0:00:02 > 0:00:08By the early 1600s, Britain had undergone a cultural revolution.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13The medieval world had been left behind as new ideas
0:00:13 > 0:00:16from Renaissance Europe transformed the houses
0:00:16 > 0:00:22we built, the pictures we painted,
0:00:22 > 0:00:24and the literature we wrote.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30But we had done more than import a foreign Renaissance.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35We had also created our own - one that in many ways
0:00:35 > 0:00:41reflected the British character - inquisitive, down-to-earth,
0:00:41 > 0:00:47often eccentric, and usually a bit rough around the edges.
0:00:47 > 0:00:53A Renaissance rooted not only in art, but in ideas and discovery.
0:00:54 > 0:01:00But now came the inevitable - a battle.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03A battle between the foreign Renaissance which had achieved
0:01:03 > 0:01:08so much and the British Renaissance which promised so much.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Now, this battle would not just be about the future of British art -
0:01:12 > 0:01:17it became part of a battle about the future of Britain itself.
0:01:17 > 0:01:18Where would we stand?
0:01:18 > 0:01:22Who would we stand with and what, ultimately, would we stand for?
0:01:25 > 0:01:29On one side, a royal court in love with an elegant,
0:01:29 > 0:01:31luxurious foreign style.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37On the other, a group of British artists, poets and scientists
0:01:37 > 0:01:41who were making their own attempts to unlock the secrets of the world.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05I'm waiting for a very special book to arrive.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16The library that owns it has agreed to bring it out just for me.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24Inside that box is a defining work of the Renaissance,
0:02:24 > 0:02:27and I've wanted to see it for years.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37It's a treatise written by the Italian architect
0:02:37 > 0:02:43Andrea Palladio, but I'm more interested in who owned it.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48At the beginning of the 17th century, this book was bought
0:02:48 > 0:02:54by a young British carpenter and he became instantly infatuated with it.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57He read it countless times
0:02:57 > 0:03:00and scribbled his thoughts all over its pages.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09But the young man's most remarkable and revealing annotations are here.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15This, for me, is one of the most evocative
0:03:15 > 0:03:18pages in the British Renaissance, because here,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21the book's young owner practises his own signature
0:03:21 > 0:03:23over and over again,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27like some kind of anxious, excitable schoolboy.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29But it's not any old name he's signing.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32This man's name was Inigo Jones
0:03:32 > 0:03:37and Inigo Jones went on to become the first great British architect.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43But this page has another surprise.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45He's not only signed his own name.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47Jones has also, it seems,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50attempted to forge the signature of Palladio himself.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53It's almost as though he's trying to emulate Palladio
0:03:53 > 0:03:55and, in fact, these two faces up here
0:03:55 > 0:03:57may well represent the two men -
0:03:57 > 0:04:01the great old Italian architect and the young British carpenter.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06So why is this so revealing?
0:04:06 > 0:04:08Well, I think this is the moment
0:04:08 > 0:04:12when Inigo Jones decided to give up carpentry, to become
0:04:12 > 0:04:13the British Palladio,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17and to bring pure, classical architecture to Britain.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28In Renaissance Italy, the buildings of ancient Rome had inspired
0:04:28 > 0:04:32a revival of classical architecture.
0:04:32 > 0:04:38An architecture of columns, domes, and pediments - symmetrical
0:04:38 > 0:04:39and perfectly proportioned.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44A style with which the British had only ever flirted.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Inigo Jones was determined to change that, to make British
0:04:52 > 0:04:57architecture as wholeheartedly classical as anything in Italy.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06And he got his big break as the result of an unfortunate accident.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12The new king, James I, was out hunting with the queen.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15One of the party fired a shot into the trees
0:05:15 > 0:05:18and by a stroke of luck, it hit a deer.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21The hunting party was delighted
0:05:21 > 0:05:24until it was discovered that the victim
0:05:24 > 0:05:30was not in fact a deer, but actually the king's favourite dog, Jewel.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34When James saw the body, he went berserk and then
0:05:34 > 0:05:39he was informed that the culprit was in fact his wife, the queen.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43The queen was publicly humiliated.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46James was desperate to make amends
0:05:46 > 0:05:49and she saw her opportunity to make some demands.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55What she really wanted was a brand-new house in Greenwich.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58The king immediately agreed to build her one
0:05:58 > 0:06:00and that's when she made a final demand.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05Only one man could possibly design her house - Inigo Jones.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09In October 1616,
0:06:09 > 0:06:14the queen's favourite architect began work on a brand-new house.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21When he'd finished, he had produced one of the most radical buildings
0:06:21 > 0:06:24in the history of British architecture.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35This is the first completely classical building in Britain,
0:06:35 > 0:06:38and, above all, it's radical for what it rejects.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42No half timber, no gargoyles, no spires, no clock towers,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44no fancy gothic carvings.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47The whole history of native architecture has been
0:06:47 > 0:06:49thrown into the dustbin.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54This is instead a pure white chunk of Italy that has somehow
0:06:54 > 0:06:57found itself on the banks of the River Thames.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00And at the time, it was so alien, so unusual,
0:07:00 > 0:07:02that many people thought it was a practical joke.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09But if the exterior was a surprise, nothing could prepare them
0:07:09 > 0:07:10for what lay inside.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18So this is the Great Hall, right in the centre of the building,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21and this is really the epicentre of this structure
0:07:21 > 0:07:25and it's really a revolutionary room, because gone are all
0:07:25 > 0:07:28the sort of rambling, wonky, higgledy-piggledy,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30woodeny-panelledy rooms of the Tudor age.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34This space is a mathematically perfect cube,
0:07:34 > 0:07:3840 feet by 40 feet by 40 feet.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46And it is built on top of a mathematically generated
0:07:46 > 0:07:50floor design in Belgian and, of course, Italian marble.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56You know, this room is around 400 years old and at the same time,
0:07:56 > 0:08:01I feel like I'm standing in a modernist, minimalist space.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06Yet perhaps the biggest treat lies just beyond the hall.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15This is the first self-supporting spiral staircase in the country
0:08:15 > 0:08:19and, for my money, it's the most beautiful staircase in Britain.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35In fact, the whole building is like a stairway to heaven -
0:08:35 > 0:08:39an ideal home constructed out of harmony, proportion,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42and impeccable Italian taste.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46I absolutely love this place.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49And you know what amazes me most about it?
0:08:49 > 0:08:54The Italian Renaissance took hundreds of years to get classical architecture just right.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57And Jones, Jones went and did it in just a few months,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59with his very first building
0:09:09 > 0:09:11Jones didn't intend to stop there.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13He drew up plans to rebuild
0:09:13 > 0:09:16the whole of the royal palace at Whitehall,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19creating the grandest Renaissance complex in Europe.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Only one part of it was ever built,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27an Italianate chamber known as the Banqueting House.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33King James liked Jones' grand vision.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37It suited his insanely-grand idea of himself.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41On the ceiling, here he is, being lifted up to heaven
0:09:41 > 0:09:46by a cluster of angels and transformed into his very own god.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52For the extravagant Stuart court,
0:09:52 > 0:09:56there was only one kind of Renaissance worth having...
0:09:56 > 0:09:58the Italian one.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01James and Jones fantasised about rebuilding Britain
0:10:01 > 0:10:04in the image of Renaissance Italy.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07But in doing so, they were turning their backs
0:10:07 > 0:10:09on a whole other Renaissance,
0:10:09 > 0:10:14one that was flourishing far away from the court in the real world.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Britain, and especially London, in the early 1600s
0:10:26 > 0:10:28was a dynamic place.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34The city's population had quadrupled in less than 100 years.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44It attracted craftsmen and innovators and radicals,
0:10:44 > 0:10:48fertile ground for a very different kind of culture
0:10:48 > 0:10:51than the one dreamed of by Jones and his king.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58One of these innovators was William Harvey.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03The son of a sheep farmer from Kent, Harvey went on to make
0:11:03 > 0:11:06one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13In 1604, Harvey arrived in London to work as a doctor.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19Every morning, while commuting to St Bartholomew's Hospital,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23he passed the meat market at Smithfield...
0:11:25 > 0:11:28..where every morning the butchers of London
0:11:28 > 0:11:30would slaughter their animals.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Harvey watched closely how the butchers killed,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42hung and sliced up their animals and how the blood dripped
0:11:42 > 0:11:44and drained out of the carcasses.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47It wasn't exactly cutting-edge scientific research,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50but it sowed a seed in his mind,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54a seed from which his own Renaissance revelation would grow.
0:11:56 > 0:12:02Harvey became obsessed with how blood moved around the body
0:12:02 > 0:12:06and he began to doubt the traditional explanation.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13Since antiquity, the theory of one man had been all but unchallenged.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19The ancient Greek philosopher Galen claimed that blood was manufactured
0:12:19 > 0:12:21by the heart and the liver
0:12:21 > 0:12:24and then consumed by the other organs.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Harvey decided it was time to put this theory to the test.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42William Harvey was a workaholic,
0:12:42 > 0:12:45an insomniac and a coffee addict.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51So, after dinner, when his wife and almost everyone else in the city
0:12:51 > 0:12:53went to sleep,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55he went to work.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05He equipped a scientific chamber in a private corner of his house
0:13:05 > 0:13:08and it was here that he experimented through the nights.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Harvey's chamber must have been a sight to behold.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17It was filled with virtually every single animal
0:13:17 > 0:13:20he could get his hands on. There were cages rattling away with birds,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22rabbits and rodents
0:13:22 > 0:13:27and running all over the place were sheep and pigs and goats.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32Now, every evening, Harvey would select just one of these
0:13:32 > 0:13:36unfortunate creatures and then he would begin to experiment on it.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41As he examined the animals' organs,
0:13:41 > 0:13:45Harvey became convinced that Galen was wrong.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Blood wasn't constantly made by the body,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51it was recycled. It circulated.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58I'm going to offer myself to a modern doctor
0:13:58 > 0:14:01to recreate Harvey's most famous experiment.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06- Roll your sleeve up for me. - Sounds ominous.- It does, doesn't it?
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Always makes people nervous when they come to the doctor's
0:14:09 > 0:14:11and they're asked to roll their sleeve up.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Good. And I'm going to put a tourniquet around it. OK?
0:14:14 > 0:14:19- Harvey would have called this a ligature.- Seems even more ominous.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22Absolutely. So, we're tightening this up and you can see already
0:14:22 > 0:14:25what's happening is that the veins are starting to become
0:14:25 > 0:14:26much more visible in your arm.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28- They are, aren't they?- Absolutely.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31So, if we take this vein here, for example.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33- That's a big one, that one. - That's a big one.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38So, what he did was that he emptied the vein completely of blood
0:14:38 > 0:14:42and then by releasing the finger nearest to the heart,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45the vein didn't refill.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49- But when he released the finger furthest away from the heart...- Whoa.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51..the vein did refill.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54So, what that shows is that the blood travels
0:14:54 > 0:14:59only in the direction of the heart through the veins.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02- So, it's one way?- Exactly. And that's really important.
0:15:02 > 0:15:03It's not going in both directions.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06And what does that mean for Galen's theory?
0:15:06 > 0:15:09It's the opposite to what Galen thought.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Blood wasn't just going in one direction.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14It wasn't just going away from the heart, it was returning,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17so it meant there was a circulation system in place.
0:15:17 > 0:15:18There was a recycling of the blood.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21It was returning through the veins back to the heart.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27Harvey's experiments confirmed that Galen was wrong
0:15:27 > 0:15:32and he showcased his conclusions in a series of dramatic
0:15:32 > 0:15:34public performances.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39One of them started with a live dog
0:15:39 > 0:15:41being brought into a packed lecture theatre.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46When everything was ready, Harvey stepped forward.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49He picked up a knife, he paused,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51he looked about the room
0:15:51 > 0:15:55and then he plunged his knife
0:15:55 > 0:15:57into the dog's chest.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Now, the dog writhed in agony, as Harvey exposed its heart
0:16:01 > 0:16:06and he made sure that everyone here saw that heart beating,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09pumping, pulsating inside its body.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11And then he picked up his knife again
0:16:11 > 0:16:14and then very delicately,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17he cut the artery next to it.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21Now, as soon as he did this, blood spurted across the room.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24People in the front row were showered with it.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28Everyone was astonished by the ferocity of the pulsations.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30Chaos ensued.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34And then finally, when everyone calmed down, Harvey said this.
0:16:34 > 0:16:40"I am obliged to conclude that in animals, the blood is driven round
0:16:40 > 0:16:44"in a circuit, with an unceasing circular movement.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48"And that this is a function of the heart which it
0:16:48 > 0:16:51"carries out by virtue of its pulsation."
0:16:59 > 0:17:02Harvey's discovery changed medical history.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06No modern operation would be possible without it.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10But at the time his rejection of ancient wisdom
0:17:10 > 0:17:12almost amounted to blasphemy.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18William Harvey had done the opposite of many of his Renaissance peers.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21He had rejected rather than embraced antiquity.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26But that rejection is what makes him such a pillar of the Renaissance.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Because the Renaissance was also about experimenting,
0:17:29 > 0:17:31it was about looking at the world afresh,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34and having courage in your own convictions.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49At the Stuart Court, however, this cultural and intellectual revolution
0:17:49 > 0:17:53was largely ignored.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56For they were too busy enjoying themselves!
0:17:58 > 0:18:04One night, the audience of the court of King James I were treated to
0:18:04 > 0:18:06an astonishing spectacle.
0:18:06 > 0:18:12In front of them appeared an expanse of sea, with moving waves on which
0:18:12 > 0:18:18rode six sea-gods, half man, half fish, astride giant sea-horses.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23All contained within a vast shell of mother of pearl.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28And, if that wasn't enough, beside them, huge sea monsters carried
0:18:28 > 0:18:3412 torch-bearers, whose lights flamed with burning seashells.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38And everyone was wearing coral, sea grass, silver and pearls.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40It was incredible!
0:18:40 > 0:18:43And, of course, utterly ridiculous!
0:18:48 > 0:18:52All this to amuse and flatter the King, who himself often took
0:18:52 > 0:18:54a starring role.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01These masques, as they were called, were often based, in the Italian
0:19:01 > 0:19:04style, on classical mythology.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10The costumes were gorgeous, the special effects extraordinary,
0:19:10 > 0:19:15the sets more elaborate than anything seen before.
0:19:15 > 0:19:21And the man who designed them and drew these sketches was Inigo Jones.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26What a waste of his talents,
0:19:26 > 0:19:31to be masterminding such sycophantic drivel.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34What a betrayal of the native theatrical renaissance that had,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37of course, given us Shakespeare.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44From the magic of A Midsummer Night's Dream
0:19:44 > 0:19:46to the pathos of King Lear,
0:19:46 > 0:19:52Shakespeare's theatre had reached out to a mass audience.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57The new court masques weren't progress, they were empty pageantry
0:19:57 > 0:19:59for a profligate elite.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06This extravagant theatre, much of it paid for by the public purse,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09had absolutely nothing to do with
0:20:09 > 0:20:12the lives of people outside the court.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17The only time they got a look in was when, in one masque,
0:20:17 > 0:20:22their justifiable grumblings were dismissed as giddy fury.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26It would be a few years yet before that "giddy fury" would boil over
0:20:26 > 0:20:27into revolution.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37With the great minds employed by the court to make fripperies like this,
0:20:37 > 0:20:42it's no surprise that the creative heart of Britain lay elsewhere.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54Far away in the Suffolk countryside lived one of the great eccentrics
0:20:54 > 0:20:58and one of the most brilliant figures of the British Renaissance.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02Chances are, you've never heard of him.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11Nathaniel Bacon was born near Bury St Edmunds in 1585,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14the son of a baronet.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19He enjoyed a privileged start in life, and things got even easier
0:21:19 > 0:21:21when he married a wealthy widow.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26Bacon became something of a playboy.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29He had so much money and so much time
0:21:29 > 0:21:31that he basically did whatever took his fancy.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36He had dozens of different hobbies and one of them was painting.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41Now, he didn't paint much but when he did, he was brilliant at it.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45In fact, to my mind, Nathaniel Bacon was one of the most
0:21:45 > 0:21:48original artists of his generation.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55Despite only being an amateur, Bacon made some of the most ambitious
0:21:55 > 0:21:57self-portraits in British art.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Here he is, surrounded by some of his many interests.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06Bacon didn't just flirt with traditional things like portraiture.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10He was always looking to invent new things too, and as it happened,
0:22:10 > 0:22:14he may well have invented an entirely new kind of British art.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23Bacon's remarkable invention is a small picture, locked away in
0:22:23 > 0:22:26the back-rooms of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34And this is it.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39A tiny little picture of some trees in a field.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42And we're pretty sure it's by Nathaniel Bacon
0:22:42 > 0:22:47because right in the middle of this tree, are his initials, NB.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Now, I'll be honest, it's a strange little thing
0:22:50 > 0:22:53and not the most beautiful.
0:22:53 > 0:22:59But, I think, it may well be one of the most important paintings
0:22:59 > 0:23:01in the history of British art.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07Because this, I think, is the very first landscape painting ever
0:23:07 > 0:23:09made by an Englishman.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11And if it is, it is the ancestor of
0:23:11 > 0:23:15Gainsborough and Constable and Turner and Nash.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19This little object is the beginning of an incredible tradition.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Bacon's innovative painting found inspiration in what would become,
0:23:36 > 0:23:41perhaps, the ultimate British obsession...gardening.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50This is the annual county fair at Oxted, in Surrey.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Nathaniel Bacon would have absolutely loved this place.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57It is just filled with incredible produce.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59I mean, look at the size of that cabbage!
0:24:02 > 0:24:06Bacon himself pioneered new ways of growing produce
0:24:06 > 0:24:09and managed to grow things like no-one else in England.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Bacon was famous for his pears,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18which, apparently, were to die for.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22He also produced extremely rare White Milan Turnips
0:24:22 > 0:24:26but, without doubt, Nathaniel Bacon's pride and joy
0:24:26 > 0:24:29were his melons...cantaloupe melons.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40In fact, Nathaniel Bacon was so inspired by what came out of his
0:24:40 > 0:24:45garden that it became the basis of what I think is his masterpiece.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52This painting now hangs in Tate Britain.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Like the landscape before it, it has no precedent in this country.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03It is, perhaps, the first still life in British art.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12Now, this painting depicts an almost uncontrollably buxom cook maid,
0:25:12 > 0:25:17surrounded by a smorgasbord of fruit and veg.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21And amid this cornucopia of produce
0:25:21 > 0:25:26are some of Nathaniel Bacon's very favourite specimens.
0:25:26 > 0:25:32So, over here, his world-class pears, his famous white turnips.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35And, of course, his really famous cantaloupe melons.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37One of which is shown cut open,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40so we don't mistake it for anything less impressive.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42And in the background you can even
0:25:42 > 0:25:45make out the way that Nathaniel Bacon grew his melons.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47These are his hot-beds and this woman over here,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49she's probably his cook,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52bringing one of the melons back for lunch.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57The spread continues, we have runner beans, turnips, squashes,
0:25:57 > 0:26:04pumpkins, cucumbers...but the piece de resistance is surely this array
0:26:04 > 0:26:07of gigantic cabbages that seem to
0:26:07 > 0:26:11overtake the room like a kind of science fiction monster.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14I think, partly, he's just showing off.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16He's saying, "Look what I can grow!"
0:26:16 > 0:26:17But I think it's more than that.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21I think, by painting melons and
0:26:21 > 0:26:25cabbages and worldly things like bosoms on such a monumental scale,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Nathaniel Bacon is making a statement.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30He's saying, these things are
0:26:30 > 0:26:34just as important as the gods and heroes of the Mediterranean.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38That the Renaissance may well be found in Roman ruins but it can
0:26:38 > 0:26:41also be found in your own back garden!
0:26:53 > 0:26:57And that was the point about the home-grown renaissance. It was less
0:26:57 > 0:27:00about fantasies of ideal beauty and
0:27:00 > 0:27:03more about looking in new ways at reality.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10Bacon had found a heroism in nature.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17Harvey had revealed the mechanics of the human body.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21And one remarkable man would explore
0:27:21 > 0:27:23nothing less than the secrets of the soul.
0:27:31 > 0:27:36Robert Burton was a private, unassuming and unworldly man.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42Robert Burton spent all of his career
0:27:42 > 0:27:45and most of his life here, in Oxford.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50He never travelled, never married, he never really had much fun.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54Yet he did something far more interesting.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58Burton devoted his entire career to just one Herculean labour.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03Burton wanted to produce a definitive account of
0:28:03 > 0:28:05the human condition itself.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10And he chose to focus on one particular emotion, melancholy.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17For Burton, melancholy meant all forms of sadness,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20from feeling a bit glum to severe depression.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22Not one for short cuts,
0:28:22 > 0:28:28Burton amassed an enormous personal library of almost 2,000 books
0:28:28 > 0:28:29and began reading.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36Many of these books are kept here in his old college, Christchurch,
0:28:36 > 0:28:40where Burton was himself a librarian.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43They contributed to his life's achievement,
0:28:43 > 0:28:48one huge best seller, The Anatomy Of Melancholy.
0:28:50 > 0:28:55So, this is it, all 723 pages of it.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57And I want to begin with the frontispiece
0:28:57 > 0:29:01because even Burton's frontispiece is comprehensive.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05Up here, are two different features of melancholy.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Jealousy on the left and solitude on the right
0:29:09 > 0:29:13and down here we have the love-sick man surrounded by his love letters,
0:29:13 > 0:29:18the man made miserable by religion and superstition, and over here,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21right in the centre, is Robert Burton himself, holding his book,
0:29:21 > 0:29:23holding this book, in fact.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30And then, inside, Burton anatomises
0:29:30 > 0:29:35every possible cause, symptom and even cure of the many
0:29:35 > 0:29:37different kinds of melancholy.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41All of this material is organised in
0:29:41 > 0:29:46members and then those members are divided into subsections,
0:29:46 > 0:29:47into sub-subsections
0:29:47 > 0:29:49into sub-sub-subsections
0:29:49 > 0:29:53and, of course, into sub-sub-sub-subsections.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56And some of it is extremely complicated.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00He talks over here about the causes of melancholy.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03So, he talks about supernatural causes, so, God causing melancholy.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05And he talks about natural causes.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09So, things coming from the body, from the emotions, from the humours.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11He talks about melancholy of the head,
0:30:11 > 0:30:15melancholy of the body and melancholy of the emotions.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18And he talks about symptoms of melancholy.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21So, we have body problems, wind,
0:30:21 > 0:30:25dry brains, hard belly, thick blood...whatever thick blood is.
0:30:27 > 0:30:28You'd be forgiven for thinking that
0:30:28 > 0:30:31this vast book is just a bit bonkers!
0:30:31 > 0:30:34It is...but only a bit.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39It's also witty, wise and written with real human empathy.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45His passage on marriage is one of my favourites.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47"Every lover admires his mistress,
0:30:47 > 0:30:51"Though she may be very deformed of herself, ill-favoured, wrinkled,
0:30:51 > 0:30:54"Pimpled, pale, red, yellow, tanned,
0:30:54 > 0:30:58"Tallow faced, have a swollen juggler's platter face..."
0:30:58 > 0:31:00And he goes on for the whole page,
0:31:00 > 0:31:04describing how ugly this woman might be and then, at the end,
0:31:04 > 0:31:06he writes this.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10"If he love her once, he admires her for all this,
0:31:10 > 0:31:13"he takes no notice of any such errors
0:31:13 > 0:31:16"or imperfections of body or mind."
0:31:16 > 0:31:19What an amazing thing, 400 years ago, and Robert Burton saying,
0:31:19 > 0:31:22"It doesn't matter how ugly your wife is,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25"If you love her, you love her."
0:31:29 > 0:31:32There's something particularly poignant
0:31:32 > 0:31:35about this whole vast endeavour.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38Burton himself suffered from melancholy,
0:31:38 > 0:31:41so in some ways it's an autobiography.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45I think this man must be the nearest
0:31:45 > 0:31:48character we have to Robert Burton today.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54He's devoted his own life to producing a multi-volume commentary
0:31:54 > 0:31:56on The Anatomy, which now
0:31:56 > 0:32:00threatens to be even longer than Burton's enormous tome!
0:32:03 > 0:32:07Martin, why was melancholy such a big thing in the 17th century?
0:32:07 > 0:32:09Well, I think it was partly to do
0:32:09 > 0:32:11with increasing self consciousness.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13And that people became
0:32:13 > 0:32:14more aware of themselves
0:32:14 > 0:32:17and therefore of their own feelings.
0:32:17 > 0:32:22In some ways, in the 17th century, then, melancholy had some cache?
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Oh, yes, yes, particularly if you were a lover.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29Of course, if you were a lover you really needed
0:32:29 > 0:32:33to be miserable about the woman you loved.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36It was quite important, cos it showed you had feelings.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40In some ways, could we think of him as the ultimate Renaissance man?
0:32:40 > 0:32:44Yes, not just because he had read everything, that would be
0:32:44 > 0:32:48a medieval trait as well, but because he was so on the ball.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51He was interested in new thinking, very much so.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54He was interested in the voyages of discovery,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58interested in America, what was going on in Peru...
0:32:58 > 0:33:02His mind was everywhere and I think that was quite unusual.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Throughout this book there's a great sense of humanity, through every
0:33:05 > 0:33:09single page. Do you get that feeling as well?
0:33:09 > 0:33:14Yes, I think that he wanted to console, he wanted to amuse,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17he wanted to give the melancholy person
0:33:17 > 0:33:20the sense of what a wide world it was.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23In some ways, Martin, you seem like a modern day Robert Burton.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26Oh, I try not to. I think I'm grumpier!
0:33:26 > 0:33:28Grumpier than Burton?
0:33:28 > 0:33:29HE LAUGHS
0:33:32 > 0:33:38This is what the melancholy man wrote about his own life,
0:33:38 > 0:33:44"I have lived a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life.
0:33:44 > 0:33:50"I never travelled but in map or cart. I have no wife, no children
0:33:50 > 0:33:55"to provide for. I have little. I want nothing.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59"All my treasure is in wisdom's tower."
0:34:01 > 0:34:05I find those words so humbling.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08Because the modest man who wrote them had quietly
0:34:08 > 0:34:10and selflessly produced one of
0:34:10 > 0:34:13the greatest books in the English language.
0:34:25 > 0:34:30A mood of melancholy hovered over the artists and scientists of this
0:34:30 > 0:34:33increasingly introspective age.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39And in its dark shadows, poets found inspiration.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45One of its most famous victims was one of the greatest poets of this
0:34:45 > 0:34:47or any time.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55His picture hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, in London.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00We do not know its artist but it is one of the first paintings of
0:35:00 > 0:35:02a writer in British history.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08This is John Donne, he's only 23.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13He's so young he can't even grow a full moustache yet.
0:35:13 > 0:35:18Yet, despite his youth, he's already suffering from melancholy.
0:35:20 > 0:35:26All the symptoms are there. He's crossing his arms in a morose way,
0:35:26 > 0:35:31he's pouting his lips, he's wearing all black, and even his collar
0:35:31 > 0:35:34is in an anxious state of disarray.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36But there's another clue here, another symptom, one that
0:35:36 > 0:35:39almost no-one ever notices.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43Here, between the collar is a little stream of smoke.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50And that, believe it or not, is actually the vapour of melancholy,
0:35:50 > 0:35:55rising from his abdomen, where it's produced, all the way to his head.
0:35:55 > 0:36:00I'll be honest, it doesn't look promising for young John Donne.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04But he does see a way out through the gloom.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08Above his head, there is an inscription in Latin,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12that translates as, "Illuminate the darkness, oh, lady."
0:36:15 > 0:36:20And I think he's saying, the only cure for melancholy is women!
0:36:31 > 0:36:33As a young law student, John Donne
0:36:33 > 0:36:37pursued his self-prescribed cure with enthusiasm.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40He was a notorious womaniser.
0:36:40 > 0:36:46And some of his poems read as witty, elaborate seductions.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48Take "The Flea" for example.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54Donne's with a woman.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57He wants to have sex with her.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01She's not interested. So, he points to a flea.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Now, this flea has already bitten both of them,
0:37:04 > 0:37:06already sucked both of their blood.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11"Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14"How little that which thou deny'st me is,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17"It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20"And in this flea our two bloods mingled be..."
0:37:23 > 0:37:26Donne's tactic is to say, "Look, our body fluids
0:37:26 > 0:37:31"have already been mixed. So, in one way, we've already had sex.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33"So we may as well do it for real."
0:37:34 > 0:37:37Suffice to say, the young lady's not
0:37:37 > 0:37:39convinced by his reasoning.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44She squashes the flea and with it Donne's hopes...
0:37:44 > 0:37:45but it was a clever try.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05When Donne finally married, he settled with his wife in a tranquil
0:38:05 > 0:38:08spot in the Surrey countryside.
0:38:10 > 0:38:16They lived together in this tiny summer house on the riverbank.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19It was a blissful time.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25But his poetry kept its wit and energy and directness.
0:38:25 > 0:38:30This is how he begins his poem The Good Morrow,
0:38:30 > 0:38:36"I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I did, till we loved?
0:38:36 > 0:38:38"Were we not weaned till then?
0:38:38 > 0:38:43"But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
0:38:43 > 0:38:45"If ever any beauty I did see,
0:38:45 > 0:38:49"Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53"And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56"Which watch not one another out of fear,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00"For love, all love of other sights controls,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04"And makes one little room an everywhere."
0:39:07 > 0:39:10God, I love that poem.
0:39:10 > 0:39:15It feels so direct, so intimate, so modern.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19It begins with Donne waking up next to his lover and you can just
0:39:19 > 0:39:24imagine him turning over to her in bed, stretching his limbs,
0:39:24 > 0:39:29and saying, "I wonder by my troth, what thou and I did till we loved."
0:39:29 > 0:39:30He's saying, what the hell
0:39:30 > 0:39:32were we doing before now?
0:39:32 > 0:39:35What a waste of time life was before we met.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38And that is such a universal sentiment.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41Everyone who's been in love has surely felt that way.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47But the poem also embraces the excitement of its age,
0:39:47 > 0:39:51the great Renaissance era that produced it.
0:39:53 > 0:39:55The Good Morrow was written amid
0:39:55 > 0:39:58the great age of discovery and John Donne knew about
0:39:58 > 0:40:00all those voyages around the world.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03But here he rejects them. He's saying, "They can discover new
0:40:03 > 0:40:06"countries, they can discover new continents,
0:40:06 > 0:40:07"they can discover new worlds,
0:40:07 > 0:40:11"but the only world that matters is our little world,
0:40:11 > 0:40:13"with the two of us inside it."
0:40:25 > 0:40:29But John Donne's honeymoon did not last long.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34In 1617, his wife Anne died.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37She was only 33 years old.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44Donne was virtually destroyed by Anne's death.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48The love of his life was gone, and decades before her time.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52He was grief-stricken, but he felt guilty, too.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56He knew that he had given her a life of hardship and poverty,
0:40:56 > 0:41:01and he promised that he would never be with another woman ever again,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04and as far as we know, he kept that promise.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11After his wife's death,
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Donne's restless spirit found a new consolation -
0:41:14 > 0:41:16religion.
0:41:16 > 0:41:23In 1621, this former libertine became Dean of St Paul's Cathedral.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26But his melancholy came back to haunt him,
0:41:26 > 0:41:34and prompted a new obsession - death, particularly his own death.
0:41:34 > 0:41:39In fact, Donne's poetry became saturated with it.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44John Donne wrote so much poetry about death,
0:41:44 > 0:41:49but his attitude towards it became increasingly odd.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52How about this for the start of a poem?
0:41:52 > 0:41:56"When I am dead, and doctors know not why
0:41:56 > 0:42:02"And my friends' curiosity will have me cut up to survey each part."
0:42:02 > 0:42:05He's imagining his own autopsy.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09I'm convinced on reading these, that, after his wife's death,
0:42:09 > 0:42:13all John Donne really wanted to do was to die himself,
0:42:13 > 0:42:19and I think he wanted to die in order to be reunited with her.
0:42:23 > 0:42:28Lonely, heartbroken, and increasingly ill,
0:42:28 > 0:42:32Donne would not wait long for his wish to be fulfilled.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36In his late 50s, he developed cancer.
0:42:37 > 0:42:42But he had one last artistic gesture to make.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48On his death bed, Donne wrapped himself in a shroud.
0:42:52 > 0:42:57He closed his eyes, turned to the east, to the rising sun,
0:42:57 > 0:43:01and then asked an artist to draw him.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09The drawing showed Donne as if already dead.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15And when it was completed, he hung it beside his bed,
0:43:15 > 0:43:20and gazed at it through the last days of his life.
0:43:21 > 0:43:26As Donne finally died, he did something extraordinary.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30He took up the very same pose,
0:43:30 > 0:43:36and in doing so, his real death became identical to the drawing.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45The drawing was later passed to the great English sculptor
0:43:45 > 0:43:47Nicholas Stone,
0:43:47 > 0:43:51who used it as the basis for a mesmerising statue.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55It is now in St Paul's Cathedral.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10Here is Donne, posed exactly as he was
0:44:10 > 0:44:15when he was drawn, and pretty much just as he was when he died.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20And, you know, I find this such a moving piece of sculpture.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24Because here one of the heroic figures in British culture
0:44:24 > 0:44:28is shown at his most vulnerable.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32His hands are clutching his stomach - that's where his cancer started.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36His little knock-knees buckled under his own weight,
0:44:36 > 0:44:40and his entire body is tensed with the cold.
0:44:40 > 0:44:45This piece is so well-carved, that if you look at it long enough,
0:44:45 > 0:44:48you become almost certain that it's actually moving,
0:44:48 > 0:44:53that the fabric is wrinkling, that the chest is breathing.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55And that's what this sculpture is about.
0:44:55 > 0:44:57It's about his death, of course,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00but it's also about John Donne's new life.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02I mean, just look at his face.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06Look how calm he looks, look how content.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10And look at those eyes. I know they're closed,
0:45:10 > 0:45:14but I'm convinced they are just about to open.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18This is death as a new beginning.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30Like Harvey and Bacon and Burton before him,
0:45:30 > 0:45:35John Donne had brought a new spirit of energy and innovation
0:45:35 > 0:45:38to British culture.
0:45:40 > 0:45:46I think by the 1630s, we had created something very special indeed.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49A bold, beautiful and humane Renaissance
0:45:49 > 0:45:52that was inescapably, stubbornly British.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Yet once again, the Stuart Court wasn't convinced.
0:45:56 > 0:46:01Once again, and for the final time, it looked abroad for inspiration.
0:46:09 > 0:46:16In March 1632, a Flemish man called Antoon arrived in London.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19He was only 33 years old,
0:46:19 > 0:46:24but he was already the most fashionable artist in Europe.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30This painter was not really like any painter
0:46:30 > 0:46:33the British had seen before.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36He was urbane and multilingual.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40He was wearing extremely expensive clothes,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43and he brought with him a large team of servants
0:46:43 > 0:46:46and a huge train of luggage.
0:46:51 > 0:46:56Antoon Van Dyck immediately achieved celebrity status.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00The King gave him a substantial house on the river in Blackfriars,
0:47:00 > 0:47:04where he threw lavish parties for the great and the good.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07Within a year, he was knighted.
0:47:14 > 0:47:21Sir Anthony Van Dyck had been born in Antwerp in 1599.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25He had natural talent, and painted this remarkable self portrait
0:47:25 > 0:47:27when he was just 15.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Raised as a Catholic, Van Dyck absorbed all the lessons
0:47:34 > 0:47:36of the European Renaissance.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41His painting was more dramatic, more fleshy,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44and more sensuous than anything we had seen in Britain.
0:47:53 > 0:47:58The English upper classes were desperate to get a slice of this foreign sophistication,
0:47:58 > 0:48:00and flocked to his London studio.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06Yet if you think that great art is the result of one man's imagination,
0:48:06 > 0:48:10Van Dyck might surprise you.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14If you asked Van Dyck to paint your portrait,
0:48:14 > 0:48:16the first thing you'd get was a price list.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19£50-60 for a full-length portrait,
0:48:19 > 0:48:24£30 for a mid, £20 for head and shoulders.
0:48:27 > 0:48:32As soon as you were in position, Van Dyck would start the clock.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35He'd rapidly sketch your face onto a canvas,
0:48:35 > 0:48:41and then, when exactly one hour was up, he'd kick you out.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46And then the next one would be brought in for the same treatment.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Now, if Van Dyck's method reminds you of your dentist,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51you're probably about right.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58And this was just stage one.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04Van Dyck would then hand over the sketch to his assistants
0:49:04 > 0:49:08who started painting his picture for him in another room.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12Now, by this stage, the real sitter had long gone.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14But the assistants got round this easily -
0:49:14 > 0:49:19they had a team of body doubles in their studio.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26Over several days, and sometimes weeks,
0:49:26 > 0:49:29the assistants painted up the portrait.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34When the painting was virtually complete,
0:49:34 > 0:49:37it was brought back to Van Dyck.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40And then, with a few flashes of his paintbrush,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43he gave it his own signature flair.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56Over the next few years,
0:49:56 > 0:50:00Van Dyck's studio knocked out dozens of such portraits.
0:50:02 > 0:50:07In Van Dyck's hands, his wealthy sitters were transformed.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12Haughty poses, magnificent outfits -
0:50:12 > 0:50:16the British had never looked quite so stylish.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23Not for nothing are these known as swagger portraits.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29As for my own more modest portrait, the artist who kindly agreed
0:50:29 > 0:50:34to sketch me just now in a mere 20 minutes is Nicky Philips.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38Like Van Dyck, she paints society figures,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41and she's a passionate admirer of his.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45Nicky, Van Dyck really is the sort of prince of portraiture, isn't he?
0:50:45 > 0:50:49What do you think makes him such a special and brilliant portraitist?
0:50:49 > 0:50:51There's a sort of clarity about it.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54You don't feel that the paint has been over mixed or he's taken
0:50:54 > 0:50:57several brushstrokes to put it on.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59It's just there, in one stroke usually,
0:50:59 > 0:51:01saying everything that needs to be said.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04For me, when I look at a Van Dyck painting, I just want to touch it.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07I want to touch the flesh, I want to touch the silk, the velvet,
0:51:07 > 0:51:09I want to touch every single part of it.
0:51:09 > 0:51:15In three brushstrokes you can tell it's silk. And that's what's clever.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18The translucency of the skin is extraordinary.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21All this under painting gets built up and built up
0:51:21 > 0:51:25and that's why I feel as though he was painting more realistically
0:51:25 > 0:51:27than anyone has ever done.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32Ever, really. You truly feel there is flesh there.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36This is the thing that is wonderful about Van Dyck, is that it's both
0:51:36 > 0:51:38extremely realistic
0:51:38 > 0:51:42and yet it's clearly not how those people looked, on the street.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45But I do still feel that it's a living being.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48If you take the earlier Renaissance pictures,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50they were much more two-dimensional,
0:51:50 > 0:51:54and you take painting today, which has gone back to being quite
0:51:54 > 0:51:58two-dimensional - that was like the peak of realism.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01It was exactly how you see somebody.
0:52:01 > 0:52:06He brings this sophistication, this elegance, this grace, this swagger.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09I mean, they don't really look English, do they?
0:52:09 > 0:52:11I think his pictures show sophistication that perhaps
0:52:11 > 0:52:13hadn't arrived here.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Would you like to have Van Dyck paint your portrait?
0:52:16 > 0:52:19- What do you think?- I think you would!
0:52:28 > 0:52:33Van Dyck's greatest painting hangs here, at Wilton House in Wiltshire.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35It's an Italianate palace
0:52:35 > 0:52:37that reflected the courtly taste of the day.
0:52:39 > 0:52:40And no wonder.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44It was in part designed by the man who brought Renaissance Italy
0:52:44 > 0:52:46to England.
0:52:46 > 0:52:47Inigo Jones.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58This is Inigo Jones's double cube room.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02So-called because it has the dimensions of two 30-feet cubes
0:53:02 > 0:53:05laid end-to-end.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07Now, it is a fabulous space,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10and one of the reasons it was designed was to showcase
0:53:10 > 0:53:13all of these paintings by Van Dyck.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18The room is lined with them. There is one of Van Dyck's many
0:53:18 > 0:53:20portraits of Charles himself.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23And there's his French queen, Henrietta Maria.
0:53:25 > 0:53:29But one of these paintings dwarfs all the others.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31It's the largest painting he ever produced.
0:53:36 > 0:53:41A portrait of the Earl of Pembroke with his entire family.
0:53:42 > 0:53:48This has to be the most swaggery of all swagger portraits.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53It actually celebrates a marriage, between the Earl's son,
0:53:53 > 0:53:57this dapper young man in red, who is only about 15 years old,
0:53:57 > 0:54:03to this heiress in silver, who is barely 13 years old.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05If that doesn't sound ideal to us,
0:54:05 > 0:54:07it was ideal to the Pembrokes,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11because she was going to bring a huge dowry to the Pembroke family
0:54:11 > 0:54:14and thus to secure their already promising future.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17It's therefore, I think, a painting of triumph,
0:54:17 > 0:54:21a painting about a rich family becoming even richer.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25And Van Dyck has even included, up in the top left corner,
0:54:25 > 0:54:29a bunch of cherubs, as if they're blessing the family from on high.
0:54:34 > 0:54:40But look closer, and that swagger begins to seem rather hollow.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43I think there's something very strange about that family.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48None of them are looking at each other.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51The Earl and his wife in the centre, they look downright miserable.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53She's crossing her arms morosely,
0:54:53 > 0:54:55almost as though she resents even being painted.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58And, in fact, when Van Dyck made this picture,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00their marriage was all but over.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02They were actually living in different houses.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04And the cherubs?
0:55:05 > 0:55:06They're not cherubs.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Some people think they are the ghosts of three Pembroke boys
0:55:09 > 0:55:11who died as children.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15And if they are, they're not blessing this painting,
0:55:15 > 0:55:16they're haunting it.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25But tragedy lay ahead not only for the Pembroke family.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30Dark clouds were gathering above the British aristocracy.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39Many of the people Van Dyck had made look so confident,
0:55:39 > 0:55:43so invincible, would end up perishing in battle.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50Their glamorous Renaissance was about to end.
0:55:57 > 0:55:59For some years,
0:55:59 > 0:56:04a powerful and subversive movement had been building. Puritanism.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10The Puritans had one aim in mind,
0:56:10 > 0:56:15to return the country to a land of Christian simplicity.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21There was no place for the luxury and extravagance
0:56:21 > 0:56:23of court favourites like Jones and Van Dyck.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30"There is no welcome on these shores for the sinful,
0:56:30 > 0:56:33"the idolatrous, the abominable.
0:56:33 > 0:56:39"All images, be they molten, carved or painted, are to God deceits.
0:56:39 > 0:56:44"Forsake the Devil and all his works.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47"The sinful lusts of the flesh."
0:56:50 > 0:56:51Their radical ideas fuelled
0:56:51 > 0:56:55a revolt against an arrogant and extravagant king.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03In 1642, king and parliament went to war against each other.
0:57:05 > 0:57:10Seven years later, a defeated King Charles was led to the scaffold.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16Here, he was executed outside the palace
0:57:16 > 0:57:19that Inigo Jones had designed for his father.
0:57:25 > 0:57:29What followed would be a new age,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33an age of austerity, hostile to any kind of Renaissance,
0:57:33 > 0:57:35native or foreign.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40It was the end of more than 100 extraordinary years.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46From foreign artists and craftsmen we had learnt the language
0:57:46 > 0:57:49of the Renaissance and we had gone on
0:57:49 > 0:57:53to build a Renaissance of our own.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58In little more than a century, we had ceased to be medieval
0:57:58 > 0:58:00and become modern.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07I think we've forgotten too many of the British painters
0:58:07 > 0:58:11and sculptors, poets and scientists who brought about that revolution.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21The Renaissance didn't only happen abroad.
0:58:21 > 0:58:24This series has shown that the British had a renaissance too.
0:58:24 > 0:58:26It may have been different from the continent
0:58:26 > 0:58:29but it was a renaissance all right.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32And it changed British culture forever.