0:00:02 > 0:00:05This is the BBC Television Service. We now present another programme
0:00:05 > 0:00:08in our series of experimental transmissions in colour.
0:00:08 > 0:00:10We live in a Kaleidoscopic world...
0:00:13 > 0:00:16..but colours are more than mere decoration.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24Colours carry deep and significant meanings for us all...
0:00:25 > 0:00:27..and in this series
0:00:27 > 0:00:30I want to unravel the stories of three colours...
0:00:31 > 0:00:37..three colours which in the hands of artists have stirred our emotions,
0:00:37 > 0:00:39changed the way we behave
0:00:39 > 0:00:44and even altered the course of history.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Blue -
0:00:47 > 0:00:51the arrival of Lapis Lazuli from the East made blue
0:00:51 > 0:00:53the colour of our dreams...
0:00:54 > 0:01:00..a colour that's transported us to worlds beyond our horizons.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04White,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08once the virtuous colour of ancient marbles,
0:01:08 > 0:01:12came to embody our darkest instincts.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18But in this programme, I want to tell the story of a colour
0:01:18 > 0:01:20we've worshipped since the very beginning -
0:01:20 > 0:01:24one that at first may not seem like a colour at all.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32So this is the gold vault
0:01:32 > 0:01:34beneath the Bank of England.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39And in this room there are about 65,000 bars
0:01:39 > 0:01:41of solid gold
0:01:41 > 0:01:44and each one of them is worth
0:01:44 > 0:01:49almost half a million pounds,
0:01:49 > 0:01:53and I just can't resist picking one up.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57The first thing you notice is the weight -
0:01:57 > 0:02:00it's extraordinarily heavy.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02And you can see on the front there
0:02:02 > 0:02:07it's 99.99% pure gold.
0:02:07 > 0:02:13I really don't think I've ever held anything so valuable in my hands before.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18But gold has another quality too - its colour,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22this glorious, radiant yellowness.
0:02:22 > 0:02:23And I think this colour
0:02:23 > 0:02:25is one of the most alluring
0:02:25 > 0:02:27and beguiling colours of them all.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36This is a tale of our timeless obsession with all things golden.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Across the millennia,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43we have used gold to revere the things we've held most sacred.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48And reflected in our works of art, we see the story of ourselves
0:02:48 > 0:02:51and our changing beliefs and perceptions.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53I'm aware I'm playing with colour.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Not just with words, but I'm playing with colour.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02'From honouring our ancient Gods...
0:03:03 > 0:03:07'..to the worldly Kings and Queens of the Renaissance,
0:03:07 > 0:03:12'we'll reveal the techniques which craftsmen have used.'
0:03:12 > 0:03:14Look at that.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17'From the fine arts of icon painting
0:03:17 > 0:03:21'to the darks arts of alchemy...
0:03:21 > 0:03:25So this was a desperate time for him. He had to think about how to escape with his life.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30'..we'll see how in the consumer age,
0:03:30 > 0:03:35'gold came to represent little more than wealth itself
0:03:35 > 0:03:38'and we'll see how one painter attempted
0:03:38 > 0:03:40'to restore the colour of gold
0:03:40 > 0:03:42'to divine status.'
0:03:59 > 0:04:04Nobody knows when humans first took gold from the earth.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11We can only imagine their wonder at what they saw.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21This is perhaps what gold looked like
0:04:21 > 0:04:24when humans first set eyes on it
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and you can see why they fell in love with it almost immediately,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31not because of its rarity because they didn't know it was rare,
0:04:31 > 0:04:36and not because of its versatility because they didn't know what it could do.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40They fell in love with it because of the way it looked -
0:04:40 > 0:04:46its wonderful, radiant, warm yellowness.
0:04:46 > 0:04:51And there was only one thing in the universe that looked anything like this substance
0:04:51 > 0:04:55and that was the sun.
0:04:57 > 0:05:03Ancient people came to believe that gold and the sun were one and the same,
0:05:03 > 0:05:05so when they honoured the sun,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09only the colour of gold would suffice.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16A golden sun disc, 2000 BC...
0:05:21 > 0:05:25..a ceremonial necklace, 800 BC,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29and the most remarkable of all,
0:05:29 > 0:05:35a sun chariot from 1500 BC -
0:05:35 > 0:05:40now the star exhibit at the National Museum of Denmark.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55This is one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen in a museum.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59It's utterly breathtaking.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Because what we have here is essentially
0:06:02 > 0:06:08a 3,500-year-old miniature model chariot
0:06:08 > 0:06:11in virtually mint condition.
0:06:11 > 0:06:16I can see there's this utterly delightful bronze horse
0:06:16 > 0:06:19with its ears pricked up attentively,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21and it's standing on these four wheels
0:06:21 > 0:06:24and dragging this great disc behind it
0:06:24 > 0:06:28and that disc is the sun.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35For the people who made this, the sun was a great, golden goddess
0:06:35 > 0:06:38that was being carried by this divine horse every day
0:06:38 > 0:06:42across the sky from east to west and back again at night.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46It is believed the elders of the community, the priests,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49would pull it around back and forth
0:06:49 > 0:06:53to teach people the importance of the sun.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57It's decorated with all these exquisite patterns
0:06:57 > 0:07:01that represent the radiating rays of the sun,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05the pulsating light, and its movement through the years.
0:07:07 > 0:07:14It's an explicit connection between the colour of gold and the colour of the sun -
0:07:14 > 0:07:18both of them have this warm, radiant yellowness,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21both have this terrific sparkle,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25and both of them have this eternal shine,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29because 3,500 years later everything else has deteriorated
0:07:29 > 0:07:34but the gold on this disc like the sun outside this room
0:07:34 > 0:07:38is still shining.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45The desire to honour the sun with gold is as old as civilisation itself.
0:07:46 > 0:07:53But one civilisation would come to be identified with golden treasures like no other.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04The ancient Egyptians were unique.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14While many cultures had to hunt down gold in far-off lands,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16trade or barter for it...
0:08:19 > 0:08:25..here in North East Africa, the Egyptians found gold everywhere.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Now the ancient Egyptians were very, very lucky.
0:08:35 > 0:08:42Their territory was blessed with seemingly unlimited reserves of gold.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46There were hundreds of deposits dotted all over the place.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50The richest of these deposits were here in these mountains
0:08:50 > 0:08:55of the Eastern Desert and here, farther south into Sudan and Nubia,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59and what's more, the Egyptians were very good at extracting that gold.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02They had huge teams of men working day in, day out
0:09:02 > 0:09:04bringing out of the earth.
0:09:04 > 0:09:05For that reason,
0:09:05 > 0:09:09Egypt quickly became the world's first great gold-producing state.
0:09:21 > 0:09:26But to understand the exquisite gold work in ancient Egypt,
0:09:26 > 0:09:31we have to leave Cairo and head south into the desert.
0:09:37 > 0:09:43This is Saqqara, home to some of the oldest tombs in Egypt.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52And here is some remarkable evidence of the reverence
0:09:52 > 0:09:54the Egyptians had for their goldsmiths.
0:09:59 > 0:10:034,000 years ago, the grand vizier, Mereruka,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06was interred in these chambers.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14In life, he was entrusted with the production
0:10:14 > 0:10:17and protection of Egypt's gold.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22And carved onto the walls of his tomb,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24are depictions of his invaluable work.
0:10:32 > 0:10:39These relief carvings depict the entire Egyptian gold-making process
0:10:39 > 0:10:43from start, all the way to finish.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46The first step is recorded here
0:10:46 > 0:10:48and this involves the weighing of the gold.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50What I find interesting about that,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54is the Egyptians had plentiful quantities of gold
0:10:54 > 0:10:56and yet still it was so valuable
0:10:56 > 0:11:02that the pharaoh didn't want even a single little bit unaccounted for.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06But the two most remarkable images, I think, in this entire relief,
0:11:06 > 0:11:08are these two here.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11I think they're remarkable for two reasons.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15First, the hieroglyphs, you can see there and there.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Usually, we presume ancient hieroglyphs
0:11:19 > 0:11:23to impart some solemn wisdom but not these ones,
0:11:23 > 0:11:28because this man is saying to that man, "Oh, isn't this beautiful?"
0:11:28 > 0:11:31This man is saying to that guy,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35"Get a move on with your work, slowcoach."
0:11:35 > 0:11:37It's just an amazing moment, an amazing moment of humour
0:11:37 > 0:11:39and life and reality
0:11:39 > 0:11:41from thousands of years ago.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48But the other remarkable thing about these images here,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52is all four goldsmiths are dwarfs.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57All across ancient Egypt, dwarfs are depicted as gold workers
0:11:57 > 0:12:01because they were actually perceived by ancient Egyptians
0:12:01 > 0:12:03as possessing magical powers.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07So it seems utterly logical that who would you get to work
0:12:07 > 0:12:09with your most precious and special material?
0:12:09 > 0:12:13You would get your most precious and special people.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22For millennia, the great creations of these goldsmiths
0:12:22 > 0:12:23were mostly lost to view.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28They were melted down by grave robbers
0:12:28 > 0:12:33or simply lay undiscovered deep beneath the sands.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38But in the 20th century, one British archaeologist
0:12:38 > 0:12:40was determined to bring them to light.
0:12:44 > 0:12:51Howard Carter was a maverick who had come to Egypt in search of gold.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55It was he who made the greatest archaeological discovery
0:12:55 > 0:12:57of all time.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03On 26th November 1922,
0:13:03 > 0:13:08Carter broke into the tomb of Tutankhamen.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13A gasp of wonderment escaped our lips,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17so gorgeous was the sight that met our eyes...
0:13:18 > 0:13:22..everywhere, the glint of gold.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31The golden treasures of Tutankhamen
0:13:31 > 0:13:34were never intended to be seen by human eyes,
0:13:34 > 0:13:38but Carter removed them from their resting place
0:13:38 > 0:13:42and bundled them off to the Egyptian museum in Cairo.
0:13:46 > 0:13:53The hoard contained Tutankhamen's throne, jewellery of every sort,
0:13:53 > 0:13:59golden slippers and this huge sarcophagus.
0:13:59 > 0:14:05It contains 110kg of solid gold
0:14:05 > 0:14:10and is the largest gold object ever found in Egypt.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14But the most astounding treasure
0:14:14 > 0:14:19made by the ancient Egyptians, is this -
0:14:19 > 0:14:24the death mask of Tutankhamen.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27It's in solid gold, of course, 11 kilograms of it
0:14:27 > 0:14:33and this mask would have sat right on top of the dead pharaoh's face.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38The craftsmanship is exquisite.
