0:00:18 > 0:00:20A-ha, so there it is.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13As you can see, I'm in Venice.
0:01:14 > 0:01:19This is film three of The Renaissance Unchained.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22And in it, I'm hoping to discover
0:01:22 > 0:01:28why Venetian art was so different from everyone else's.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33How did they end up painting this?
0:01:35 > 0:01:36Or this?
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Or, God forbid, this?
0:01:44 > 0:01:48To find out, I need to start where everyone starts,
0:01:48 > 0:01:50when they come to Venice.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53In St Mark's Square.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01There's a painting of this square from exactly here,
0:02:01 > 0:02:03by Gentile Bellini,
0:02:03 > 0:02:08one of the famous family of painters who did so much for Venetian art.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16It shows a procession passing in front of St Mark's Cathedral.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20And they're carrying a famous relic.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23The relic of the True Cross.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Part of the actual cross on which Jesus was crucified.
0:02:28 > 0:02:29Or so they thought.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35But the real subject of the picture
0:02:35 > 0:02:38is the chap kneeling here in the crowd.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43He's a merchant from Brescia called Jacopo de' Salis,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47who's just found out that his son has fallen over,
0:02:47 > 0:02:48and broken open his head.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53The doctors say he's going to die
0:02:53 > 0:02:57so Jacopo is praying to the True Cross to save him.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01And when he goes home the next day to Brescia,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05he finds that his son has made a miraculous recovery.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13Apart from recording this great miracle, Bellini's painting
0:03:13 > 0:03:19gives us a vivid insight into the social fabric of Renaissance Venice.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Standing over here are some merchants from Greece.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28We know they're Greeks because of their hats.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32Only the Greek merchants wore black, wide-rimmed hats.
0:03:36 > 0:03:37Up in the windows,
0:03:37 > 0:03:42there's a line of elegant ladies hanging out oriental carpets.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44And a couple of them are veiled.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49Mysterious travellers from the Islamic East.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56Over here, two Arab traders have turned their backs on us.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05And round about here, there's a trio of Turks,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08merchants from Constantinople
0:04:08 > 0:04:10come to do business with the infidel.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Turks, Greeks, Arabs,
0:04:19 > 0:04:24nowhere else in Europe did the East meet the West
0:04:24 > 0:04:27as intimately as it did in Venice.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33In Venice, no-one cared where you came from,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36as long as you were selling something.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Something else you can see clearly in the Bellini painting,
0:04:42 > 0:04:47particularly when you get back here, is how the outline of all this,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50the entire Piazza of San Marco,
0:04:50 > 0:04:50was borrowed from the layout of an Islamic mosque.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54St Mark's Square is a Venetian version
0:05:01 > 0:05:04of the Great Mosque at Damascus.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09The golden mosaics,
0:05:09 > 0:05:11the colonnades...
0:05:12 > 0:05:15..that clear sense of a rectangle.
0:05:17 > 0:05:18It's all there.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Now, another of these paintings of the True Cross,
0:05:25 > 0:05:27this one by Carpaccio,
0:05:27 > 0:05:31is set around here, near the Rialto Bridge.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37The Rialto, the market of Venice,
0:05:37 > 0:05:43was an oriental bazaar transferred from Cairo to Italy.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46Silk,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49spices,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51slaves,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54they were all on sale in the Rialto.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58And all these foreign presences
0:05:58 > 0:06:02seeped into the art that was made here,
0:06:02 > 0:06:04and changed it.
0:06:07 > 0:06:12Something else they were importing here in Venice was pigment.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14Bright new colours from around the world.
0:06:16 > 0:06:23In Venice, the colours of the East arrived in art in quantities
0:06:23 > 0:06:27and concentrations that had never been seen before.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33From China, there was cinnabar,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37ground down to make bright red vermillion.
0:06:37 > 0:06:43Then, most precious of all, from Afghanistan, lapis lazuli,
0:06:43 > 0:06:48which they used to make the colour they called ultramarine,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52which comes from "oltremare", over the sea.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Because that's the other unique influence
0:06:59 > 0:07:01working on Venetian art.
0:07:03 > 0:07:04Its location.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Well, well, well.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26You know, Venice is made out of 116 islands.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30All of which have been connected up like a quilt,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33to create this thin strip of solidity,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36sandwiched between the sky and the sea.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44There's nowhere else like Venice.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46Floating off the coast of reality.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53And these delicate, whispery, fragile moods
0:07:53 > 0:07:56soaked into Venetian art...
0:07:57 > 0:07:59..and made it unique.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08There's a word for this mood you get in Venetian art,
0:08:08 > 0:08:10"poesie".
0:08:10 > 0:08:12It's sort of poetry
0:08:12 > 0:08:14but with mystery thrown in,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17so you're never sure what you're looking at.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23The master of this poetic mood,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26this delightful imprecision,
0:08:26 > 0:08:31was the painter christened Giorgio Barbarelli,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34better known to us now as Giorgione.
0:08:37 > 0:08:38I can't show you a picture of him
0:08:38 > 0:08:41because we don't know what he looked like.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46He was born in Castel Franco in around 1477.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51Revolutionised Venetian art and then died young in his early 30s,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54probably killed by the plague.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56And that is just about all we know about him.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04Except of course what we learn from his art.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08Which is always beautiful and always mysterious.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14With Giorgione, there are many questions
0:09:14 > 0:09:16and very few answers.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Fortunately, you're in good hands here,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27because this series has been on his case,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30and in this film we're going to solve
0:09:30 > 0:09:32some of the mysteries of Giorgione.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38In particular,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42we're going to get to the bottom of his most famous painting.
0:09:43 > 0:09:50The notoriously elusive Venetian masterpiece known as The Tempest.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56Nine out of ten art historians will tell you
0:09:56 > 0:09:59that The Tempest doesn't have a meaning.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03But I think they're wrong.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11So what you've got in The Tempest is three figures.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14A man, a woman and a baby.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18He's standing, she's sitting there naked,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21and the baby has just been born.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28Behind them, there's a walled city on one side
0:10:28 > 0:10:30and some ancient ruins on the other.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34But the big clue to The Tempest's meaning is up in the sky,
0:10:34 > 0:10:38where a white bird sits on one of the roofs,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42and a bolt of lightning is crashing down from the clouds.
0:10:46 > 0:10:54There is one story and only one story that fits all these details.
0:10:54 > 0:11:00And it's told in here, in Hesiod's Theogony.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05A thunderous classical poem, about the origins of the gods.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Hesiod tells of a young man called Iasion
0:11:10 > 0:11:15who meets the goddess Demeter at a wedding in Crete.
0:11:15 > 0:11:21They have a fling in a nearby field and she gives birth to a baby.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25That baby is Plutus, the god of wealth and good fortune.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Alas, Zeus, the father of the gods,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38notices the mud on Demeter's backside,
0:11:38 > 0:11:40and knows what she's been up to.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44Angry and jealous,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47he throws a thunderbolt at Iasion,
0:11:47 > 0:11:48and kills him.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55And that's what's happening in The Tempest.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59The angry Zeus has thrown a lightning bolt from heaven,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03and Iasion, the uppity mortal, the wedding crasher,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07is about to be killed by the father of the gods.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13And the baby the stork has brought them,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16Plutus, the god of wealth,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20is about to be left fatherless,
0:12:20 > 0:12:25vulnerable, exposed to the vicissitudes of fortune.
0:12:29 > 0:12:30So it's an allegory.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Not just about keeping your zipper zipped,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35particularly at weddings,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39but about the fragility of good fortune.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42The fickleness of fate.
0:12:42 > 0:12:49Look how easily the wealth of today can become the ruins of yesterday.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58So, The Tempest is a fabulous piece of Venetian self-awareness.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03A thin sliver of solidity,
0:13:03 > 0:13:07sandwiched between the sky and the sea,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11is reminding itself of its prodigious vulnerability.
0:13:22 > 0:13:29The vulnerability of Venice made the city especially attentive, as well,
0:13:29 > 0:13:31to the messages of religion.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38One of the best things about Venice is that
0:13:38 > 0:13:43so much of the art here is still in the place for which it was painted.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Not in a museum, not in a gallery, but still here,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50hanging where it's supposed to hang.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53Doing what it's supposed to do.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03In the Church of the Madonna dell'Orto there's much to see.
0:14:05 > 0:14:11And two of the biggest canvases painted by the marvellous Tintoretto
0:14:11 > 0:14:15loom mightily over both sides of the altar.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24On the left, the wayward Israelites are collecting gold
0:14:24 > 0:14:29to make the false idol they plan to worship.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31A golden calf.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38This woman here is even giving away her earrings
0:14:38 > 0:14:41to be melted down for the idol.
0:14:44 > 0:14:50On the right, Tintoretto has painted the most thunderous scene
0:14:50 > 0:14:55of divine retribution in Venetian art.
0:14:55 > 0:14:56His Last Judgment.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03If you make false gods, this is how you will be punished.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10The waters of Venice will crash down around you,
0:15:10 > 0:15:14and the end will come in a tsunami of death.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20In the Church of the Madonna dell'Orto,
0:15:20 > 0:15:24the art points a finger at you.
0:15:24 > 0:15:25And warns you.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39This, by the way, is where Tintoretto was born.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Just 100 feet away from the Madonna dell'Orto, his local church.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47And that's why it meant so much to him.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49And only in Venice can you find
0:15:49 > 0:15:54such a revealing and intimate context for Renaissance art.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03The Church of Santa Maria Gloriosa,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06commonly known as the Frari,
0:16:06 > 0:16:11is a huge religious space that does something powerful to your senses.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17And it was in this tremendous context,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20that another Venetian giant,
0:16:20 > 0:16:22the great Titian,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25painted his most awesome altarpiece.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30There it is.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32Titian's Assumption.
0:16:32 > 0:16:3722 feet high, the biggest altarpiece in Venice.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39And, of course, it had to be that big
0:16:39 > 0:16:43to have the right kind of religious impact
0:16:43 > 0:16:46on this huge and thrilling space.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54The Assumption shows the Virgin Mary going up to heaven
0:16:54 > 0:16:56at the end of her time on earth.
0:16:58 > 0:17:04A feast celebrated annually in the Frari on August 15th.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10So, Mary is being received in heaven.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14The angels are greeting her with celestial music.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19And God himself is welcoming her to his realm.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Down below meanwhile, back on earth,
0:17:25 > 0:17:31the Apostles are filled with anxiety and awe at her departure.
0:17:36 > 0:17:43In her glowing red robes, Titian's Mary is a pulse-quickening presence.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48Until now, no-one in art had used colour
0:17:48 > 0:17:52as excitingly and bravely as this.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57So it's a great artistic moment.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02But, more importantly, a great religious moment.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06An interesting thing about the Frari is that the high altar here
0:18:06 > 0:18:10is at the west of the church and not the east.
0:18:10 > 0:18:15In most Catholic churches it's the other way round.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19The high altar is at the east of the church
0:18:19 > 0:18:23because that's where the Holy Land is,
0:18:23 > 0:18:25and where the sun rises.
0:18:28 > 0:18:34Now, when the Frari was first built, in 1338,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37it also pointed to the east.
0:18:37 > 0:18:43But when the Franciscans enlarged it in 1492,
0:18:43 > 0:18:49they swapped round the orientation so it now pointed to the west.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Why they changed it is unclear.
0:18:56 > 0:19:02What isn't unclear is the impact the change had on the art in here.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05And particularly, on Titian's Assumption.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12In the revelations of St John the Apostle -
0:19:12 > 0:19:14he's the one in red -
0:19:14 > 0:19:17we read that there appeared in heaven
0:19:17 > 0:19:20a woman clothed with the sun.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25And that woman, clothed with the sun, was Mary.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30To evoke that moment,
0:19:30 > 0:19:36Titian has silhouetted her against a glorious, golden background.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40It is an effect called "contre-jour", against the light.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45And its religious function is to separate the heavenly realm
0:19:45 > 0:19:48that Mary has just entered,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53from our world, the corporeal world where the Apostles still are.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59But this golden light isn't just painted.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03Because of the new orientation of the church,
0:20:03 > 0:20:08the evening light now floods through the windows as well.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13And combines with Titian's painted light
0:20:13 > 0:20:17to bathe Mary in a miraculous golden glow.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24It's a stupendous religious moment.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28High above the altar of the Frari, art and light have been
0:20:28 > 0:20:33deliberately combined to create a visual miracle,
0:20:33 > 0:20:35and every night here in Venice,
0:20:35 > 0:20:39but especially on the night of August 15th,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43it's as if the Assumption is really happening before us.
0:20:57 > 0:21:03Given the mood of Venice, its relationship to light,
0:21:03 > 0:21:06there's something very appropriate about the fact that
0:21:06 > 0:21:10the city's most celebrated export was glass.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17Glass is sort of there and sort of not there.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Just like Venice.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24Until the 13th century,
0:21:24 > 0:21:29the finest glass imported into Europe came from the Islamic world.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31Notably from Syria.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36But as Venice got richer and richer, with all that busy trading,
0:21:36 > 0:21:41so more and more precious glass was needed for the dining table.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48With its excellent contacts in the East,
0:21:48 > 0:21:54Venice had a head start when it came to making Renaissance glass...
0:21:55 > 0:21:59..and soon became famously good at it.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07Since 1291, Venetian glass was made on that island there -
0:22:07 > 0:22:08Murano.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15The traditional explanation for this isolation
0:22:15 > 0:22:19is that the dangerous fires of the glass furnaces
0:22:19 > 0:22:21were safer on their own island.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28But recent research has suggested that the real reason
0:22:28 > 0:22:33the Venetians sent their glass-makers to Murano,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36was because they wanted to keep their secrets secret.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40So they locked them away on an island
0:22:40 > 0:22:42where no-one could reach them.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52Knowing how the Venetians are about money,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55I'm inclined to believe the second version.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59Anyway, this was where glass-making was concentrated
0:22:59 > 0:23:02and where its secrets were kept.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10By the time the Venetians turned their talents to it,
0:23:10 > 0:23:15glass already had an exciting cultural history.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21The Romans had made it, the Islamic world,
0:23:21 > 0:23:25but it was in Venice that a taste developed
0:23:25 > 0:23:28for glass that was particularly pure,
0:23:28 > 0:23:29and see-through.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37Glass, as you know, has this intimate relationship with light.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41The two of them, light and glass,
0:23:41 > 0:23:43play beautiful games with each other.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45And here in Venice,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48in the early days of the Renaissance,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52this magical relationship was intensified
0:23:52 > 0:23:56with the discovery of a new type of glass called "cristallo".
0:24:01 > 0:24:06Cristallo was the invention, they say, of a famous glass-maker
0:24:06 > 0:24:09called Angelo Barovier.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12And what was unique about it
0:24:12 > 0:24:16was that it was completely see-through and pure.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18Like rock crystal itself.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22And that's why they called it cristallo.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Now, I love all that mythic stuff about glass
0:24:29 > 0:24:32and its relationship to light.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35And of course, there's something particularly appropriate
0:24:35 > 0:24:39about Venice becoming the capital of glass.
0:24:41 > 0:24:47But the invention of cristallo by Barovier needs to be understood
0:24:47 > 0:24:52as a scientific innovation, not a mythic one.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56Off the top of my head,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00I can't think of a single Renaissance product that pointed
0:25:00 > 0:25:05more firmly to the technological future than cristallo.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12To control the temperature of the furnaces,
0:25:12 > 0:25:16they used this stuff called soda ash,
0:25:16 > 0:25:21made from desert plants harvested by the Bedouins of Syria.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27And the silica that was used wasn't your standard desert sand...
0:25:29 > 0:25:32..but especially pure quartz crystals...
0:25:33 > 0:25:35..found in mountain rivers.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44Through these slow improvements
0:25:44 > 0:25:47and careful technological refinements,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Barovier finally arrived at a glass
0:25:49 > 0:25:54that was totally see-through and pure.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58All that effort for something that was hardly there.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06And because cristallo was so fragile,
0:26:06 > 0:26:08very little of it has survived.
0:26:09 > 0:26:15If you want to see how beautiful Venetian glass was,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18you have to look for it in Venetian art.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24See what Mary Magdalene is using to carry her oil
0:26:24 > 0:26:29in Giovanni Bellini's gorgeous altarpiece in San Zaccaria.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33Or look what the servants are serving
0:26:33 > 0:26:38in Veronese's astounding Supper At The House Of Levi.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45Even in paint, the delicate magic of Venetian glass
0:26:45 > 0:26:48still speaks to us through the ages.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10This is the Ponte de le Tette in Venice.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15I am afraid Ponte de le Tette means "bridge of tits".
0:27:15 > 0:27:17Sorry, but that's what it means.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26The story goes that in an effort to straighten out the burgeoning gay
0:27:26 > 0:27:30population of Renaissance Venice
0:27:30 > 0:27:33the Venetian authorities instructed
0:27:33 > 0:27:40the city's prostitutes to take their tops off on the bridge of tits,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44in the forlorn hope that their feminine charms would
0:27:44 > 0:27:46straighten out the wayward boys.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Sex really was an issue in this city.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56They reckon there were 12,000 prostitutes
0:27:56 > 0:27:58working in Renaissance Venice.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01Out of a population of 100,000.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05So one in ten inhabitants was on the game,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09and many of the travellers who came here came for the sex.
0:28:12 > 0:28:17It was Venice that invented the reclining Venus.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22The goddess of love, stretched out naked on her bed.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25Just so she can be ogled.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35The first of these reclining Venuses was painted by Giorgione -
0:28:35 > 0:28:39the great Sleeping Venus in Dresden.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47As with all Giorgione's art, there's an air of mystery about her,
0:28:47 > 0:28:52that fills your thoughts with endless speculation.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00But the master of the Venetian Venus,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04the keenest painter of the subject, was Titian,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08the arch-sensualist of Venetian art.
0:29:10 > 0:29:16Even in his religious pictures, Titian makes very little effort
0:29:16 > 0:29:20to disguise his notorious passion for women.
0:29:22 > 0:29:27In real life, he was the scourge of the studio,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30notorious for pleasuring his models.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36And in his mythologies, all that desire
0:29:36 > 0:29:42and naughtiness comes pouring out like water from a fountain.
0:29:47 > 0:29:52There is a room at the Prado Museum in Madrid that's filled entirely
0:29:52 > 0:29:55with these sensual imaginings by Titian.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02Most of the reclining nudes are Venuses.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07But the one I'd like to focus on is Danae.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10Why?
0:30:10 > 0:30:13Well, that's pretty obvious, isn't it?
0:30:13 > 0:30:16I think Titian's Danae
0:30:16 > 0:30:22is the most outrageously sensuous picture in Renaissance art.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29Danae was the beautiful daughter of the King of Argos,
0:30:29 > 0:30:33and one day a prophet tells the king that he is going to be
0:30:33 > 0:30:35killed by his daughter's son.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40So he locks Danae up in a vault, where no-one can reach her.
0:30:43 > 0:30:45Oh, yes, they can.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49Zeus, the randiest of the gods,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52sees Danae in her cell,
0:30:52 > 0:30:54and desires her.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00And handily disguised as a shower of gold,
0:31:00 > 0:31:04he comes down to her and impregnates her.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14Later on, outside the picture, as it were, she has a son, Perseus.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17And the son kills her father, the King.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20So the prophecy comes true.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28Sex, gold, a beautiful princess,
0:31:28 > 0:31:33the Danae story was popular all round the Renaissance.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38But what I want to focus on here is Zeus.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44The master of disguise with the morals of a dog.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53Now, a large chunk of Greek mythology is devoted
0:31:53 > 0:31:56to the sexual conquests of Zeus.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58The Venetians couldn't get enough of them.
0:31:58 > 0:32:05And another story painted by Titian was Europa and the bull.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Europa, who gave her name to Europe,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15was a highborn Venetian princess.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20But Zeus decided he wanted her.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26So he disguised himself as a bull,
0:32:26 > 0:32:29and when she got up on his back,
0:32:29 > 0:32:33the bull thundered into the sea and abducted her.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40And it wasn't just Titian and the Venetians who enjoyed all this
0:32:40 > 0:32:44donning of disguises by the randy Zeus.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49The entire Renaissance seemed much taken with the possibilities.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56Here's Michelangelo's Leda And The Swan.
0:32:56 > 0:33:01The original's lost, so this is a copy by Rosso Fiorentino.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07Zeus has come down to Leda disguised as a swan.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11Why a swan?
0:33:11 > 0:33:16Well, this is a family film so you'll just have to imagine it.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23But the most cunning of Zeus's many disguises
0:33:23 > 0:33:29is the one he adopted to seduce the lovely Io,
0:33:29 > 0:33:31painted here by Correggio.
0:33:33 > 0:33:40To get to Io, Zeus transformed himself into a cloud,
0:33:40 > 0:33:45and took her when she didn't even know she was being taken.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52Now, the Renaissance was supposed to be this great
0:33:52 > 0:33:54rebirth of civilisation.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56A triumph of knowledge and all that.
0:33:56 > 0:34:03So how come it was so interested in the bed-hopping antics of Zeus?
0:34:03 > 0:34:06Well, one answer, the obvious answer,
0:34:06 > 0:34:10is that it wasn't really a rebirth of civilisation at all.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14And that the forces coursing through the Renaissance
0:34:14 > 0:34:17were the same old darknesses
0:34:17 > 0:34:20that have always coursed through us humans.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44Something else that Venice was importing from the East
0:34:44 > 0:34:47in immodest quantities
0:34:47 > 0:34:48was cloth.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51Silks,
0:34:51 > 0:34:52satins,
0:34:52 > 0:34:53damasks.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57The textiles of the East brought
0:34:57 > 0:35:01a glistening gorgeousness to Venetian art,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04that was exciting and new.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13The silk was imported mostly from Persia,
0:35:13 > 0:35:19and then woven here in Venice into these famously sumptuous designs.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24And sent off around Europe to dazzle everyone lucky enough to see it.
0:35:27 > 0:35:32We know this because it is recorded superbly in Venetian art.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Look at the snazzy robes in which Titian dresses
0:35:38 > 0:35:43Joseph of Arimathea in his great Entombment, at the Prado.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48Is that really the right gear for an entombment?
0:35:51 > 0:35:54But the cloth-painter supreme among the Venetians
0:35:54 > 0:35:57was Paolo Veronese,
0:35:57 > 0:36:00whose gorgeous fabrics
0:36:00 > 0:36:04look as if they've been woven not just from silk,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06but from light itself.
0:36:12 > 0:36:18Veronese's art is like an advert for Venetian textiles.
0:36:18 > 0:36:20He painted all sorts of pictures.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23Mythologies, dining scenes,
0:36:23 > 0:36:25portraits,
0:36:25 > 0:36:26and in all of them,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30what's going on seems less important
0:36:30 > 0:36:32than what everyone's wearing.
0:36:36 > 0:36:41In Veronese, every stretch of silk plays its part.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47Whether you're St George going to his martyrdom,
0:36:47 > 0:36:51or the lovely Andromeda chained up for the monsters,
0:36:51 > 0:36:56what you're wearing needs to shimmer and shine,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58and single you out.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06It's even true of Veronese's contribution
0:37:06 > 0:37:10to the most boring genre in art,
0:37:10 > 0:37:12the political allegory.
0:37:14 > 0:37:19What is it about big buildings that makes our rulers insist
0:37:19 > 0:37:25on filling them with so many yards of jingoistic guff?
0:37:28 > 0:37:32This is the Ducale Palace, from which Venice is run,
0:37:32 > 0:37:37and it's packed with political pictures and wonderful dresses.
0:37:43 > 0:37:49This oval painting here is Veronese's Apotheosis Of Venice.
0:37:50 > 0:37:55And there's Venice herself, imagined as a beautiful blonde
0:37:55 > 0:38:00who's going up to heaven dressed in virgin white.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06Back on earth meanwhile, on the balcony below,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09the citizens of Venice have turned up to cheer.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13And look what they've thrown on for the occasion.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19No wonder they're all so happy to be living in Venice.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23Who wouldn't be, if you could wear dresses like that?
0:38:23 > 0:38:28On the catwalk of Venetian politics, Veronese had no equals.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Veronese could paint all kinds of cloth.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41But a particular favourite of his is through here.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49It's Europa and the Bull again.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51Zeus is up to his old tricks.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55He's absconding with Europa,
0:38:55 > 0:39:00and look at the sly way he's licking her foot.
0:39:00 > 0:39:02A bull with a foot fetish.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05How very Venetian.
0:39:07 > 0:39:14But the star of the picture isn't Zeus or the cherubs or Europa.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17It's that dress she's modelling.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23See how it's pink and yellow at the same time?
0:39:23 > 0:39:25That's a Venetian speciality.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27Here, I'll show you.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39This is shot silk, what they call in Italian "cangiante".
0:39:39 > 0:39:42You can see it better outside.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47It's woven from two colours that change before your eyes,
0:39:47 > 0:39:52and this can cangiante silk is all over Renaissance art.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00Here's Bellini's beautiful Feast Of The Gods in Washington.
0:40:01 > 0:40:06A divine barbecue to which all the deities have been invited.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09So they've all dressed up for the occasion.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14Especially Mercury,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17who sits at the front, getting noticed in his
0:40:17 > 0:40:22blue-and-purple tunic and his splendid cangiante socks.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28But it wasn't only Venetian artists who enjoyed
0:40:28 > 0:40:30painting the miracle cloth.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39The most prodigious cangiante painter of all was Michelangelo.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46Look up at the Sistine ceiling in Rome and you'll be amazed
0:40:46 > 0:40:51how many of the prophets and ancestors up there have turned up
0:40:51 > 0:40:55for the end of the world in their best cangiante clobber.
0:40:57 > 0:41:02In the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo paints a world
0:41:02 > 0:41:04where nothing is solid.
0:41:05 > 0:41:11A cangiante world of shifting hues and changing colours.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25In previous films in this series,
0:41:25 > 0:41:30we've seen how various saints were depicted in the Renaissance and why.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34In Venice, though,
0:41:34 > 0:41:40the saint who seemed best to capture the city's sensuous tone
0:41:40 > 0:41:46was that alluring Biblical concoction, Mary Magdalene.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52Mary Magdalene has never been real.
0:41:52 > 0:41:58She's always been a plaything of the Renaissance imagination,
0:41:58 > 0:42:06invented specifically to press some naughty Renaissance buttons.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10And that's something she's done really well.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17The Bible tells us practically nothing about her.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23Just a few brief mentions in the New Testament
0:42:23 > 0:42:29informing us that she was there when Jesus died on the Cross
0:42:29 > 0:42:34and that it was Mary Magdalene who first encountered Jesus
0:42:34 > 0:42:40when he came back from the dead and she mistook him for a gardener.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46With so little actual information to go on,
0:42:46 > 0:42:50everything else had to be imagined.
0:42:50 > 0:42:58And, of course, art loves nothing better than to fill big gaps...
0:43:02 > 0:43:04..with big fantasies.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12Fortunately, there are lots of other Marys in the Bible
0:43:12 > 0:43:15whose identities the Magdalene could steal.
0:43:16 > 0:43:21Like the Mary who washed Jesus' feet with oil
0:43:21 > 0:43:23and dried it with her hair.
0:43:24 > 0:43:30It wasn't Mary Magdalene, But, hey, a Mary is a Mary.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37And if you want to spot the Magdalene in a painting,
0:43:37 > 0:43:45look out for the jar, the vase, the pot in which she keeps her oil.
0:43:46 > 0:43:53In Renaissance art, the Magdalene and her pot are rarely separated.
0:43:59 > 0:44:04It also does not say in the Bible that she was a prostitute.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07That was another Mary as well.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11But, hey, a Mary is a Mary
0:44:11 > 0:44:16and having turned her into a scarlet woman, the Renaissance began
0:44:16 > 0:44:21fantasising eagerly about the fatal attraction of the Magdalene.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28The giveaway is her hair.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31It's always the hair.
0:44:32 > 0:44:38In art, loose hair is a sure sign of loose morals.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42And from the time of Giotto,
0:44:42 > 0:44:48the Magdalene's hair has signalled her dangerous sexuality.
0:44:50 > 0:44:55Here she is in the Franciscan Basilica in Assisi,
0:44:55 > 0:44:57hiding her nudity in a cave...
0:44:59 > 0:45:03..until the hermit Zosimus gives her his cloak.
0:45:05 > 0:45:10It was actually Mary of Egypt that Zosimus gave his cloak to.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15But, hey, a Mary is a Mary.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22And how about this for a rampant display
0:45:22 > 0:45:25of dangerous female hairiness,
0:45:25 > 0:45:31enjoyed and carved by the German Renaissance master
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Tillman Riemann Schneider.
0:45:36 > 0:45:42In Riemann Schneider's demented northern imaginings, Mary Magdalene,
0:45:42 > 0:45:50covered in body hair, reconnects the Renaissance to its caveman roots.
0:45:53 > 0:45:59So the hair, the nudity, the former life as a prostitute,
0:45:59 > 0:46:05the hanging about at Christ's feet, all of it had to be invented,
0:46:05 > 0:46:10because Mary Magdalene isn't just a character in a Renaissance art,
0:46:10 > 0:46:15she's an archetypal masculine projection.
0:46:15 > 0:46:21A simpering female fantasy figure, given a saintly form
0:46:21 > 0:46:25and that, of course, made her especially appealing
0:46:25 > 0:46:27to the Venetians.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35In Bellini's great altarpiece in San Zaccaria,
0:46:35 > 0:46:37look how beautiful he makes her.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43And what a lovely pot of Venetian glass she holds!
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Savoldo, meanwhile, encounters her in the dark
0:46:49 > 0:46:51under a dangerous moon...
0:46:53 > 0:46:56..her hair hidden under a cloth,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59as the prostitutes of Venice were instructed to do.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05But, you know, desire wouldn't be desire
0:47:05 > 0:47:07if it wasn't accompanied by regret.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13So Renaissance art also came up with this.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15The penitent Magdalene.
0:47:17 > 0:47:22Ashamed of her past, ashamed of her sins.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27So ashamed of herself is Titian's penitent Magdalene,
0:47:27 > 0:47:31that she covers herself up with her hair.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35And forgets, in typical Venetian fashion,
0:47:35 > 0:47:39that hair isn't very good at covering things up.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42Is it?
0:47:52 > 0:47:54CHURCH BELLS CHIME
0:47:59 > 0:48:04This is the Church of San Rocco, Saint Roch, as we call him.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08Now, I'm going to give you a whistle-stop tour of Venetian churches
0:48:08 > 0:48:10and I want you to tell me what they've all got in common.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13So this is the first one, San Rocco.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19Number two, San Giobbe.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24Three, Il Redontore.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32Four, Santa Maria della Salute, a church we all know.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40Five, San Sebastiano, where Veronese is buried.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48And then, back again to San Rocco.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50So that's five Venetian churches.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52What have they got in common?
0:48:52 > 0:48:56Well, the answer is that they were all built to ward off
0:48:56 > 0:48:58the Black Death.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01They are what they call "plague churches",
0:49:01 > 0:49:04the five plague churches of Venice.
0:49:08 > 0:49:14The Black Death, bubonic plague, brought terror to all of Europe.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19But it hit Venice with special severity.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27The first great outbreak, in 1348,
0:49:27 > 0:49:33killed 70,000 Venetians out of a population of 100,000.
0:49:33 > 0:49:38And in the next 300 years, there were 70 more of these epidemics.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Whatever the Venetians did, the plague kept returning.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49They say it originated in China
0:49:49 > 0:49:52and that the rats which carried it
0:49:52 > 0:49:54were particularly fond of spice ships.
0:49:56 > 0:50:02And, thus, Venice became the world's leading importer of plague rats.
0:50:05 > 0:50:11The epidemic of 1576 was another particularly bad one.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14It killed a quarter of Venice's population.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18Among them, the great painter Titian.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21And here, at the Scuola San Rocco,
0:50:21 > 0:50:26Tintoretto, plague painter extraordinaire,
0:50:26 > 0:50:29redoubled his remarkable efforts
0:50:29 > 0:50:31to paint Venice to safety.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39San Rocco, St Roch,
0:50:39 > 0:50:43was the saint you prayed to to ward off the Black Death.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47And this scuola here,
0:50:47 > 0:50:49the Scuola San Rocco,
0:50:49 > 0:50:54quickly became the richest charity institution in Venice.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59That is St Roch there.
0:50:59 > 0:51:00You can always tell him in art
0:51:00 > 0:51:03because he is always showing you a naked leg,
0:51:03 > 0:51:08so you can see the puss-filled boil on his thigh
0:51:08 > 0:51:11that's the first sign of the Black Death.
0:51:15 > 0:51:21If you had money, you gave it to the Scuola San Rocco to protect you.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27And Tintoretto gave not only money
0:51:27 > 0:51:32but a huge slab of his working life as well,
0:51:32 > 0:51:38as he filled the darkness of San Rocco with so much of his art.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45He got paid occasionally, bits and pieces,
0:51:45 > 0:51:49but never what it would really have cost to do all this.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53And there was a story doing the rounds in the Renaissance
0:51:53 > 0:51:57that Tintoretto himself had been saved from the plague
0:51:57 > 0:51:59and that to thank God,
0:51:59 > 0:52:02he undertook to finish this great project.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06Now, I don't know if that's true,
0:52:06 > 0:52:08but I do know,
0:52:08 > 0:52:11because you can feel it in here,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14that all this was personal.
0:52:19 > 0:52:25There are 52 paintings by Tintoretto in the Scuola San Rocco.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28That's right, 52.
0:52:30 > 0:52:35And the first one he painted shows St Roch in pink
0:52:35 > 0:52:37going up to heaven.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42The second was this,
0:52:42 > 0:52:44Tintoretto's Crucifixion.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51This has been described as the greatest Renaissance painting
0:52:51 > 0:52:53and you can see why.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55What scale.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57What drama.
0:52:57 > 0:52:58What power.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05The second room he painted was this one,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08the Great Hall,
0:53:08 > 0:53:13which he began in the deadly year of 1576.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17To get the commission,
0:53:17 > 0:53:19Tintoretto promised the scuola
0:53:19 > 0:53:23that he'd paint them three pictures a year
0:53:23 > 0:53:25for as long as he was alive
0:53:25 > 0:53:28just for the cost of the materials
0:53:28 > 0:53:31and that he would donate them to the institution annually
0:53:31 > 0:53:36on 16 August, the Feast Day of St Roch.
0:53:39 > 0:53:44On the walls, he shows Jesus saving us from our sins
0:53:44 > 0:53:48with his miracles and his sacrifice.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52On the ceiling,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55there's a history of our sinning
0:53:55 > 0:53:58that goes right back to the beginning.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01How we brought the plague down on our heads.
0:54:04 > 0:54:05This is the key image,
0:54:05 > 0:54:09the worship of the brazen serpent.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13The Israelites had been disobeying God again,
0:54:13 > 0:54:18so God sends a plague of poisonous snakes to punish them.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24And Moses pleads with him to save his people.
0:54:24 > 0:54:30So God tells him to put a bronze serpent up on a pole
0:54:30 > 0:54:34and that this bronze serpent will protect the people from the snakes.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39And, as you can see,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42it looks suspiciously like the Crucifixion.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53Having painted all that,
0:54:53 > 0:54:58Tintoretto, still producing his three pictures a year,
0:54:58 > 0:55:02came down here and began painting these,
0:55:02 > 0:55:05the story of the Virgin Mary.
0:55:08 > 0:55:13Here she is finding out she is going to give birth to Jesus.
0:55:15 > 0:55:20And there are the Three Kings turning up at Jesus' Nativity.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27So this was the last room to be painted,
0:55:27 > 0:55:29but it's the first room of the story,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32as it unfolds up the building.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35So here, Mary gives birth to Jesus.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48There's Jesus performing extraordinary miracles,
0:55:48 > 0:55:49saving the paralytic,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52and all these other people who got the plague.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00His miracles find an echo in the Old Testament,
0:56:00 > 0:56:05where a brazen serpent protects the Israelites from a plague of snakes.
0:56:11 > 0:56:15And then, finally, going back to the future,
0:56:15 > 0:56:21you come in here and there's Jesus dying on the cross to save us
0:56:21 > 0:56:23and, in this instance,
0:56:23 > 0:56:27specifically to save Venice from the Black Death.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33This isn't just art.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37This is theatre, drama,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40salvation in three dark dimensions.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46And it's here because the Renaissance believed
0:56:46 > 0:56:48that art had talismanic power.
0:56:50 > 0:56:52That it could save Venice,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54combat the plague
0:56:54 > 0:56:56and change the future.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03And that's what the Renaissance is really about,
0:57:03 > 0:57:05the power of art.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33You know I said how St Mark's Square
0:57:33 > 0:57:37is modelled on the outline of an Islamic mosque?
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Well, there's another painting by Gentile Bellini
0:57:40 > 0:57:43of a space exactly like this.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46But this time it really is a mosque.
0:57:50 > 0:57:55This is St Mark preaching to the locals in Alexandria in Egypt.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01But it's an Alexandria that looks an awful lot like Venice.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07In fact, it looks exactly like St Mark's Square.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11The same layout, same proportions, same mood.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15So much so, that it's difficult to tell one from the other.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22In the mind of Gentile Bellini,
0:58:22 > 0:58:26the East and the West had become interchangeable.
0:58:28 > 0:58:33Venice, an artistic powerhouse, created out of sky,
0:58:33 > 0:58:37sea and dreams,
0:58:37 > 0:58:39never had a firm outline.
0:58:40 > 0:58:45But then, never was it quite as magnificently blurred
0:58:45 > 0:58:49as it was in Renaissance times,
0:58:49 > 0:58:52when the East and the West became one.
0:58:57 > 0:58:59In the next film,
0:58:59 > 0:59:02things get very strange
0:59:02 > 0:59:06as the Renaissance loses its inhibitions
0:59:06 > 0:59:08and hurtles to its end.