0:00:02 > 0:00:04BELL TOLLS
0:00:13 > 0:00:15It says here that the Renaissance
0:00:15 > 0:00:19was a tremendously important period in European culture
0:00:19 > 0:00:23that produced the beginnings of modern thought.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25And this period, it says here,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29was marked by the revival of the spirit of Greece and Rome,
0:00:29 > 0:00:34and by an increasing preoccupation with secular life.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38And, I suppose, some of the time that's what it was.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47In some bits of the Italian Renaissance,
0:00:47 > 0:00:51the Greeks and the Romans are definitely being remembered,
0:00:51 > 0:00:55and modern thought is, perhaps, being invented.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58And it's certainly getting more secular.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03But that's only in some bits.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Over the years, I've been all around Italy
0:01:10 > 0:01:13and I've seen an awful lot of Renaissance art.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17And wonderful work, no arguments there,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20but, you know, very few bits of it,
0:01:20 > 0:01:25very few indeed, are actually trying to do what it says in the books.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35I mean, this is a forgotten master of the Italian Renaissance,
0:01:35 > 0:01:37Niccolo dell'Arca.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40Have you heard of him? No.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43Why? Because he doesn't fit this.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48Yet this was made in around 1460,
0:01:48 > 0:01:53so in the pioneering, early days of the Italian Renaissance.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58Yet, are the Greeks and the Romans being revived here?
0:01:58 > 0:02:01Is modern thought being invented?
0:02:01 > 0:02:04Has this got secular ambitions?
0:02:04 > 0:02:06I don't think so.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18The fact is, a lot of what we've been told
0:02:18 > 0:02:20about Italian Renaissance art
0:02:20 > 0:02:22is thoroughly misleading.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24It's just not what was going on.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29Most of the time Italian art wasn't reviving the Greeks,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32it wasn't inventing modern thought.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35It was doing something far more important than that.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40It was telling stories to people who couldn't read,
0:02:40 > 0:02:42imagining the unimaginable,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46and getting in touch with religious feelings
0:02:46 > 0:02:48that were deep and Catholic.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50I mean, come on.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53This is Italy.
0:03:29 > 0:03:30BELL TOLLS
0:03:42 > 0:03:43Ah, here it is.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Zechariah 3:8.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51Ecce enim ego adducam servum meum orientem.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55"Behold, I will bring forth my servant, the Orient."
0:03:56 > 0:03:58HE SIGHS
0:04:01 > 0:04:05See that town up there on the hill? That's Assisi.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09A town filled with Renaissance art.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13But also with Renaissance complications.
0:04:13 > 0:04:19Because that's where Francis of Assisi was born.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Francis was the founder of the Franciscan Order of monks,
0:04:25 > 0:04:29the Greyfriars, as they were known in Robin Hood times.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33And in Italy he pops up in more Renaissance art
0:04:33 > 0:04:37than anyone except Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Now, why would the founder of an order of monks
0:04:41 > 0:04:42get this much attention?
0:04:47 > 0:04:50There it goes. The sun coming up over Assisi.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53How beautiful is that?
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Now, if you ever find yourself without a compass in Italy
0:04:58 > 0:05:01and you want to know which way you're pointing,
0:05:01 > 0:05:06the thing to do is to find the nearest Catholic church.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08Because they all point to the east,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10to the rising sun.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19Interestingly, in the Tuscan dialect,
0:05:19 > 0:05:24Assisi, or Assesi, actually means "rising up".
0:05:25 > 0:05:27Like the sun rising in the east.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32Or as we used to call it, the Orient.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39So it's Zechariah again, 6:12.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42HE READS IN LATIN
0:05:42 > 0:05:45"Behold the man whose name is Orient.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48"He shall build the Temple of the Lord."
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Because Francis's story keeps appearing
0:06:02 > 0:06:04in all this Renaissance art,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06we know it really well.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08We know that he was very rich,
0:06:08 > 0:06:10but then he saw the light
0:06:10 > 0:06:13and gave away all his possessions.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28We know that one day Francis was coming down from Assisi
0:06:28 > 0:06:33when he came across a ruined chapel here at San Damiano
0:06:33 > 0:06:35at the bottom of the hill.
0:06:37 > 0:06:38And he went in.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51Inside was a crucifix and, miracle of miracles,
0:06:51 > 0:06:53it spoke to him.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58"Francis," said the talking crucifix,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00"my house is crumbling.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03"Go and restore it."
0:07:06 > 0:07:07So that's what he did.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Carrying the stones on his own back,
0:07:10 > 0:07:15Francis of Assisi rebuilt the chapel here at San Damiano
0:07:15 > 0:07:18and fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24"Hang on a minute, Waldemar,"
0:07:24 > 0:07:26you might be thinking.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29"You're sounding like Dan Brown here.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31"What are you implying?"
0:07:33 > 0:07:35What I'm implying
0:07:35 > 0:07:39is that Francis of Assisi was a messianic figure
0:07:39 > 0:07:42who thought he'd been instructed to act by the Bible.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44Zechariah 6:12,
0:07:44 > 0:07:50"My servant the Orient will rebuild the Temple of the Lord."