0:14:38 > 0:14:43The gold is inlaid with precious stones, lapis, feldspar
0:14:43 > 0:14:51and carnelian and the eyes modelled with obsidian and quartz.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57It's a surprisingly tender portrait of the man, actually,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00because he's got these big ears and fleshy lips
0:15:00 > 0:15:04and these wide innocent eyes that are painted pink in the corners
0:15:04 > 0:15:06just to bring them to life.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11But the question for me is why is this mask in gold?
0:15:11 > 0:15:15Why were the coffins in gold? Why were the shrines in gold?
0:15:15 > 0:15:18Why was almost everything in Tutankhamen's tomb in gold?
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Well, I don't think this is a statement of wealth,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27no matter what we think about gold today,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31because the dead Tutankhamen certainly needed to impress no-one.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35It's in gold because he believed, just like his contemporaries,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38that gold had magical powers.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42And think about it - here is a substance that has the same colour
0:15:42 > 0:15:46as the all-powerful sun, it never tarnishes, never corrodes,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50never rusts, it shines for eternity.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52I think Tutankhamen was hoping
0:15:52 > 0:15:55that some of that might just rub off on him,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58it might bring him back to life, give him a little bit of eternity
0:15:58 > 0:16:03and transform him into an eternal invincible, immortal sun god
0:16:03 > 0:16:04in his own right.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16The desire to honour the sun god had pushed the Egyptians
0:16:16 > 0:16:19to the greatest heights of craftsmanship.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24And the ancient civilisations that followed
0:16:24 > 0:16:29continued to use gold to reveal the divine.
0:16:32 > 0:16:38This Etruscan brooch depicts a fabled chimera...
0:16:41 > 0:16:44..the face of the Greek Goddess shimmers in gold...
0:16:48 > 0:16:53..and this mythical serpent coils to form a Roman armlet.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05But as twilight fell on the ancient world,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07new ideas emerged.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12They demanded we suppress our reverence for gold
0:17:12 > 0:17:15and they would have profound implications for art.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24Rome
0:17:24 > 0:17:27this was the scene of the revolution,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31when all pagan gods were banished
0:17:31 > 0:17:36and replaced with a single creator.
0:17:56 > 0:18:02It was 312 AD when the Roman Emperor Constantine saw the light.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08For a rich and powerful ruler,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12his conversion to Christianity was little short of a miracle...
0:18:14 > 0:18:19..because his new religion spoke directly to the poor
0:18:19 > 0:18:21and to the needy.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28Christianity was unoriginal in many ways
0:18:28 > 0:18:33but the one really new idea it had was its distaste for wealth,
0:18:33 > 0:18:38for extravagance and for ostentatious display.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42Indeed, passage after passage in the Bible condemns those
0:18:42 > 0:18:47who are seduced by worldly luxuries like gold.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51And in fact, it even declares that it would be easier for a camel
0:18:51 > 0:18:53to pass through the eye of a needle
0:18:53 > 0:18:56than for a rich man to get into heaven.
0:19:01 > 0:19:07And thus, in the earliest Christian art, Christ is shown as perhaps
0:19:07 > 0:19:12the first poor god in history - a modest and humble shepherd.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19But within just a few centuries,
0:19:19 > 0:19:23something strange started to happen.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28Across the Christian world, a new art form emerged
0:19:28 > 0:19:32that showed how early Christians who had once renounced gold
0:19:32 > 0:19:36now couldn't resist its allure.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41This is a Byzantine icon
0:19:41 > 0:19:45and images like this were produced as early as the 5th century
0:19:45 > 0:19:49so really, really early in the history of Christianity.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54But, you know, what really surprises me about this
0:19:54 > 0:19:57is how much gold there is on it.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Christianity, after all, constantly criticised people
0:20:00 > 0:20:04for being seduced by material wealth.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07So why would this artist deem it appropriate
0:20:07 > 0:20:11to put so much gold on this painting?
0:20:11 > 0:20:19I think the reason is that gold here is representing not material things,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22it's actually there to represent immaterial things.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25It's perhaps the most immaterial thing of them all.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Aidan Hart is an artist
0:20:35 > 0:20:41who keeps the tradition of icon painting alive
0:20:41 > 0:20:46and he's steeped in the mysteries of gold in Christian art.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54I pray, of course, first, and then while I'm painting,
0:20:54 > 0:20:56it's always a sort of inner prayer -
0:20:56 > 0:20:59particularly the Jesus prayer, this is very important.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11I'm aware that I'm praying with colour.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15I'm not just praying with words but I'm praying with colour.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17It's a very silent work but very articulate
0:21:17 > 0:21:20and I will die but the words will carry on.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23I will be forgotten but the icon will keep speaking.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31Before that soaks in, I now lay the gold.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38The background of an icon is generally gold.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43It represents the all-pervading presence of God.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47It reflects light, it gives light. It's radiant with God.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Radiant with light therefore radiant with gold, if you like.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55The light in an icon is dynamic.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58The light might be dancing off the golden background
0:21:58 > 0:22:02so the gold is not just representing God looking at us and sitting on a throne,
0:22:02 > 0:22:06God is mingling with us, transforming us, communing with us.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10Through the light and the moving light of an icon,
0:22:10 > 0:22:14God is intertwining, as it were, with his creation.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19A life with God is dynamic, not static.
0:22:25 > 0:22:30These paintings were supposed to be seen by candlelight
0:22:30 > 0:22:33and when you bring a candle right up to this painting,
0:22:33 > 0:22:38the colour of the gold is absolutely transformed.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40It goes from this murky brown
0:22:40 > 0:22:45to this absolutely brilliant shimmering yellowness
0:22:45 > 0:22:48and it seems to be alive.
0:22:48 > 0:22:53It sort of dances and, you know, no other colour, no other substance,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57responded to light, reflected the light quite like gold,
0:22:57 > 0:22:59and that is why for the Christians,
0:22:59 > 0:23:04gold became the colour of the light of God.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12The golden light of icon paintings was intoxicating
0:23:12 > 0:23:17and the Christians were desperate for more of it.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22They yearned to be fully immersed in the divine light of heaven.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28The basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna
0:23:28 > 0:23:35was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century AD.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40It is a masterpiece of early Christian art.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56Inside, the walls are encrusted with gold.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02But this gold is applied
0:24:02 > 0:24:04with one of the great inventions
0:24:04 > 0:24:06of the Byzantine Age.
0:24:12 > 0:24:17This is a gold tessera.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23There are tens of thousands of these all across that wall
0:24:23 > 0:24:25and what they do is amazing.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30They trap all of the light in this church,
0:24:30 > 0:24:34and then the glass like a lens amplifies that light.
0:24:34 > 0:24:41But it's not the monotonous, unchanging, blinding light of electricity.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46The light sparkles and it glitters and it glistens.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50No wonder they loved them so much.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53They must have thought when they looked at that,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57that they were looking right into the kingdom of heaven.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03The early Christians who had once renounced all things golden,
0:25:03 > 0:25:07had, like the ancients before them,
0:25:07 > 0:25:12used the colour ingeniously to bring themselves closer to their God.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18And for a millennium, Christian artists continued to use gold
0:25:18 > 0:25:20to feel his presence.
0:25:24 > 0:25:30But in the Renaissance, heaven seemed to lose its monopoly on gold
0:25:30 > 0:25:36and gold would become a potent force in more worldly affairs.
0:25:43 > 0:25:50From the 1500s, there was a flowering of wonderful golden jewels...
0:25:58 > 0:26:02..flights of fancy made to satisfy the vanity of kings,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05queens,
0:26:05 > 0:26:07and their courts.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20Now, this exquisite little thing really typifies the top end
0:26:20 > 0:26:24of Renaissance gold work and it shows on the front,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28the inimitable features of Queen Elizabeth I,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31in solid gold, of course, and these golden cameos
0:26:31 > 0:26:36would be handed out by the Queen to her most trusted courtiers.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39So while it's gold, it's no longer really about the sacred.
0:26:39 > 0:26:46What it's really about is power, politics and, above all, status.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00The great kings and queens of the Renaissance scoured Europe
0:27:00 > 0:27:05seeking the finest goldsmiths in a bid to outshine their rivals.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11And there was one place whose reputation for gold work
0:27:11 > 0:27:13eclipsed nearly all the others.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24This is the Ponte Vecchio in Florence
0:27:24 > 0:27:29and in the Renaissance it was one of the great centres of gold work.
0:27:29 > 0:27:35The finest goldsmiths in Italy would line up along this narrow street,
0:27:35 > 0:27:37much as they do today in fact,
0:27:37 > 0:27:41and from here they would sell their wares to the kings and queens
0:27:41 > 0:27:45and the rulers and the rich people of Europe.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51And when these people arrived here,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55most hoped to get their hands on the work of one man.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00He was called Benvenuto Cellini.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05Cellini's father wanted him to become a musician
0:28:05 > 0:28:08but Benvenuto wanted to be an artist.
0:28:08 > 0:28:14At the age of just 13, he forced his way into the goldsmiths' workshops
0:28:14 > 0:28:16here on the Ponte Vecchio.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20It's no surprise that there's a huge statue of him here.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22He's the only goldsmith to get a statue.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27That is because Benvenuto Cellini quickly became the greatest goldsmith of them all.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36Cellini was fastidious in recording his many ingenious techniques
0:28:36 > 0:28:41and his writings remain a bible of the goldsmith's art.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09Paolo Penko is a Florentine goldsmith
0:29:09 > 0:29:13who has been following the teachings of Cellini since he was a boy.
0:30:03 > 0:30:09Cellini's legacy lives on at the studio of Paolo Penko,
0:30:09 > 0:30:11but of Cellini's gold work,
0:30:11 > 0:30:15only a single piece has survived the centuries,
0:30:15 > 0:30:20yet it is thought to be the Mona Lisa of sculpture.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26The story of its creation is remarkable if only
0:30:26 > 0:30:30because Cellini was never as pure as the gold with which he worked.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37Cellini was a troublemaker.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44He murdered three people and he tried to kill many more.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49He was charged for rape, he was charged for sodomy
0:30:49 > 0:30:52and he was constantly on the run,
0:30:52 > 0:30:56constantly getting into fights and brawls,
0:30:56 > 0:31:00and he was even partial to a little bit of theft.
0:31:00 > 0:31:06On one occasion, he was accused of stealing jewellery from the Pope.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16But there was one king who would forgive Cellini everything
0:31:16 > 0:31:18to have him at his court.
0:31:18 > 0:31:25King Francis I of France was one of Europe's most flamboyant and art-loving monarchs.
0:31:25 > 0:31:30He wanted to make his kingdom the centre of the Renaissance,
0:31:30 > 0:31:34and in 1540, he invited Cellini to Paris.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40Shortly after Cellini arrived in Paris,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43King Francis invited him in for dinner
0:31:43 > 0:31:49and said he would pay him 1,000 scudi, which was a vast sum of money at the time,
0:31:49 > 0:31:54if Cellini would make him a solid gold salt cellar.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57Now when most people think of salt cellars,
0:31:57 > 0:31:59they think of objects like this.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01But Cellini was no ordinary person
0:32:01 > 0:32:07and he instantly set to work on one of the most ambitious projects of his career.
0:32:10 > 0:32:16He sweated over the salt cellar for three long years,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20but the result of his labours was a masterpiece.
0:32:50 > 0:32:56Cellini's salt cellar is now in Vienna where it's being carefully restored.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01It's a rare opportunity to see Cellini's masterpiece
0:33:01 > 0:33:04just as he saw it in his own workshop.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15So this is it, the Saliera.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18I must say, it's incredibly exciting
0:33:18 > 0:33:20to see it in this way.
0:33:20 > 0:33:21You really get an idea
0:33:21 > 0:33:22of how Cellini
0:33:22 > 0:33:24put this masterpiece together
0:33:24 > 0:33:28because it's all in its constituent parts as he would have seen them.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31The two most recognisable parts
0:33:31 > 0:33:33are these two magnificent
0:33:33 > 0:33:35solid gold nudes.
0:33:35 > 0:33:36On the left,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39we have the god of the sea, Neptune or Mare,
0:33:39 > 0:33:44and you can recognise him from his terrific little trident.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46Next to Neptune would have been
0:33:46 > 0:33:49this magnificent gold and enamelled boat,
0:33:49 > 0:33:50a boat that may well have
0:33:50 > 0:33:52a grumpy self-portrait
0:33:52 > 0:33:54of Cellini on the front.
0:33:54 > 0:34:00It was in that boat that King Francis would have put his salt.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04Salt was an incredibly important substance in the 16th century
0:34:04 > 0:34:09and Francis probably got about 10% of his annual revenue from salt tax.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13It was quite important to have it in a great gold dish on the table.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17Opposite Neptune would have been the goddess of the earth,
0:34:17 > 0:34:22known as Terra or Ceres, and she is there squeezing her breast,
0:34:22 > 0:34:23which may well be a symbol
0:34:23 > 0:34:26of fecundity and fertility,
0:34:26 > 0:34:29or just Cellini having a bit of a joke. We don't know.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31But she had next to her
0:34:31 > 0:34:33this absolutely exquisite
0:34:33 > 0:34:39triumphal arch, and inside that, Francis would have put his pepper.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Now, these two figures and these two vessels
0:34:42 > 0:34:44would have then gone on top
0:34:44 > 0:34:45of this...
0:34:45 > 0:34:49unbelievably colourful, brilliant surface.
0:34:49 > 0:34:55Neptune would have sat on this side, which is a more nautical side,
0:34:55 > 0:34:58and the goddess of the land would have sat on this land section
0:34:58 > 0:35:01where we can see rocks and plants and animals.
0:35:01 > 0:35:06This would have gone onto this ebony base.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08I must say
0:35:08 > 0:35:10that standing in front of it today,
0:35:10 > 0:35:16I'm just bowled over by how brilliant this work of art is.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20All the techniques known to 16th-century goldsmiths
0:35:20 > 0:35:23and all the techniques written about in Cellini's manual,
0:35:23 > 0:35:28all of them are applied here and applied with consistent brilliance.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31He's also responded to all these different genres.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33There's a landscape there, animals,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37and these two great Michelangelesque nudes.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41There's architecture, there's even, perhaps, a self-portrait.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43This is a kind of
0:35:43 > 0:35:45distillation of the whole history of art
0:35:45 > 0:35:48into one condiment dish.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54When Cellini presented his work to the king,
0:35:54 > 0:35:59it is said that Francis squealed with delight.
0:36:03 > 0:36:05So perfect was the piece
0:36:05 > 0:36:10that Francis could barely bring himself to touch it.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15But there was one king who would have grabbed the Saliera with both hands.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24In the deep, dark forests of eastern Europe,
0:36:24 > 0:36:30there lived a ruler whose lust for gold outshone all others.
0:36:30 > 0:36:35But his obsession would turn him from the fine art of the goldsmith
0:36:35 > 0:36:38to the dark art of alchemy.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40He was Augustus the Strong,
0:36:40 > 0:36:47and in 1694, he was made Elector of Saxony.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54Augustus was something of an outdoorsman.
0:36:54 > 0:37:00He was famed for being able to break horseshoes in two with his bare hands.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04His favourite sport was fox tossing,
0:37:04 > 0:37:09a grotesque activity in which he catapulted the poor creatures
0:37:09 > 0:37:11as high into the air as possible.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14On one particularly gruesome day's contest,
0:37:14 > 0:37:19Augustus and his friends tossed 687 foxes,
0:37:19 > 0:37:25533 hares, 34 badgers
0:37:25 > 0:37:28and 21 wild cats to their deaths.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Here in Dresden, the capital of his kingdom,
0:37:49 > 0:37:54is an equestrian statue of Augustus himself.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58And they call it the Golden Rider.
0:38:03 > 0:38:09Here is Augustus the Strong, looking like some ancient Roman Emperor,
0:38:09 > 0:38:14gazing out over his great eastern European kingdom.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18And, you know, I think it's a rather fitting monument to him
0:38:18 > 0:38:21because there was nothing that Augustus wanted more
0:38:21 > 0:38:25than to be seen as one of the great rulers of European history -
0:38:25 > 0:38:28up there with Justinian, as great as King Francis,
0:38:28 > 0:38:32and he knew that the secret to achieving that ambition was gold.
0:38:39 > 0:38:45Among Augustus's baroque palaces that still dominate Dresden today
0:38:45 > 0:38:48are more relics of his reign...
0:38:51 > 0:38:55..and one of them is an extraordinary golden work -
0:38:55 > 0:39:01a fantasy vision of the glittering court Augustus aspired to create.
0:39:09 > 0:39:14This immodest piece was created by Augustus's favourite goldsmith,
0:39:14 > 0:39:19Johann Melchior Dinglinger.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23It took him seven years to make and it depicts
0:39:23 > 0:39:27the court of the great Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30He was Augustus's contemporary
0:39:30 > 0:39:34and reputed to be the richest man in the world.
0:39:34 > 0:39:40There are 132 exotic courtiers.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47Dinglinger used over 5,000 precious stones
0:39:47 > 0:39:52and, of course, lavish quantities of gold,
0:39:52 > 0:39:58but this was the closest Augustus could get to such splendour...
0:39:59 > 0:40:03..and as he gazed on it, how envious he must have been.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18But Augustus would hatch a plan,
0:40:18 > 0:40:24a dark plot to fill his coffers with unlimited amounts of gold.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35It was 1701 when, in one of his many castles,
0:40:35 > 0:40:40Augustus got wind of an extraordinary rumour.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44Somewhere deep in Prussia,
0:40:44 > 0:40:48a teenager had gone and achieved something
0:40:48 > 0:40:50that no-one had ever achieved before -
0:40:50 > 0:40:54something many people thought was completely impossible,
0:40:54 > 0:40:58and something that finally seemed to bring within reach
0:40:58 > 0:41:03Augustus's dream of unlimited gold.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10Friedrich Bottger was a 19-year-old alchemist.
0:41:11 > 0:41:18He had apparently performed the miracle of transmutation,
0:41:18 > 0:41:22turning lesser metals into glittering gold.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29At one of these demonstrations, he's supposed to have transmuted
0:41:29 > 0:41:31a number of silver coins
0:41:31 > 0:41:34into an ingot of pure gold.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36Now, that kind of news
0:41:36 > 0:41:37cannot be kept secret.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45Augustus wasn't sure whether to believe it or not.
0:41:45 > 0:41:50Just to be on the safe side, he had Bottger kidnapped
0:41:50 > 0:41:53and thrown deep into the dungeons beneath his castle.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56History is scattered with examples of alchemists
0:41:56 > 0:41:59who ended up on the gallows, being executed,
0:41:59 > 0:42:04because they seemed to have really thought they could attain transmutation.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09Then, of course, they couldn't actually live up to that.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19It was here in this network of subterranean chambers
0:42:19 > 0:42:24underneath Augustus's castle, that Bottger was sent.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27The doors were bolted, all the windows were bricked up
0:42:27 > 0:42:31and inside, Bottger laboured day and night
0:42:31 > 0:42:37to manufacture the gold that Augustus wanted so badly.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42Bottger finds himself between a rock and a hard place.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44He's being watched all the time.
0:42:44 > 0:42:50At some point, he's going to have to produce something that will satisfy his captor.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53Really, this must have been a desperate time for Bottger.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57He had to think about how to escape with his life.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00To keep the noose from his neck,
0:43:00 > 0:43:06Bottger would have used every trick in the alchemist's recipe book.
0:43:10 > 0:43:17"Take all of the aforesaid black faeces or black dragon
0:43:17 > 0:43:20"and spread them on a marble or other fit stone
0:43:20 > 0:43:27"and put into the one side thereof a burning coal
0:43:27 > 0:43:29"and the fire will glide through the faeces
0:43:29 > 0:43:35"and consign them into a colour very glorious to behold.
0:43:47 > 0:43:53But this colour was as close as Augustus would ever come to the alchemist's dream.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01After 12 years of imprisonment,
0:44:01 > 0:44:07Bottger, of course, had failed to conjure up a single speck of gold.
0:44:07 > 0:44:12Only some sycophantic poetry saved him from the gallows.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18But Augustus had one golden object
0:44:18 > 0:44:23that perfectly captures the failure of his grand ambitions.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29It's a sun mask
0:44:29 > 0:44:33that he rather liked wearing at his many balls and pageants.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40Now, one of the most remarkable things about the mask
0:44:40 > 0:44:44is Dinglinger modelled it precisely on Augustus's features.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48So by looking at the mask, we can see what Augustus the Strong
0:44:48 > 0:44:50actually looked like.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53One thing I'm particularly surprised by
0:44:53 > 0:44:56is how small and chubby his face was,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00but for me, this isn't really about reality,
0:45:00 > 0:45:05it's a fantasy and that's why that mask becomes so powerful and so revealing.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10It embodies that desperate desire of Augustus
0:45:10 > 0:45:14to enter the pantheon of the great gods and the great kings,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18but the truth is, underneath that glowing mask,
0:45:18 > 0:45:22he wasn't rich enough and wasn't powerful enough to be one of them,
0:45:22 > 0:45:25and that's why this mask is made of copper
0:45:25 > 0:45:28with a little bit of gold put on the top of it.
0:45:31 > 0:45:37Augustus's vision of unlimited gold had failed to materialise
0:45:37 > 0:45:40but in a little over 100 years,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44the alchemist's dream would come true.
0:45:44 > 0:45:49And this miraculous discovery took place...
0:45:51 > 0:45:53..in Birmingham.
0:45:56 > 0:46:01In the 19th century, Birmingham was far and away
0:46:01 > 0:46:05the most inventive place on the planet.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09Now let me just give one example, in that period,
0:46:09 > 0:46:13this city registered three times as many patents
0:46:13 > 0:46:16as any other city in the world.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19Indeed, it seemed that hardly a day would pass here
0:46:19 > 0:46:23without someone inventing something.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27But for me, one of those inventions was more remarkable
0:46:27 > 0:46:30than all the others because for the first time
0:46:30 > 0:46:33it promised to bring gold within the reach of everyone.
0:46:38 > 0:46:43That remarkable invention was the brainchild
0:46:43 > 0:46:46of one George Richards Elkington.
0:46:48 > 0:46:54George Elkington was a typical product of industrial Birmingham.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57He was inventive, he was industrious
0:46:57 > 0:47:00and he was obsessed with taking out patents.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04He patented virtually everything he ever produced.
0:47:04 > 0:47:09The bi-focal, for instance, but Elkington's most profitable licence
0:47:09 > 0:47:14was issued on 25th March, 1840, when he patented
0:47:14 > 0:47:18a way to make gold objects out of almost nothing.
0:47:24 > 0:47:29Years before Edison had even invented the electric lightbulb,
0:47:29 > 0:47:33Elkington was harnessing electricity to make gold objects.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42He called the process electro-plating
0:47:42 > 0:47:46and it was a marvel of the industrial age.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54At the centre of Elkington's factory stood a huge machine
0:47:54 > 0:48:00that rotated 500 times a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week
0:48:00 > 0:48:06and around that machine were these vast troughs of bubbling brown liquid
0:48:06 > 0:48:12and those troughs transformed ordinary objects into gold.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18Now, contemporaries were astounded by the process.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22Some of them thought it was magic, some of them thought it was alchemy,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25some thought it was some technology from a distant future
0:48:25 > 0:48:29but nearly all of them thought it was a miracle.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36One day in 1844,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40Elkington was graced with a visit from Prince Albert
0:48:40 > 0:48:45who had come to see the miracle for himself.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48And for this special occasion,
0:48:48 > 0:48:53Elkington had prepared a most wondrous spectacle.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00Elkington plucked a small rose from his lapel.
0:49:02 > 0:49:07He then delicately lowered it into one of his troughs of liquid.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11He waited.
0:49:11 > 0:49:17The crowd waited and when the time was just right, he withdrew it.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24The crowd was amazed. A round of applause broke out
0:49:24 > 0:49:29because Elkington's rose had been turned to gold.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33And as they looked closer, they grew even more amazed
0:49:33 > 0:49:38because by chance, a small cobweb had been on Elkington's rose
0:49:38 > 0:49:42and the cobweb too had been turned
0:49:42 > 0:49:47into the finest threads of gold.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54Albert was captivated,
0:49:54 > 0:49:59so captivated that he became an electro-plating addict.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05On his return to London, it is said that he had
0:50:05 > 0:50:11his very own electro-plating suite installed at Buckingham Palace
0:50:11 > 0:50:16finally fulfilling every ruler's dream of unlimited gold.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25With a royal seal of approval,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29Elkington's factory went into overdrive.
0:50:31 > 0:50:38Within a few years, he was employing 10,000 people
0:50:38 > 0:50:42and his gold was sent across the world,
0:50:42 > 0:50:48to India, to Uruguay and even to Egypt.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50Elkington was churning out gold objects
0:50:50 > 0:50:54on a scale never seen before.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02Why do you think people like electroplating so much?
0:51:02 > 0:51:05Cheap. It's exactly what they're liking!
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Because if everything was made out of solid metal,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12it would cost a fortune, where this will look like it's made out of solid gold
0:51:12 > 0:51:14but it's really not!
0:51:19 > 0:51:25That there is gold. That's what the actual gold looks like.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27- What?!- Yeah.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30That's actually gold. I don't know how they make it like that.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34I'm not going to pretend to know. But that there would do...
0:51:35 > 0:51:38..hundreds and hundreds of items of work, just that small amount.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43And then, comes out and it's gold.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47It's a really thin amount.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49You wouldn't be able to buy a packet of cigarettes
0:51:49 > 0:51:52with the amount of gold that's on there.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54HE LAUGHS
0:51:54 > 0:51:56Because that's just a colour. It's a gold colour,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59so people buy it for what it looks like more than
0:51:59 > 0:52:01what the value of the actual gold is.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11- People think it is real gold.- Yeah.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15- I think a lot of people would be fooled.- Yeah, a lot of people would.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18Fool's gold!
0:52:24 > 0:52:27'Elkington's fool's gold
0:52:27 > 0:52:30'had the Victorian public enchanted.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36'They peered into Elkington's glittering showrooms
0:52:36 > 0:52:39'from Newcastle...
0:52:39 > 0:52:41'to London's fashionable Regent Street.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46'But the public didn't just look.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50'They could now own a little bit of gold
0:52:50 > 0:52:52'for the very first time.'
0:52:55 > 0:52:59This was the most revolutionary technology
0:52:59 > 0:53:02and what it did was democratise gold.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05It brought gold into ordinary people's homes.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13'And Elkington's ingenious new technology
0:53:13 > 0:53:16'allowed him to make perfect copies
0:53:16 > 0:53:20'of the most priceless and exquisite treasures ever to have been found.'
0:53:22 > 0:53:27And these are based on a really extraordinary original,
0:53:27 > 0:53:31an object discovered in Afghanistan,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34and Elkington made numerous, numerous reproductions of them.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39What's amazing is this probably served
0:53:39 > 0:53:42some incredibly important religious function thousands of years ago,
0:53:42 > 0:53:44but now it was simply for display.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48Perhaps you could even use it as a toothbrush holder.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52'As his electroplating empire expanded,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55'one city was hooked
0:53:55 > 0:53:58'on Elkington's golden wares.
0:54:03 > 0:54:08'The dawn of the 20th century was Vienna's gilded age.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14'Even as the Austrian Empire crumbled,
0:54:14 > 0:54:17'their lust for gold remained.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21'But here there lived an artist
0:54:21 > 0:54:23'who was determined
0:54:23 > 0:54:27'to make gold sacred once again.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38'Gustav Klimt produced a series of glittering paintings.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42'But one of them shines brighter
0:54:42 > 0:54:44'than all the rest.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48'..The Kiss...
0:54:49 > 0:54:52'..known as the last word on love...
0:54:54 > 0:54:58'..but I think it tells us just as much about gold.'
0:54:59 > 0:55:00Klimt has thrown
0:55:00 > 0:55:04almost every single kind of golden substance he could find
0:55:04 > 0:55:07on to this one canvas.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11In fact, there are eight different kinds of gold leaf alone
0:55:11 > 0:55:15on this picture and then many more different kinds of gold paint,
0:55:15 > 0:55:18and every single thing has been applied in a different way
0:55:18 > 0:55:21so he has put some gold leaf down flat,
0:55:21 > 0:55:25other times he's put gold on top of bits of plaster and shellac
0:55:25 > 0:55:28to create these wonderful jewel-like textures.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31So the whole thing becomes incredibly opulent.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34It's almost like you're opening a bag of jewels
0:55:34 > 0:55:37and looking inside to see all these fantastic treasures within.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42He's looked back to the great Egyptian sun gods...
0:55:44 > 0:55:46..the great Byzantine mosaics.
0:55:46 > 0:55:51He had been to Ravenna, he'd seen those fantastic mosaics.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54He's drawing on decorative gold work of the Renaissance, like Cellini.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01So why is Klimt doing it?
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Why so much gold in so many ways
0:56:04 > 0:56:07with so many references and meanings?
0:56:07 > 0:56:11Well, I think it's part of his desperate attempt to bring back gold from the brink
0:56:11 > 0:56:15because he has lived through a period when gold has become debased,
0:56:15 > 0:56:17it has become cheap, it's become tacky,
0:56:17 > 0:56:21and he's trying to say, "No, gold is the most precious thing we have.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24"It's the most numinous, spiritual, other-worldly thing we have,
0:56:24 > 0:56:26"and therefore we have to devote it
0:56:26 > 0:56:29"to the most important things in the world."
0:56:29 > 0:56:33And for Klimt, the most important thing was love.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41'It was a beautiful idea.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44'But today, Klimt's grand ambition
0:56:44 > 0:56:47'has been undone by the popularity of his work.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50'Endlessly reproduced,
0:56:50 > 0:56:53'The Kiss has become just another golden idol
0:56:53 > 0:56:55'of our consumer century.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00'Now most of us can have a little bit of gold in our lives.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04'And our obsession with it remains undimmed.'
0:57:08 > 0:57:12You know, I think the reason that we're so obsessed with gold
0:57:12 > 0:57:15is that gold reflects the things
0:57:15 > 0:57:17that every society holds most sacred.
0:57:17 > 0:57:22So for the ancient Egyptians it was the sun and the afterlife,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25for the Christians it was the light of God,
0:57:25 > 0:57:29and for the Renaissance Kings it was power and status,
0:57:29 > 0:57:32and for Gustav Klimt it was love and sex.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35But this gold here underneath the Bank of England
0:57:35 > 0:57:39suggests that for us perhaps the most sacred thing
0:57:39 > 0:57:41is money.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47And, you know, when this beautiful substance is locked away,
0:57:47 > 0:57:49seen only as a number, as a price,
0:57:49 > 0:57:52as a statistic on a spreadsheet,
0:57:52 > 0:57:54I can't help feeling that maybe something is lost.
0:57:56 > 0:57:57And maybe somehow
0:57:57 > 0:58:00gold has lost its shine.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12'In the next episode...
0:58:14 > 0:58:16'..a colour from across the seas.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19'From Giotto's heavenly visions
0:58:19 > 0:58:23'to Titian's sensual delights...'
0:58:23 > 0:58:26This is an utter barn storm.
0:58:28 > 0:58:30'..from Picasso's melancholy yearning
0:58:30 > 0:58:33'to Yves Klein's dreams of escape...
0:58:35 > 0:58:40'..it's the colour of the great beyond, of the for ever unattainable...'
0:58:40 > 0:58:43We were going to show those dirty Commies that we were better.
0:58:43 > 0:58:46'..it's the story of blue.'
0:58:50 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd