0:00:05 > 0:00:111660, a new dawn is breaking in England.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Republican rule, once strong under Oliver Cromwell,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20has crashed into anarchy and chaos under his son.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26There is a power vacuum
0:00:26 > 0:00:30and many in the country are backing one man to fill this void.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41The son of the executed Charles I...
0:00:43 > 0:00:45..Charles Stuart.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47Here he is,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Charles II.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Of all Royal portraits,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56this is the one with the most straightforward message.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00I'm back!
0:01:03 > 0:01:06There's something of a rock star about him.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Papa's got a brand-new throne.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11In fact, he's got a brand-new everything.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14New crown, new sceptre, new orb,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16all remade for this Coronation
0:01:16 > 0:01:21because Charles I's regalia had been melted down.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27There's a big ambition behind this portrait -
0:01:27 > 0:01:32it's the ambition to re-establish absolute monarchy in England.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39Restoring power meant revitalising the Royal Collection,
0:01:39 > 0:01:41bringing great treasures,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44great masterpieces back into the ownership of the Crown.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50This series tells the remarkable story of the Royal Collection,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54works of art that fill palaces and galleries around the country.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01And in this film, I'll be showing how, under the new King Charles II,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05it rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the English Civil War.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09I'll see what new research has revealed
0:02:09 > 0:02:11in Leonardo da Vinci's drawings,
0:02:11 > 0:02:14secrets hidden for 500 years.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16That's incredible!
0:02:16 > 0:02:20After Charles, the Royal Collection would survive, despite fire...
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Imagine all of that ablaze!
0:02:23 > 0:02:25..and Philistine kings.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29"I hate painting and I hate poetry."
0:02:29 > 0:02:35It would expand again in magnificent style, as George III spent big,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37filling his new home, Buckingham House,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40with the world's finest Canalettos.
0:02:40 > 0:02:41Wow!
0:02:41 > 0:02:42As Britain's empire grew,
0:02:42 > 0:02:47George's palace came alive with exotic Surinam butterflies
0:02:47 > 0:02:50and runaway Indian elephants,
0:02:50 > 0:02:56a new confident collection, playing it loud and writing its own score.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Ruling the waves, waiving the rules.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Britain's Royal Collection on the rise.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Today, Britain's royal palaces are double,
0:03:28 > 0:03:31even triple-hung, with paintings.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35Many have been here for decades, if not centuries.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40The pictures so much part of the palace that it's hard to imagine
0:03:40 > 0:03:42the walls bare.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48But in 1660, the royal palaces looked starkly different.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Oliver Cromwell auctioned much royal art to pay debts.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58Rooms were stripped empty.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02But with the Restoration, this changed.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06The Royal Collection was about to be re-awoken.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11The Royal Collection is, in many respects, a strange beast.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16One that's slept for many years and suddenly woken up.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19One that's stayed the same size for long periods of time
0:04:19 > 0:04:23and then suddenly put on a growth spurt.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25And so it was, in 1660,
0:04:25 > 0:04:29when suddenly, almost out of the blue,
0:04:29 > 0:04:34some of the greatest masterpieces in the Collection today entered it
0:04:34 > 0:04:39for the first time as part of a gift from Holland,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42which included 28 masterpieces,
0:04:42 > 0:04:47three of the greatest of which are in front of me now.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51In modern money, the Dutch gift was probably worth something like
0:04:51 > 0:04:5230 million euros.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Today, who knows what these paintings would be worth?
0:04:55 > 0:04:59This is one of my favourite pictures in the whole Royal Collection.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04Lorenzo Lotto's portrait of Andrea Odoni.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06Lotto's a brilliant eccentric.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09All his portraits pulsate with life,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13none more than this one.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18The Dutch chose Italian paintings, some by the Venetian master Titian -
0:05:18 > 0:05:22guessing the new King shared his father's taste for Renaissance art.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Absolutely fantastic pictures,
0:05:27 > 0:05:31but the great question, the 30 million euro question,
0:05:31 > 0:05:36is why on earth should the Dutch have given them to the English King?
0:05:37 > 0:05:40There's a one-word answer -
0:05:40 > 0:05:42fear.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46The Dutch worried they'd snubbed Charles during his exile.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49Would he seek revenge?
0:05:49 > 0:05:52They poured oil paintings on troubled waters.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58At home, too, Charles was an unknown quantity.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00The nation gulped.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05The new King had inherited his father's belief in art as a means to
0:06:05 > 0:06:08project Royal power.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11What other traits might have been passed on?
0:06:11 > 0:06:16Would Charles ride his father's blood-stained coat-tails?
0:06:16 > 0:06:19Or was he cut from a different cloth?
0:06:19 > 0:06:22For many Britons, it was a time of dread,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26and there's a place where you can share their emotion even now -
0:06:26 > 0:06:29the House of Fear, the Tower of London.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34Many were afraid of retribution.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39Payment to the new King was not through blood or torture,
0:06:39 > 0:06:41but peace offerings.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45So what do you give to a man
0:06:45 > 0:06:48who's just taken possession of an entire country?
0:06:48 > 0:06:51How about this for starters?
0:06:51 > 0:06:55A golden replica miniature castle,
0:06:55 > 0:06:59complete with inset precious stones
0:06:59 > 0:07:04and little cannons firing from its rooftops.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10It's known as the State Salt because it's also a salt cellar.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Within it are concealed seven little compartments
0:07:14 > 0:07:16for seasoning your food,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20and salt in the 17th century was very much a rich man's seasoning,
0:07:20 > 0:07:22it was a very valuable commodity.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25Who gave it to Charles and why?
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Well, there hangs a tale.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31It's a wonderful piece of silver gilt.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34It's also a bit of a guilt trip
0:07:34 > 0:07:38because it was presented to Charles by Exeter, the city of Exeter,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41to atone for the fact that, during the Civil War,
0:07:41 > 0:07:46it had been a centre for the Parliamentarians.
0:07:46 > 0:07:53This was Exeter's way of saying, "Sorry, we won't do that again."
0:07:53 > 0:07:58You might say it's the most finely crafted
0:07:58 > 0:08:02grovelling apology in the history of the decorative arts.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09The Restoration brought sweeping changes
0:08:09 > 0:08:13and perhaps none more so in the loosening of accepted morals.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Charles's new court became notorious across Europe.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23His motto seemed to be "Make love, not war".
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Anyone's wife would do.
0:08:26 > 0:08:27Sir Winston Churchill,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30in his History Of The English-Speaking Peoples,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32described Charles's reign as,
0:08:32 > 0:08:37"An unceasing, flagrant and brazen scandal" -
0:08:37 > 0:08:39and he was barely exaggerating.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44Behind this door in Hampton Court Palace,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47you'll find the cause of all that scandal.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53These are the so-called Windsor Beauties.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58The supermodels of the court in the swinging '60s.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01The 1660s.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Now, the Windsor Beauties have long enjoyed the dubious distinction of
0:09:11 > 0:09:15being regarded as the most outrageously immoral pictures
0:09:15 > 0:09:17in the Royal Collection.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20William Hazlitt, the great 19th-century critic,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22summed it up when he described them as,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26"A set of kept mistresses, painted, tawdry".
0:09:27 > 0:09:33And here's the queen bee of these mistresses.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36In fact, she's the only one known for sure to have been
0:09:36 > 0:09:38a mistress of Charles II.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41This is Barbara Castlemaine,
0:09:41 > 0:09:45painted by Sir Peter Lely as Minerva,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Goddess of Wisdom and War.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51I don't know how wise she was,
0:09:51 > 0:09:57but she certainly was victorious in the battle for Charles's affections.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01He had five children by her.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03Lely's done something very clever here.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06His great hero as an artist was van Dyck
0:10:06 > 0:10:10and these paintings are clearly painted in the mould of van Dyck's
0:10:10 > 0:10:13portraits of Charles I's court.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Images of lords and ladies
0:10:16 > 0:10:19aggrandised as gods or saints or martyrs,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23all designed to reinforce the sense of the divine right of kings,
0:10:23 > 0:10:28and, by association, the divine qualities of lords and ladies.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34But the difference here is that you know she doesn't believe it.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Lely doesn't believe it.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39Charles II doesn't believe it.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41It's fancy dress.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45And the giveaway is those eyes.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51It's Lely's great innovation in the history of portraiture,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54the post-coital gaze.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59They all look as if they've just been in bed with their lover.
0:11:02 > 0:11:08Charles dreamt of angels to encircle him as God's anointed son,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11but his angels were somewhat fallen.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Yet one Beauty differs from the others -
0:11:16 > 0:11:18Frances Stewart.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22Charles was obsessed by her from the moment she arrived at court
0:11:22 > 0:11:24aged not even 16.
0:11:24 > 0:11:30Imagine having to rebuff the advances of a lecherous King
0:11:30 > 0:11:35in a greased periwig, but she did.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38And I think it's really interesting that in this picture,
0:11:38 > 0:11:45where Lely has painted her as, significantly, Diana,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49the Huntress, the Virgin,
0:11:49 > 0:11:53she doesn't have those bedtime eyes.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57She actually looks at us with a sense of self-possession
0:11:57 > 0:12:02and even her drapery doesn't have that kind of collapsed, blowsy,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04falling-off-my-body look.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07Frances never faltered.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11She never became the King's mistress.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Good for you, Frances.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18Charles couldn't have everything he wanted.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23He envied his cousin, Louis XIV, with his suave French court,
0:12:23 > 0:12:25his extraordinary silver furniture,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28and his untold wealth.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32Throughout his reign, Charles imagined having his own Versailles.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Royal Collection Trust expert Rufus Bird showed me
0:12:38 > 0:12:40the glitter of Charles's ambition.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Goodness me, so what do we have here?
0:12:44 > 0:12:47This is silver furniture from the 17th century.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50These are almost certainly
0:12:50 > 0:12:52pieces that belonged to Charles II.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56So this is silver furniture for the court of Charles II?
0:12:56 > 0:12:59How magnificent!
0:12:59 > 0:13:02Who could doubt that Charles had dreams of building
0:13:02 > 0:13:05a British Versailles after seeing this?
0:13:07 > 0:13:12Without its silver skin, the table looks positively naked.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Between us, we put it back together.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17I'm going to pick up this corner plate here
0:13:17 > 0:13:20and just carry it over on to the table.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24And here you see it just literally fits onto the corner
0:13:24 > 0:13:25like that there.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28- Can I pass you this other piece? - Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31I was imagining something the weight of silver foil.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35- It's heavy.- And then they fit together like so.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38The most expensive jigsaw in the world.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40And then they're nailed into place?
0:13:40 > 0:13:42Yes. That's it.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44Yeah.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47It strikes me as slightly impractical as a table.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50I mean, imagine trying to put a cup of tea down.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52Everything's going to be sort of wibbly-wobbly,
0:13:52 > 0:13:54- so it's very much ornamental, isn't it?- It is.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57So is there an element of Charles II,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01now he's back and he wants to really establish a magnificent court?
0:14:01 > 0:14:05He's looking over the water to Versailles, perhaps, and thinking,
0:14:05 > 0:14:06"My court must be every bit,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09"or nearly every bit, as magnificent as that"?
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Certainly, he wanted to give off the impression that he had this kind of
0:14:12 > 0:14:14really, really powerful court,
0:14:14 > 0:14:18and he wanted to furnish and decorate it in exactly the same way
0:14:18 > 0:14:19as his first cousin Louis was doing.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23Of course, the problem with Charles II, as ever, was cost.
0:14:23 > 0:14:24He needed the money
0:14:24 > 0:14:27and he just didn't quite have as much as Louis did.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33One special room in Windsor Castle
0:14:33 > 0:14:37encapsulates Charles's extravagant taste.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40If you wanted to see God's anointed King at his most powerful,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43you'd visit here at a mealtime.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46And his food, it was simply divine.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51This is the King's dining room at Windsor.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53The King in question being Charles II.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57Here he is. His haughty self.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02And you have to understand that it's not really a dining room in the
0:15:02 > 0:15:03modern domestic sense.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06It's more in the nature of a theatre.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09And to explain how it worked,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13I just need to move the furniture because...
0:15:14 > 0:15:17There we go.
0:15:17 > 0:15:18So...
0:15:18 > 0:15:23Now, three times a week at 3pm,
0:15:23 > 0:15:27the King and his favourite courtiers would sit at a table here,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30laid rather grandly, and they would eat,
0:15:30 > 0:15:35conspicuously consuming large amounts of extremely expensive,
0:15:35 > 0:15:37high-end provender.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39And this spectacle would be witnessed.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41It was a public event.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45At least, witnessed by members of the higher orders of society.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53When he dined publicly, Charles was emulating his father, pictured here,
0:15:53 > 0:15:58a King who, like other Stuarts, knew the power of theatrical display.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03If you came, it was an opportunity to see who's in and who's out.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05Who's sitting close to the King?
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Who's been relegated to the bottom of the table?
0:16:09 > 0:16:15Now the painted backdrop to this public theatre of eating
0:16:15 > 0:16:18is itself all about food.
0:16:18 > 0:16:19It's this ceiling.
0:16:19 > 0:16:26The Feast Of The Gods by an Italian immigrant called Antonio Verrio.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29And the message is very clear to see.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31Up there,
0:16:31 > 0:16:36the gods of ancient mythology are at their banqueting table.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40Down here,
0:16:40 > 0:16:42today's God,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45the King, Charles II,
0:16:45 > 0:16:47is taking his food.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52The equivalence is meant to underpin that ancient idea
0:16:52 > 0:16:55of the divine right of kings.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00But while the provender was high-end, the painting wasn't.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02The anatomies of the figures are curiously boneless.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06The expressions on their faces are distinctly gormless.
0:17:06 > 0:17:13The figures descending with garlands of flowers are truly hopeless.
0:17:13 > 0:17:19I think the sad fact is that Antonio Verrio really wasn't verio goodo.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27Throughout his reign, Charles II used art to project the power of
0:17:27 > 0:17:31monarchy and the Royal Collection grew spectacularly.
0:17:34 > 0:17:40But one priceless acquisition seems not to have cost Charles a penny.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42It appears to have been a gift.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47As far as I'm concerned,
0:17:47 > 0:17:51every day in the Royal Collection is Christmas Day.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54Now...
0:17:54 > 0:17:58..this really is something to be unwrapped.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02I'll be with you in a moment.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09Just enjoy being tantalised by the prospect of the present.
0:18:09 > 0:18:10Now what is this?
0:18:10 > 0:18:13This is the whirligig
0:18:13 > 0:18:16and it was created in about 1910
0:18:16 > 0:18:21so that His Majesty, as he then was,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25could show his guests here in the Royal Library some of the
0:18:25 > 0:18:29masterpieces of the Royal Collection's drawing collection.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33Because, as you know, drawings are very light-sensitive and need to be
0:18:33 > 0:18:35protected from the light.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38So it can be shrouded 99% of the time,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41and then you take off the cover
0:18:41 > 0:18:46and you end up with this wonderful book, almost,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49except the pages aren't covered in words, but images.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53These are the drawings that I'm here to see.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Oh!
0:18:55 > 0:18:59It's by an artist you may of heard of, who's called Leonardo da Vinci.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02The Royal Collection contains 600,
0:19:02 > 0:19:06yes, 600 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci,
0:19:06 > 0:19:08the world's greatest such collection,
0:19:08 > 0:19:13which probably entered the Royal Collection through
0:19:13 > 0:19:17the grandson of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21a contemporary of Charles I, who was insatiable for old master drawings
0:19:21 > 0:19:23and had a great collection.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26It's more than likely that he originally bought these,
0:19:26 > 0:19:28and they passed into Charles's collection,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30but what treasures they are, look.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Looks a little bit Mona Lisa, doesn't she?
0:19:38 > 0:19:42And here we've got two studies
0:19:42 > 0:19:45for a woman's hands.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54Look at that delicacy, the brilliance of it.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58And then you turn through more pages of the whirligig,
0:19:58 > 0:20:01and suddenly you've got Leonardo the scientist.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03Wow!
0:20:03 > 0:20:06The human foetus,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10dissected and observed
0:20:10 > 0:20:15with notes, testament to Leonardo
0:20:15 > 0:20:20as one of the great fathers of the modern scientific spirit.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25"Never take anything on trust," he wrote again and again to himself
0:20:25 > 0:20:27in his notebooks.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31"Never trust authority. Only learn from nature."
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Did Charles realise what he had acquired?
0:20:35 > 0:20:40It took centuries for the genius of these drawings to be appreciated.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43They were seen as curiosities or distractions.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46Why wasn't he getting on with his paintings?
0:20:46 > 0:20:48Why was he studying this sort of thing?
0:20:48 > 0:20:51So much so that a professor at the Royal Academy
0:20:51 > 0:20:54at the end of the 18th century, who saw these drawings, could still say
0:20:54 > 0:20:58that Leonardo was a man who'd wasted his life in experiments.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02It was only really in the last 200 years
0:21:02 > 0:21:05that Leonardo's importance as a scientist has been discovered.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10But perhaps because they were not valued at their true worth,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13they remained rather at the back of the filing cabinet of
0:21:13 > 0:21:17the Royal Collection all together, and together is how they remain.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20They're among the great treasures, the great treasures,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24not just of the Royal Collection, but of art in this country.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29To look deeper into Leonardo's drawings, there's a modern technique
0:21:29 > 0:21:32that would have fascinated Leonardo himself.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36So, Martin, all I know is that you've made some rather interesting
0:21:36 > 0:21:39discoveries and that Leonardo da Vinci
0:21:39 > 0:21:42is the subject of those discoveries.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45- What have you found?- Yes, well, this is through scientific investigation
0:21:45 > 0:21:49of the metal point drawings from the start of Leonardo's career.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53Copper fades and here's a drawing which to the naked eye
0:21:53 > 0:21:55appear almost entirely blank.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57They have a pink preparation on them.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59This is almost entirely blank.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Yes, if we take this drawing over here
0:22:03 > 0:22:04and turn on a UV light,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08and I'll have to ask you to put those glasses on because this is
0:22:08 > 0:22:11rather nasty stuff.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14- Yes. Yep, ready.- OK?
0:22:14 > 0:22:18- And then I turn these lights on, we have..- That's incredible!
0:22:18 > 0:22:21..what is actually one of the most beautiful of Leonardo's drawings.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24In one minute, there was nothing there at all and...
0:22:24 > 0:22:26We think they're connected with the Adoration of the Magi,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29the great unfinished altarpiece of 1481.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31You can see this little hand bringing a bell in there,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34for example, and these two hands held in astonishment.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37How beautiful! Do you think these are drawn from some body?
0:22:37 > 0:22:39I think so.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42The beautiful foreshortening of the hand there,
0:22:42 > 0:22:43that's an extremely elaborate pose.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46And the way in which this hand is seen almost edge on,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48all the figures are in position,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50that must be done from the life, I'm sure.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52I'll just turn these lights off.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56Have you had any other equivalent results?
0:22:56 > 0:23:00Yes, now here's a drawing where you can see SOME detail.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02I can see the muzzle of a horse, yeah.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04- The lower half of the sheet is essentially blank.- Yes.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06And then I turn these lights on...
0:23:06 > 0:23:10- Oh, my word! - ..and we get that.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12Goodness me!
0:23:12 > 0:23:14That's incredible!
0:23:14 > 0:23:16It really is like magic.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20You flick the switch and two Leonardo drawings turn into five,
0:23:20 > 0:23:21maybe six.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23- Yeah.- Absolutely wonderful.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25I don't know what you'd call this.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Is this conservation or is it witchcraft?
0:23:32 > 0:23:37When Charles II died in 1685, his brother James became King.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43James lacked Charles's diplomacy, tact and sharpness.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49A Catholic himself, he pursued pro-Catholic policies,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53which many saw as a threat to the Protestant ascendancy,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57so they looked abroad for an alternative Protestant king
0:23:57 > 0:24:01and they picked Charles II's Dutch nephew, William of Orange.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07So what was the forecast for a new Anglo-Dutch monarchy?
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Here it is.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Well, I'm up on the roof of the Banqueting House
0:24:12 > 0:24:16and this is a telling memorial
0:24:16 > 0:24:19to that turbulent period in British history.
0:24:19 > 0:24:24It's a great weather vane made for James by his blacksmiths.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27A kind of device for measuring danger
0:24:27 > 0:24:30because, when the wind was in the west,
0:24:30 > 0:24:34that meant that William's fleet was safely confined to port in Holland.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37But wind from the east spelt of danger,
0:24:37 > 0:24:42the possibility of James's very own D-Day.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46Which way would the winds of history blow?
0:24:46 > 0:24:48Well, the wind did change at the end of October
0:24:48 > 0:24:53and, on the 1st of November, a great fleet set sail from Holland,
0:24:53 > 0:24:59400 ships, four times the size of the Spanish Armada.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04The invaders won the day.
0:25:04 > 0:25:09Another Dutch gift. This time they'd given Britain a whole new King.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15In 1689, William and his wife Mary took the crown.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19But what of the great royal complex that came with it, Whitehall Palace?
0:25:21 > 0:25:261,500 rooms decorated with the Collection's finest Holbeins,
0:25:26 > 0:25:31tapestries and sculptures, all close to the city.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34But city smoke played hell with William's asthma,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37and the royal couple said no.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42They moved instead to Kensington Palace and, in doing so,
0:25:42 > 0:25:46saved the Collection from disaster.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51It's very hard to get a sense of Whitehall Palace as it once was
0:25:51 > 0:25:54from the landscape of modern London.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Things have changed so completely.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00But you can at least get an idea of its scale
0:26:00 > 0:26:04and its extent if you compare that cityscape
0:26:04 > 0:26:09with a map of the palace as it was at the time from up here
0:26:09 > 0:26:11in the London Eye.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16It extended pretty much from the Treasury over there,
0:26:16 > 0:26:21all the way virtually to what's now Charing Cross Station.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24And it extended way back.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Yeah, beyond the Horse Guards.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29It was vast. It was a rabbit warren.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35In 1698, the building caught fire,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39but then it spread and the whole building was aflame.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42Imagine all of that,
0:26:42 > 0:26:44imagine all of that ablaze!
0:26:44 > 0:26:48What a sight, what is spectacle, what a trauma!
0:26:48 > 0:26:49Great treasures were lost.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53A wonderful early Michelangelo sculpture of a Cupid.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57Holbein's great Whitehall mural
0:26:57 > 0:27:00showing Henry VIII and his family.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02But it could have been so much worse.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04By moving to Kensington Palace,
0:27:04 > 0:27:09William and Mary unwittingly saved many items from the flames.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13Gems like the Leonardo drawings escaped the fire.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16So, all in all, you'd have to say
0:27:16 > 0:27:20the Royal Collection's led a bit of a charmed life.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27Government buildings were erected on the ruins of Whitehall Palace.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29An apt metaphor perhaps?
0:27:29 > 0:27:30Under William and Mary,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34royal power was slimmed and superseded by Parliament.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37After the Whitehall Palace fire,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40the Royal Collection faced another challenge -
0:27:40 > 0:27:43the early Georgians.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47George II especially was not famed as a connoisseur.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50One tale has entered the folklore of Kensington Palace.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54The story goes that, in 1735,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57when the King was away,
0:27:57 > 0:28:03his Queen, Caroline, decided to rehang the pictures in this room.
0:28:03 > 0:28:04She didn't like his taste,
0:28:04 > 0:28:09so she filled the space with Holbeins and van Dycks.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14But when George came back, he was absolutely enraged.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17He wanted everything put back exactly as it had been.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21His adviser is said to have asked, "Really, my lord?
0:28:21 > 0:28:25"Even the gigantic painting of the fat Venus?"
0:28:25 > 0:28:27"Yes, I like my fat Venus
0:28:27 > 0:28:30"better than anything else you have given me!"
0:28:30 > 0:28:32And there she still hangs today.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35By Giorgio Vasari, the inventor of art history.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38A painting that perhaps proves he was a better writer
0:28:38 > 0:28:40than he was a painter.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45I think the whole story tells us a lot about George's taste -
0:28:45 > 0:28:47and not just in art.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51George was not much of an art buyer,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54but his indifference, or outright contempt,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57would indirectly benefit the Collection.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01Frederick, his son, was a rebel.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04And how better to infuriate your philistine father
0:29:04 > 0:29:08than pour energy and patronage into all things artistic?
0:29:12 > 0:29:15To get a feel for Frederick's rebellious side,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18you have to skirt Hampton Court Palace itself
0:29:18 > 0:29:21and seek out the royal equivalent of a gardener's shed.
0:29:24 > 0:29:28Now, I'm hoping that this is going to be
0:29:28 > 0:29:30an X marks the spot moment.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34You'll see what I mean in a minute.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37What I'm looking for
0:29:37 > 0:29:41is the exact place where...
0:29:45 > 0:29:48..Frederick and his sisters
0:29:48 > 0:29:53performed this particular musical concert.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56This picture was painted in 1733 by Philip Mercier,
0:29:56 > 0:29:59and the Royal Collection have very kindly
0:29:59 > 0:30:02allowed me to remove it from its frame and bring it here.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05Only joking. This is what I prepared earlier
0:30:05 > 0:30:10because I think it's here that this concert was first played.
0:30:10 > 0:30:11It can't have been there.
0:30:13 > 0:30:17The river is through the window there.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19Ah, I think this is it.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21Have a look for yourselves.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23Mirror in the middle, things have
0:30:23 > 0:30:25changed, obviously, over the centuries,
0:30:25 > 0:30:29but that view of the palace hasn't.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31So I think this is indeed
0:30:31 > 0:30:35X marks the spot and that
0:30:35 > 0:30:37I'm in that window seat.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39Now, why am I so interested in this picture?
0:30:39 > 0:30:43Because these are the children of the George II,
0:30:43 > 0:30:47who famously said he didn't like culture.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50IMITATES KING: "I hate painting and I hate poetry."
0:30:51 > 0:30:55But these children are saying, "We are not like Dad."
0:30:55 > 0:30:58Amelia is reading Milton, so she likes poetry.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00And at the centre,
0:31:00 > 0:31:04Frederick playing the cello.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08Family relations summed up in a picture.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11I love it. The dog loves it, too.
0:31:16 > 0:31:21Frederick embraced the arts, buying masterpieces by Guido Reni,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23by Rubens...
0:31:25 > 0:31:26..and by van Dyck.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31Frederick also loved the Rococo style.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34This is his royal barge.
0:31:34 > 0:31:40Everywhere you look, there is a frill or a shell or a gilded pooch.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44Frederick dreamed of founding Britain's first great art academy.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51Imagine his impact on the Royal Collection had HE become king.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55But it never happened.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58He died aged just 44.
0:32:01 > 0:32:07Instead, his son, George III, would be the next king, in 1760.
0:32:07 > 0:32:12Taking the throne was a shy, diffident 22-year-old.
0:32:12 > 0:32:17Britain was on the up and up, the empire was getting more muscular.
0:32:17 > 0:32:22An expectant country watched to see how well the new king filled his
0:32:22 > 0:32:26throne. The moment's caught in oil paint.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30So, this is the Green Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace
0:32:30 > 0:32:36and it contains a really fascinating portrait of George III himself,
0:32:36 > 0:32:41painted by the great Scottish portraitist Allan Ramsay.
0:32:41 > 0:32:46Now, at first sight, you look at that picture and you see a
0:32:46 > 0:32:50pure baroque power portrait of a king,
0:32:50 > 0:32:55a picture that would fit very easily and comfortably into the tradition
0:32:55 > 0:32:59of van Dyck's portraits of Charles I.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01But look more closely.
0:33:02 > 0:33:07That king is somehow more grounded than the kings of the past.
0:33:07 > 0:33:13He is depicted with this sharp-eyed Scottish Enlightenment sense of
0:33:13 > 0:33:16realism, that is ermine that you can touch,
0:33:16 > 0:33:20that is glittering silk that you can stroke.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23That is a man whom you can look in the eye.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29Underneath the regal silk was a man with varied tastes.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32A lover of nature, but also astronomy.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35One of the great royal book collectors,
0:33:35 > 0:33:39as well as a king with a keen sense of duty to his country.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44This was the image that George wanted the world to know him by.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49In fact, he loved the picture so much that he asked Ramsay to paint
0:33:49 > 0:33:52more than 150 copies of it.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55He delegated a lot of the work to his studio, but, even so,
0:33:55 > 0:33:57the effort nearly killed him.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02Though less extravagant than some of his predecessors,
0:34:02 > 0:34:06George was keen to project a potent patriotic image.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10"I glory in the name of Britain," he said.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16George was responsible for one of the great symbols of British royalty,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19the house that would become Buckingham Palace.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23Filling its empty walls cost George thousands,
0:34:23 > 0:34:25boom time for the collection.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29And his great commission for his coronation is on display in the
0:34:29 > 0:34:32Royal Mews, a four-tonne Goliath.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35The heaviest work of art in the Royal Collection
0:34:35 > 0:34:38and one of the few that's on wheels.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40I remember
0:34:40 > 0:34:45being taken to see the Gold State Coach by my mum when I was probably
0:34:45 > 0:34:47about six or seven years old
0:34:47 > 0:34:50and, usually, things that you remember being fantastically
0:34:50 > 0:34:53impressed by as a child become less impressive as you get older,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56but I think this is absolutely fantastic.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59What a wonderful object.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02Cost a fortune, took years to create.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06Carved by an Englishmen, Joseph Wilton.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11These are Tritons, figures that blow through their shells.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14They accompany, traditionally, Neptune, the sea god.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19Exactly the same figures appear on the most famous fountain in the world,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21the Trevi Fountain in Rome.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26Borrowed by an Englishman and put on the King's coach.
0:35:26 > 0:35:31This is Britain blowing its own trumpets!
0:35:32 > 0:35:34TRIUMPHAL CLASSICAL MUSIC
0:35:49 > 0:35:53Its subject is British victory and it gets better,
0:35:53 > 0:35:55British victory over the French!
0:35:55 > 0:36:00It's celebrating the Annus Mirabilis of 1759, when
0:36:00 > 0:36:06the French were defeated by land, by sea, in America, in India.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11This was the moment that saw Britain really establish itself centre-stage
0:36:11 > 0:36:15as the greatest world power
0:36:15 > 0:36:19and don't the creators of this coach want us to know it?
0:36:21 > 0:36:23Such a huge, unwieldy thing.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27It's almost like a Baroque fountain on wheels.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31And through the centuries, as it's been used by one monarch after the
0:36:31 > 0:36:33next for their coronations, the one...
0:36:34 > 0:36:41..constant theme of complaint has been how very uncomfortable it is.
0:36:41 > 0:36:48Queen Victoria said, "The oscillation is almost unbearable."
0:36:48 > 0:36:55And George VI simply said, "It is the most damned uncomfortable ride
0:36:55 > 0:36:59"of my life." And that's the price you pay for magnificence.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07It certainly lent majesty to our own queen's 1953 coronation.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12Sadly for George, it wasn't finished in time for his.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18Instead, its maiden voyage took him to open Parliament in 1762.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23Short trips were the order of the day for the King.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28Royals didn't really venture abroad,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31although it was a golden age of travel for the aristocracy.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36Young nobleman soaked up classical culture on the grand tour,
0:37:36 > 0:37:42ogling every masterpiece, as immortalised here by Johan Zoffany.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44Their journey would usually end in Venice,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47where they'd most likely buy a picture by Canaletto,
0:37:47 > 0:37:49the artist of the moment.
0:37:50 > 0:37:51But King George never went.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56So how did stay-at-home George come
0:37:56 > 0:37:59to own over 50 paintings by Canaletto,
0:37:59 > 0:38:01including this cast-of-thousands
0:38:01 > 0:38:03depiction of the annual Venetian Festival,
0:38:03 > 0:38:07celebrating the marriage of city and sea?
0:38:07 > 0:38:09To answer that question, I took the
0:38:09 > 0:38:11trip to Venice that George never did.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21Venice today is remarkably as it was when Canaletto painted it.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24All his landmarks are still here -
0:38:24 > 0:38:28the Doge's Palace, the Campanile at St Mark's Square.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31This place really is a kind of miracle,
0:38:31 > 0:38:35the least-changed city in the world.
0:38:35 > 0:38:36Massimo, andiamo.
0:38:43 > 0:38:45I'm travelling up the Grand Canal,
0:38:45 > 0:38:50under the famous Rialto Bridge, to one particular palazzo,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53the epicentre of Venetian art in the 18th century.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58That palace was once owned by a
0:38:58 > 0:39:02man called Joseph Smith, Consul Smith,
0:39:02 > 0:39:03a real character.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07A wheeler-dealer. He came to Venice when he was a young man,
0:39:07 > 0:39:09became Canaletto's agent.
0:39:09 > 0:39:14Before you knew it, he was selling Canaletto's pictures to English "me, lords"
0:39:14 > 0:39:17coming to this city on their grand tour.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21But he kept the best pictures for himself.
0:39:21 > 0:39:28But in 1762, hard times, times of war, Consul Smith, he is an old man.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32In his late 80s, he decides to sell up,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36to cash in his pension in that palace.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40He offers everything he has to King George III...
0:39:40 > 0:39:44..for £20,000.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46George pounced.
0:39:46 > 0:39:51His booty - portraits by Rosalba Carriera...
0:39:51 > 0:39:56..36 Italian landscapes by Francesco Zuccarelli...
0:39:56 > 0:39:59..and this masterpiece of understatement
0:39:59 > 0:40:01by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06Then, it was wrongly attributed to a different painter,
0:40:06 > 0:40:09yet today it is one of the most famous paintings in the collection.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13However, the cream of Consul Smith's
0:40:13 > 0:40:16collection was his 50 Canaletto paintings.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19So deceptively lifelike, they might
0:40:19 > 0:40:21almost be forerunners of photorealism.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25But let me tell you a secret,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Canaletto's pictures aren't quite what they seem.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33The artist's early career was painting theatre scenery.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38And there is more than a touch of stagecraft to his images.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44If you put yourself in the place suggested by the viewpoint,
0:40:44 > 0:40:46for example, of this picture,
0:40:46 > 0:40:48Canaletto has made all kinds of subtle,
0:40:48 > 0:40:50artful adjustments.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52The details are all there.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56Here's the great column with San Teodoro.
0:40:56 > 0:41:01In the background, Santa Maria della Salute, the church.
0:41:01 > 0:41:06To the left, the Customs House with the great gold ball on the top.
0:41:06 > 0:41:11But the scale relationships between those objects have been altered by
0:41:11 > 0:41:16Canaletto. He has got rid of that expanse of dead space separating the
0:41:16 > 0:41:20monastery section of the church from the Customs House.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24In his vision, they actually abut one another.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27He has reduced the height of the column.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30He's reduced the height of the Marciana Library.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34And he has got rid of this column altogether.
0:41:35 > 0:41:40But why has he done it? I think to achieve a kind of perfected version
0:41:40 > 0:41:45of the city. A vision of Venice that you might form in your mind's eye,
0:41:45 > 0:41:47a perfect memory.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53Consul Smith had collected together a lifetime's worth of these perfect
0:41:53 > 0:41:54Venetian memories.
0:41:56 > 0:42:01George now owned something truly astonishing.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Ha! Wow!
0:42:04 > 0:42:06Never fails to take my breath away.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10The world's greatest collection of Canalettos.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13George hung these pictures pride of place
0:42:13 > 0:42:15in the newly bought Buckingham House.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19The ruler of a forward-looking empire was making, I think,
0:42:19 > 0:42:20a symbolic point.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23The King was alive to the way in
0:42:23 > 0:42:27which his nation identified with Venice.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31Why did Britain feel itself to be...
0:42:33 > 0:42:37..almost a brother to Venice during the 18th century?
0:42:37 > 0:42:41Well, I think it's because Britain,
0:42:41 > 0:42:46as Venice HAD been, was a great maritime nation.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50And just as Venice had
0:42:50 > 0:42:53established itself as a great maritime power,
0:42:53 > 0:42:58looking out with trade, looking away from mainland Italy,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02Venice didn't feel itself to be part of mainland Italy.
0:43:02 > 0:43:03Ours was a nation that...
0:43:04 > 0:43:08..had turned its back on Continental Catholic Europe,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11had turned its back on France and Spain and was looking to trade to
0:43:11 > 0:43:14make its fortune, to forge its empire.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17Britannia wants to rule the waves,
0:43:17 > 0:43:21just as Venice once HAD ruled the waves.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Maritime superiority required the finest navigation.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33Ships could pinpoint their exact global location using
0:43:33 > 0:43:34complex calculations.
0:43:36 > 0:43:41But for this to work, sailors needed to know the time and accurately.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47The greatest empire would be the one with the greatest clocks
0:43:47 > 0:43:49and the British king had the greatest of all.
0:43:51 > 0:43:52He even helped design it.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57So, Paul, I think it's quite
0:43:57 > 0:44:00appropriate that there he is looking down
0:44:00 > 0:44:02at us from the wall, George III, and we are talking,
0:44:02 > 0:44:06I think, about one of his very favourite objects.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09In fact, if he had to come back now and choose his favourite object in
0:44:09 > 0:44:11the Royal Collection as it is today, it might be this clock.
0:44:11 > 0:44:12It may well be that clock.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14CLOCK CHIMES
0:44:14 > 0:44:16I think... Ah, what a lovely tone.
0:44:16 > 0:44:17They are glorious bells.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20The whole clock is a beautiful piece.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22I don't think they have spared anything in its construction.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24It is more than a clock, that's for sure.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26Yeah, it's more than just a timepiece, yes.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29It gives you positions of the planets.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34The left-hand dial also turns in sidereal time, star time.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38So if you were able to look up into the heavens and it were dark,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41it depicts what you should see in the heavens at this time.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46The actual design, the drawing of...
0:44:47 > 0:44:51..Ursa Major, these wonderful beasts that we see, Cancer the Crab...
0:44:51 > 0:44:53They are all traced in the most
0:44:53 > 0:44:56fantastically delicate filigree style,
0:44:56 > 0:44:57in enamel.
0:44:57 > 0:44:59It's remarkable.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03I'm very curious about this painted scene behind the
0:45:03 > 0:45:07minute and the hour hands.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09Well, there's an artificial horizon.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13And at sunrise, the sun, along with the hour hand,
0:45:13 > 0:45:16appear behind this artificial horizon.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18- How amazing.- And that horizon moves
0:45:18 > 0:45:21up and down with the seasons of the year.
0:45:21 > 0:45:23CLOCK TICKS LOUDLY
0:45:25 > 0:45:27If you had to say what his passion
0:45:27 > 0:45:30was, George III, watches, timepieces,
0:45:30 > 0:45:34clocks, that would certainly be pretty high up on the list.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39Absolutely, yeah. He was taking all of the technologies of the day and
0:45:39 > 0:45:42incorporating them into this object.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48A serious man, George loved books.
0:45:48 > 0:45:50His library was world-class.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54This king, who has been remembered as mad,
0:45:54 > 0:45:56was actually an man of reason.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00And in this era, if there was a boundary, science,
0:46:00 > 0:46:03liberty and philosophy were pushing against it.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05And the boundaries were physical, too.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08The British were exploring whole new swathes of the globe.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Captain Cook mapped Australia
0:46:12 > 0:46:14and the East India Company governed much of India.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18And George, who never left England,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22had all these exotic worlds brought to his royal armchair.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28As his new subjects vied for influence,
0:46:28 > 0:46:30the King was showered with gifts.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37In Windsor Castle's print room is a remarkable present sent via the
0:46:37 > 0:46:39Governor General of India.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41It's one of the wonders of the world.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47Royal Collection Trust's Emily Hannam unpacked it for me.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52So, we have to think ourselves back to the court of George III
0:46:52 > 0:46:54and a rather intriguing object.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56So, Emily, what is it?
0:46:56 > 0:47:01Well, this magnificent manuscript is called the Padshahnama.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04Now, Padshahnama translates as "the book of emperors".
0:47:05 > 0:47:09And the emperor in question is the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11He commissioned this text as a
0:47:11 > 0:47:15celebration of his reign and his dynasty.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19But here we have some of its 42 beautiful illustrations.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22Fantastic. So it's a 17th-century object.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25- That's right.- Given at the end of the 18th century.
0:47:25 > 0:47:27Just under 150 years later.
0:47:27 > 0:47:28To my eye...
0:47:30 > 0:47:31..these are absolutely at the...
0:47:31 > 0:47:34These are some of the finest Mughal paintings in existence...
0:47:34 > 0:47:35- They are.- ..I would say.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37It's not just a...
0:47:37 > 0:47:39They must to be because they're just astonishing.
0:47:39 > 0:47:40The carpet,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43you can't imagine how anybody could paint anything that finely.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45I'm having to hold the magnifying glass...
0:47:45 > 0:47:47The textiles are magnificent.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49Where would they get the hairs for their brushes?
0:47:49 > 0:47:50Were they using squirrel hair or...?
0:47:50 > 0:47:54Well, it's suggested that for the finest brushes they actually plucked
0:47:54 > 0:47:57the hairs out of the necks of baby kittens.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59But whether that's true or not, I don't know.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03It's... It's such a bizarre hypothesis that it's probably true.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07- Probably true. - And what's going on here?
0:48:07 > 0:48:09Oh, I like this. This is an action scene.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12This is... They have been watching an elephant fight,
0:48:12 > 0:48:16and then suddenly one of the elephants breaks free and charges
0:48:16 > 0:48:18at Prince Aurangzeb.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21But rather than running away in fear, he holds his own.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Goodness. I love the poor guy on top of the elephant.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29- Yes...- He's sort of the driver who has lost control of his car.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32Well, what's happened, he has dropped this log.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35The intention being that it will trip up the elephant, so he'll stop
0:48:35 > 0:48:36running, but it hasn't worked.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38It's almost like an anchor.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41- Yes.- This is... Blimey!
0:48:41 > 0:48:43This is the one that perhaps excites me the most.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46- Me too.- Visually, it's just a stunning composition.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50- This is my favourite of all of the paintings in this manuscript.- Oh, I'm glad you said that. Really?
0:48:50 > 0:48:52- Oh, I'm glad you said that. - It really is.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54And this says, "Do not mess with the Emperor."
0:48:54 > 0:48:56- Ah!- So what we have here...
0:48:56 > 0:48:58I've just seen...
0:48:58 > 0:49:00Oh, that's horrible!
0:49:00 > 0:49:05This is an Afghan general, who did not support Shah Jahan's succession
0:49:05 > 0:49:09- to the Mughal throne.- That is not an Afghan general, it's an ex-Afghan
0:49:09 > 0:49:12- general.- Very much an ex one!
0:49:12 > 0:49:16So this is Shah Jahan's armies cutting off their heads
0:49:16 > 0:49:18so they can be sent back as trophies.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21I mean, that is seriously hard-core.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24But then, if you look at the detail here,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27the gold on the horse's armour here,
0:49:27 > 0:49:31it has been punched with a very blunt needle to give that shimmering
0:49:31 > 0:49:35- texture.- That's amazing. But it makes for such a horrible...
0:49:35 > 0:49:38I mean, astonishing, compelling contrast between the...
0:49:40 > 0:49:41Beauty and finesse.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44Yes, the beauty and the wealth and the power and the uprightness of
0:49:44 > 0:49:46those who have won
0:49:46 > 0:49:53and the utter, utter defeat of these blobby, decapitated heads.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56And this is your favourite picture out of the whole manuscript.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58SHE LAUGHS
0:50:01 > 0:50:03George loved precision.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07Did the fine detail of these buzzing flies appeal?
0:50:08 > 0:50:11We know that he collected less grisly,
0:50:11 > 0:50:13more scientific depictions of insects.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18Their creator was a woman, Maria Merian,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21who not only decoded the intricacies of science,
0:50:21 > 0:50:26but presented her findings in lavishly illustrated books.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29The fragility of a Surinam butterfly's life cycle,
0:50:29 > 0:50:31revealed in glorious colour.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37At the Queen's Gallery in Edinburgh,
0:50:37 > 0:50:39natural history illustrator Cath Hodsman
0:50:39 > 0:50:44explains why she feels Merian should be a remembered as the godmother of
0:50:44 > 0:50:45modern scientific illustration.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50So, tell me, what's actually going on?
0:50:50 > 0:50:54- What are we looking at?- Well, it's what Maria is actually best known for.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58She was passionate about insects, she had been from a very early age,
0:50:58 > 0:51:01and officially started studying them from aged 13,
0:51:01 > 0:51:04would you believe? At a time when it was thought that insects were in
0:51:04 > 0:51:07league with the devil. Anything that we didn't understand,
0:51:07 > 0:51:08we thought must be evil.
0:51:08 > 0:51:10And it was commonly thought
0:51:10 > 0:51:12that insects were actually spawned from mud every year.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15And she thought they were so beautiful they couldn't be
0:51:15 > 0:51:17in league with the devil, that was impossible.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20They did disappear at the end of every day, at the end of every year,
0:51:20 > 0:51:22but where do they go and why?
0:51:22 > 0:51:28She was part of a very small set of scientists who had catalogued and
0:51:28 > 0:51:31kind of discovered the metamorphic life cycle.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33But what made her
0:51:33 > 0:51:36so different was the fact that she was able to paint it and bring the
0:51:36 > 0:51:38whole process alive,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41and then disseminate that information to the rest of the world.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45She is taking this great scientific discovery out of the small coterie
0:51:45 > 0:51:47- of those who know...- Absolutely.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49..and making it available for the rest of the world.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51- Yeah, for the common man.- Yeah.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Merian took the illustrations from her book Metamorphosis and made
0:51:55 > 0:52:00just two luxury hand-painted velum copies of its prints.
0:52:00 > 0:52:01George bought one of them.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06It wouldn't be right not to look at one of her butterfly pictures
0:52:06 > 0:52:10because that, after all, is what she is really known for.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13She wanted to convey beauty in the natural world and that is one level,
0:52:13 > 0:52:15but also she was a scientist,
0:52:15 > 0:52:17so she wanted to convey detail.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20She would take specimens and kill them, prepare them, dry them.
0:52:20 > 0:52:23And then she would pore over...
0:52:23 > 0:52:26Millimetre by millimetre, by millimetre,
0:52:26 > 0:52:28looking at every single thing.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30You can't stress enough how that, you know,
0:52:30 > 0:52:33that... This was an age of exploration, but it was men doing
0:52:33 > 0:52:35- most of the exploring.- Men, yes.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38She is a woman. She is so determined and fascinated by her subject that
0:52:38 > 0:52:40she is just going to cross all of the boundaries.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42- She is going to do it. - "This is what I'm interested in."
0:52:42 > 0:52:44She is totally unique.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53During his reign, George fulfilled one of his father Frederick's dreams.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58He created the Royal Academy of Arts,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01a school for artists, and a showcase for their talents.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08The Academy's 1783 exhibition showed a new intimate style of royal
0:53:08 > 0:53:13portraiture, from the Apollo of the Palace - Thomas Gainsborough.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17Today, these portraits hang at Windsor Castle,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21in the same configuration chosen for them two centuries ago.
0:53:22 > 0:53:27Is it just me or are they a little like Maria Merian's butterflies?
0:53:27 > 0:53:31A family studied at different stages of metamorphosis?
0:53:31 > 0:53:34From children just out of the chrysalis...
0:53:34 > 0:53:36..to king butterfly and his queen.
0:53:37 > 0:53:43This isn't so much a royal portrait as a mosaic of royal portraits.
0:53:43 > 0:53:50And what it shows us is the King and his Queen, George III and Charlotte,
0:53:50 > 0:53:55who by this time, 1782, has already had 14 children,
0:53:55 > 0:53:57so no wonder she looks pale
0:53:57 > 0:53:59and a little bit drawn.
0:53:59 > 0:54:05But what a departure from traditional state royal portraiture.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07Now there is no composition at all,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11no palace, no sense that they exist above us.
0:54:11 > 0:54:16Now you are looking at family and the strangeness with which family
0:54:16 > 0:54:19resemblance seems to work and operate.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24I think my favourite row has to be the bottom one.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29It's in painting really young children, I think, that Gainsborough
0:54:29 > 0:54:32comes into his own because he is such a fresh,
0:54:32 > 0:54:34spontaneous, humane painter.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37And I love the way that he paints the contrast between the rather
0:54:37 > 0:54:40formal dress that these royal children are wearing and their
0:54:40 > 0:54:43awkward, eternally childish demeanour.
0:54:44 > 0:54:49Octavius, in particular, is a masterpiece of a portrait.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52Look at that face.
0:54:53 > 0:54:54It's absolutely wonderful.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59There is a sad postscript to the story of these portraits.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02Shortly after his sitting,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06four-year-old Octavius was given a smallpox inoculation by his
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Enlightenment parents.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11But within weeks, he was dead.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14A short-lived royal butterfly.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20King George was devastated.
0:55:20 > 0:55:25He said, "There will be no heaven for me if Octavius is not there."
0:55:33 > 0:55:37Under George, the Royal Collection had reached out to encompass new
0:55:37 > 0:55:41worlds - emotional, geographical, intellectual.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47But while his countrymen were expanding the boundaries of empire,
0:55:47 > 0:55:51the King himself embraced evermore humble surroundings,
0:55:51 > 0:55:55like Kew Palace, here in Kew Gardens,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59a place where majesty could be put on pause.
0:56:00 > 0:56:05The first thing that strikes you about Kew Palace is just how
0:56:05 > 0:56:07un-palatial it is. How simple it is.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11Look at this plain brown furniture.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16Remember, this was the place that George and Charlotte chose to come
0:56:16 > 0:56:19to when they wanted to be away from the eyes of the world,
0:56:19 > 0:56:21when they wanted to be, so to speak,
0:56:21 > 0:56:25man and woman rather than king and queen.
0:56:25 > 0:56:32And I think the simplicity of the house's interiors reflects their
0:56:32 > 0:56:37genuine belief in one of the principal tenets of Enlightenment thought,
0:56:37 > 0:56:42namely the idea that simplicity is best.
0:56:42 > 0:56:47The most advanced people live in the most straightforward, natural way.
0:56:47 > 0:56:52And you can see that reflected in the straightforward, fresh,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54natural portraits that they commissioned
0:56:54 > 0:56:57from the likes of Gainsborough of their children.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00It's also reflected in George's public persona -
0:57:00 > 0:57:03no nonsense, no frills.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09This is a poignant room, too.
0:57:09 > 0:57:14In 1801, George suffered a severe bout of his recurrent so-called madness.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19The story goes that one of his doctors,
0:57:19 > 0:57:21in order to distract George,
0:57:21 > 0:57:25to take his attention away from what the other doctors were doing, said,
0:57:25 > 0:57:30"Could you tell me about this picture of van Dyck by Nogari?"
0:57:30 > 0:57:34And as the King began his disquisition, the doors were shut
0:57:34 > 0:57:36and he was confined.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44Eventually, George's illness took hold for good.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49He died in 1820.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56George III's reign had seen the collection fill whole palaces
0:57:56 > 0:57:58and cross continents.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02Thanks to his influence,
0:58:02 > 0:58:05the Royal Collection had truly blossomed during the Enlightenment.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14Next time, meet the Byron, the Beethoven,
0:58:14 > 0:58:17the Wagner of all royal collectors.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21The outrageous, magnificent, decadent George IV.