50 > 0:47:54'Inside, the end of the world was depicted in minute, horrific detail
0:47:54 > 0:47:58'and many have seen Savanorola the revolutionary preacher
0:47:58 > 0:48:01'right at the centre of this work.'
0:48:01 > 0:48:03'The false prophet
0:48:03 > 0:48:07'taking instructions from Satan before the end of the world
0:48:07 > 0:48:11'is, the theory goes, a thinly veiled attack on Savanorola
0:48:11 > 0:48:16'whose obsession with the Devil had caused so much chaos.'
0:48:16 > 0:48:19SHE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN
0:48:19 > 0:48:23'Alessandra Cannistra is a local religious historian.'
0:48:23 > 0:48:28How popular is the chapel with tourists who come to the cathedral?
0:49:17 > 0:49:19'Signorelli was less concerned
0:49:19 > 0:49:24'about how the Devil and Hell fitted into the cosmic hierarchy.'
0:49:24 > 0:49:29'What obsessed him was the real pain and suffering of the human world.'
0:49:29 > 0:49:33'In Orvieto, the violence is human,
0:49:33 > 0:49:35'the demons are human.'
0:49:35 > 0:49:40'Even Satan himself had never looked so much like a man.'
0:49:45 > 0:49:49'Signorelli's work in Orvieto was one of the final Last Judgments
0:49:49 > 0:49:52'in Western art.'
0:49:52 > 0:49:56'The reasons why are contained in the frescoes themselves,
0:49:56 > 0:50:01'which reflect the modern world as much as traditional religion.'
0:50:01 > 0:50:05'The hold of religion on art was waning.'
0:50:05 > 0:50:08'Perhaps the Devil didn't appeal to artists
0:50:08 > 0:50:12'who were now more concerned with the human world around them
0:50:12 > 0:50:17'rather than the supernatural worlds above and below them.'
0:50:34 > 0:50:39'But while the church's monopoly on the Devil may have been waning,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42'this wasn't the end of the Devil's story.'
0:50:42 > 0:50:44'There is one incredible example
0:50:44 > 0:50:49'of what happens when artists create images of the Devil
0:50:49 > 0:50:53'not for religious authorities nor for the education of the masses,
0:50:53 > 0:50:58'but for the enjoyment of a very rich individual.'
0:50:58 > 0:51:01'So I've come to Chantilly in Northern France
0:51:01 > 0:51:04'where I hope to see how three brothers from the Low Countries
0:51:04 > 0:51:08're-imagined Satan for Jean, Duke of Berry,
0:51:08 > 0:51:13'who was one of France's richest aristocrats.'
0:51:13 > 0:51:16The Duke of Berry was one of the most extravagant art patrons ever.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20He was the son, brother and uncle of successive kings of France.
0:51:20 > 0:51:22First, he collected buildings -
0:51:22 > 0:51:24constructing and renovating 17 chateaux.
0:51:24 > 0:51:29Next he turned each one into an Aladdin's cave full of exotic loot.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33So, over the years, he amassed tapestries and jewelleries,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36caskets, cups, chalices, statuettes, antique cameos,
0:51:36 > 0:51:39even one of Charlemagne's teeth, supposedly.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43He loved animals and his menageries were stocked with lions and bears
0:51:43 > 0:51:46and swans and peacocks.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50He even boasted an ostrich and a monkey, a wolf and a leopard
0:51:50 > 0:51:53as well as no fewer than 1500 dogs.
0:51:57 > 0:52:02'A bibliophile as well as an art lover, the Duke had a library
0:52:02 > 0:52:05'containing around 300 manuscripts,
0:52:05 > 0:52:09'including 14 books of hours - private devotional books
0:52:09 > 0:52:13'which were created specifically for wealthy individuals.'
0:52:13 > 0:52:16'And because he, not the church, had commissioned them,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19'no pope or priest would have any influence
0:52:19 > 0:52:22'over how these books would look.'
0:52:22 > 0:52:25'One such book is the Tres Riches Heures,
0:52:25 > 0:52:30'begun by three brothers - Paul, Johan and Herman Limbourg -
0:52:30 > 0:52:34'around 1412, one of the finest illuminated manuscripts
0:52:34 > 0:52:37'from the late Middle Ages.'
0:52:37 > 0:52:41'Sadly the original is too precious for me to leaf through,
0:52:41 > 0:52:46'but as well as this original, the Musee Conde here in Chantilly
0:52:46 > 0:52:48'also holds a perfect replica.'
0:52:48 > 0:52:51So here we have Satan,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54seated in a kind of bed.
0:52:54 > 0:52:59'Olivier Bosc is the museum's Chief Librarian.'
0:52:59 > 0:53:02It looks like a griddle iron. There are flames beneath,
0:53:02 > 0:53:07so he is almost being tortured, but he doesn't seem to mind too much.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10- No, it's his element! - It is! There's this whirl,
0:53:10 > 0:53:14this vortex of smoke and sulphur coming out of his jaws
0:53:14 > 0:53:19with these people swirling around these little sinners in freefall.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22And he's surrounded by these demons
0:53:22 > 0:53:25who are themselves very fierce with their batwings
0:53:25 > 0:53:30and big horns and they even have these bellows to fan the flames.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33'So far, so familiar.'
0:53:33 > 0:53:35'This Devil's part of the tradition
0:53:35 > 0:53:39'we've seen throughout the Middle Ages - malevolent, inhuman.'
0:53:39 > 0:53:43'Striking though this image may be, it's not what I've come to see.'
0:53:43 > 0:53:46'That's because the Limbourgs were interested
0:53:46 > 0:53:51'in how the Devil came to be in a fiery Hell in the first place
0:53:51 > 0:53:54'and they've gone right back to his 5th century origins
0:53:54 > 0:53:57'as Lucifer, the most beautiful angel of them all
0:53:57 > 0:54:01'who challenged God and was expelled from Heaven.'
0:54:01 > 0:54:05This is a famous image from the book of hours, the Tres Riches Heures,
0:54:05 > 0:54:10and what we see here is the fall of the rebel angel Lucifer.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Exactly. He's in the middle.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17On the top of the image, you've got God.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20He's surrounded by angels.
0:54:20 > 0:54:25And as you may notice, the angels are sitting around him,
0:54:25 > 0:54:29but some of the seats are vacant because these angels are...
0:54:29 > 0:54:32- The rebel angels are cast out. - Yeah, exactly.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35So these angels we see falling down here,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39we imagine they once had their seat in Heaven.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41What's so significant
0:54:41 > 0:54:46about this image is that previously, the Devil mostly looked grotesque
0:54:46 > 0:54:49and yet here is the Devil
0:54:49 > 0:54:54and he looks beautiful, a beautiful, very good-looking Apollonian man
0:54:54 > 0:54:57who has these resplendent blue robes
0:54:57 > 0:55:02and with his retinue, he's falling in a V-shape, which draws the eye
0:55:02 > 0:55:04down towards the Devil
0:55:04 > 0:55:08and he's in the process of changing
0:55:08 > 0:55:11from the most beautiful angel in Heaven to the Devil,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14going down into the centre of the earth where Hell was imagined to be.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19'The Limbourgs have captured the moment when Lucifer the rebel angel
0:55:19 > 0:55:21'was cast out from Heaven
0:55:21 > 0:55:25'and they've imagined him not as an angry, sullen, vengeful tyrant,
0:55:25 > 0:55:31'but as a beautiful man - weeping, terrified, distraught.'
0:55:31 > 0:55:36'Where is the evil in this image? Not in Lucifer.'
0:55:36 > 0:55:41'Indeed, arguably, this is the most beautiful Devil in Western art.'
0:55:41 > 0:55:46We always figure ourselves, you know,
0:55:46 > 0:55:53the frontier between good and evil as something very, uh, straight.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57You were born on one side and you don't cross the side.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02Here is the proof you can cross the border, you know?
0:56:02 > 0:56:06And here the fallen angel is proof
0:56:06 > 0:56:12of this duality - of the humanity and the duality
0:56:12 > 0:56:18of the human character. That's why it's an important work for us.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23'In these two images, separated by only a few pages of this book,
0:56:23 > 0:56:28'the Limbourg brothers have captured the Devil's split personality.'
0:56:28 > 0:56:32'They've chronicled the journey of Lucifer from angel to Devil -
0:56:32 > 0:56:37'from Heaven to Hell and into the forefront of the human imagination.'
0:56:37 > 0:56:42'One image is the epitome of Satan the tyrant.'
0:56:42 > 0:56:45'The other is more haunting,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49'depicting the heartbreaking hopelessness of Lucifer's rebellion,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52'which would inspire generations of artists to come.'
0:56:52 > 0:56:57'The modern fascination with the dark, tragic side of our nature
0:56:57 > 0:56:59'can be seen expressed here
0:56:59 > 0:57:03'in this spectacular 15th century manuscript.'
0:57:07 > 0:57:11'The Limbourgs' book of hours completes the journey of the Devil
0:57:11 > 0:57:14'from the Old Testament to the edge of the Renaissance.'
0:57:14 > 0:57:19'We've come full circle from the mysterious blue angel in Ravenna
0:57:19 > 0:57:24'to the beautiful, blue and tragic angel in Chantilly.'
0:57:24 > 0:57:26'In between,
0:57:26 > 0:57:30'the Devil has personified a terrible bestial evil
0:57:30 > 0:57:34'while becoming more and more recognizably human.'
0:57:34 > 0:57:38'He's been the repository of our greatest fears
0:57:38 > 0:57:41'and, as we've come to understand him, has helped us understand more
0:57:41 > 0:57:44'about the darker side of our own natures.'
0:57:44 > 0:57:48'Above all, he is a great work of art
0:57:48 > 0:57:52'and a very complex, very human creation.'
0:57:52 > 0:57:54I now believe that Leonardo da Vinci
0:57:54 > 0:57:56was on to something when he said
0:57:56 > 0:58:00"If the painter wishes to depict creatures or Devils in Hell,
0:58:00 > 0:58:03"with what an abundance of invention he teems."
0:58:03 > 0:58:07I think the Devil is dredged straight from the sulphurous depths
0:58:07 > 0:58:09of the unconscious.
0:58:09 > 0:58:12If God is Western culture's super ego,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15then, the arch fiend is its id.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19Just as a psychotherapist finds hidden significance in a nightmare,
0:58:19 > 0:58:22so the fluctuating appearance of the Devil
0:58:22 > 0:58:26reveals the darker reality of each age that dreamt him up.
0:58:49 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd