0:00:03 > 0:00:05THUNDER RUMBLES
0:00:16 > 0:00:20The plains of Castile, the bleak heart of central Spain.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27this barren landscape nurtured some of the most dramatic art in history.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32From the mystical world of El Greco to the dark visions of Zurbaran
0:00:33 > 0:00:34and Ribera,
0:00:34 > 0:00:41this was an art inspired by fervent Catholicism and a yearning for contact with God.
0:00:43 > 0:00:50Out of such fervour would come darkness and even savagery - religion and violence intertwined.
0:00:51 > 0:00:58And as the Inquisition struggled to maintain control, Spain would descend into crisis and paranoia.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09I'm travelling through the heart of Spain,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12through some of the country's most extraordinary landscapes,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16to discover how a history so harsh, so violent,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19could have produced some of the greatest art ever seen.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28FLAMENCO STYLE MUSIC
0:01:40 > 0:01:46My journey begins in a place where, in the 16th century, a great project was born -
0:01:46 > 0:01:52one that would shape Spain's art, history, and religion for more than 100 years -
0:01:52 > 0:01:54the Escorial Palace.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03Wow!
0:02:03 > 0:02:04Look at it!
0:02:07 > 0:02:09I've never seen El Escorial before.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12I've seen pictures, but nothing to prepare me for the size of it.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15It's enormous!
0:02:15 > 0:02:17They say it took 21 years to build.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19When I first read that,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22I thought, "That's not going very quickly".
0:02:22 > 0:02:27But in fact, 21 years is lightning fast to build something that size.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29I don't know any builders who could do it!
0:02:34 > 0:02:36The Escorial was built for Philip II,
0:02:36 > 0:02:41the King of Spain and the most powerful man in the world.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47His empire stretched from Holland to Italy, and included the vast territories of the New World.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53This was a citadel fit for an emperor.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00But this is no romantic fairytale palace to delight and enchant.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03It's monumental, austere, forbidding.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07From this angle, with its high watch towers, it almost looks like a prison.
0:03:07 > 0:03:13It's the very emblem of Philip's determination to rule through fear and control.
0:03:18 > 0:03:19Despite his power and wealth,
0:03:19 > 0:03:24Philip was struggling to govern an empire that was in a state of religious emergency -
0:03:24 > 0:03:29attacked both by the Muslims in the East and the Protestants in the North.
0:03:36 > 0:03:42This vast building, with its state apartments and magnificent library,
0:03:42 > 0:03:48was a defiant statement of Spanish invincibility, and the nerve centre of Philip's reign.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53But at its heart is a tiny chamber.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02Now, these were Philip II's private apartments.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06And you've got to remember the scale of the Escorial and here, this is where he is.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10And it's so simple, so austere.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14Just four rather Spartan rooms.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19This is where he would pore over the affairs of state.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21This is his writing room.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27This is a little, very small, very modest drawing room.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31And this is Philip II's bedroom, his bed!
0:04:31 > 0:04:36And you think this is the bed of the most powerful man in the world!
0:04:36 > 0:04:37It's really rather small.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39It doesn't look very comfortable.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46But even more telling -
0:04:46 > 0:04:49this is my favourite bit.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51This is absolutely amazing!
0:04:51 > 0:04:53Here's your bedroom. You're Philip II.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58You get out of that very uncomfortable bed, and you come into your oratory to pray...
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Look where his bedroom leads to! Come out here.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06Straight onto the high altar of one of the most fantastic basilicas every built!
0:05:18 > 0:05:23This mighty basilica is a muscular declaration of Philip's faith -
0:05:23 > 0:05:27and a direct appeal to God for help in difficult times.
0:05:27 > 0:05:35Philip called it "a new Jerusalem", and founded a monastery here to pray for his soul for all time.
0:05:35 > 0:05:43That monastery is the key to the Spain of Philip II - with religion at the centre of everything.
0:05:43 > 0:05:50It seems to me that he was a man who felt that his power very much depended on his relationship to God.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54That he ruled by the grace of God and that he had to do his best
0:05:54 > 0:05:57to keep in God's good books, if you like.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02Yes, I would say that because he was really a person living with faith.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Trying to do his best.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07That's evident.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10According to some opinions,
0:06:10 > 0:06:17this monastery was a kind of sign for the strength of the church.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22For example, you enter the main entrance and you are walking towards the East,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26where is Jerusalem, where the sun rises.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29And because the sun is a symbol of Christ,
0:06:29 > 0:06:34when you are entering the church, you are walking in the direction of Christ.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38So, even in the architecture,
0:06:38 > 0:06:41there is the expression of theological doctrine? Yes, of course.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50Philip wanted to unite his people through piety -
0:06:50 > 0:06:55but that piety had to conform to the strictest laws of the Catholic Church.
0:06:55 > 0:07:01He wanted to spread the one true faith, but also to control it -
0:07:01 > 0:07:04and what better tool for that, than art?
0:07:19 > 0:07:22New rules were laid down for artists.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Religious images were to tell clear, direct, unambiguous stories.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29There were to be no distracting or irrelevant details.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34The images of the saints were to be humble, direct calls to prayer.
0:07:34 > 0:07:39These were the new criteria by which ALL art would be judged,
0:07:39 > 0:07:41and Philip II rigorously enforced them.
0:07:44 > 0:07:50One artist who passed the test was Juan de Navarrete, whose paintings fill the Basilica.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54In works like this vivid, colour-saturated portrait of Saints Peter and Paul,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58he created straightforward aids to devotion -
0:07:58 > 0:08:00exactly what Philip wanted.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13But one artist failed to comply with Philip's rules.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Domenikos Theotocopoulos came to the Escorial from Greece,
0:08:17 > 0:08:23and the picture he painted for the king would become one of the masterpieces of 16th-century Spain.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Its subject is the death of Saint Maurice -
0:08:36 > 0:08:39an early saint martyred by the Romans.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42The painting shows his arrest and execution.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46CHURCH BELLS TOLL
0:08:47 > 0:08:52Theotocopoulos hadn't reckoned on his patron's extreme religious sensitivities.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55And while the King praised the picture for its flair and originality,
0:08:55 > 0:08:58he took issue with one cardinal error -
0:08:58 > 0:09:01the placement of the beheaded martyr's body
0:09:01 > 0:09:03in the obscure middle distance.
0:09:03 > 0:09:08As far as Philip was concerned, it should have been centre stage for everyone to see.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Theotocopoulos had failed on the one essential criterion - religious clarity.
0:09:14 > 0:09:15The king dismissed him.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17He would never work for him again.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26What Philip didn't realise was that he had just sent away
0:09:26 > 0:09:31the greatest artist of the age - El Greco - "The Greek".
0:09:48 > 0:09:52El Greco's work was too original for Philip II.
0:09:52 > 0:09:58There was only one other place for an ambitious painter to try his luck - the city of Toledo.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12I'm not the only one.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14We'll fight our way through.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18See if we can get a view of the city that inspired El Greco.
0:10:21 > 0:10:22It is a great view.
0:10:41 > 0:10:48When El Greco arrived, Toledo was a beacon for Catholics across Spain.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50And it still is today.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07Madrid might be the political capital of Spain, but Toledo is definitely its religious centre.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11And in a deeply Catholic country, this is the closest you can get to being in Rome.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Everyone's in on the business.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18You sell a lot of images of saints.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20Is there a kind of top ten of saints?
0:11:20 > 0:11:23Is there a particular saint that you sell the most of?
0:11:23 > 0:11:27The most popular one would be St Pancrathio,
0:11:27 > 0:11:33who's supposed to bring health, money and work.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35St Pancrathio?
0:11:35 > 0:11:40And he gives you health. What would be your number two?
0:11:40 > 0:11:41St Teresa is also very popular.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45She used to be a writer. She has the pen to write.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49And the pigeon, the pigeon of peace.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51St Anthony is very popular,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55because it tradition that all the girls that are single, single girls,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59they go to church and they go to the convent where St Anthony is.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03They kneel down in front of St Anthony. They say a prayer to St Anthony,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07and St Anthony will provide them with a good-looking and rich boyfriend.
0:12:07 > 0:12:08It actually works out.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12Sometimes they get married within the year!
0:12:17 > 0:12:21This kind of deep, popular devotion to the saints goes back a long time in Toledo.
0:12:21 > 0:12:26And El Greco encountered much the same thing, although in a different form,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29at the very heart of the city's cathedral.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48This is the great altarpiece.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52It's a multi-coloured wall of sculpture,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55with much the same doll's house feel
0:12:55 > 0:13:00as the displays of statuettes in Toledo's modern gift-shops.
0:13:00 > 0:13:06Made by an army of anonymous craftsmen, it's like a 3-D billboard of Christian messages.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11Art for the masses - just what Philip II would have liked.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20And it was in this world where the church was all important,
0:13:20 > 0:13:25and the individual artist was subordinate to its majesty, might and splendour.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29It was this world that El Greco was going to have to try and find a way through.
0:13:29 > 0:13:37In 1577, he got his chance to prove there could be more to Spanish art than pious folksiness.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42The cathedral authorities gave him a commission.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44The subject?
0:13:44 > 0:13:49The Disrobing of Christ - Jesus about to be stripped before his Crucifixion.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54It's an absolutely wonderful picture.
0:13:54 > 0:13:55I'd never seen it before.
0:13:55 > 0:14:01It's just a tour de force of everything that makes El Greco the greatest painter of his age.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03And he's pulled out all the stops.
0:14:03 > 0:14:09This wonderfully original vertical composition, crowded with figures,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13in which you get an extraordinary combination of
0:14:13 > 0:14:15virtuoso realism.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17Look at the armour of Herod.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22Look at that old man at the back of the painting with his hand pointing out at us -
0:14:23 > 0:14:25which is a classic painter's way of showing off
0:14:25 > 0:14:28that he can paint that foreshortening of perspective.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32And yet on the other hand, you've got this tremendous departure from realism.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Look at the scale of the body of Christ.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38Look at the way in which the whole composition seems in contradiction of the fact
0:14:38 > 0:14:40that he's about to be crucified.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43It seems to be whooshing him up to heaven.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52Hard to believe, but the cathedral authorities disapproved.
0:14:52 > 0:14:58They complained that there shouldn't be any figures above Christ in the picture -
0:14:58 > 0:15:03nothing should separate the Lord from heaven.
0:15:06 > 0:15:12Once more, El Greco had broken the rules to express his own artistic vision.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15He'd never work in the cathedral again.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21The irony is that it was precisely because El Greco was rejected by these two great patrons,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25the Spanish king and the cathedral authorities,
0:15:25 > 0:15:30that he was able to find the freedom to develop his own imaginative vision.
0:15:34 > 0:15:40If at first you don't succeed, try again. And El Greco had good reason not to give up.
0:15:40 > 0:15:48Away from the cathedral, a circle of priests and scholars were practising an intense form of spirituality -
0:15:48 > 0:15:54mysticism, a devotion to God so extreme it became a physical experience.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57They embraced El Greco's experiments -
0:15:57 > 0:16:03the way he brought his own roots in the shimmering art of the Greek east, and planted them in Spain.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11In his pictures, the figures yearn towards heaven and writhe with energy.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15It's as if they're bursting out of the frame.
0:16:24 > 0:16:30And when he came to paint Toledo itself, he filled the landscape with that same mystical spirit.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36He turned Toledo into a brooding cauldron of spiritual energy.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45The clouds overhead signal the apocalypse -
0:16:45 > 0:16:52the impending religious showdown for which all of Spain and all of Christendom was preparing.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00El Greco didn't paint the real Toledo.
0:17:00 > 0:17:06He painted a Toledo of the imagination, and that imagination was intensely spiritual.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09In his vision, the end of the world is nigh.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14The city's buildings are quivering with a kind of spiritual electricity.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17It's as if the whole place is about to be whirled up to heaven.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22He painted Toledo as the holiest of holy places.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24And he could have given it no greater gift.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32People in those days really believed in visions, spirits, angels.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37But this could become a contagion, breeding morbid obsession.
0:17:37 > 0:17:44And El Greco captured that too in his greatest work of all -
0:17:44 > 0:17:48The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55It depicts the moment when two saints descended from heaven
0:17:55 > 0:17:58to take the soul of the devout Count up to God.
0:18:01 > 0:18:07It's stunning, with these radiant colours, these forms that flicker and ascend like flames.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10It's as if the whole wall is on fire.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20Below, we have flesh and blood human beings
0:18:20 > 0:18:23witnessing solemnly the miracle.
0:18:23 > 0:18:29But as the miracle takes place, as the soul is transported into heaven,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32all of the forms dissolve.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36The Count of Orgaz becomes pure spirit and
0:18:36 > 0:18:40as that happens, El Greco's style turns into pure spirit.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44So that the forms become more fluid.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46Look at the figure of John the Baptist, for example.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51It's not a body, it's like an emanation of spirit. It's like a flame.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54There's a wonderful tenderness about the way in which the two saints
0:18:54 > 0:18:57are lowering the Count's body into the tomb.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01It's as if they're placing a new born infant in the cradle.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04And I think THAT ultimately is what this picture is all about.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08It's a picture that says that death IS a form of rebirth.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13It expresses the belief that death is what you live for, death is the fulfilment,
0:19:13 > 0:19:19death is the beginning of the great adventure that will take your soul into the world of the spirit.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46El Greco could never have thrived without the mystics of Toledo.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50But all over Spain, a uniquely strong sense of piety
0:19:50 > 0:19:56was flourishing - an obsession with saints, their lives, their relics.
0:19:59 > 0:20:06I'm on my way to the home of the most extraordinary female mystic of 16th century Spain -
0:20:06 > 0:20:09St Teresa of Avila.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22She was born in Avila in 1515 and was so fascinated by the lives of the saints,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26that at the age of seven she ran away to the South,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29hoping to become a Christian martyr at the hands of the Moors.
0:20:29 > 0:20:36Her family rescued her, but Teresa went on to become a nun, founding convents all over Spain.
0:20:40 > 0:20:46Five hundred years on, pilgrims come to Avila from all corners of the world.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50She was a saint who understood the everyday problems of ordinary people.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54And in her writings she spoke openly about her struggles with her own faith.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59She preached a simple message to people whose lives were short and often very hard.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04"Life on earth," she said, "well, it's no more than a night in a cheap hotel."
0:21:10 > 0:21:12Here in this convent,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Teresa stripped Christianity back to its basics -
0:21:15 > 0:21:18love, charity, poverty.
0:21:19 > 0:21:25She even went so far as to turn the expression of her faith into an uncanny form of performance art.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33When Santa Teresa first entered the convent, she was appalled by the other sisters' lack of piety.
0:21:34 > 0:21:40So to make her point, she staged her own personal re-enactment of Christ being dragged to his crucifixion.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45She got on all fours, she had herself saddled up with a mule pack full of stones,
0:21:45 > 0:21:50and she got one of the other sisters to lead her around the convent on a halter.
0:21:55 > 0:22:00These are the rooms where Teresa experienced her visions.
0:22:00 > 0:22:06She claimed that Christ appeared to her, right here, tied to the pillar on which he was scourged.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14Later, the power of the Holy Spirit took hold of her so strongly
0:22:14 > 0:22:18that her body shook and she began to levitate.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22And then there was the most baffling phenomenon of all.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26A transverberation of the heart, in which she felt she had been speared
0:22:26 > 0:22:31through the heart by an angel and infused with the Holy Spirit.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Teresa had such an intense relationship with God
0:22:36 > 0:22:39that she actually felt it within her own body.
0:22:39 > 0:22:44She died in 1582 and was canonised 40 years later.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48But after her death, the question was, how to tell her story?
0:22:49 > 0:22:51The answer was art.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Teresa had become a folk hero, an inspiration to thousands.
0:22:55 > 0:23:01And her image appeared in countless paintings, by artists including Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and the Spaniard Claudio Coello.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12But paintings weren't enough for St Teresa's followers.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15They would demand something far more graphic.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23This is the convent of Alba de Tormes, where Teresa died,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25and her final resting place.
0:23:31 > 0:23:37Above the altar is a gold-trimmed casket designed to receive her body.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40But the casket is incomplete.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46Nine months after she died in 1582, her body was exhumed,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50and conclusive evidence of her purity was found.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Her body was said to have been perfectly preserved.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56In fact, witnesses said it even smelt of perfume.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02But devotion to Teresa soon became a cult.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07Over the following centuries, her body was exhumed countless times.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11On each occasion, parts of it were removed for relics.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19This is her arm, encased in crystal.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23The 400-year-old flesh still clinging to the bone.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34But the greatest treasure is this object -
0:24:34 > 0:24:40St Teresa's heart, displayed in a gold and silver reliquary.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43When we talk about Spanish art of the Golden Age,
0:24:43 > 0:24:48we tend to think very much of painting and sculpture, the sort of art that you see in museums.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52But I think that these reliquaries are in themselves tremendously eloquent works of art.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56They take us straight to the centre of that combination
0:24:56 > 0:25:02of mysticism and morbidity which is right at the heart of Santa Teresa's legend.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07There's the angel with the spear said to have pierced her heart.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11And then, right at the centre of it, is her heart itself.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13A piece of her actual body.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19It's that interplay between the sense of the flesh itself,
0:25:19 > 0:25:22the body - the fact that we're all going to die -
0:25:22 > 0:25:25and the hope that we'll all go to heaven -
0:25:25 > 0:25:28it's absolutely enshrined in that object.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32In a final twist to the legend of the angel,
0:25:32 > 0:25:39when the heart was removed from St Teresa's body, it was said to be perforated.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45Today, her fingers are in Avila, her jaw is in Rome.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49Such was the power and persistence of Santa Teresa's legend,
0:25:49 > 0:25:55that throughout his dictatorship, General Franco kept her hand beside his bed.
0:26:04 > 0:26:09The fate of St Teresa's body is a symbol of the deep fascination with saints and martyrs
0:26:09 > 0:26:11that gripped 17th century Spain.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15Pain had become the mark of piety - God's sign -
0:26:15 > 0:26:21written into your very flesh, that you had become one of his Chosen.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26And the most visceral artist of this pain was Jusepe de Ribera.
0:26:28 > 0:26:34Ribera specialised in martyrdoms, which he painted with extraordinary realism.
0:26:35 > 0:26:41This is this is the Martyrdom of St Philip, captured in the moments before his crucifixion.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Ribera doesn't paint him ON the cross,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49but as he's being agonisingly winched into place.
0:26:53 > 0:27:00At his crucifixion, St Andrew submits stoically as the executioner binds him to the cross.
0:27:00 > 0:27:08And then there's the martyrdom of St Bartholomew, one of Ribera's favourite subjects.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13Bartholomew was executed by being skinned alive.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21There's a tremendously strong emphasis in all of these works
0:27:21 > 0:27:25on the sheer visceral pain that goes with being a saint.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29These are religious paintings, but they have the immediacy of portraits, and what they show us
0:27:29 > 0:27:34is real flesh-and-blood human bodies being subjected to appalling torments.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37You see the sweat, the blood, the straining sinews.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41There'd been violence of this kind in religious art before.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44But in Spanish art, everything is more intense.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47It's as if the volume's been turned up.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00But the dark in this world of light and shade, could be very black indeed.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Spain's preoccupation with martyrdom would be used to justify atrocities.
0:28:09 > 0:28:15I'm travelling through the province of Extremadura, one of the remotest parts of the country.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19The literal meaning of Extremadura is "extremely hard".
0:28:19 > 0:28:22And you can feel that about this place.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24It's bleak, it's isolated.
0:28:24 > 0:28:25The landscape is parched.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29In the summer, it's unbearably hot.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34And the people from here have a reputation for being extremely hard too.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37They certainly bore that out in the 16th century.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47In the middle of this impoverished landscape is an unlikely treasure -
0:28:47 > 0:28:51the birthplace of one of the darkest figures in Spanish history.
0:28:54 > 0:28:59It's an architectural jewel of 16th-century Spain - Trujillo.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18The first thing you notice when you walk into the town square is the architecture.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22How grand, how unexpectedly imposing it is.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25In fact, the whole place is like a 16th-century film set.
0:29:25 > 0:29:31So how did a little provincial backwater like this come to be so rich?
0:29:34 > 0:29:37In the early 16th century,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40an illegitimate swineherd, named Francisco Pizarro,
0:29:40 > 0:29:43set off from Trujillo to make his fortune in the New World.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47He and his band of conquistadors
0:29:47 > 0:29:51discovered an extraordinary civilisation - the Incas -
0:29:51 > 0:29:54and wealth beyond their wildest dreams.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00It started out as a trickle of gold, and soon became a torrent of silver.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03And the king got 20 percent of the spoils.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07The wealth brought back by the conquistadors would fuel the Spanish Empire.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14When the conquistadors returned home from Peru,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17they were determined to show off that money.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22Here in Trujillo, they built a Renaissance ideal city in miniature.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24Streets of elaborate palaces,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27completely disproportionate to the size of the town
0:30:27 > 0:30:29and the economy of the region.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36At first sight, these buildings look like traditional displays of wealth.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41But look a little closer, and something else is going on.
0:30:46 > 0:30:51The owner of this palace built his chimneys to resemble Inca temples,
0:30:51 > 0:30:53like the ones the Spanish plundered.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59On the Pizarro family palace,
0:30:59 > 0:31:03the parapet is decorated with Inca-style statues.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09And at the centre of the coat of arms,
0:31:09 > 0:31:13groups of Inca prisoners are bound together with chains.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16The architectural equivalent of a head on a stick,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19this is the triumphant architecture of conquest.
0:31:21 > 0:31:26During the course of the conquest of Peru, thousands of Incas died,
0:31:26 > 0:31:27some from European diseases,
0:31:27 > 0:31:31but many as the result of Spanish butchery.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38Francisco Pizarro was one of the most brutal of all the conquistadors.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42He raped and pillaged, and he duped the king of the Incas,
0:31:42 > 0:31:46persuading him to give him all his gold in exchange for his life,
0:31:46 > 0:31:48and then just garrotting him anyway.
0:31:48 > 0:31:54The blood of the Incas is the cement that holds all of these magnificent palaces together.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03But the conquistadors were more than mercenaries.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05They saw themselves as missionaries,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08and their conquest of the New World was just another front
0:32:08 > 0:32:14in the great religious war that was consuming 16th-century Spain.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17If you want to understand the conquistador mentality,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21you have to realise that it was widely believed throughout Spain
0:32:21 > 0:32:25that God had given to these Catholic people
0:32:25 > 0:32:28the New World and all its treasures,
0:32:28 > 0:32:32precisely so that they could combat the enemies of Catholicism -
0:32:32 > 0:32:34the Protestants, the Muslims.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38They genuinely believed that God was on their side.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47Francisco Pizarro's descendents were awarded an aristocratic title,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50and still live in Trujillo today.
0:32:52 > 0:32:58Ramon Perez de Herraste is the current Marquis of the Conquest.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03How do you think Francisco Pizarro has gone down in history?
0:33:03 > 0:33:06Is he a hero, is he a villain?
0:33:33 > 0:33:37When you think of, particularly Francisco Pizarro,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39do you think he was a very religious man?
0:34:02 > 0:34:04That's religious!
0:34:15 > 0:34:18In the twisted logic of Catholic Spain,
0:34:18 > 0:34:23the brutality of the conquistadors became the expression of their piety.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31By advancing his faith at the expense of a whole civilization,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35Francisco Pizarro would become a Spanish hero.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53Before the conquistadors set off for the New World,
0:34:53 > 0:34:57they made a public display of their piety.
0:34:57 > 0:34:58To pray for safe passage,
0:34:58 > 0:35:02they visited one of the holiest shrines in Europe,
0:35:02 > 0:35:04and a wellspring of extreme Catholic fervour -
0:35:04 > 0:35:08the monastery of Guadalupe.
0:35:37 > 0:35:38Around the year 1290,
0:35:38 > 0:35:43the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to a shepherd,
0:35:43 > 0:35:48and guided him to a statue buried in the ground on this site.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52What the shepherd found became one of the most sacred treasures
0:35:52 > 0:35:56of the Catholic world - the Virgin of Guadalupe.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03Perched high above the altar and blackened with age,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06she's so small, you can barely see her.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09But there is a way to get closer.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16To change her elaborate robes,
0:36:16 > 0:36:19the monks use a special chamber at the back of the altar.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48For centuries, the Spanish had prayed to the Madonna of Guadalupe.
0:36:48 > 0:36:54Christopher Columbus in 1492 came here to pray to her before setting sail for the New World,
0:36:54 > 0:36:58and the reason was that they believed that this was no ordinary Madonna.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02This was a portrait of Mary, Mother of God herself,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05carved by none other than St Luke.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09And you can still feel that intensity of veneration
0:37:09 > 0:37:12in the splendour with which she's housed today.
0:37:23 > 0:37:29But the Virgin of Guadalupe is just the centrepiece of a vast complex of piety and prayer.
0:37:39 > 0:37:40In the 17th century,
0:37:40 > 0:37:45it was a group of Jeronymite monks who had the task of looking after the Virgin.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Inspired by the 4th-century scholar and monk, St Jerome,
0:37:53 > 0:37:58the Jeronymite Order was one of the most powerful and influential forces in Spain.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05And to assert the authority of their order, they turned to art.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11In 1637, the friars of the order
0:38:11 > 0:38:15commissioned the greatest Spanish religious artist of the day,
0:38:15 > 0:38:16Francisco de Zurbaran,
0:38:16 > 0:38:19to paint eight pictures commemorating the ways
0:38:19 > 0:38:24in which they strove to keep the spirit of St Jerome alive,
0:38:24 > 0:38:26and this was the result.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29It's one of the most extraordinary rooms.
0:38:29 > 0:38:34In fact, it's the only space in all of the monasteries of all of Spain
0:38:34 > 0:38:39where you can still see a great cycle of religious paintings in the place for which it was designed.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47Now, you might have expected to find here a set of paintings
0:38:47 > 0:38:51illustrating the life of St Jerome, but that's not what you see.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53What you see are a series of portraits
0:38:53 > 0:38:57of members of the Spanish Jeronymite order
0:38:57 > 0:39:03experiencing, themselves, apparitions and visions.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07He shows us Brother Pedro of Salamanca having a vision
0:39:07 > 0:39:13of a great fire in the sky that portends a great battle to come.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18But how simply Zurbaran has painted it.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22He just shows us two men in the dark,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25one of them gesturing towards the vision.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29There's almost nothing to look at except for their awestruck faces.
0:39:32 > 0:39:37But over here, this is my favourite picture in the room.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39I think it's a real masterpiece.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41For me, it's perhaps Zurbaran's greatest painting,
0:39:41 > 0:39:46and what it shows us is a young 25-year-old brother of the order.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49He's received a vision from God,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53in which he's learned that he's going to die on this day,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56and he's gone to get the other brothers in the order.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59He's told them the news, and they're all praying together.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03He is about to die. That's the moment that Zurbaran's painted.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13What's extraordinary about this as a work of art,
0:40:13 > 0:40:17and why I think Zurbaran is the greatest artistic interpreter
0:40:17 > 0:40:20of this monastic, austere ideal of life,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23is because he has found an equivalent in painting
0:40:23 > 0:40:26to the extremism of the piety that it represents.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29This is a form of painting that has rejected, as the monk rejects,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31all the things of this world.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35It's almost like a kind of spiritual minimalism.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38There's only the black and the white of the monk's robes,
0:40:38 > 0:40:42and I think it absolutely expresses the sense that for these people,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45black and white is all there is.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49Either you're in God's light, or you're cast out into darkness.
0:41:03 > 0:41:10Zurbaran's paintings for Guadalupe would represent the last great flowering of religious art in Spain.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14Increasingly, this was a society in crisis.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28While the monks of Guadalupe were models of piety,
0:41:28 > 0:41:31elsewhere, people were asking awkward questions.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34The black and white doctrines of the church
0:41:34 > 0:41:38were being tested by some of the sharpest minds in Spain.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42A storm was brewing.
0:41:51 > 0:41:56This is Salamanca, one of Europe's most beautiful towns.
0:41:56 > 0:41:56Its chief glory is the university, the oldest in Spain,
0:41:56 > 0:42:01Its chief glory is the university, the oldest in Spain,
0:42:01 > 0:42:05and, in the 16th century, one of the great European seats of learning.
0:42:07 > 0:42:14But its open spirit of inquiry would attract the attention of the most draconian organisation in Europe,
0:42:14 > 0:42:16the Spanish Inquisition -
0:42:16 > 0:42:20a tribunal set up to enforce Catholic orthodoxy.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23The results would be devastating.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31This is Fray Luis de Leon,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35one of the great intellectuals in the university's history.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37He was a revered theologian
0:42:37 > 0:42:39whose progressive scholarship and religious poetry
0:42:39 > 0:42:44were part of the mystical tradition of El Greco and St Teresa.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48And this is his lecture theatre,
0:42:48 > 0:42:52just as it was when he taught here in the mid 1500s.
0:42:52 > 0:42:57This was where he expounded his
0:42:52 > 0:42:57own unique vision of faith -
0:42:52 > 0:42:57intense,
0:42:57 > 0:43:01questioning, a deep personal engagement with the Bible.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08It while he was lecturing in this very room
0:43:08 > 0:43:11that Fray Luis came to the attention of the Spanish Inquisition.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14His crime had been to produce his own translation
0:43:14 > 0:43:17of one of the most erotic passages in the whole Bible,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19the Song of Songs.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24Now this dangerous text was being sold and circulated in the street just outside this building.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28That had to be stopped, and it had to be stopped immediately.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30And so on 27th March 1572,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34the officers of the Inquisition stormed into this room.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37Fray Luis was lecturing up there.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40They arrested him, they dragged him away,
0:43:40 > 0:43:42and they imprisoned him for five years.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50The Inquisition had succeeded in stifling
0:43:50 > 0:43:54one of the most humane voices in a climate of increasing paranoia.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03But it wasn't just religious scholarship
0:44:03 > 0:44:04that the Inquisition repressed.
0:44:04 > 0:44:10Professor Jose Luis Marcello is the guardian of a unique text,
0:44:10 > 0:44:15one that shows how the Inquisition invented the dark art of thought control.
0:44:46 > 0:44:47So cover the pages up!
0:44:49 > 0:44:50What other methods did they...?
0:45:02 > 0:45:05These are dangerous ideas.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08Wow! Incredible.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27In the case of this book, what are the dangerous ideas?
0:45:54 > 0:45:59But censorship was the mildest of the Inquisition's techniques.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05All over the country,
0:46:05 > 0:46:10ordinary people were being forced to provide proof of their Christian bloodlines.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21This is the Plaza Mayor, the great central square of Salamanca.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26Such squares are a feature of nearly every Spanish town,
0:46:26 > 0:46:29the place for bullfights, carnivals and civic events.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38But during the Inquisition, they also served another purpose.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44All over Spain, squares like this
0:46:44 > 0:46:48were used to stage elaborate public rituals known as trials of faith.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52Those accused of heresy were brought here by the Inquisition
0:46:52 > 0:46:54to face questions from priests and officials,
0:46:54 > 0:46:58and it all took place in front of a bloodthirsty crowd.
0:46:58 > 0:46:59On their inevitable conviction,
0:46:59 > 0:47:02those accused of heresy were sentenced to death,
0:47:02 > 0:47:06and they were executed by being burned at the stake,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09a lengthy process that gave them plenty of time
0:47:09 > 0:47:13to plead for forgiveness in their dying moments.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18This was religious enforcement as a kind of grisly public theatre.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26In one of the few paintings of a trial of faith,
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Francisco Rizzi shows a public square crammed with officials and onlookers.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35The condemned heretics, wearing tall hats, are paraded around the square,
0:47:35 > 0:47:39and urged to repent by priests and monks.
0:47:41 > 0:47:42This is religious persecution,
0:47:42 > 0:47:46painted as if it were a spectator sport.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52Pedro Berruguete paints the moment of execution itself.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56Flames lick around the feet of the condemned,
0:47:56 > 0:48:01but for the executioner,
0:47:56 > 0:48:01it's just another tedious day's
0:47:56 > 0:48:01work.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07Burning at the stake had become part of everyday life.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19Much of Spain was descending into a kind of madness.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22The nation's devotion to God was increasingly darkened by obsession,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25and the relentless focus on Church doctrine
0:48:25 > 0:48:27had climaxed in a bloodbath.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31This was a country starting to devour itself.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45And while religious conflict was consuming the nation,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49the Empire was starting to unravel.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53Philip had spent millions leading a campaign against the Protestants
0:48:53 > 0:48:57in northern Europe, a campaign that failed disastrously.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02His famous Armada against England had also ended in failure.
0:49:06 > 0:49:07Throughout this period,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10it was the Castilians who funded their kings' foreign wars,
0:49:10 > 0:49:12and provided most of the soldiers.
0:49:12 > 0:49:17Even today, this has the feeling of a war-scarred landscape.
0:49:20 > 0:49:22The people were exhausted,
0:49:22 > 0:49:26a fact subtly expressed in one of the unsung art forms of the day.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31Still life paintings traditionally reflect on mortality,
0:49:31 > 0:49:34but in Spain, they become a cry of despair.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38In Zurbaran's Agnus Dei,
0:49:38 > 0:49:42the lamb of God is a dead sheep on a slab, its feet trussed up,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44ready for the butcher's block.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51In Antonio de Pereda's Still Life with Walnuts,
0:49:51 > 0:49:55the cracked nuts spill out of their shells onto a table,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58like brains from smashed skulls.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04And in even the simplest of subjects,
0:50:04 > 0:50:08Juan Sanchez Cotan's beautiful painting of vegetables,
0:50:08 > 0:50:13the carrots are rotten and black.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18But before imperial Spain vanished into darkness,
0:50:18 > 0:50:22there would be one extraordinary final act,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25and it would be played out in the capital, Madrid.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39The old order was changing.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41In 1598, Philip II died.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45His son, Philip III, squandered his power,
0:50:45 > 0:50:48delegating authority to his courtiers.
0:50:48 > 0:50:49His grandson, Philip IV,
0:50:49 > 0:50:54would be the king to lead the Empire into its final moments.
0:51:01 > 0:51:05Philip IV spared no expense in turning this city
0:51:05 > 0:51:08into one of the most glittering capitals of all Europe.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13He filled Madrid with lavish palaces and monuments to his own glory.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16But all was not well.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21While Philip was busy rebuilding, his empire was falling apart.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24Religious wars had emptied the nation's coffers,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27the gold rush of the New World had dried up,
0:51:27 > 0:51:29the economy was on its knees.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32The great Spanish galleon was running aground,
0:51:32 > 0:51:34while the captain twiddled his thumbs.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41The beliefs that had sustained Spain for a century
0:51:41 > 0:51:42were starting to crumble.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47And one artist would reveal the truth beneath - Diego de Velazquez.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53And it was on streets like these that he found his inspiration.
0:51:54 > 0:52:00For centuries, the art of Spain had been overwhelmingly religious,
0:52:00 > 0:52:04but he turned away from that to paint real life.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14He painted ordinary working people in simple settings.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21In taverns and kitchens, he captured moments of humanity,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24with immense wisdom and sympathy.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35In this picture, an old woman poaches eggs.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38Everyday life has been given a miraculous vividness.
0:52:38 > 0:52:44The wrinkles on the woman's face, the simple utensils she uses,
0:52:44 > 0:52:50the perfect depiction of half-cooked, milky egg-whites.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55In these pictures, Velazquez painted ordinary people living their lives.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57With immense respect, he gave them great dignity,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00but he didn't sentimentalise them in the slightest bit.
0:53:00 > 0:53:06There are no religious mysteries here, no arcane symbolism, no codes.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09He simply painted what was in front of his eyes.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21But this painter of ordinary people was also destined to become
0:53:21 > 0:53:23the greatest court painter of the age.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Some would say the greatest painter ever to have lived.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32And in Philip IV, he found the perfect patron.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35Philip IV collected art with an astonishing enthusiasm,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38and on an incredible scale.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42At one point, he had half the studios in Rome working for him.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45It's as if he wanted the beautiful illusions of art
0:53:45 > 0:53:49to fill the real power vacuum that was developing during his reign.
0:53:49 > 0:53:51But his favourite artist was Velazquez,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53who painted for every occasion.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55He painted his few military victories,
0:53:55 > 0:53:58such as The Surrender at Breda.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03He painted Philip himself, resplendent on horseback,
0:54:03 > 0:54:06he rides through the landscape.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11The horse symbolising the unruly populace that he keeps under his firm control.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13Far from the truth.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17And here, Velazquez paints Philip's son and heir.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19Again, astride a horse,
0:54:19 > 0:54:22but on this occasion, the painting starts to develop something uneasy.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26You sense that Velazquez can feel that this rather sickly boy
0:54:26 > 0:54:30may not live long, which, indeed, turned out to be the case.
0:54:30 > 0:54:35And this begins to take us to the heart of the painter,
0:54:35 > 0:54:38and his strange, remarkable relationship with the king,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41because what Velazquez ended up giving Philip IV,
0:54:41 > 0:54:45and it's what makes Velazquez such a great, such a profound artist,
0:54:45 > 0:54:49was something much deeper than merely official propaganda.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57But there's one picture by Velazquez that encapsulates all the delusion,
0:54:57 > 0:55:01glory and grandeur of 17th-century Spain,
0:55:01 > 0:55:04and finally sounds its death knell.
0:55:04 > 0:55:09It's often been described as the world's greatest painting,
0:55:09 > 0:55:13and it's called Las Meninas - The Ladies-in-Waiting.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22Every time I see this picture,
0:55:22 > 0:55:26I just think what an artist Velasquez was.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30The painting is often said to be a great mystery,
0:55:30 > 0:55:33but I don't think it is a mystery,
0:55:33 > 0:55:35I think it's wonderfully clear what's going on,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38although what's going on is an incredibly daring thing.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41No one had ever painted this before.
0:55:41 > 0:55:46What Velazquez has painted is not a portrait of the king.
0:55:46 > 0:55:52He's painted a picture of what the king sees as he's having his portrait painted.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54And what does the king see?
0:55:54 > 0:55:59He sees his daughter, who's come to see him being painted,
0:55:59 > 0:56:05lit by this brilliant shaft of light in this rather dark room.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10He sees his court entertainers, a dwarf, a midget. He sees his dog.
0:56:10 > 0:56:15He sees Velazquez himself, with his paintbrush in his hand.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21He sees himself in the mirror, and he sees his queen.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25But what do they look like? They look like ghosts.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30Everything in this picture is about transience.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Look at the way in which Velazquez paints the fabrics,
0:56:33 > 0:56:34the skin, the hair.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37Look at the way in which he paints the dwarves.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40Everything is hovering on the brink of disappearance.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43Some of the forms are almost out of focus.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46It's as if these figures will turn and move,
0:56:46 > 0:56:49that the scene will disperse, that the moment will pass.
0:56:49 > 0:56:54The message seems to be that no matter how powerful you are,
0:56:54 > 0:56:57in the end, your experience is transitory.
0:56:57 > 0:57:02Spanish power, Spanish might, all its glory and magnificence.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05It's all come down to these figures in this dark room.
0:57:05 > 0:57:10They will pass, they will die, everything will come to an end.
0:57:29 > 0:57:35Velazquez's masterpiece was a full-stop to the extraordinary century that preceded it.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38He'd introduced a dangerously powerful idea,
0:57:38 > 0:57:41an utterly secular view of the world.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46The Golden Age of Spain was over.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50It had been an era in which Spain had been consumed by religion,
0:57:50 > 0:57:54by a fascination with piety, self-denial, death.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01Its artists, from El Greco to Zurbaran,
0:58:01 > 0:58:03had looked to God for inspiration,
0:58:03 > 0:58:06capturing a spiritual realm, invisible to the eye.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15In the end, the greatest Spanish painter of all
0:58:15 > 0:58:18dares to turn his back on all of that,
0:58:18 > 0:58:22and the most basic and subversive message of his art
0:58:22 > 0:58:26is that this life, brief though it is, is all we can be sure of,
0:58:26 > 0:58:29and maybe that's enough.
0:58:55 > 0:58:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:58 > 0:59:01Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk