0:00:17 > 0:00:19Oh, my word!
0:00:21 > 0:00:23Ooh la la!
0:00:25 > 0:00:26Ah!
0:00:27 > 0:00:29Hey!
0:00:34 > 0:00:35Eek!
0:00:49 > 0:00:54The rococo age occupied most of the 18th century.
0:00:54 > 0:01:01It went from roughly 1700 to roughly 1790 or so.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04You can't really be much more precise.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07It's not a precise movement,
0:01:07 > 0:01:12more of a tendency, a tone, an inclination.
0:01:18 > 0:01:23Rococo's reputation tends to be frilly and unserious.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28When you think of rococo art, you think of this, don't you?
0:01:30 > 0:01:32Or this.
0:01:34 > 0:01:35Or this.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38WOMAN GIGGLES
0:01:38 > 0:01:42But it wasn't just frilly and pink.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Rococo was all sorts of other things as well.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47What I want to do in this series
0:01:47 > 0:01:51is convince you of its wider achievements -
0:01:51 > 0:01:54its punch, its determination,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57its intoxicating beauty.
0:01:59 > 0:02:04Yes, it was frilly and pink at times, but not always,
0:02:04 > 0:02:05and never for nothing.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10This first film
0:02:10 > 0:02:14is about the exciting impact of travel on rococo art.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19That's why I'm stomping up
0:02:19 > 0:02:23this very long rococo staircase in Germany,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27towards that very lovely rococo church at the top.
0:02:31 > 0:02:37Travel was one of the great inventions of the rococo age.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41Of course, people had travelled before, but far fewer of them,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45and not with the same crazy enthusiasm.
0:02:46 > 0:02:52Travel as one of life's most exciting pleasures
0:02:52 > 0:02:54was a rococo idea.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02I've got three books here that I'm sure you've heard of.
0:03:02 > 0:03:08Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift, published 1726.
0:03:09 > 0:03:15Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe, published 1719.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19And these little delights here,
0:03:19 > 0:03:231001 Arabian Nights - Aladdin,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26Scheherazade, Ali Baba,
0:03:26 > 0:03:31translated and published in France in 1717.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35So that's three of the most famous travel adventures of all time,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38and every one of them a rococo book.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47So travel had a big impact on the rococo.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53And that impact influenced art in various ways.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00I'm stomping through Germany with my trusty pilgrim's stick,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02because in rococo times,
0:04:02 > 0:04:07pilgrimage became such a powerful creative force.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11Especially here, in Bavaria.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19Ah, Bavaria, what a place. Great rococo art in every direction.
0:04:19 > 0:04:25That's the Nymphenburg in Munich, a fabulous rococo palace.
0:04:25 > 0:04:31And in there lives a man who some think should be the king of Britain.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35This is him, Francis II of England and Scotland,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38or, as they call him here, Franz, Duke of Bavaria.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42Now, he's descended from James II,
0:04:42 > 0:04:44the last Catholic King of England,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47who was overthrown by William and Mary.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50But James' followers, the Jacobins, as they're called,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53have never given up hope that one day,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56the King Over The Water, as they call him,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59the rightful King of England and Scotland,
0:04:59 > 0:05:04Franz, Duke of Bavaria, will one day regain the English throne.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Dream on, all you Jacobins, it'll never happen.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16The Dukes of Bavaria have always been much too Catholic
0:05:16 > 0:05:18to rule Britain.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23In Bavaria, Catholicism is the state religion,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27defended fiercely against the wicked Protestants in the north.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33And all this glorious rococo architecture
0:05:33 > 0:05:38dotted about Bavaria by its madly Catholic dukes
0:05:38 > 0:05:44was aimed at that particularly energetic rococo traveller,
0:05:44 > 0:05:45the pilgrim.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Pilgrims were the dukes' primary audience.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58Their spending bankrolled the entire rococo expansion.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03A pilgrim on the trail was a travelling money box.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19And politically, the more Catholic Bavaria became,
0:06:19 > 0:06:24the less opposition there was to its Catholic dukes.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29So the Protestants were shoved out, sometimes brutally.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34And the Catholics were pampered, enticed, seduced
0:06:34 > 0:06:37by some of the most heady
0:06:37 > 0:06:42and exquisite architecture ever constructed.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50This is Vierzehnheiligen in northern Bavaria,
0:06:50 > 0:06:55The Basilica Of The 14 Holy Helpers, to give it its official title.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01And slap in the middle, there they are,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04the 14 saints who made this church
0:07:04 > 0:07:08an extra-special Bavarian destination.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14All pilgrimage churches have something in them
0:07:14 > 0:07:17that attracts the pilgrims, a reason to go there.
0:07:17 > 0:07:23And Vierzehnheiligen had 14 reasons.
0:07:23 > 0:07:29The story goes that on 24th September 1445,
0:07:29 > 0:07:34a shepherd saw a baby crying in a field, exactly here.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37But as he stooped down to pick the baby up,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39it suddenly disappeared.
0:07:43 > 0:07:49Later, he saw it again, this time with a red cross on its chest,
0:07:49 > 0:07:53so he knew immediately it was the baby Jesus.
0:07:55 > 0:08:01The final time the baby appeared, he was accompanied by 13 other babies.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04And this time, the baby spoke to the shepherd,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08and it said "We are the 14 helpers,
0:08:08 > 0:08:15"and we wish to erect a chapel here, where we can rest."
0:08:15 > 0:08:17So that's what happened.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22The locals erected a chapel on this exact spot,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24and the miracles began.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30Pilgrims began to flock here in their thousands.
0:08:30 > 0:08:36And in this field by a river, where previously there was nothing,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40this great pilgrimage church was built.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47I love the way religion can turn nowhere into somewhere.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49What a power that is.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54I mean, this was just a field on a hill. Now look at it.
0:08:58 > 0:09:04To build the new church, they brought in an architect of genius,
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Balthasar Neumann.
0:09:07 > 0:09:13And at Vierzehnheiligen, Neumann gave us his rococo masterpiece...
0:09:16 > 0:09:20A building that twists hither and thither across the cosmos...
0:09:20 > 0:09:27before plunging down so dramatically to the great shrine at its centre.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33As for the pilgrims, they couldn't have been better served.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35When you came to Vierzehnheiligen,
0:09:35 > 0:09:40one of these 14 saints was sure to help you.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42So if you suffer from migraine, like me,
0:09:42 > 0:09:47you prayed to St Denis here, the patron saint for headaches.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56And if you were having a baby, there was St Margaret,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59to help you with your childbirth.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01A saint for every occasion.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07All this is spectacular -
0:10:07 > 0:10:10that's obvious.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13But why is it rococo?
0:10:13 > 0:10:16And what does rococo actually mean?
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Well, I don't know if you remember
0:10:23 > 0:10:26a series I did about the baroque age
0:10:26 > 0:10:29and how I explained the difference
0:10:29 > 0:10:33between the renaissance and the baroque with two pearls.
0:10:34 > 0:10:35Now, this pearl here,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37the round one,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39that's like the renaissance.
0:10:39 > 0:10:40Perfect.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42Precise.
0:10:43 > 0:10:44What about the baroque?
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Well, baroque comes from the Portuguese word barroco,
0:10:47 > 0:10:51which means a misshapen pearl.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53So that's like this one -
0:10:53 > 0:10:57blobby, organic, bulging.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00So that's the renaissance,
0:11:00 > 0:11:03and that, the baroque.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05But what about the rococo?
0:11:05 > 0:11:07Well, the rococo...
0:11:08 > 0:11:11that was like the arrival in arts...
0:11:13 > 0:11:15of the entire sea bed!
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Rococo is actually a combination of two words -
0:11:22 > 0:11:27the French word "rocaille", which means "shell work",
0:11:27 > 0:11:30like those ornate effects with shells
0:11:30 > 0:11:32you get on grottos and fountains -
0:11:32 > 0:11:37and at the end "coco" comes from "barroco" again.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42As so often happens with the names of art movements,
0:11:42 > 0:11:45it was originally an insult.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51The new style was so over the top, said the critics, so shapeless,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55it was like crazy shell work.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58The baroque gone mad.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Rococo.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03The rococo implies an art
0:12:03 > 0:12:07that's shapeless and overloaded,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11an art without sensible or logical boundaries.
0:12:11 > 0:12:12And it's definitely true.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16Sometimes the rococo went too far
0:12:16 > 0:12:20in its search for freedom and looseness.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24But other times, the results were glorious,
0:12:24 > 0:12:26breathtaking.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33Some of the world's most exciting interiors are rococo interiors.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39Oh, how they fidget and shimmer and twinkle!
0:12:40 > 0:12:44But if the rococo was only a style of gorgeous interior,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47that wouldn't be enough.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50To be genuinely significant
0:12:50 > 0:12:54the fidgety and playful spirit of the rococo
0:12:54 > 0:12:58needed to infiltrate all the other arts, as well.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01Particularly, painting.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05So it made a beeline
0:13:05 > 0:13:09for this especially popular rococo destination,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12where reality feels dreamy
0:13:12 > 0:13:14and dreams feel real -
0:13:17 > 0:13:19the shimmering city...
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Venice.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32You can come to Venice for all sorts of excellent rococo reasons.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36To read a bit of Casanova, for instance.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40He was Venetian, of course.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44CHURCH BELLS RING
0:13:44 > 0:13:47To listen to Vivaldi
0:13:47 > 0:13:49who was born in this square,
0:13:49 > 0:13:51and baptised in that church.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59But since this is a film about travel,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01the first thing we need to do
0:14:01 > 0:14:04is to tackle the definitive travel artist,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07the incomparable Canaletto.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15We're often guilty of underestimating Canaletto.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18He's famous, yes.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22But in top art-historical circles,
0:14:22 > 0:14:28the suspicion lingers that he was just a painter of postcards.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33But he wasn't. He really wasn't.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37Canaletto was a brilliant tinkerer with reality.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40An artistic master chef,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43who turned the raw ingredients of Venice
0:14:43 > 0:14:45into irresistible new recipes.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53Now, of course, Venice is really beautiful,
0:14:53 > 0:14:55but it's not as beautiful as this!
0:14:55 > 0:14:57Nowhere is.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02And, of course, the Venetians can be very charming and lively,
0:15:02 > 0:15:06but they're never as charming and lively
0:15:06 > 0:15:08as Canaletto's Venetians.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13All this needed to be concocted.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19He was actually born there,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21where that hotel is,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23in 1697.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31His father, Bernardo Canal,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34was a painter of stage scenery.
0:15:34 > 0:15:35Very well-known.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38He worked in carnival shows and theatres.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45So to differentiate himself from his dad,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49the son began calling himself Canaletto.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54Little Canal. Or Canal Junior.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01There are only two portraits of him - this is one of them.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07And Little Canal's first pictures of Venice,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11are as theatrical as anything his dad ever designed.
0:16:13 > 0:16:14This is the island of San Michele,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18the cemetery island Of Venice,
0:16:18 > 0:16:22and just look at all the thunder and drama
0:16:22 > 0:16:25which the young Canaletto
0:16:25 > 0:16:28called down from its skies.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39These first Canalettos are so unexpectedly gothic.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48Here's the Rio Mendicanti.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Today it's a pleasant place to hang out...
0:16:55 > 0:16:58but you wouldn't want to hang out in Canaletto's Rio Mendicanti -
0:17:00 > 0:17:02it's too tense and grubby,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06and attracts the wrong sort of people.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Don't worry, it was only water!
0:17:12 > 0:17:17I was just trying to evoke Canaletto's first moods.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26But then, lo and behold,
0:17:26 > 0:17:28a transformation.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Suddenly, in about 1728, 1730,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35Canaletto's art
0:17:35 > 0:17:39grows sunny, lucid.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46It's as if his output has come out from behind a cloud,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48revealing a new Venice -
0:17:48 > 0:17:51brighter,
0:17:51 > 0:17:52grander,
0:17:52 > 0:17:54sunnier.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00What happened is, he found himself a new market -
0:18:00 > 0:18:02the English market.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04And he adapted his art to suit it.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11Canaletto's sunny new Venice was aimed chiefly
0:18:11 > 0:18:15at those privileged English travellers
0:18:15 > 0:18:18who'd embarked upon that awful circuit
0:18:18 > 0:18:21called the Grand Tour.
0:18:23 > 0:18:29The Grand Tour was a kind of gap year for the rich and landed,
0:18:29 > 0:18:31an educational holiday
0:18:31 > 0:18:34for those rococo travellers who could afford it,
0:18:34 > 0:18:38and in Florence, Rome, Naples
0:18:38 > 0:18:42they explored the ruins and the art galleries,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44but in Venice...
0:18:44 > 0:18:47they explored the gambling dens,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49the brothels,
0:18:49 > 0:18:51the rococo's nether world.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57In rococo times,
0:18:57 > 0:19:01Venice was a very naughty place.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04If you've read any Casanova at all,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07you'll know that in real life,
0:19:07 > 0:19:09the Grand Tourists came here
0:19:09 > 0:19:11for the gambling,
0:19:11 > 0:19:12the dressing up,
0:19:12 > 0:19:14the sex.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19But in art, they wanted another kind of illusion -
0:19:19 > 0:19:22a Venice full of sunlight and lucidity.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24So beautiful,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27it could never have existed.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32And that's what Canaletto began painting for them.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34An imaginary Venice,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37with the stains removed.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44So how did he get that real look,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47that sense of the truth,
0:19:47 > 0:19:49such a marvellous feature of this art.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53Well, he used one of these.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56The camera obscura.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00"Dark chamber" in Latin.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04If you've ever wondered where the word "camera" comes from,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06it comes from this.
0:20:09 > 0:20:15Lots of artists in history have used the camera obscura in their work,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18but none as busily as Canaletto.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24It's basically a pinhole camera which throws
0:20:24 > 0:20:26an exact image onto this screen
0:20:26 > 0:20:29and you can then trace around it
0:20:29 > 0:20:32for a precise record of the scene.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43This is the old naval dockyard in Venice, the Arsenale.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49It's hardly changed since Canaletto painted it -
0:20:49 > 0:20:52with those big lions there,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55and the dramatic towers.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08I'm not very good at this...
0:21:08 > 0:21:10but Canaletto was.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13And because of the shape of the camera obscura
0:21:13 > 0:21:16you only do, like, half the scene at once,
0:21:16 > 0:21:21so after you've done this half here,
0:21:21 > 0:21:26Canaletto would move the camera obscura over...
0:21:29 > 0:21:31..and do the other half.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33And then put the two parts together
0:21:33 > 0:21:35for the whole scene.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41With such marvellous results!
0:21:42 > 0:21:46Back in the studio, he'd improve the proportions,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49put in some perfect weather,
0:21:49 > 0:21:54and add some of those fabulous little Canaletto people
0:21:54 > 0:21:57who scamper so charmingly about his art.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02First, he records reality,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05then he tinkers with it.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07Starting with the truth
0:22:07 > 0:22:10he ends up with a fantasy,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13and that's the rococo for you.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23A rhino.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25Yes, a rhino.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Why?
0:22:29 > 0:22:31Because it's a very rococo sight!
0:22:33 > 0:22:37In rococo times, this particular rhino,
0:22:37 > 0:22:38rhinoceros unicornis,
0:22:38 > 0:22:40the great Indian rhino,
0:22:40 > 0:22:45went from being an animal that hardly any European had ever seen,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49to one that hardly any European had NOT seen!
0:22:53 > 0:22:55They called it rhino mania.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00Suddenly, rococo art was overrun by rhinos.
0:23:02 > 0:23:03Or so it seemed.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10In fact, it was the same rhino painted lots of times.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Her name was Clara.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17She arrived in Europe from India in 1741,
0:23:17 > 0:23:19and spent the rest of her life
0:23:19 > 0:23:24on a kind of Grand Tour of all the big European capitals -
0:23:24 > 0:23:25London,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27Warsaw, Paris,
0:23:27 > 0:23:29Berlin...
0:23:33 > 0:23:35And everywhere Clara went,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39the artists of the rococo flocked to see her.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42This fascinating armoured beastie
0:23:42 > 0:23:46appears in more art than any rococo king or hero.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54Clara's story was pure Disney.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57When she was just a few months old,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00her mother was killed by Indian hunters,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03but the poor little rhino was saved
0:24:03 > 0:24:07by a Dutch chap from the East India Company
0:24:07 > 0:24:10who brought her up in his own house
0:24:10 > 0:24:13until she was too big to fit into it.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20The Dutch chap sold her to a passing sea captain,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23who brought her back to Europe.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27And that's when Clara set off on her Grand Tour.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34In Venice, she was painted by Pietro Longhi,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37that cheeky observer of Venetian society
0:24:37 > 0:24:40who admired the way she pooped,
0:24:40 > 0:24:44and the striking contrast she offered
0:24:44 > 0:24:46to the masked ladies of the carnival.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52In France, she stayed in Versailles with Louis XV
0:24:52 > 0:24:54and was painted life-size
0:24:54 > 0:24:56by Jean-Baptiste Oudry.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00And she's said to have inspired
0:25:00 > 0:25:02the latest French hairstyles.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10But the Clara I like best
0:25:10 > 0:25:13is the one preserved by the Germans,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16who put a large Turk on her back
0:25:16 > 0:25:18and pretended she was domesticated,
0:25:18 > 0:25:22but deep inside, she wasn't.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29The rococo is always presented
0:25:29 > 0:25:31as this great age of enlightenment,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34when science triumphed
0:25:34 > 0:25:39and Linnaeus classified the natural world, and all that.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42But if you look at the art of the period,
0:25:42 > 0:25:46at all these strange animals that keep popping up in it,
0:25:46 > 0:25:51you'll notice a definite taste for the inelegant and the primitive,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55the clumsy and the oversized.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07The rococo could have chosen any bird it fancied
0:26:07 > 0:26:10to put above its fireplace.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12It could've chosen the peacock,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15or the resplendent quetzal.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19But no, it chose the ostrich.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23All over the rococo age
0:26:23 > 0:26:26these unexpected animals keep popping up.
0:26:26 > 0:26:32I mean, why put an ostrich above the most important mantelpiece
0:26:32 > 0:26:35in the grandest room in your palace?
0:26:35 > 0:26:37It's as if the rococo -
0:26:37 > 0:26:41famous for its elegance and its sophistication -
0:26:41 > 0:26:45was looking for the opposite in the animals it favoured.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52In England, the great horse painter George Stubbs
0:26:52 > 0:26:56did a fabulous sideline in wonky beasts.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59Here's his zebra -
0:26:59 > 0:27:03a white pony with black stripes painted on.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06And, no, that's not a giant hairbrush,
0:27:06 > 0:27:07it's a yak.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13And I love Stubbs's magnificent cheetah
0:27:13 > 0:27:17in the Manchester City Art Gallery.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21But, basically, it's just an extra large tabby, isn't it?
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Remember, this was still the pre-Darwinian world.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33David Attenborough hadn't even been born yet.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36All this was genuinely strange,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40genuinely new and exciting.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45This isn't science,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47it's not biology
0:27:47 > 0:27:48or zoology.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53This is the opening of a fabulous goodie box,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56filled with exotic sights
0:27:56 > 0:27:58and wondrous spectacles.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01For the best part of three millennia,
0:28:01 > 0:28:07European art had relied on the same limited catalogue of images.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10Now, suddenly,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13a whole new consignment of them,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15had arrived at the port.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18And to record it,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20to do it justice,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24the rococo needed to invent a new art form.
0:28:26 > 0:28:31The resplendent art form that is fancy porcelain.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36To be honest,
0:28:36 > 0:28:40I'm not usually an admirer of fancy porcelain.
0:28:40 > 0:28:42It's too frilly for my tastes.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44I'm a mug man by instinct.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46But what changed my mind,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50what really opened my eyes to the power of porcelain,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54was what they produced up there in the Albrechtsburg castle.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01That fabulous Turk sitting on a rhino
0:29:01 > 0:29:04with the brooding portrayal of Clara -
0:29:04 > 0:29:06that was made in here.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08So was this.
0:29:10 > 0:29:11And this.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15When you say the word Meissen,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18you say so much.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25It all goes back to one man,
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Augustus the Strong,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30ruler of Saxony, King of Poland,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33and a man obsessed with China.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38They called him Augustus the Strong for two reasons,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41one, because he was a brute of a man
0:29:41 > 0:29:44who could bend a horseshoe with his bare hands,
0:29:44 > 0:29:51and, two, because Augustus was a legendary seducer of women.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59Estimates vary about how many illegitimate children
0:29:59 > 0:30:01Augustus fathered,
0:30:01 > 0:30:07but it was somewhere around the 350 or 360 mark.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14Amazingly, though, this huge appetite for women
0:30:14 > 0:30:18wasn't Augustus's most debilitating weakness -
0:30:18 > 0:30:23somehow he found time for another terrible affliction.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Because Augustus was also addicted
0:30:26 > 0:30:29to Chinese porcelain.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36The French called his illness "maladie de porcelaine".
0:30:38 > 0:30:42But that makes it sound gentler than it was.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45When it came to porcelain,
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Augustus was deranged.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56The addiction was so severe that Augustus once swapped
0:30:56 > 0:31:00an entire regiment of Saxon dragoons
0:31:00 > 0:31:03for 48 Chinese vases.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07And to house this enormous collection he'd amassed,
0:31:07 > 0:31:11he built himself a fake Oriental palace
0:31:11 > 0:31:17and filled it with 20,000 rare and expensive examples
0:31:17 > 0:31:18of Chinese porcelain.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25"China," wept the court mathematician,
0:31:25 > 0:31:29lamenting the state of the national finances,
0:31:29 > 0:31:33"has become the bleeding bowl of Saxony."
0:31:35 > 0:31:40Europeans had been lusting after Chinese porcelain for centuries,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43not just because it was so delicate and refined,
0:31:43 > 0:31:48but also because porcelain was thought to have magic properties.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54People believed it could resist fire and repel poison.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58That made it particularly attractive, of course,
0:31:58 > 0:32:02to a king as unpopular as Augustus the Strong,
0:32:02 > 0:32:07who was frittering away the national fortune on Chinese pots.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14The obvious solution was to stop importing
0:32:14 > 0:32:17expensive porcelain from China,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20and to start making it here in Meissen.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24But that was easier said than done.
0:32:27 > 0:32:32The Chinese had been making porcelain since the 6th century,
0:32:32 > 0:32:36but the secret of how it was done was zealously guarded.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38Various European despots,
0:32:38 > 0:32:42desperate not to be poisoned by their subjects,
0:32:42 > 0:32:45had had a go at reproducing it and failed.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50But none of them was as fanatical as Augustus the Strong.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55To help him realise his dream,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58and start making his own porcelain,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01Augustus imprisoned -
0:33:01 > 0:33:04yes, imprisoned -
0:33:04 > 0:33:08a young alchemist called Johann Friedrich Bottger.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11He's the heroic one -
0:33:11 > 0:33:14the one with his shirt off.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18Amazingly, Bottger actually did it.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22He worked out that the secret of porcelain,
0:33:22 > 0:33:26was to bake the clay at exciting new temperatures.
0:33:29 > 0:33:34And by 1710, here at the Albrechtsburg castle in Meissen,
0:33:34 > 0:33:40porcelain was being manufactured in Europe for the first time.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45The real alchemy begins when you start painting
0:33:45 > 0:33:48this hard, white porcelain -
0:33:48 > 0:33:50bake it, put colour on it -
0:33:50 > 0:33:53that's when it bursts into life
0:33:53 > 0:33:57with this exciting rococo vividness.
0:34:00 > 0:34:05Colours had never been as explosive as this before in art.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09Sculpture had never been this nimble.
0:34:09 > 0:34:14This wasn't just the production of porcelain in Europe,
0:34:14 > 0:34:18this was the invention of a new art form,
0:34:18 > 0:34:22with new rules, and new possibilities.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27And it was so portable and compact.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29With porcelain,
0:34:29 > 0:34:31the rococo imagination
0:34:31 > 0:34:33became internationally unstoppable,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36intrepid, nomadic.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43It began travelling wildly across the continents,
0:34:43 > 0:34:47crazily imagining all the different worlds out there.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Different animals,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53different people,
0:34:53 > 0:34:55different excitements.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58India,
0:34:58 > 0:35:00China,
0:35:00 > 0:35:01Japan...
0:35:03 > 0:35:07All these faraway locations were jumbled together
0:35:07 > 0:35:11to form one rich and gorgeous imaginary kingdom.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15A porcelain orient
0:35:15 > 0:35:18filled with rococo goodies.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28This taste for a mythical orient,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31a fantastical new world
0:35:31 > 0:35:35that existed only in the rococo imagination,
0:35:35 > 0:35:38wasn't confined to porcelain.
0:35:38 > 0:35:43It seeped out into all the other arts as well...
0:35:43 > 0:35:46with spectacular results.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55When Augustus the Strong built his Japanese palace
0:35:55 > 0:36:00on the banks of the Elba, to house his porcelain collection,
0:36:00 > 0:36:05he was trying to imitate the powerful Oriental emperors
0:36:05 > 0:36:11he'd heard about in the garbled stories about the East
0:36:11 > 0:36:14circling through the courts of Europe.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20None of these people had actually been to the east,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23or had actually visited China.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25It was all hearsay and rumour.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29Augustus had heard somewhere that Oriental potentates
0:36:29 > 0:36:34built special palaces for their porcelain, so that's what he did.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36He'd heard that the Emperor of China
0:36:36 > 0:36:41drank from a porcelain cup to guard against poison,
0:36:41 > 0:36:42so he did the same.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48Now why did the Germans become
0:36:48 > 0:36:52the most fanatical China-lovers in Europe?
0:36:54 > 0:36:56I don't know, but they did.
0:36:57 > 0:37:02And here at Sanssouci, Frederick the Great of Prussia
0:37:02 > 0:37:07built himself this splendid and unlikely approximation
0:37:07 > 0:37:09of a Chinese pavilion.
0:37:13 > 0:37:14Of course nothing in China
0:37:14 > 0:37:17actually looked anything like this -
0:37:17 > 0:37:19you'd never get a Chinese building
0:37:19 > 0:37:23with a gold statue on top, of a man holding an umbrella.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Or with life-size gold figures of musicians
0:37:30 > 0:37:33playing invented instruments?
0:37:36 > 0:37:41Or with a roof supported by Middle Eastern palm trees.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53No-one in China had ever built
0:37:53 > 0:37:54a building like this.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57This was a European invention.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02And that's the thing about Chinoiserie,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05as they called this oriental illness.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08It wasn't about China at all,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10but about Europe.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14What we're actually watching here
0:38:14 > 0:38:18is the freeing of the European imagination,
0:38:18 > 0:38:21an unleashing of sensuous
0:38:21 > 0:38:23European desires.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27And I think this freeing of the European id,
0:38:27 > 0:38:33these dreams of paradise thinly disguised as images of the East,
0:38:33 > 0:38:38constitute a glorious breakout by the European spirit.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43A joyous dash for freedom and excitement,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46which should be recognised
0:38:46 > 0:38:50as one of the rococo's greatest achievements.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00The Wurzburg Residence -
0:39:00 > 0:39:04Palace of the Prince Bishops of Wurzburg.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08Wurzburg is quite a small town,
0:39:08 > 0:39:10and this massive palace
0:39:10 > 0:39:13feels as if it's a couple of sizes too big for it.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19It was designed by that man again -
0:39:19 > 0:39:20Balthasar Neumann -
0:39:20 > 0:39:23giant of the rococo.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29Neumann became the court architect in Wurzburg in 1720,
0:39:29 > 0:39:32and this was his first official commission.
0:39:32 > 0:39:37Before that he'd been in the army, designing cannons,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39so he came late to architecture
0:39:39 > 0:39:42and promptly designed this.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49The Prince Bishops of Wurzburg had plenty of money,
0:39:49 > 0:39:51plenty of power,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54and plenty of artistic ambition.
0:39:59 > 0:40:04This vault when you enter is a very strange space.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07It feels too low for its width,
0:40:07 > 0:40:09like an underground garage or something.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13But it's actually a brilliant piece of engineering.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19With this impossibly shallow vault,
0:40:19 > 0:40:21Neumann created enough space
0:40:21 > 0:40:24for a horse and carriage to turn around here
0:40:24 > 0:40:27without hitting anything,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29without hitting any columns,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31and that's very clever.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35And because he squeezed all this space down here, made it so low,
0:40:35 > 0:40:37he created more space on top...
0:40:37 > 0:40:39for that.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45The grand staircase at Wurzburg.
0:40:48 > 0:40:49Walking up here,
0:40:49 > 0:40:51mounting this staircase,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54is a fantastic piece of rococo drama.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02As you ascend, you gradually become aware
0:41:02 > 0:41:06of something momentous happening above you.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11And this extraordinary spectacle begins to open up.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18This film is about travel,
0:41:18 > 0:41:22and we've watched the impact of different kinds of travel
0:41:22 > 0:41:23on the rococo -
0:41:23 > 0:41:26the Grand Tour with Canaletto,
0:41:26 > 0:41:28the great Bavarian pilgrimages,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32travel in the mind to all those exotic places.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36But there's another kind of travel that was crucial,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39and that's the journeys made by artists
0:41:39 > 0:41:41from one place to another -
0:41:41 > 0:41:44from country to country,
0:41:44 > 0:41:47spreading their influence like migrating birds
0:41:47 > 0:41:50spreading their seeds.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55This fresco here,
0:41:55 > 0:41:58this monumental achievement of the German rococo,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01was painted by an Italian, a Venetian,
0:42:01 > 0:42:06the greatest fresco painter of the 18th century.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09The incomparable Tiepolo.
0:42:12 > 0:42:17It's the largest continuous ceiling fresco ever painted.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21A truly remarkable achievement...
0:42:21 > 0:42:24by an Italian in Germany.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30When Tiepolo arrived here in 1750,
0:42:30 > 0:42:35lured out of Italy by huge amounts of Wurzburg money,
0:42:35 > 0:42:39he got over 60 times what a master mason would earn in a year -
0:42:39 > 0:42:43all this was bare plaster.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48It took him about a year to do this, that's all.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53We're looking up at the sky, it's dawn,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57and Apollo, the god of the sun,
0:42:57 > 0:42:59is about to set off in his chariot
0:42:59 > 0:43:02across the heavens.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06So the sun's rising,
0:43:06 > 0:43:10and it's rising above the whole world,
0:43:10 > 0:43:13the four continents that were known at the time.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16They've been painted around the edges,
0:43:16 > 0:43:18and as you come up the stairs
0:43:18 > 0:43:21the first continent you see is America.
0:43:24 > 0:43:25That's her there,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28embodied by a topless Indian
0:43:28 > 0:43:31riding a crocodile.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35And I like this rococo superman
0:43:35 > 0:43:38with another casual croc thrown over his shoulder.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44On the left as you come up the stairs, Africa -
0:43:44 > 0:43:47there she is riding a camel.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53Oh, and look, there's another ostrich
0:43:53 > 0:43:55with a monkey pulling its tail.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00The longest wall is up there - Asia,
0:44:00 > 0:44:02and she is riding an elephant
0:44:02 > 0:44:05with that ridiculous trunk,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07like the hose of a vacuum cleaner.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15Remember, the world was still being mapped in the rococo age.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19There was still a sense of discovery out there.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22And you sense it in Tiepolo.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26He pretends he knows all these exotic places and animals,
0:44:26 > 0:44:28but he doesn't.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37So there's Europe up there.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39The most developed of the continents.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42She's surrounded by musicians,
0:44:42 > 0:44:44listening to a concert.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50And all the other arts are in attendance, as well.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53Look, there's painting, with the palette.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59She has just finished that portrait floating up to heaven
0:44:59 > 0:45:03of the man who commissioned the great Tiepolo,
0:45:03 > 0:45:07Prince Bishop Karl Philipp von Greiffenclau.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15This Europe scene is particularly interesting
0:45:15 > 0:45:19because it includes portraits of all the artists
0:45:19 > 0:45:21who worked on this great staircase.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24So, sprawled beside the cannon up there,
0:45:24 > 0:45:28is Balthazar Neumann, the architect.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37Tiepolo himself, is over here in the corner
0:45:37 > 0:45:40looking rather strained.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44Then, next to him, his son Domenico Tiepolo,
0:45:44 > 0:45:46his brilliant apprentice.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51That figure standing on the edge of the parapet,
0:45:51 > 0:45:56the haughty one in the white cloak, that's Benigno Bossi,
0:45:56 > 0:46:01another travelling Italian and a stucco genius.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04Perhaps the greatest there's ever been,
0:46:04 > 0:46:07and he did all this.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13Three great creatives,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16one great opportunity,
0:46:16 > 0:46:20equals a gigantic rococo achievement.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33All this travelling about by rococo artists,
0:46:33 > 0:46:38led to some unexpected confrontations.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41Very unexpected.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45I mean who could ever have imagined that the great Canaletto
0:46:45 > 0:46:48would come to London and paint this view?
0:46:51 > 0:46:54And then turn around and paint this one.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03Canaletto arrived in London in 1746,
0:47:03 > 0:47:05and he lived here for nine years.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08So what the hell was he doing here?
0:47:08 > 0:47:12Well, back in Venice, the market for his pictures had dried up.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16The English just weren't travelling as much as they used to.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20So the mountain decided to come to Mohammed.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27He was also keen to invest some money in stocks and shares.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30He was a Venetian, after all,
0:47:30 > 0:47:32so money was important to him.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37And London, then as now, was Europe's financial hub.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43Right from the start, he was up to his old rococo tricks again.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45In Canaletto's London,
0:47:45 > 0:47:49the Thames is always wider and grander
0:47:49 > 0:47:51than nature intended.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56And look how the skies are clearer and sunnier
0:47:56 > 0:47:59than London's smog-filled skies ever were.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05And how all those playful boats bobbing across the river
0:48:05 > 0:48:11seem to have inherited some of the happy insouciance of the gondola.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15When he first got here, Westminster Bridge,
0:48:15 > 0:48:19the first new bridge across the Thames since the Middle Ages,
0:48:19 > 0:48:21was still being built,
0:48:21 > 0:48:23and in typical Canaletto fashion,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25he couldn't resist painting it.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31The city in flux had been one of his favourite subjects from the start -
0:48:33 > 0:48:35new bridge, new view,
0:48:35 > 0:48:40and a playful new bucket swinging across the vista,
0:48:40 > 0:48:44adding a cheeky note of incompletion.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48There are lots of things I like about Canaletto,
0:48:48 > 0:48:51but his sense of fun is right up there.
0:48:53 > 0:48:58Canaletto's critics like to have a go at his English pictures.
0:48:58 > 0:49:03He was basically painting Venice-on-Thames they complained.
0:49:03 > 0:49:04And it's true.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06He was.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09But that's because he was a rococo artist,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13and rococo artists paint with their spirits,
0:49:13 > 0:49:16not just their brushes.
0:49:19 > 0:49:26At first, he concentrated on these magnificent river views.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29The Thames was his Grand Canal,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33and London was modified into somewhere he knew.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37But then the curiosity kicked in.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42He began prowling the backstreets,
0:49:42 > 0:49:46painting gripping vistas of a city in flux.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52From about here, in Whitehall,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56he painted the view from the first floor window of Richmond House
0:49:56 > 0:50:00which isn't there any more, but which stood where I am now.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05Rickety, scruffy, low-slung...
0:50:07 > 0:50:10..this is London behind the scenes,
0:50:10 > 0:50:12an urban sprawl looking for a form.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17I recognise the steeple of St Martin-in-the-Fields
0:50:17 > 0:50:19in the background,
0:50:19 > 0:50:21and that's about it.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24London was changing furiously,
0:50:24 > 0:50:27and the rococo gods had fixed it
0:50:27 > 0:50:29for the great Canaletto
0:50:29 > 0:50:31to come to England
0:50:31 > 0:50:35and to paint what may be his finest picture.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44This is where he lived,
0:50:44 > 0:50:47in Soho, at the centre of the Italian community.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49Canaletto was up on the first floor.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55This is the other portrait of him,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58painted in London when he was about 50.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01But look how boyish he looks.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05How charming and up-for-it.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10When he finished with London,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13he began scouring the rest of England for views.
0:51:15 > 0:51:16Here's Eton college,
0:51:16 > 0:51:20looking extra tall in the afternoon sun.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27And in this moody view of the old bridge at Walton,
0:51:27 > 0:51:32he lets some genuine British weather into his art, at last.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41But his most fruitful wanderings across England,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44brought him here to Warwick Castle.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51When Canaletto got to Warwick,
0:51:51 > 0:51:56the castle was in the middle of an ambitious rebuild.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00The owner, Francis Greville, Earl of Warwick,
0:52:00 > 0:52:04had decided to make his castle look more gothic
0:52:04 > 0:52:09and then to place this gothic castle in a rococo garden,
0:52:09 > 0:52:14designed by the celebrated Capability Brown.
0:52:17 > 0:52:22Capability Brown liked to make his gardens look natural.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27As if nature had created them, rather than him.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33And in Canaletto's first view of Warwick,
0:52:33 > 0:52:37you can actually see a new hill being put in.
0:52:41 > 0:52:42A few years later,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45when the alterations were more or less finished,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48the Earl of Warwick invited Canaletto back,
0:52:48 > 0:52:53and this time he painted this splendid view
0:52:53 > 0:52:59before Capability Brown's new trees got in the way!
0:53:03 > 0:53:05And then he painted this view,
0:53:05 > 0:53:07which is even better.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15These gorgeous views of Warwick Castle in the sunshine,
0:53:15 > 0:53:18feel so vivid and real,
0:53:18 > 0:53:20but, of course, they aren't.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24The only place you get skies like that in England,
0:53:24 > 0:53:26is in your dreams.
0:53:28 > 0:53:33And that's what's so exciting about the rococo's passion for travel.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37So much of the best voyaging was done in the mind.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43BIRDSONG
0:53:44 > 0:53:46Back in Bavaria, meanwhile,
0:53:46 > 0:53:50a humble pilgrim is back on the plod.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57I'm afraid I've been a very naughty boy,
0:53:57 > 0:54:00because I've saved the best till last.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05There are so many lovely things to see in rococo Bavaria,
0:54:05 > 0:54:08but most people will tell you the loveliest of them all
0:54:08 > 0:54:10is that church on the horizon.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16The Wieskirche, or meadow church,
0:54:16 > 0:54:17plopped down here
0:54:17 > 0:54:19in the middle of nowhere.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21CHURCH BELL TOLLS
0:54:23 > 0:54:27It's the inside of the Wieskirche that makes it so special,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30but will you look at the outside, as well.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33With its gentle simplicity
0:54:33 > 0:54:36and that gorgeous apricot colour,
0:54:36 > 0:54:39like a tasty apricot sorbet!
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Imagine being an exhausted pilgrim
0:54:48 > 0:54:51who's tramped all the way through Bavaria,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54and then, on the horizon,
0:54:54 > 0:54:58deliberately positioned against the hill, so you can't miss it,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00a lovely pilgrimage church of Weis,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04beckoning irresistibly.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11Wies is here, because one day a girl in the village
0:55:11 > 0:55:16saw this wonky statue of Jesus crying...
0:55:16 > 0:55:18and that was that.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20Within a few months,
0:55:20 > 0:55:24Wies had become a must-go pilgrimage destination.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28Two local brothers, the Zimmermans,
0:55:28 > 0:55:33were commissioned to build this rococo masterpiece.
0:55:38 > 0:55:39Just look at it.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41How light it feels,
0:55:41 > 0:55:43and insubstantial.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47If you blow at it, it might all blow away.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53It's all done with stucco -
0:55:53 > 0:55:55painted plaster -
0:55:55 > 0:55:58the rococo's secret ingredient.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02So light and adaptable.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05See those columns?
0:56:05 > 0:56:06Stucco.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10See those saints?
0:56:10 > 0:56:11Stucco.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14See that roof?
0:56:14 > 0:56:16Stucco.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21With stucco you can defy gravity.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24What shape do you think that vault is?
0:56:24 > 0:56:28It looks like a huge expansive dome, doesn't it?
0:56:28 > 0:56:30But if you go outside again...
0:56:33 > 0:56:34..out here in the meadow,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38and if we look up at that roof from outside,
0:56:38 > 0:56:42we'll see that it's actually an ordinary sloping roof -
0:56:42 > 0:56:44straight-sided, made of wood.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49So all that bulging space in there,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52all that billowing heaven inside...
0:56:52 > 0:56:55Let's go back in and have another look.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01..has actually been painted on a simple, pointy roof.
0:57:03 > 0:57:05It's that rococo ingenuity again.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08I'll show you how they did it on this diagram.
0:57:10 > 0:57:11So that's the roof there...
0:57:11 > 0:57:13And suspended from it,
0:57:13 > 0:57:15the vault -
0:57:15 > 0:57:17hanging down by a simple rope!
0:57:17 > 0:57:19So it weighs nothing!
0:57:22 > 0:57:24It's a brilliant rococo illusion.
0:57:26 > 0:57:31And up on the ceiling, painted by Johann Baptist Zimmermann
0:57:31 > 0:57:33the illusions continue
0:57:33 > 0:57:36with an enormous message of hope.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41The resurrected Jesus is sitting on a rainbow,
0:57:41 > 0:57:43that most hopeful of symbols,
0:57:43 > 0:57:45and is pointing at the cross
0:57:45 > 0:57:50so we know he's already saved us with his sacrifice.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55But look over here, the throne of judgment -
0:57:55 > 0:57:57it's empty.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00Jesus hasn't sat down on it yet,
0:58:00 > 0:58:04so there's still time for us to mend our ways.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07But not much time.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14Because over here...the gates of eternity are still closed.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20Heaven hasn't actually opened for business yet.
0:58:21 > 0:58:26Old Father Time has completed this journey,
0:58:26 > 0:58:28but who goes in and who doesn't,
0:58:28 > 0:58:31is still up for grabs.
0:58:33 > 0:58:35So, imagine you are a rococo pilgrim
0:58:35 > 0:58:37and you've travelled all this way,
0:58:37 > 0:58:41and you come in here, into this gorgeous space,
0:58:41 > 0:58:44you must've thought you'd already arrived in heaven.
0:58:47 > 0:58:50But then, you look up, and instead of salvation,
0:58:50 > 0:58:53there's this enormous choice.
0:58:55 > 0:58:57What's it to be, sinner?
0:58:57 > 0:59:00Salvation or damnation?
0:59:01 > 0:59:04Do you repent, or don't you?
0:59:07 > 0:59:09That's the rococo for you -
0:59:09 > 0:59:12it's full of honey traps.
0:59:14 > 0:59:17Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
0:59:17 > 0:59:20It's 35 years since my last confession.
0:59:20 > 0:59:24I've done all sorts of terrible things, Father.
0:59:24 > 0:59:26Where should I start?
0:59:28 > 0:59:32In the next film, we'll be looking at that archetypal rococo subject -
0:59:32 > 0:59:34pleasure.
0:59:34 > 0:59:37And asking why the rococo
0:59:37 > 0:59:40produced some of the most sensuous art ever made.
0:59:42 > 0:59:45That's The Rococo And Pleasure,
0:59:45 > 0:59:48the next film in the story of the rococo.
0:59:49 > 0:59:51Ooh-la-la!