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Francis of Assisi thought he was the Orient.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57BELL TOLLS
0:07:59 > 0:08:01His followers thought it too.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05Up on the balcony of the Franciscan headquarters in Assisi,
0:08:05 > 0:08:09looking out across the world,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13they've put the words of the great Tuscan poet Dante,
0:08:13 > 0:08:17which make the connection with the Orient explicit.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22Francis wasn't just living a life,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26he was fulfilling a huge biblical prophecy.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33You don't have to take my word for it.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Take the word of Renaissance art,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40and particularly of the marvellous Giotto.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49This is the great Basilica in Assisi,
0:08:49 > 0:08:54built in memory of St Francis in the 13th century.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57And in around 1300,
0:08:57 > 0:09:03Giotto was commissioned to paint Francis' story.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10Now, 1300 - that's early.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13And this is one of the defining frescoes
0:09:13 > 0:09:16at the very beginning of the Renaissance.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18It's all up there.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26There's Francis giving away all his clothes
0:09:26 > 0:09:29and renouncing his inheritance.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34There he is talking to the animals
0:09:34 > 0:09:38in a famous miracle of divine communication.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44And there he is holding up the church,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48rebuilding it exactly as Zechariah predicted.
0:09:51 > 0:09:56It's all here, laid out with the clarity of a comic book,
0:09:56 > 0:09:58in this vivid explosion
0:09:58 > 0:10:02of imaginative Renaissance storytelling.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11When people go on about the pioneering art of Giotto,
0:10:11 > 0:10:16they talk about the new solidity of his figures,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20the classical influences at work on his anatomies,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23this new naturalism of his landscapes.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26And all that is true,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28but it misses the point.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34What's really remarkable here -
0:10:34 > 0:10:37astonishing, amazing -
0:10:37 > 0:10:40is that Giotto has found a way
0:10:40 > 0:10:43to imagine the unimaginable.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47I mean, look at this stigmata scene.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50Christ as an angel
0:10:50 > 0:10:53sending lines of pain from heaven.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Transferring his wounds to Francis.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00What a strange storyline that is.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07In the real world, none of this could happen.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Francis couldn't hoist the church up on his back,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12or talk to the pigeons,
0:11:12 > 0:11:15or receive the wounds of Christ.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18In the real world, it can't happen.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21But in art, it can.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28That's what's so telling and exciting
0:11:28 > 0:11:30about the art of the Renaissance.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37It's not about regaining the civilisation of the Greeks
0:11:37 > 0:11:40or quoting the classical world.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45It's about making the impossible feel vivid and real.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49And if you can do that,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52that's an enormous power.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56It's the power of Renaissance art.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05BELL TOLLS
0:12:12 > 0:12:17Now, I don't know how familiar you are with the concept of purgatory.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21These are godless times,
0:12:21 > 0:12:27so the chances are you don't know as much about it as people used to.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36Purgatory is somewhere between earth and heaven.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40It's where you go if you haven't been bad enough to go to hell
0:12:40 > 0:12:44but you haven't been good enough to go to heaven either.
0:12:44 > 0:12:45Not straightaway at least.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53In purgatory your penance continues.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57And your soul gets scrubbed up
0:12:57 > 0:13:01until it's clean enough to enter paradise.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06That's Dante, the great Tuscan poet,
0:13:06 > 0:13:11who's quoted so pointedly on that balcony in Assisi
0:13:11 > 0:13:13with that line about the Orient.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21In this inventive fresco by Domenico di Michelino,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24painted in 1465,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28the giant Dante looms over Florence.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34Surrounded by the scary and painful future
0:13:34 > 0:13:37that all we sinners must face.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45On the left of him that's hell,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47with all those poor sinners being stung by bees...
0:13:48 > 0:13:51..and burned by the eternal fires.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57Behind him, see that mountain?
0:13:57 > 0:13:59That's purgatory,
0:13:59 > 0:14:03where the world's lesser sinners run off their sins,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06like naughty schoolboys running round the football pitch.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16When I was at school and I was naughty,
0:14:16 > 0:14:18which happened a lot I'm afraid,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20I was given lines to write.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23The same thing over and over again -
0:14:23 > 0:14:27"I will not flick ink at my geography teacher,"
0:14:27 > 0:14:28that kind of thing.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31But in Renaissance Italy,
0:14:31 > 0:14:33if you wanted to atone for your sins
0:14:33 > 0:14:36and spend less time in purgatory,
0:14:36 > 0:14:39you had to pray for forgiveness.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43And the best person to pray to was the Virgin Mary.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51Why are there so many beautiful Madonnas in Renaissance art?
0:14:53 > 0:14:57Because so many Renaissance sinners
0:14:57 > 0:14:59had so much praying to do.
0:15:10 > 0:15:15These fascinating battles to imagine the Virgin Mary
0:15:15 > 0:15:18and capture her perfection
0:15:18 > 0:15:22resulted in some of the Renaissance's greatest pictures.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29When I say great, I mean GREAT.
0:15:30 > 0:15:31Look at the size of that.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35The enthroned Virgin Mary.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39Painted in the very early days of the Renaissance,
0:15:39 > 0:15:42in around 1315, by Simone Martini.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Now, that's what you call an enthroned Madonna.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53I don't know about you,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56but when I look at Renaissance pictures
0:15:56 > 0:15:59I need to know what I'm looking at.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Otherwise even the best Renaissance art
0:16:04 > 0:16:09can blur into an impenetrable wall of religiosity.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17And that's particularly true of all these Renaissance Madonnas.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22There's so many of them,
0:16:22 > 0:16:24and they can all feel the same.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26So in this film I'm going to guide you
0:16:26 > 0:16:29through the main types of Madonna
0:16:29 > 0:16:31that you find in Renaissance art.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33So when you go into a museum,
0:16:33 > 0:16:35you'll know exactly what you're looking at.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41This big one, the enthroned Madonna,
0:16:41 > 0:16:46sits above us, surrounded by saints.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50How do we know they're saints?
0:16:50 > 0:16:53Because they've all got halos.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59That is St Peter, Jesus' trusty apostle.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02You can always spot him in art
0:17:02 > 0:17:05because he's always carrying a big key...
0:17:06 > 0:17:08..the key to heaven.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13And there is St John the Baptist.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17He's always wearing an animal skin,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19because he lived in the wilderness.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27So, John the Baptist is here, St Peter is here,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30the Virgin Mary is here.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32And where is the only place
0:17:32 > 0:17:35where they could all be together like this?
0:17:36 > 0:17:38That's right, heaven.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41They're all in heaven.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48That Simone Martini has done here
0:17:48 > 0:17:51in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena
0:17:51 > 0:17:53is to imagine that this wall
0:17:53 > 0:17:56is an opening in the side of the building...
0:17:58 > 0:18:00..that looks out onto heaven...
0:18:02 > 0:18:06..where the Madonna and her saints have gathered
0:18:06 > 0:18:09so that we, over here in the corporeal world...
0:18:11 > 0:18:15..can see her and worship her.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28The enthroned Madonna is particularly popular.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33But there are many other Renaissance Madonnas to pray to.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37And a man could go mad deciding which to pick.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41So, to narrow them down,
0:18:41 > 0:18:46I've done what any sensible admirer of Renaissance art should do.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53I'm focusing on the Madonnas painted by Piero della Francesca.
0:18:56 > 0:19:01Between 1445 and 1474,
0:19:01 > 0:19:06along this stretch of road on the borders between Tuscany and Umbria,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09right at the heart of the Italian Renaissance,
0:19:09 > 0:19:13Piero painted a cluster of Madonnas
0:19:13 > 0:19:16that can all be visited in a day.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19And the one to start with is up there,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22in the little Tuscan hill town of Monterchi.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29It was painted for the town church
0:19:29 > 0:19:31but an earthquake knocked it down.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35So it's now got its own museum.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46She's called the Madonna del Parto,
0:19:46 > 0:19:47that's in Italian.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51In English, she's the Madonna of Parturition.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55So if you know what parturition means
0:19:55 > 0:19:58you'll know why she's so special.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05Parturition is childbirth.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09So what this is is an image of the Holy Madonna...
0:20:09 > 0:20:12pregnant with baby Jesus.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18It's very rare in art to see Mary pregnant.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22Not just in the Renaissance, but any time.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27It's as if pregnancy is just too real, too biological,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30to fit with the image of the Virgin Mary.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35But Piero pulls it off here with such grace.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49The next Piero Madonna is here,
0:20:49 > 0:20:55in his hometown of Sansepolcro in the town museum,
0:20:55 > 0:20:57where you will find her
0:20:57 > 0:21:01at the centre of a complex religious arrangement.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07It's a polyptych -
0:21:07 > 0:21:10an altarpiece made of many parts.
0:21:10 > 0:21:17Piero was originally commissioned to paint it in 1445,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21so that's right at the start of his career.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25But he dillied and he dallied
0:21:25 > 0:21:28and he did all these side panels first.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31And the Madonna herself,
0:21:31 > 0:21:36she was only finished in 1462
0:21:36 > 0:21:40when, as you can see, he was at his peak.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48She is what they call the Madonna Misericordia -
0:21:48 > 0:21:51the Virgin of Mercy,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55who is always shown with her cloak outstretched,
0:21:55 > 0:22:00offering mercy and protection to those who shelter under it.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06These giant Madonnas of Mercy
0:22:06 > 0:22:09are a kind of stand-in for the church itself -
0:22:09 > 0:22:14a human building in which the congregation can gather.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19All these kneeling figures at the front, these are the donors,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22the people who actually paid for the picture.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Because that's the other way you earned time off from purgatory
0:22:30 > 0:22:32in the Renaissance -
0:22:32 > 0:22:36by commissioning works of art for the church.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Why is there is so much great Renaissance art?
0:22:43 > 0:22:46Because so many great Renaissance sinners
0:22:46 > 0:22:50were trying to get into God's good books.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05WHIPPING
0:23:09 > 0:23:12This is the Ducal Palace in Urbino,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16and that is Piero's Flagellation.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18Such a mysterious little picture.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23And, very unusually, he signed it with the name of his hometown.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36But this is what we've come here to look at -
0:23:36 > 0:23:40Piero's Madonna of Senigallia.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42She's so tranquil,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45so still, so lovely.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48And as with all these Madonnas,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52Piero is faced here with the fiendishly difficult task
0:23:52 > 0:23:58of painting a Madonna who is both a mother and a virgin.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03That is the big challenge facing the Renaissance imagination.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09So up on the shelf,
0:24:09 > 0:24:14he has painted a basket of crisp, white linen -
0:24:14 > 0:24:16a deliberate echo of the Madonna's purity.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22But this is Piero della Francesca,
0:24:22 > 0:24:24the master of light.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29So he doesn't just do it with linen,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32he does it with sunbeams as well.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39Look here - how the light coming in so gently through the window
0:24:39 > 0:24:42makes a beeline for Christ.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50In the subtle symbolism of this wonderful picture,
0:24:50 > 0:24:55Jesus is the product of a magic penetration...
0:24:56 > 0:24:58..a penetration by light.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03Now I think we're all agreed
0:25:03 > 0:25:07that Piero's Madonnas are serenely beautiful,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11but I think we can also all agree that his baby Jesuses,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13to put it charitably,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16are a touch unconvincing.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21No, let's go further than that.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24They're pretty ugly.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26And the same can be said
0:25:26 > 0:25:28of a lot of Renaissance babies.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34How can an era that gets the Madonna so right...
0:25:34 > 0:25:38get the baby Jesus so wrong?
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Well, actually, it doesn't get him wrong.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45At least, not on its own terms,
0:25:45 > 0:25:47because you have to remember
0:25:47 > 0:25:52what they're trying to paint here isn't just a baby,
0:25:52 > 0:25:57this is a God who's come down to Earth as a man.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02When the painted the baby Jesus,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05the artists of the Renaissance
0:26:05 > 0:26:10were trying to imagine a baby who is also a God.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15A newborn who has been there since the beginning of time.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Two very different concepts
0:26:19 > 0:26:25are trying to squeeze themselves into one tiny body.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31No wonder so many of them are so ugly.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43Because Piero's Madonnas are so noble and lovely,
0:26:43 > 0:26:49I worry that I may be painting too sunny a picture for you here
0:26:49 > 0:26:52of the essential drives of the Italian Renaissance.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Yes, Italy, a land of mama's boys,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00was especially fond of Madonnas.
0:27:00 > 0:27:06But it was also a land full of sinners who needed purging.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16This is the convent of San Marco in Florence.
0:27:16 > 0:27:17And as you can see...
0:27:17 > 0:27:20it's full of wonders.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24It was taken over in 1435
0:27:24 > 0:27:29by a religious order called the Dominicans.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43The Dominicans were founded by St Dominic of Guzman
0:27:43 > 0:27:45at the beginning of the 13th century.
0:27:47 > 0:27:52And the self-appointed task of this fierce religious order
0:27:52 > 0:27:56was to rid the church of heretics.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02You can always spot the Dominicans in art.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07They're the ones wearing the white robes with the black cowls.
0:28:09 > 0:28:15And that's why they came to be called the Black Friars.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25The other nickname of the Dominicans
0:28:25 > 0:28:27was the Hounds of the Lord.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29It was based on a pun.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32Dominican sounds a little like "Domini canes",
0:28:32 > 0:28:36which is Latin for "God's dogs".
0:28:36 > 0:28:39This terrifying nickname,
0:28:39 > 0:28:41the Hounds of the Lord,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43seemed to suit their spirit.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52The Dominicans were notoriously keen on flagellation.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57They had a relationship to pain.
0:28:58 > 0:29:04And when the Pope in Rome set up the Inquisition in 1229
0:29:04 > 0:29:07to rid the church of its heretics,
0:29:07 > 0:29:11the Dominicans were entrusted to lead it.
0:29:18 > 0:29:23So the Dominicans where the dogs of God, religiously fierce,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26taking on the heretics,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29but you wouldn't know it from the art they made.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32Not here, at least, in San Marco,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36where the entire convent is filled with the paintings
0:29:36 > 0:29:42of a Dominican genius they called Fra Giovanni Angelico -
0:29:42 > 0:29:44the Angelic Brother John.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53Fra Angelico was a friar here at San Marco.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56And in each of the cells in the convent,
0:29:56 > 0:30:00he painted the story of Christ,
0:30:00 > 0:30:05so the friars could contemplate it 24/7.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13There is nothing else like this in the world.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16As a feat of stamina,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19it's a mind-boggling achievement.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22But it's also extraordinary
0:30:22 > 0:30:26because Fra Angelico fully deserved his name.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36He really was such a sweet and gentle painter.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42All the frantic flagellation that went on here
0:30:42 > 0:30:47seems so far away from the delicate moods of Fra Angelico.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52Here is his Annunciation -
0:30:52 > 0:30:54the Angel Gabriel telling Mary
0:30:54 > 0:30:57she is going to give birth to Jesus.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03And here's another Annunciation,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05also in San Marco.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09A painting of such sparse and simple beauty.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17Apparently he would always pray before he began a painting,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19and once he started a picture
0:31:19 > 0:31:22he would never retouch it or change it
0:31:22 > 0:31:27because he believed that his art was divinely inspired.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30And if the word of God flows through you,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33you're not allowed to alter it.
0:31:36 > 0:31:43The sweetness of Fra Angelico drifts through the monastery of San Marco
0:31:43 > 0:31:45like a beautiful scent.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53But at the end of the corridor, darkness lurks.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58This is the cell occupied by a Dominican
0:31:58 > 0:32:01whose name still strikes terror
0:32:01 > 0:32:05in the hearts of us unworthy types -
0:32:05 > 0:32:07Savonarola.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12It isn't time yet to deal with him,
0:32:12 > 0:32:17but I need to warn you, he's coming up.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27See that snow on the top of that mountain?
0:32:27 > 0:32:30That's not snow at all.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34It's gleaming white marble.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Which means I'm in Carrara,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43whose famous quarries supplied the stone
0:32:43 > 0:32:47for one of the giants of the Renaissance.
0:32:48 > 0:32:53So far in this series, we've talked mostly about paintings.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58But, of course, it was also a tremendous era for sculpture.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01When you talk about sculpture in the Renaissance,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04you come here to Carrara
0:33:04 > 0:33:07and you talk about Michelangelo.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16Michelangelo's battles with the white marble of Carrara
0:33:16 > 0:33:20have come to define Renaissance sculpture.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24And the way he carved that marble
0:33:24 > 0:33:29has come to be seen as the Renaissance way of carving.
0:33:32 > 0:33:33You know the stories,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36they've gone down in the folklore of art -
0:33:36 > 0:33:40how Michelangelo saw the figures hidden inside
0:33:40 > 0:33:43the huge blocks of Carrara marble,
0:33:43 > 0:33:47how he struggled with the stone to set them free.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54But it wasn't just the stones of Carrara
0:33:54 > 0:33:56that Michelangelo was taking on
0:33:56 > 0:34:00in these famous sculptural struggles of his.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04He was also taking on the past.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08Buried beneath Renaissance Italy
0:34:08 > 0:34:13was the ancient world of the Romans and the Greeks,
0:34:13 > 0:34:16which was now being dug up again,
0:34:16 > 0:34:22inspiring the Renaissance to compete with it and match it.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30The trouble is, all these wonderful ancient marbles
0:34:30 > 0:34:34that were being dug out of the ground in Renaissance times,
0:34:34 > 0:34:40inspiring Michelangelo and co, were fundamentally misleading.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44When they came out of the ground they were pure and white,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47but that wasn't how they went into the ground.
0:34:50 > 0:34:56We now know that the sculptures of the ancients were never white.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00They were always highly coloured and gaudy.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06But paint doesn't last as long as stone,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10so when these ancient sculptures were dug up again...
0:35:10 > 0:35:13they came out white
0:35:13 > 0:35:17and misled an entire civilisation.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25Poor old Michelangelo.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29There he was, competing with a mythic white past
0:35:29 > 0:35:31that never actually existed.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35But in this film, we're not going to make the same mistake,
0:35:35 > 0:35:36because what we're going to do
0:35:36 > 0:35:40is to follow another Renaissance storyline -
0:35:40 > 0:35:42not the myth but the truth.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46So the first thing we need to do
0:35:46 > 0:35:50is to find out who broke Michelangelo's nose.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58The Brancacci Chapel in Florence.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01A Renaissance hotspot
0:36:01 > 0:36:04that's on every art-lover's bucket list.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13Two things of note happened in here.
0:36:13 > 0:36:18The first was that in around 1425
0:36:18 > 0:36:22Masaccio painted these famous frescoes,
0:36:22 > 0:36:27telling the story of how we were expelled from Paradise and why.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31But there's another reason to come here -
0:36:31 > 0:36:35because it was in here, in the Brancacci Chapel,
0:36:35 > 0:36:39that Michelangelo's nose was broken
0:36:39 > 0:36:43by a rival sculptor called Pietro Torrigiano.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53Michelangelo had been taking the mickey out of Torrigiano,
0:36:53 > 0:36:57and Torrigiano snapped and punched him in the nose.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02"I felt bone and cartilage go down like biscuit,"
0:37:02 > 0:37:04he later remembered.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10So this Torrigiano was obviously violent and arrogant,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13but he was also highly gifted.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17And while Michelangelo, with his broken nose,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20went on to dominate Renaissance sculpture,
0:37:20 > 0:37:24Torrigiano had to flee from Florence
0:37:24 > 0:37:28and he found himself written out of the story of the Renaissance.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36He spent the rest of his career floating around Europe,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39making weirdly vivid sculpture
0:37:39 > 0:37:42that's been largely forgotten.
0:37:47 > 0:37:49This is also by him.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52It's actually Henry VII, King of England,
0:37:52 > 0:37:57because, amazingly, Torrigiano came to London too,
0:37:57 > 0:38:00where he worked for the Tudor Court.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08But England didn't work out for him either,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10and he ended up in Spain,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14where he died in prison, destitute and forgotten.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17But look what he left behind -
0:38:17 > 0:38:21a thoroughly different sculptural tradition.
0:38:21 > 0:38:27Just as Renaissance as the gleaming white marbles of Michelangelo,
0:38:27 > 0:38:31but thrillingly realistic and alive.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38Just look at the details of the anatomy.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42This wonderfully stringy and wiry body
0:38:42 > 0:38:45of the old St Jerome
0:38:45 > 0:38:49as he beats himself penitentially with a rock.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55This is the Renaissance that history forgot -
0:38:55 > 0:38:59intense, neurotic, realistic.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04And the reason Torrigiano can be as convincing as this
0:39:04 > 0:39:07is because this isn't made out of marble,
0:39:07 > 0:39:11it is made out of terracotta, clay,
0:39:11 > 0:39:15which you can mould and shape and paint
0:39:15 > 0:39:18with so much more detail.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25Yes, it's less macho than stone carving,
0:39:25 > 0:39:30but that doesn't make it less Renaissance.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34And it's a tradition that doesn't deserve to be forgotten.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42This is what they call a compianto,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45a lamentation over the dead Christ,
0:39:45 > 0:39:50by an artist from Bologna called Niccolo dell'Arca.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57This was made in around 1460.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01That's right, 1460.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04It's way ahead of its time.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08One of the most dynamic and exciting masterpieces
0:40:08 > 0:40:11of Renaissance sculpture.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16Even Michelangelo, when he came here to Bologna,
0:40:16 > 0:40:19admired Niccolo dell'Arca.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24But since then, he's been written out of the story of the Renaissance.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31You just don't hear about Niccolo dell'Arca.
0:40:31 > 0:40:32Why?
0:40:32 > 0:40:36Because terracotta - burnt clay -
0:40:36 > 0:40:40is such unglamorous stuff.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44You don't have to go to Carrara to find it,
0:40:44 > 0:40:48you just look down at the ground under your feet,
0:40:48 > 0:40:50and there it is.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah
0:41:04 > 0:41:07brimstone and fire from out of heaven.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21You remember earlier in the film
0:41:21 > 0:41:24how I mentioned Girolamo Savonarola
0:41:24 > 0:41:27and how we'd be coming back to him?
0:41:27 > 0:41:30Well, now's that time.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37That's him, painted by Fra Bartolomeo,
0:41:37 > 0:41:42another of the artistic Dominicans working here at San Marco.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47Savonarola was not the kind of monk
0:41:47 > 0:41:51you'd like to meet down a dark Florentine alley.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55Swarthy, hook-nosed, intense -
0:41:55 > 0:42:01he entered the Dominican Order in 1475.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Apparently, he just knocked on the door
0:42:03 > 0:42:06of the Dominican convent in Bologna
0:42:06 > 0:42:11and announced that he was going to be a knight of Christ,
0:42:11 > 0:42:12so they let him in.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19In 1482, he moved to Florence,
0:42:19 > 0:42:23where his first task was to teach logic and ethics
0:42:23 > 0:42:27to the San Marco novices.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30Judging by what happened next,
0:42:30 > 0:42:35logic and ethics were not things he knew much about.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42At some point in his early days in Florence,
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Savonarola had a vision.
0:42:44 > 0:42:50He saw that the Catholic church was in need of purging
0:42:50 > 0:42:53and he began to suspect that he might be the one
0:42:53 > 0:42:56who had been chosen to do it.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01According to Savonarola,
0:43:01 > 0:43:05the Renaissance world had grown sinful and corrupt.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09The rich had grown corrupt.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13Art had grown corrupt.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24As these sermons of Savonarola's grew more and more fiery,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27so more and more people wanted to hear them.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30Soon there wasn't enough room in San Marco
0:43:30 > 0:43:35and he began preaching here in the Duomo in Florence
0:43:35 > 0:43:37to ever-larger crowds.
0:43:39 > 0:43:45Savonarola preached against make-up and immodest behaviour.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50Against music, dancing
0:43:50 > 0:43:52and licentiousness.
0:43:52 > 0:43:57And he began preaching, as well, against art,
0:43:57 > 0:44:02and those examples of it that were not Christian enough for him.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09Things reached a head in 1493,
0:44:09 > 0:44:12when he had an especially apocalyptic vision
0:44:12 > 0:44:16that the sword of the Lord was about to fall on the city.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20Now, as it happened, at exactly the same time,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23the French were about to invade Italy.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28And when they turned up outside Florence in 1494,
0:44:28 > 0:44:32it was as if Savonarola's prophecies
0:44:32 > 0:44:35were about to become uncannily true.
0:44:38 > 0:44:45God, it seemed, had decided to back Savonarola to the hilt.
0:44:45 > 0:44:50Every one of his mad prophecies was coming true.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58If this had been a genuinely enlightened era,
0:44:58 > 0:45:01the kind of Renaissance we've all been taught about,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05then Savonarola's prophecies would have been recognised
0:45:05 > 0:45:07as the rantings of a lunatic.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11But the Renaissance never was as enlightened or progressive
0:45:11 > 0:45:13as we've been taught
0:45:13 > 0:45:16and, instead of locking him up,
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Renaissance Florence turned herself over to him.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27Gangs of young men began to patrol the city
0:45:27 > 0:45:32to ensure that women were wearing suitably modest dress.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37New laws were issued
0:45:37 > 0:45:41against sodomy, adultery, drunkenness.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46And a series of bonfires were started -
0:45:46 > 0:45:49the Bonfire of the Vanities...
0:45:51 > 0:45:55..and all that was sinful was thrown on them.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02Botticelli, who had painted such gorgeous re-imaginings
0:46:02 > 0:46:04of the classical world,
0:46:04 > 0:46:07was one of several Florentine painters
0:46:07 > 0:46:10who fell under Savonarola's spell
0:46:10 > 0:46:13and who were persuaded to throw their pagan art
0:46:13 > 0:46:15onto the Bonfire of the Vanities.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22It's also said - with good reason, I think -
0:46:22 > 0:46:25that this strange painting,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Botticelli's Mystic Nativity,
0:46:28 > 0:46:34was inspired directly by one of Savonarola's Christmas sermons.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40"Christ will come again," said Savonarola,
0:46:40 > 0:46:45"and when he does, the countdown will begin
0:46:45 > 0:46:47"to the end of the world."
0:46:49 > 0:46:52Savonarola's reign of terror didn't last long.
0:46:52 > 0:46:59In 1498, he was challenged by the Franciscans to a trial by fire
0:46:59 > 0:47:02to prove that his Dominican prophecies were true.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06Savonarola refused, and the mood in Florence
0:47:06 > 0:47:09turned quickly against him.
0:47:12 > 0:47:17Imprisoned and tortured by the Papal Inquisition,
0:47:17 > 0:47:23he confessed that his visions and prophecies had all been made up.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26And a few weeks later,
0:47:26 > 0:47:30they hanged him in the Piazza Signoria in Florence,
0:47:30 > 0:47:34and then burned his broken body
0:47:34 > 0:47:37to keep it from the relic-hunters.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45Remember earlier in the film
0:47:45 > 0:47:47we were looking at baby Jesuses in art
0:47:47 > 0:47:49and why they are so ugly?
0:47:49 > 0:47:52Well, this is the other end of the story.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00Jesus was 33 when he died on the cross,
0:48:00 > 0:48:02a fully-grown man.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06But in Renaissance pietas,
0:48:06 > 0:48:11Mary cradles him on her lap as if he was still a baby.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17It's one of the most awkward poses in art,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20and only the best artists could pull it off.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27Imagine me stretched across the lap of my mother,
0:48:27 > 0:48:31and she's holding me up as if I were weightless.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35That's so hard to get right.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39And what all these pietas are trying to do
0:48:39 > 0:48:43is to link the death of Jesus with his birth,
0:48:43 > 0:48:47because Jesus was born to die,
0:48:47 > 0:48:50and by dying save the rest of us.
0:48:50 > 0:48:56That's why the baby Jesus looks forward to the man
0:48:56 > 0:49:01and the manly Jesus looks back to the baby.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05It's a very problematic scenario.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13Not surprisingly, most Renaissance artists
0:49:13 > 0:49:17tied themselves into ugly knots trying to imagine it.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23Here's Cosimo Tura from Ferrara -
0:49:23 > 0:49:25different as ever,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28and describing the impossible scene
0:49:28 > 0:49:31with a wild-eyed and wired intensity.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Even the great Perugino,
0:49:39 > 0:49:41usually so poised,
0:49:41 > 0:49:46struggles mightily with the terrible dynamics
0:49:46 > 0:49:48of this terrible pose.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53This particular pieta
0:49:53 > 0:49:56is by an artist called Sodoma.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59I'm sure I don't need to tell you why he was called that,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02this is the Renaissance after all.
0:50:02 > 0:50:08Anyway, it's a decent stab at this fiendishly difficult subject.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14What Sodoma's pieta gets wrong
0:50:14 > 0:50:17isn't the anatomy but the mood.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22There's a tenderness missing.
0:50:22 > 0:50:27Sodoma gives us a decent Jesus.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30It's the Mary he can't manage.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36If Jesus was 33 when he died,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39Mary would have been around 50,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42so she has to be middle-aged
0:50:42 > 0:50:47yet also emblematically beautiful and innocent.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49Now, how do you paint that?
0:50:49 > 0:50:53It's an enormous challenge for any artist.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01One of my favourite pietas is this one in the Louvre,
0:51:01 > 0:51:06painted in around 1450 in Avignon.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11This is pioneering French realism.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13Feel the emotional depth
0:51:13 > 0:51:16of this forgotten French Renaissance.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23So the pieta was a test
0:51:23 > 0:51:26that only the greatest could pass.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30And here in St Peter's in Rome,
0:51:30 > 0:51:35Michelangelo finally gives us the perfect example.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40He makes his Mary a little bigger
0:51:40 > 0:51:43and his Jesus a little smaller
0:51:43 > 0:51:47so they fit together gracefully.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53And, yes, Mary is a bit young for her age,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56but this extra youth
0:51:56 > 0:52:00adds a note of fragility to the moment
0:52:00 > 0:52:03and stokes up the tenderness
0:52:03 > 0:52:06of the mother-son relationship.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22So that's Zechariah, 14:1.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25"Behold, a day of the Lord cometh."
0:52:36 > 0:52:39This is another Michelangelo,
0:52:39 > 0:52:41the Risen Christ.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44It's the moment when Jesus, risen from the dead,
0:52:44 > 0:52:48comes back to earth after the crucifixion.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50According to the scriptures,
0:52:50 > 0:52:53he's supposed to be completely naked,
0:52:53 > 0:52:57because he left his shroud in the sepulchre when they buried him.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02And that's how Michelangelo originally sculpted him.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04But, as you can see,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08someone has added this discreet loincloth.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14Happily, it's removable.
0:53:14 > 0:53:20In the past, when the famously liberal John XXIII was Pope,
0:53:20 > 0:53:23Jesus was allowed to be fully naked,
0:53:23 > 0:53:27as Michelangelo sculpted him.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30But these days, he's not.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35You can always tell the papal mood
0:53:35 > 0:53:39by coming here to Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome
0:53:39 > 0:53:43and seeing if Michelangelo's Christ is naked,
0:53:43 > 0:53:45as he's supposed to be,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49or covered up, as the authorities have decided he should be.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53So far in this film,
0:53:53 > 0:53:57I've only nibbled at the edges of Michelangelo.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02He's such a huge Renaissance presence
0:54:02 > 0:54:04you'd need a 24-part series
0:54:04 > 0:54:08to tackle him properly on the telly,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12and not the few minutes I have left in this film.
0:54:12 > 0:54:17So there's only time to focus on one aspect of him.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19But it's the key aspect -
0:54:19 > 0:54:22his religious fierceness.
0:54:24 > 0:54:26With some Renaissance artists,
0:54:26 > 0:54:30it's never entirely clear what they believe in.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34But, with Michelangelo, there's never any doubt
0:54:34 > 0:54:39that he's an old-fashioned, tub-thumping Italian Catholic -
0:54:39 > 0:54:43guilty, angsty and devoted.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51It's true of everything he made,
0:54:51 > 0:54:55but it's particularly true of his masterpiece -
0:54:55 > 0:54:57the Sistine Chapel.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02It's the greatest room of art in the world,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06a banquet of tremendous religious storytelling...
0:55:07 > 0:55:10..and not just by Michelangelo.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13Botticelli is in here too,
0:55:13 > 0:55:18showing the Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiram,
0:55:18 > 0:55:22when God burns them up with invisible fire.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29And here's Perugino again,
0:55:29 > 0:55:34with Christ handing the keys of heaven to St Peter,
0:55:34 > 0:55:37and doing it so gracefully.
0:55:42 > 0:55:43So, on the lower level,
0:55:43 > 0:55:48there are all these impressive frescoes by other artists.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52And then, up above, there's Michelangelo.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56Together, they act as one space
0:55:56 > 0:56:00that encircles you with art
0:56:00 > 0:56:04and engulfs you in a dark religious storyline.
0:56:07 > 0:56:13There is no angrier God in art than the God of the Sistine Chapel.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21He presides over a room filled with trepidation and guilt.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27Up on high, God creates Adam,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30and Adam lets him down.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36God creates Noah,
0:56:36 > 0:56:38and Noah lets him down.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44God creates the prophets,
0:56:44 > 0:56:47and the prophets let him down.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51And because they are prophets,
0:56:51 > 0:56:53they know what is coming.
0:56:56 > 0:57:01It's like a steam roller of fear passing over you,
0:57:01 > 0:57:05a typhoon of guilt, trepidation and anxiety
0:57:05 > 0:57:08blowing through the Vatican.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12And because it's happening all around you,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15it pulls you into it,
0:57:15 > 0:57:17it soaks into you.
0:57:23 > 0:57:28And the reason why everyone up there is so frightened
0:57:28 > 0:57:31is made clear by Michelangelo
0:57:31 > 0:57:33on the far wall.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39This isn't any old day we've walked into.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42This is the last day of all,
0:57:42 > 0:57:44the Day of Judgment.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49Just as Zechariah predicted,
0:57:49 > 0:57:52the end of the world is upon us
0:57:52 > 0:57:56and everyone up there knows it.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03And, of course, it isn't just the saints and the prophets
0:58:03 > 0:58:07painted by Michelangelo who are being judged,
0:58:07 > 0:58:11everyone who walks into the Sistine Chapel
0:58:11 > 0:58:14walks into the day of reckoning.
0:58:14 > 0:58:15We're all being judged.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21The whole room is judging us
0:58:21 > 0:58:25and terrifying us with the consequences of our sins.
0:58:29 > 0:58:31Who's going to be saved
0:58:31 > 0:58:34and who's going to be doomed?
0:58:35 > 0:58:38That's what the walls are asking us.
0:58:38 > 0:58:41It's not a very Greek question,
0:58:41 > 0:58:45but it is a very Renaissance one.
0:58:57 > 0:59:00In the next film, things cheer up again
0:59:00 > 0:59:03when we go to Venice.
0:59:03 > 0:59:07We'll be eating, we'll be drinking,
0:59:07 > 0:59:10and we'll be doing a bit of this...