0:00:14 > 0:00:17SOLEMN GREGORIAN CHANTING
0:00:34 > 0:00:36Let's see...
0:00:36 > 0:00:40In the last film, we were over here in Italy, watching the birth of the
0:00:40 > 0:00:45Baroque, and we ended up in Naples, down here.
0:00:45 > 0:00:51Naples was a Spanish colony, and that means the next stage
0:00:51 > 0:00:56of our journey is over here, in Spain.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58Oh, my God.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46One of the chief reasons why the Baroque was as successful
0:01:46 > 0:01:51as it was - why it became the first global art movement -
0:01:51 > 0:01:55was because it was so damned adaptable.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01The Baroque spread across Europe
0:02:01 > 0:02:03like a wildfire,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06and everywhere it went, it adopted
0:02:06 > 0:02:12the local tastes and customs and sneakily made itself at home.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14But, when it got here,
0:02:14 > 0:02:20to Spain, it didn't have that much adapting to do -
0:02:20 > 0:02:27the Spanish were already fiercely Catholic, they liked drama, emotion,
0:02:27 > 0:02:34passion, darkness - they were, if you like, instinctively Baroque,
0:02:34 > 0:02:42so the Baroque's task here in Spain wasn't really a case of adaptation.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48It was more like pouring petrol on a large bonfire.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55The Spanish Baroque
0:02:55 > 0:03:00was hard core, the most fiercely Catholic the Baroque became.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07Some of its sights will turn your stomach and appall you,
0:03:07 > 0:03:12but the Baroque was a war remember - a battle for your heart deliberately
0:03:12 > 0:03:20started by the Counter-Reformation, and, in times of war,anything goes.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39This is the longest pilgrim trail in Spain -
0:03:39 > 0:03:42the southern route to Santiago De Compostela.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47It's called the Via de la Plata, the Silver Road.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51And I'm going to be walking some of it for you, because
0:03:51 > 0:03:55it takes you past so many key Baroque sites.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03But the first stop I want to make
0:04:03 > 0:04:08is that lovely tower shimmering on the horizon.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13Seville - the start of the Via de la Plata.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41This is a cultural hotspot if ever there was one,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44the old Jewish quarter in Seville.
0:04:46 > 0:04:51Can you feel the cultural potency bubbling up in this place?
0:04:51 > 0:04:54This is where Rossini's famous opera
0:04:54 > 0:04:59The Barber of Seville is set, and also Mozart's Marriage Of Figaro.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13A bit further out is the Baroque tobacco factory,
0:05:13 > 0:05:19in which that dangerous beauty Carmen worked in Bizet's opera.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23What a grand building for a tobacco factory -
0:05:23 > 0:05:26what a perfect building for an opera.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36And all this is pertinent because remember, opera
0:05:36 > 0:05:43is a Baroque invention, and fusing the arts together like this, music
0:05:43 > 0:05:48and theatre, dance and spectacle, is a very Baroque thing to do.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54But that's not why I've brought you here - I wanted to show you
0:05:54 > 0:05:59where Diego Velazquez was born, in that modest house over there
0:05:59 > 0:06:04in Seville's Jewish quarter in 1599.
0:06:12 > 0:06:17Velazquez, Spain's greatest Baroque artist, would later pass himself off
0:06:17 > 0:06:21as a man of aristocratic bearing.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23What a haughty presence
0:06:23 > 0:06:28he affected in his own art. Official painter to the Spanish king,
0:06:28 > 0:06:33the dark dignitary, the maestro, with the perfect moustache.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39But some energetic researchers have recently been digging up Velazquez's
0:06:39 > 0:06:45past and it's been discovered that he was in fact of Jewish origin.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50His family on his father's side were Portuguese Jews,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53who'd converted to Christianity -
0:06:53 > 0:06:56what they call around here, Conversos.
0:06:59 > 0:07:05So, Velazquez, the son of a Converso, could almost be called
0:07:05 > 0:07:07the first Jewish artist.
0:07:35 > 0:07:40The first important paintings that Velazquez produced
0:07:40 > 0:07:45weren't portrayals of kings, or Venuses, or popes,
0:07:45 > 0:07:52but humble and very realistic depictions of ordinary life.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58They were called bodegones, after
0:07:58 > 0:08:05the Spanish word bodegon, which means a tavern or eating house.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11The young Velazquez painted a clutch of these bodegones.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16They are brilliant things - so atmospheric and tactile.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20You can hear the eggs sizzling,
0:08:20 > 0:08:25you can smell the garlic being crushed.
0:08:30 > 0:08:36The Baroque's fascination with low life, bars, taverns,
0:08:36 > 0:08:41kitchens, amounted to an obsession, and it shouldn't really surprise us.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Remember, one of the chief aims of the Counter-Reformation
0:08:45 > 0:08:50was to address the hearts and the minds of ordinary people,
0:08:50 > 0:08:56so art was encouraged to talk their language, and to set its action
0:08:56 > 0:08:58in their spaces.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06The bodegones have a deeper meaning.
0:09:06 > 0:09:12Realism for realism's sake was never Velazquez's only ambition.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15He was much too Baroque for that.
0:09:15 > 0:09:22Realism's job in his art is to hook you and pull you in closer,
0:09:22 > 0:09:27until you're close enough to see the painting's real meaning.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Look into the background of the great kitchen scene in the House Of
0:09:35 > 0:09:40Martha And Mary, and you will see that Jesus got here before you.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47According to the Bible, Jesus came to visit the two sisters Martha and
0:09:47 > 0:09:53Mary and while Martha busied herself in the kitchen, Mary sat at Jesus's
0:09:53 > 0:09:56feet and listened to his word.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02When Martha complained that her sister wasn't helping out,
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Jesus stopped her.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Mary, he replied, has chosen to listen,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11and in the end, listening to the word
0:10:11 > 0:10:15is more important than preparing the dinner.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21It's that Baroque message again -
0:10:21 > 0:10:26life is short, reality is an illusion,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30and only the word of God lasts forever.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39Velazquez was so strikingly talented that when he was 23, he was summoned
0:10:39 > 0:10:45to Madrid by the king himself, Philip IV, and told to paint
0:10:45 > 0:10:48the Royal portrait.
0:10:48 > 0:10:53So, he left Seville and never really came back.
0:10:57 > 0:11:02But his new employers were about to discover a splendid Baroque rule.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06You can take a genius out of the bodega, yes,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10but you can't take the bodega out of the genius.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19The Spanish kings, the dreaded Hapsburgs,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23were a spectacularly awful bunch -
0:11:23 > 0:11:30dim witted, arrogant, pious, deformed,
0:11:30 > 0:11:32but God, in his wisdom, saw something
0:11:32 > 0:11:37he liked about them, and gave them most of the known world to rule,
0:11:37 > 0:11:44a gigantic international empire of three billion acres, spreading
0:11:44 > 0:11:48from Italy to the Netherlands, from Africa to the Americas.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54But to rule, you need rulers, and that's where it had got tricky.
0:11:54 > 0:12:00Their problem was the usual royal problem of inbreeding.
0:12:00 > 0:12:05To keep the money and the titles in the family, the Hapsburgs had spent
0:12:05 > 0:12:07too many generations
0:12:07 > 0:12:14marrying amongst themselves - cousins, uncles, nephews, nieces.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22Even as great a portraitist as Velazquez had trouble telling apart
0:12:22 > 0:12:25the Hapsburg princesses.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30This one is Philip IV's wife as well as his niece.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33She was going to marry his son,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37but the son died young so she married the dad instead.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41This one is Philip's daughter.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43This one...
0:12:43 > 0:12:48oh, I give up, you need a degree in forensics to tell them apart.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55The most obvious physical deformity was their lower lip -
0:12:55 > 0:13:01the infamous "Hapsburg lip", which stuck out an angle like that.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05A genetic condition called mandibular prognathism -
0:13:05 > 0:13:09they almost all had it. And that's why that old wives' tale does
0:13:09 > 0:13:12the rounds about why the Spanish lisp -
0:13:12 > 0:13:14it's because none of their Royals
0:13:14 > 0:13:19could actually say gracias, they could only say grathias.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27But even royal inbreeding as scary as this can occasionally throw up
0:13:27 > 0:13:29an interesting variation,
0:13:29 > 0:13:35and Philip IV, who was king here in Spain for the key Baroque years -
0:13:35 > 0:13:411621 to 1665 - was a serious and thoughtful monarch.
0:13:42 > 0:13:4744 years he ruled, but it is said that in all that time he only
0:13:47 > 0:13:51laughed at court on three occasions.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00Philip had the lip and that pushed in Hapsburg face, as concave as a
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Baroque church facade, but he liked the arts and was sensitive to them.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10Like all the Hapsburgs, Philip IV didn't do much that was right,
0:14:10 > 0:14:14but in choosing Velazquez as his court painter,
0:14:14 > 0:14:18he can at least be credited with one remarkable decision.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23Velazquez brought us closer to the
0:14:23 > 0:14:29Spanish kings than any audience had previously been to its royals,
0:14:29 > 0:14:33and from this close up, you get to see - surprise, surprise -
0:14:33 > 0:14:38that they're just like the rest of us - flawed,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40worried, wrinkly.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47When the time came to paint his most ambitious offering
0:14:47 > 0:14:49in the field of royal portraiture,
0:14:49 > 0:14:55Velazquez adopted the usual Baroque strategy of going big.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00But everything else he tried here was new and revolutionary
0:15:00 > 0:15:04and it lifted the genre to its greatest heights.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11Las Meninas, the Maids...
0:15:11 > 0:15:13Velazquez's masterpiece.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20Set inside the Royal palace, it's a group shot of the Royal court.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Many people will tell you it's the greatest Baroque painting
0:15:24 > 0:15:26of them all.
0:15:33 > 0:15:39It was painted in 1656, near the end of Velazquez's life.
0:15:39 > 0:15:45The reason why this picture confuses people so much, I think, is because
0:15:45 > 0:15:48there is such a huge cast list involved.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52When you first look at it, you think, oh, what's going on? Who are
0:15:52 > 0:15:58all these people? So, as a helpful guide to Las Meninas, I'm going to
0:15:58 > 0:16:00introduce them all to you.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05The key figures, of course, are Velazquez himself, on the left,
0:16:05 > 0:16:06he's painting away.
0:16:08 > 0:16:14In the middle the Infanta Margarita, she's the five-year-old daughter of
0:16:14 > 0:16:22the Spanish king, Philip IV, and his wife - Princess Mariana of Austria.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26They are in the picture too - reflected at the back, in the
0:16:26 > 0:16:30mirror at the back of the studio.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32Now, everybody else who looks after the little princess
0:16:32 > 0:16:34is also in the foreground.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37These are her two dwarfs on the right.
0:16:37 > 0:16:43Female dwarf from Germany, Maria -Barbola, famous dwarf at the court.
0:16:43 > 0:16:49Italian dwarf on the right, putting a foot on the princess's great, big
0:16:49 > 0:16:55dog, the Royal mastiff, playfully giving it a kick in the back.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59And behind the princess, you see the two shadowy figures.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03The woman on the left, she's the princess's chaperone and
0:17:03 > 0:17:08the figure on the right, that's the princess's bodyguard.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11So, right at the front of the picture you've got all the people
0:17:11 > 0:17:16who look after the princess, the princess herself and Velazquez
0:17:16 > 0:17:17painting busily away.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25Velazquez shows himself looking like a member of the Royal household -
0:17:25 > 0:17:29look how haughtily he stands, with that excellent moustache.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33And he's at work on this huge canvas on the left.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35What is he actually painting?
0:17:35 > 0:17:37I think that only makes sense when
0:17:37 > 0:17:40you work out what's actually going on in this picture.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43The King and the Queen are actually standing out here,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46where the audience is now, looking at the picture afresh.
0:17:46 > 0:17:52So, Velazquez is painting the King and the Queen, who are standing over
0:17:52 > 0:17:57here, and the King and the Queen can see themselves in the mirror,
0:17:57 > 0:17:58perhaps to check how they look.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03But also, because of this beautiful game of psychological
0:18:03 > 0:18:07trickery that's going on here, they seem to be looking out at
0:18:07 > 0:18:08us at the same time.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16But, what is this picture really about? Who is the focus of
0:18:16 > 0:18:21all this action, all this psychological toing and froing?
0:18:21 > 0:18:25It has to be the Infanta herself,
0:18:25 > 0:18:33this sweet little princess, right at the middle of the picture.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37Because the Hapsburgs have this terrible history of inbreeding,
0:18:37 > 0:18:42they had nothing but bad luck in the production of children
0:18:42 > 0:18:45and although Philip and Mariana had five babies,
0:18:45 > 0:18:47at the time this picture was painted,
0:18:47 > 0:18:53only one of them was alive - the Infanta Margarita.
0:18:55 > 0:19:02The Princess, with her blonde hair and gorgeous, white silk dress
0:19:02 > 0:19:09is like an angel of deliverance at the centre of this black and doomy
0:19:09 > 0:19:14and intense and psychologically- troubling group portrait.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19She represents all their hopes for the future.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31There were only two possible sources of a commission in Baroque Spain.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36You either worked for the kings or you worked for the monks.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41The Hapsburgs had Baroquely discovered the power of art
0:19:41 > 0:19:46but the real rulers of Spain had always known it.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you.
0:19:58 > 0:19:59If you want to understand
0:19:59 > 0:20:04the Spanish Baroque reasonably well, better than all those around you,
0:20:04 > 0:20:09you need to brush up on your religious orders.
0:20:09 > 0:20:14I know it's not very 21st century, but if you can't tell the difference
0:20:14 > 0:20:20between the Franciscans and the Dominicans or the Mercedarians and
0:20:20 > 0:20:22the Carthusians,
0:20:22 > 0:20:26then so much of what's going on
0:20:26 > 0:20:32in so many amazing Spanish Baroque paintings will go over your head.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Why, for instance, is he upside down?
0:20:40 > 0:20:45And why is he writing on himself in blood?
0:20:45 > 0:20:49Why are they nodding off?
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Why is he staring so darkly at that?
0:20:56 > 0:21:01To help you out, I've prepared a handy pilgrim's guide
0:21:01 > 0:21:05to the Spanish religious orders - you'll thank me for this.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07This one here,
0:21:07 > 0:21:14he's a Franciscan - brown robes, knotted cord for a belt, Franciscan.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22Sometimes the clothes get more ragged and patched, but they
0:21:22 > 0:21:26are still Franciscans.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29He, on the other hand, is a Dominican -
0:21:29 > 0:21:32black cowl, white robe, Dominican.
0:21:34 > 0:21:40Quite often seen in the Americas converting the Indians, or sometimes
0:21:40 > 0:21:45whipping off their robes and flagellating themselves, Dominicans.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52The ones in the black robes are Benedictines - remember,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55black robes, Benedictines.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59They don't appear in art as often as the others -
0:21:59 > 0:22:02they are the moody, silent ones.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07So, did you get all that?
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Franciscans - brown, Dominicans - black and white,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14Benedictines - all black.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18Now, you're ready for the Spanish Baroque.
0:22:20 > 0:22:26Now, you're ready for Francisco de Zurbaran - Spain's spookiest
0:22:26 > 0:22:28Baroque artist.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33He was born here, in Fuente de Cantos, the fifth stop
0:22:33 > 0:22:35on the Via de la Plata,
0:22:35 > 0:22:40so his understandings were small-town understandings,
0:22:40 > 0:22:45and his rhythms were the rhythms of the pilgrimage.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54These days, Zurbaran is reasonably well known,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59but at the start of the 20th century he was completely obscure.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02In fact, most Spanish art, apart from Velazquez,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06was under explored and under valued.
0:23:06 > 0:23:14I think it was so dark, so strange, so Catholic, that we just didn't get
0:23:14 > 0:23:18it, and, in particular, we didn't get Zurbaran.
0:23:21 > 0:23:27Bizarre, let's face it - bizarre and unsettling images,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30uncomfortable funerals,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32impossible deaths.
0:23:40 > 0:23:46The Zurbaran family house, on the main square, in Fuente de Cantos.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Quite a posh house now, it must have been
0:23:49 > 0:23:53really posh in the 17th century.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58Zurbaran's father was a prosperous textile merchant from the north,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Basque country, who moved down here because southern Spain, particularly
0:24:02 > 0:24:08Andalucia, was experiencing this boom in new religious building and
0:24:08 > 0:24:13there was so much money here for the priests and their new outfits.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16So there was a lot of work for the Zurburans.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22Many years later, Francisco de Zurburan painted
0:24:22 > 0:24:27a mysterious series of Christian martyrs -
0:24:27 > 0:24:32beautiful, female martyrs, all of whom were dressed in modern clothes.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35They were some of the most beautifully-painted
0:24:35 > 0:24:40and exciting clothes in 17th-century Baroque art.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44People said that Zurbaran was using
0:24:44 > 0:24:50his father's textiles in these paintings, advertising them,
0:24:50 > 0:24:53using these Christian martyrs just to show off
0:24:53 > 0:24:55what his dad had for sale.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Zurbaran's main employers were the Spanish religious orders -
0:25:24 > 0:25:31the Mercedarians, the Carthusians, the Benedictines, the Dominicans
0:25:31 > 0:25:33and the Franciscans.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54One day, Pope Nicholas V visited Assisi - he wanted to see the crypt
0:25:54 > 0:25:55where St Francis was buried.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00At five in the morning, he went down into the crypt with a band of monks
0:26:00 > 0:26:04and all they had with them was torches and as the torchlight spread
0:26:04 > 0:26:08around the dark crypt, suddenly they saw St Francis
0:26:08 > 0:26:14standing there, 200 years after his death, still as fresh as
0:26:14 > 0:26:17if he'd just stepped out of a bath.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22Untouched, unblemished as if time hadn't touched him.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Zurbaran went on to do many other
0:26:27 > 0:26:31things, but monks were his speciality.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35Monks were where his genius was best expressed.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40And it's not just the vividness with which he illustrated their
0:26:40 > 0:26:46uncanny stories, but that sense you get with him - that Zurbaran's monks
0:26:46 > 0:26:54are so convincingly full of God, full of worship, full of thought.
0:26:56 > 0:27:02No painter has painted human belief as convincingly as this.
0:27:19 > 0:27:25The Baroque pilgrim, trudging dutifully the 600 miles from Seville
0:27:25 > 0:27:30to Santiago de Compostela, would have had regular encounters
0:27:30 > 0:27:32with the Spanish Baroque.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38Waiting for them at the end of the trudge,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42there's an eye-catching eruption of Baroque architecture.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05You know, Chaucer's Wife Of Bath came on the pilgrimage to Santiago.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10It's been the most famous pilgrimage route in Europe for a thousand years
0:28:10 > 0:28:15but it was the Baroque era that shaped the town itself
0:28:15 > 0:28:21and gave Santiago de Compostela its memorable and exciting look.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29The Cathedral here, to which thousands of busy pilgrims scuttle
0:28:29 > 0:28:35daily, is a Baroque wedding cake in the Churrigueresque style,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39which, as far as I can tell, consists chiefly of adding
0:28:39 > 0:28:43things to places when there isn't really room for them.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48But somewhere within this crazily, writhing, sculpture-encrusted,
0:28:48 > 0:28:55fantasy facade, methinks me sees the remnants of Spain's Islamic past.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20Inside the great pilgrimage church at Santiago,
0:29:20 > 0:29:25the Baroque's love of glitter has been spectacularly unleashed.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30Guilt may have driven the Spanish Baroque,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33but gold was what paid for it.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37The stupendous wealth of the American colonies was flooding into
0:29:37 > 0:29:43Spain and then into the pockets of the Catholic church, who spent it,
0:29:43 > 0:29:48as the Catholic church so often did - on art.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01You know, there's never been an art movement as adept as the Baroque was
0:30:01 > 0:30:06at absorbing local influences - taking them all in, regurgitating
0:30:06 > 0:30:08them, and then spitting them
0:30:08 > 0:30:14out at the other end as something that looks unmistakeably Baroque.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16You can't imagine this building
0:30:16 > 0:30:22in Italy, or France, or, perish the thought, England.
0:30:22 > 0:30:27It's obviously from around here, but with all that
0:30:27 > 0:30:33thrusting and swirling and movement, it's just as obviously Baroque.
0:30:35 > 0:30:42There is one huge slab of the world where you can easily imagine this.
0:30:49 > 0:30:54When I say the Baroque was the first truly international art movement,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57I mean truly international.
0:30:58 > 0:31:04The Churrigueresque style may not have travelled to Italy or France
0:31:04 > 0:31:08but it travelled all right, to the far, far corners of the
0:31:08 > 0:31:15Spanish Empire, where it ended up in some very remote places.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Wherever the monks went, the Baroque went,
0:31:22 > 0:31:27and it ended up as the house style of the whole of Latin America.
0:31:38 > 0:31:43But not all of the Baroque's travels were quite so exotic...
0:31:46 > 0:31:53How the Spanish kings came to own Belgium is a dark, political story,
0:31:53 > 0:31:58involving so many battles and so much constant religious conflict
0:31:58 > 0:32:01that we would be here for as long as the 100 Years War
0:32:01 > 0:32:03trying to understand it fully.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06Let's just say they were here and they shouldn't have been.
0:32:08 > 0:32:13In any case, what interests us is the art that came out of the
0:32:13 > 0:32:18Spanish Netherlands and for that, you need a strong stomach.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54The Spanish were here for nearly 200 years, but you'd hardly know it,
0:32:54 > 0:32:56there's so little sign of them left.
0:32:56 > 0:33:01A few plaques, some statues and this
0:33:01 > 0:33:08magnificent Baroque square in the centre of Brussels, the Grote Markt.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16It's as action-packed a square as the Baroque ever produced,
0:33:16 > 0:33:20with its ring of spiky and busy Baroque buildings.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24The Grote Markt is a 50 course banquet of architecture,
0:33:24 > 0:33:28in which all the courses are served up at once.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Superb building at the end - House of the Fox -
0:33:37 > 0:33:41that used to be the headquarters of the Haberdashers' Guild.
0:33:41 > 0:33:47Next to it the Guild of the Boatmen, their centre was in the House of the
0:33:47 > 0:33:49Horn, see the big gold horn there.
0:33:51 > 0:33:56The most interesting for us is the one at the end, see there -
0:33:56 > 0:34:02that used to be the headquarters of the Bakers' Guild.
0:34:02 > 0:34:08It's now a pub called the King Of Spain and
0:34:08 > 0:34:14right on top, a statue of Charles II.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21Even by the standards of the Hapsburgs, Charles was a terrible
0:34:21 > 0:34:24advertisement for royalty.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26All those generations of Hapsburg
0:34:26 > 0:34:30inbreeding had turned him into an imbecile.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34The only surviving son of Philip IV,
0:34:34 > 0:34:38he couldn't walk or talk until he was seven,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43and an aging nurse breastfed him until he reached puberty.
0:34:44 > 0:34:51Too weak to survive an education, he grew up illiterate and squalid,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54so they made him King of the Netherlands
0:34:54 > 0:34:56and named this pub after him.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03It was a monumental clash of cultures - the Spanish, with their
0:35:03 > 0:35:09black, intense, morbid gloominess and the fun-loving Flemish,
0:35:09 > 0:35:14with their naughty, juicy, fleshy lust for life, were
0:35:14 > 0:35:20never going to see eye to eye, but somehow the coming together of these
0:35:20 > 0:35:27two momentous opposites squeezed so much monumental art into the world.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36I probably don't need to tell you who the best-known representative
0:35:36 > 0:35:39was of the Flemish tendency,
0:35:39 > 0:35:43his notoriety goes before him.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46He's one of those artists who seems to have nothing
0:35:46 > 0:35:49much to say to the modern world...
0:35:51 > 0:35:55..so our times have taken a dislike to him.
0:35:55 > 0:36:02But not me. I've got all the time in the world for Peter Paul Rubens.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12Rubens shouldn't be out of fashion.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16An artist as great as him should never be out of fashion.
0:36:16 > 0:36:21This was one of the towering geniuses of art -
0:36:21 > 0:36:26a serial achiever on so many Baroque fronts.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29For instance, he designed that...
0:36:33 > 0:36:35..and this tower here.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42And he painted that.
0:36:48 > 0:36:54But he was notorious, of course, for his love of fat women.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56The adjective "Rubenesque"
0:36:56 > 0:37:02has entered our language to describe the Dawn French type,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05the big 'un,
0:37:05 > 0:37:08the size 16-er,
0:37:08 > 0:37:16and there's no point denying Rubens liked...the fuller figure.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23Rubens's art bulges at the seams
0:37:23 > 0:37:28with a huge tonnage of happy wobbling cellulite.
0:37:28 > 0:37:33The bigger woman rang his bell and squeezed his pips,
0:37:33 > 0:37:38but he wasn't alone in that - that's how the Flemish like their women.
0:37:42 > 0:37:49Rubens's career coincided neatly with that rare thing in Flanders -
0:37:49 > 0:37:52some decent Spanish leadership.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56In fact, there were two governors overseeing the Spanish Netherlands
0:37:56 > 0:38:03in tandem, the conjoined, married pair of Archdukes -
0:38:03 > 0:38:05Albert, here...
0:38:07 > 0:38:09..and Isabella.
0:38:12 > 0:38:18Albert and Isabella ruled here from 1598 to 1621.
0:38:18 > 0:38:24She was Philip II's daughter, he was the same king's nephew, so
0:38:24 > 0:38:30they were actually Hapsburg cousins and should never have married.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33But when Philip II made them the joint governors of the Spanish
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Netherlands, Albert and Isabella
0:38:36 > 0:38:41surprised everyone by being rather good at ruling the Belgians.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48Their arrival put a stop, temporarily at least, to the
0:38:48 > 0:38:51constant round of Flemish warfare
0:38:51 > 0:38:56and it was in this period of peace and prosperity
0:38:56 > 0:38:58that Rubens began to operate.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07Rubens, interestingly, had been born a Protestant.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11His father was a Flemish convert to Calvinism.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16But when the father died, the family converted back to Catholicism
0:39:16 > 0:39:18and you'd never guess,
0:39:18 > 0:39:20from Rubens's Catholic handiwork,
0:39:20 > 0:39:23that he'd ever been away from the faith.
0:39:26 > 0:39:32This stupendous master class in Baroque movement and emotion,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36The Descent From The Cross in Antwerp Cathedral, is Rubens's
0:39:36 > 0:39:42greatest moment as a creator of thunderous religious theatre.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46If this doesn't move you,
0:39:46 > 0:39:48you've got no soul.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59The young Rubens
0:39:59 > 0:40:04unleashed sex and violence on us too, in this scary Baroque manner.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09It is hard to believe what's going on here.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14My God, will you look at that?
0:40:17 > 0:40:21But let's not be hypocritical about these dark and tremendous
0:40:21 > 0:40:24action pictures -
0:40:24 > 0:40:29judging by the stuff that pours out of our cinemas today, a taste
0:40:29 > 0:40:33for this has always been in us.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36Rubens was merely early in admitting it.
0:40:50 > 0:40:51If you know Rubens
0:40:51 > 0:40:57only for his naked orgies and his show off mythologies, you might be
0:40:57 > 0:41:04surprised to discover that he had a quiet side, a lovely, gentle aspect.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12Rubens couldn't stop painting.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15He was a tap that couldn't be turned off.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19It was habitual for him, a necessity.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23So when the King of Spain wasn't commissioning him,
0:41:23 > 0:41:29Rubens painted something much closer to hand instead -
0:41:29 > 0:41:35his family. Just for himself - just for the pleasure of it.
0:41:51 > 0:41:57His first wife, the charismatic and eager-eyed Isabella Brandt,
0:41:57 > 0:42:01had died tragically young, in 1626.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Rubens was devastated.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09He had put so much love into painting the two of them
0:42:09 > 0:42:12sitting there in their Sunday best,
0:42:12 > 0:42:15two cooing lovebirds in a bower.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23But it was his second wife, Helene Fourment, who played
0:42:23 > 0:42:26the largest part in his art.
0:42:26 > 0:42:32He married her when he was 53 - she was only 16.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36She's that fleshy, blonde nude
0:42:36 > 0:42:40who appears in so many of his mythologies.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44The best model ever, for the Rubens girl.
0:42:50 > 0:42:56You can definitely tell from his art how much he wanted her.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01The many portrayals of Helene Fourment sizzle with lust -
0:43:01 > 0:43:06the joyous lust of a 53-year-old man who's hit lucky
0:43:06 > 0:43:09with a beautiful 16-year-old girl.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13It doesn't sound good, I grant you,
0:43:13 > 0:43:17but he loved her and he wanted her, and it shows.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23Never before in art have we been granted
0:43:23 > 0:43:29this much access to the private life of a celebrity artist.
0:43:30 > 0:43:35400 years before Hello magazine, Rubens had already realised
0:43:35 > 0:43:39that the world was now fascinated by everything he did.
0:43:40 > 0:43:46That's how ahead of the times he was - that's how Baroque he was.
0:43:49 > 0:43:56Rubens spoke six languages fluently and he moved easily among Kings
0:43:56 > 0:44:04and Popes - he was the consummate schmoozer. So, in 1629,
0:44:04 > 0:44:12the Spanish King sent him to England to schmooze Charles I,
0:44:12 > 0:44:14which Rubens successfully did.
0:44:14 > 0:44:20So Charles knighted him, and the University of Cambridge made Sir
0:44:20 > 0:44:25Peter Paul Rubens a Master of Arts.
0:44:26 > 0:44:27Soon enough, the Baroque
0:44:27 > 0:44:32would follow Rubens to England, but first, there were still lands
0:44:32 > 0:44:38to conquer closer to home, just a border away to the north.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54Welcome to Holland - the wettest stage in the Baroque's great journey
0:44:54 > 0:44:59from Rome to London, from St Peter's to St Paul's.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11So far in this series, we've been investigating the Catholics -
0:45:11 > 0:45:13they invented the Baroque.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17It was their movement, their mindset,
0:45:17 > 0:45:23it reflected their passions, their hopes, their fears.
0:45:28 > 0:45:33But, as any mother will tell you, babies don't always grow up
0:45:33 > 0:45:38as you expect them to, and that was definitely true of the Baroque.
0:45:38 > 0:45:45By the time it got here, to Holland, it was much too big and boisterous
0:45:45 > 0:45:51an art movement to be controlled by one religion or one mindset.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55Indeed, one of the most remarkable things about the Baroque
0:45:55 > 0:46:01is how brilliantly, how confidently and inventively
0:46:01 > 0:46:06it switched its allegiance from the Catholics to the Protestants.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35The greatest Dutch painter of them all - Rembrandt -
0:46:35 > 0:46:41was a classic Baroque hero - intense, dramatic and ambiguous.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Rembrandt was born a Protestant
0:46:46 > 0:46:52here in Leiden, a fierce Calvinist stronghold on the edge of Holland,
0:46:52 > 0:46:57but to make it, he had to leave Leiden and move here, to Amsterdam,
0:46:57 > 0:47:01where he turned very Baroque,
0:47:01 > 0:47:03and quickly made his mark.
0:47:07 > 0:47:12All that's actually happening in Rembrandt's tumultuous Night Watch
0:47:12 > 0:47:18is that a company of home guards, a Dutch Dad's Army, is setting out
0:47:18 > 0:47:21on its daily march around the town.
0:47:23 > 0:47:30But the sense of occasion here, the emotion, the movement, the drama
0:47:30 > 0:47:35is so big and so Baroque, you would think they were off
0:47:35 > 0:47:37to save the world.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48Leiden may have been a Calvinist stronghold, but Rembrandt's mother
0:47:48 > 0:47:55actually came from an old, Catholic family and to my eyes, he inherited
0:47:55 > 0:48:00a Popish intensity from her, a Catholic fretfulness
0:48:00 > 0:48:07and sweatiness that gives all of his art its biblical air.
0:48:11 > 0:48:16Rembrandt couldn't keep out of his own art - this intense little
0:48:16 > 0:48:22man from Leiden took such a shine to his own face, he kept painting it
0:48:22 > 0:48:27and repainting it more often than any artist had ever done before him.
0:48:29 > 0:48:35In 1635, he showed himself flushed with Amsterdam success,
0:48:35 > 0:48:41celebrating his early good times with his beloved wife, Saskia.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44But even here, there's doubt in the air.
0:48:45 > 0:48:50Rembrandt's self portraits lead you on a merry goose chase
0:48:50 > 0:48:53as they peep in and out of his soul.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01I'm particularly fond of this mysterious bit of method acting
0:49:01 > 0:49:07painted near the end of his life - a self portrait with circles.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13Why is he standing there with two
0:49:13 > 0:49:16big circles painted on the wall behind him?
0:49:16 > 0:49:19There have been lots of interpretations,
0:49:19 > 0:49:24but the one that convinces me involves an old story that was told
0:49:24 > 0:49:30about Phidias, the greatest painter of classical times.
0:49:31 > 0:49:37Phidias was famous for being able to draw a perfect circle freehand
0:49:37 > 0:49:42without a compass, and Rembrandt, in his ageing Self Portrait
0:49:42 > 0:49:48With Circles, is surely saying, "I can do that too."
0:49:50 > 0:49:54But he's not saying it with great conviction, is he? Because there's
0:49:54 > 0:49:58always so much doubt in Rembrandt.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01So much hesitation -
0:50:01 > 0:50:06a sadness that draws you towards his irresistible vulnerability
0:50:06 > 0:50:08like a magnet.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14And this realisation - that the problems of an artist,
0:50:14 > 0:50:19his insecurities and inner life, were worthy of a picture,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22was one of the Baroque's most brilliant insights.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30It was the first art movement to realise that people are as
0:50:30 > 0:50:33interested in weakness as they are in strength,
0:50:33 > 0:50:38that doubts are as compelling as achievements,
0:50:38 > 0:50:43and that the real hero is sometimes the underdog.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56Protestant Holland put the ordinary doubts of ordinary people
0:50:56 > 0:50:58at the centre of art.
0:50:58 > 0:51:03You didn't have to be a pope or a king or a mythological hero
0:51:03 > 0:51:05to deserve your place in art -
0:51:05 > 0:51:08everybody deserved their place in art.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24You see that chap up there - second from the left at the top - right at
0:51:24 > 0:51:28the back of this busy, crowd scene -
0:51:28 > 0:51:30do you know who that is?
0:51:31 > 0:51:36He's a personal hero of mine - one of the great geniuses of the Dutch
0:51:36 > 0:51:42Baroque, an artist blessed with some of the fastest hands in art.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46That...is Frans Hals.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56Frans Hals is perhaps best known for painting this smirking chappy, known
0:51:56 > 0:52:00to us all as The Laughing Cavalier.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04In fact, he isn't laughing and he isn't a cavalier.
0:52:04 > 0:52:10He's an unknown Dutch bravo, exuding such excellent nonchalance.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15These chaps here were all members of another of these
0:52:15 > 0:52:20Dad's Army brigades - a squad of amateur soldiers from Haarlem,
0:52:20 > 0:52:24called the Civic Guard of St George.
0:52:25 > 0:52:31In theory, they were there to protect the city in times of war,
0:52:31 > 0:52:36in practice, they met a few times a month and socialised energetically.
0:52:38 > 0:52:43This is their end of term photograph in which everyone in the class
0:52:43 > 0:52:45poses for a picture.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52These things are really tricky to paint.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55With a king or a pope, you just put
0:52:55 > 0:52:59them in the centre of the picture, and that's that, but the Protestant
0:52:59 > 0:53:06democratisation of art caused all sorts of compositional problems.
0:53:06 > 0:53:13Here you have 15 people, all of whom have paid to appear in this picture,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17all of whom expect to be seen properly.
0:53:20 > 0:53:25Hals was a genius at getting that right.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27Look how skilfully he arranges
0:53:27 > 0:53:31them around the table, turning this way and that.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36A couple at the front, some at the back.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40It's a magnificent piece of human orchestration
0:53:40 > 0:53:46and it creates that restless sense of movement, of the action
0:53:46 > 0:53:52swirling about the picture that is so quintessentially Baroque.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00And there's something else, something even more Baroque
0:54:00 > 0:54:02than all this restlessness.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08These men are meant to be soldiers,
0:54:08 > 0:54:10but you never see them fighting.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14They are meant to be civic heroes, but there's no aggression
0:54:14 > 0:54:16in their eyes.
0:54:16 > 0:54:21The St George Civic Guard - of which Hals himself was a member -
0:54:21 > 0:54:29is instead always shown banqueting and chatting and bonding.
0:54:31 > 0:54:36That's because these showy banqueting scenes are actually
0:54:36 > 0:54:40subtle pieces of Baroque propaganda for peace.
0:54:40 > 0:54:45Holland had seen so many wars and squabbles and wished
0:54:45 > 0:54:49so desperately for them to end, but instead of coming out with that
0:54:49 > 0:54:53in some aggressive, propagandist way,
0:54:53 > 0:54:58Hals implies it subtly, sneakily, Baroquely.
0:54:58 > 0:55:05God's great bounty should not be squandered on war and conflict.
0:55:11 > 0:55:16This subliminal moralising became the chief obsession
0:55:16 > 0:55:17of the Dutch Baroque.
0:55:17 > 0:55:23You can't trust any of this art to mean what it seems to mean...
0:55:24 > 0:55:30..Especially not when it's been painted by that elusive Dutch genius
0:55:30 > 0:55:33who smuggled the most subtle subliminal messages
0:55:33 > 0:55:36into his pictures -
0:55:36 > 0:55:39Jan Vermeer of Delft.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55I'm like everyone else - I love Vermeer, those frugal and
0:55:55 > 0:56:00tearful women of his, lost in their own thoughts, trying to read a love
0:56:00 > 0:56:05letter as the weak light of Delft struggles through their window.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10They claw at my masculine attention, I can't resist them.
0:56:14 > 0:56:19But Vermeer is as much of a moralist as the rest of them.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23His beautiful and thoughtful women,
0:56:23 > 0:56:27dreaming of their loved ones, strumming their guitars,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30tinkling at their virginals,
0:56:30 > 0:56:35demand that you note their fragility and breakability
0:56:35 > 0:56:39as they offer themselves up so sadly for your inspection.
0:56:41 > 0:56:46These are moods so delicate that the lightest knock
0:56:46 > 0:56:48would shatter them like crystal.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55A climatic nuance, a shadow, a touch, a gesture...
0:56:57 > 0:57:02..The final meaning of life is conveyed in such subtle ways.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11In the end,
0:57:11 > 0:57:16what's being understood here is the fragility of life itself,
0:57:16 > 0:57:22the vulnerability of beauty, the shortness of youth.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29And the fact that some, or even most, of Vermeer's girls with
0:57:29 > 0:57:33pearl earrings were probably the painter's own daughters
0:57:33 > 0:57:39add so much poignancy to his message and personalises it so Baroquely.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41These are not
0:57:41 > 0:57:45theoretical understandings that are being passed on to us here,
0:57:45 > 0:57:51these are understandings born of fatherhood and observation.
0:58:03 > 0:58:08Vermeer himself was a thoroughly obscure figure, completely forgotten
0:58:08 > 0:58:13for 300 years before the 19th century rediscovered him.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17But this lack of reliable fame
0:58:17 > 0:58:22seems somehow to supplement the meaning of his pictures.
0:58:22 > 0:58:27Here today, gone tomorrow - that's the artist's life for you.
0:58:35 > 0:58:41The golden age of Dutch art spewed out so many fascinating painters
0:58:41 > 0:58:47and I'd be happy to spend many months here remembering them for you
0:58:47 > 0:58:50but staying put is not Baroque behaviour.
0:58:52 > 0:58:56This series, I promised to take you from St Peter's,
0:58:56 > 0:58:59over here, to St Paul's, over there,
0:58:59 > 0:59:03and that means we've got some water to cross.
0:59:21 > 0:59:24Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:24 > 0:59:28E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk