0:00:05 > 0:00:11Ah, Versailles, mighty palace of the French kings.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14And a crucial Rococo hot spot.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19I wanted to come to Versailles to read you this -
0:00:19 > 0:00:22it's an important Rococo document
0:00:22 > 0:00:26and it sums up what this film is about.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Now, if you're an American, you might be thinking -
0:00:30 > 0:00:35that's not a Rococo document, that's the Declaration of Independence.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39And of course, you're right.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41This is the document with which America
0:00:41 > 0:00:44declared its independence from Britain
0:00:44 > 0:00:49on the 4th July 1776.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53But this is a Rococo document, not just because of its date,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55but because of what's in it.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59What Thomas Jefferson wrote in here embodies what this film
0:00:59 > 0:01:04is about, particularly the famous second sentence,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08the one about all those unalienable rights that we all hold.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15According to the Declaration of Independence, all of us have an
0:01:15 > 0:01:19unalienable right to life, liberty
0:01:19 > 0:01:22and the pursuit of happiness.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Now, life and liberty, of course. They're obvious.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31But the pursuit of happiness?
0:01:31 > 0:01:35When did that become an unalienable human right?
0:01:35 > 0:01:39When were we put on Earth to be happy?
0:01:39 > 0:01:43I'll tell you when - in the Rococo era, that's when.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48This isn't just the Declaration of Independence.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51This is a Rococo manifesto.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Ooh-la-la!
0:01:58 > 0:01:59Ah!
0:01:59 > 0:02:02HINGE CREAKS Hey!
0:02:04 > 0:02:07Argh!
0:02:07 > 0:02:08Eek!
0:02:12 > 0:02:17RUNNING WATER AND LAUGHTER
0:02:19 > 0:02:25The Rococo pursued happiness in various ways and various places,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28as you'll see in this film.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33But of course, the first thing you need to get right
0:02:33 > 0:02:35when you pursue happiness is love.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42The pursuit of love fuelled the Rococo Age,
0:02:42 > 0:02:45like petrol fuelling a fire.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47LAUGHTER
0:02:47 > 0:02:52Love ought to be so uncomplicated, oughtn't it?
0:02:52 > 0:02:56A meets B, they like each other and live happily ever after.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00But of course, it hardly ever works out that way.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05The pleasures of love shouldn't be complicated, but they are.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09Love shouldn't be a battleground, but it is.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14And to its credit, the Rococo Age knew this.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21The Rococo recognised love for what it really was -
0:03:21 > 0:03:25a powerful intoxicant,
0:03:25 > 0:03:29that left you weak and helpless, like an illness.
0:03:34 > 0:03:40No-one knew this better than the most wistful of the Rococo's many
0:03:40 > 0:03:43observers of love - the genius of
0:03:43 > 0:03:48painted flirtation, Antoine Watteau.
0:03:49 > 0:03:54Watteau, or "Vatteau" as they called him in Paris,
0:03:54 > 0:03:58was from northern France, Valenciennes, on the Belgian border.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01So his origins were actually Flemish.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09We know that his father was a humble roof tiler
0:04:09 > 0:04:14and that Watteau arrived in Paris in about 1702.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16And that's about all we know.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Watteau is usually credited with inventing a new
0:04:22 > 0:04:26genre of painting, called the fetes gallantes.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29There's no exact English translation of "fetes gallantes".
0:04:29 > 0:04:35It's a kind of garden fete devoted to love.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38A festival of outdoor flirtation.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41LAUGHTER
0:04:41 > 0:04:44In a fetes gallantes,
0:04:44 > 0:04:50dreamy couples stroll across a dreamy landscape of parks and trees.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56Music's playing, hearts are fluttering,
0:04:56 > 0:04:58secrets are being swapped.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05In the background, there's often a playful statue of some Greek
0:05:05 > 0:05:10or Roman god, ready to come to life.
0:05:10 > 0:05:15And booming in the distance, unheard by anyone in the picture,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19but ringing out clear as a bell
0:05:19 > 0:05:21to us, is a loud warning.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Beware! Love is on the loose!
0:05:37 > 0:05:43This is Watteau's masterpiece. It's one of the key images of the Rococo.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51It used to be called The Embarkation For Cythera,
0:05:51 > 0:05:56but these days, there are arguments about what it actually shows.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02Cythera was the Mediterranean island on which Venus,
0:06:02 > 0:06:06the Goddess of Love, was supposed to have been born.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13The legend goes that Kronos, the Titan, castrated his father,
0:06:13 > 0:06:19Uranus, Ruler of the Universe, and threw his testicles into the sea.
0:06:19 > 0:06:25The sperm from Uranus' testis gave birth to Aphrodite, or Venus,
0:06:25 > 0:06:30as the Romans called her, who rose up out of the waters
0:06:30 > 0:06:33and floated to Cythera.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41That famous painting by Botticelli, The Birth Of Venus,
0:06:41 > 0:06:45shows exactly this moment.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50Venus, the Goddess of Love, floating to Cythera in a seashell.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57In the Watteau painting, Venus is over here,
0:06:57 > 0:07:02and typically, he's turned her into this rather ambiguous statue.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Is she real or isn't she? Stone or flesh?
0:07:08 > 0:07:14We know it's Venus because of all these Cupids buzzing around her.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18Cupid was Venus's son, the God of Desire.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21If he fired one of his arrows at you, well, that was it,
0:07:21 > 0:07:23you had to fall in love.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29So that's why all these pilgrims are here.
0:07:29 > 0:07:35Most pilgrims go in search of God, but not this lot.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Watteau's pilgrims are searching for love.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44The question is, are they coming or going?
0:07:46 > 0:07:49It used to be thought that these pilgrims of love were
0:07:49 > 0:07:51setting off for Cythera.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55That's why the painting was called The Embarkation.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58But that doesn't really make sense, does it?
0:07:58 > 0:08:02Why would they be setting off for the island of love,
0:08:02 > 0:08:04when they're already in love?
0:08:04 > 0:08:07I mean, look at these two here.
0:08:10 > 0:08:16So the latest thinking is that this is a departure, not an arrival.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21Venus has presided over an intoxicating visit to her
0:08:21 > 0:08:25island by a boatload of pilgrims.
0:08:25 > 0:08:31And now, the visit's over, the boat is waiting, it's time to go home.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38So despite all the Venuses and the cherubs,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42this is actually a rather gloomy picture.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44According to legend,
0:08:44 > 0:08:50Cythera was the only place on Earth where perfect love could be found.
0:08:50 > 0:08:56So what Watteau is actually showing us is the end of perfect happiness.
0:08:59 > 0:09:06That's why she's looking back so wistfully at where she's just been.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11She knows she'll never have all this again.
0:09:13 > 0:09:19For me, there's almost a religious dimension to Watteau's gloom.
0:09:19 > 0:09:26All these sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, fated never to find
0:09:26 > 0:09:30the perfect happiness they're looking for.
0:09:35 > 0:09:41And that's what's so interesting about Rococo art.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44It goes on and on about happiness and pleasure,
0:09:44 > 0:09:50but deep inside, it seems instinctively to know
0:09:50 > 0:09:55that in the twinkling of an eye, it could all be over.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07In the garden of love, the pursuit of happiness took place
0:10:07 > 0:10:11outdoors, against the beautiful backdrop of nature.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19What happened therefore to the Rococo when it went indoors?
0:10:22 > 0:10:25To achieve indoor happiness,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29the Rococo had to invent a new kind of architecture,
0:10:29 > 0:10:35a new way of living in comfortable new spaces, created
0:10:35 > 0:10:40specifically for the pursuit of pleasure, and places like this.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Sanssouci in Potsdam, Prussia,
0:10:47 > 0:10:52the pleasure palace of Frederick II.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57Or, as he's most usually called, Frederick the Great.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Now, I'm Polish,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03so I'm deeply prejudiced against Frederick the Great.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08He's the Prussian king who organised the partitioning of Poland,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12tore up my country and shared it out with the Russians.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16In war and politics, Frederick was ruthless.
0:11:18 > 0:11:24But in private, he was more complicated, more interesting.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27It was actually Frederick who designed this palace,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30the Palace of Sanssouci.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36This is the original design he sketched out for it
0:11:36 > 0:11:41and as you can see, it's all on one level - a palace with the
0:11:41 > 0:11:44ease of access of a bungalow.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49No stairs to climb up, direct access to the gardens,
0:11:49 > 0:11:53an architecture of ease and pleasure.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00Frederick named his palace Sanssouci,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04a French name which means without worry.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09At the foot of the great bungalow, there's a handy vineyard.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13All this pleasure at his doorstep.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18Frederick designed the decoration as well.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Those figures up there, the big ones, those are Bacchantes,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26followers of Bacchus, the God of Wine.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31And look, he's put the name of the palace, Sanssouci,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34right in the middle, between two of them.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37But it's written rather strangely.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45It actually says "Sans, Souci."
0:12:46 > 0:12:50So, why the comma, why the full stop?
0:12:52 > 0:12:55It's very puzzling,
0:12:55 > 0:13:01but also very typical because Frederick loved playing word games.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06It was his Rococo way of having fun.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Written up on the front of his palace was
0:13:11 > 0:13:16a message to the world that no-one could understand.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23Forget Bletchley Park, forget the Enigma machine.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28This is a German code that's really tough to crack.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32Hundreds of great brains have had a go at it,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36but I think the secret is not to aim too high.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46OK, "Sans" is French for "without",
0:13:46 > 0:13:52that bit's easy, but the French word for "comma", "virgule",
0:13:52 > 0:13:55that comes from the Latin "virgula",
0:13:55 > 0:13:58which means "little rod" or "little stick".
0:14:00 > 0:14:05And of course, a little stick, a little rod,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08can have a sexual connotation.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13So, "Sans virgule" has a naughty twist to it.
0:14:13 > 0:14:20I told you not to aim too high. Now...
0:14:20 > 0:14:25.."Souci", that means "worry". So that's straightforward again.
0:14:26 > 0:14:31But the French word for "full stop", "point", that is also used
0:14:31 > 0:14:36in literary French, posh French, as a way of suggesting a negative.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39So instead of saying "ne pas",
0:14:39 > 0:14:44something isn't something, you say "ne point", in posh literary French.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47Something is not something else.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54There's one other bit of information that's important.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57Frederick is thought to have been gay.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01He had no children, his marriage was sexless,
0:15:01 > 0:15:06and a rumour doing the rounds claimed that when he was young,
0:15:06 > 0:15:11he contracted a sexual disease from a male lover.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15And after that, his little rod never worked again.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23We do know that women weren't allowed into Sanssouci.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26No women was a strict house rule.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31So what that code up there, the way Sanssouci is written,
0:15:31 > 0:15:36what it actually seems to be saying is "Sans vergule,"
0:15:36 > 0:15:43without a little rod, "Souci point," worry stops.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47Only the Rococo could have come up with that.
0:15:51 > 0:15:57Inside Sanssouci, the Rococo revolution gently continues.
0:15:58 > 0:16:05To lead the new Rococo way of life, you needed new Rococo spaces.
0:16:12 > 0:16:18This is the music room, where all you did was play music
0:16:18 > 0:16:20and listen to it.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Frederick was actually a very decent composer.
0:16:23 > 0:16:29He played the flute and wrote numerous concertos.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31You're actually listening to one now.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33MUSIC PLAYS
0:16:38 > 0:16:43The dining room, another Rococo speciality.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47Of course, there'd been big draughty banqueting halls before,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51but this idea of a room created specially for the pleasures
0:16:51 > 0:16:55of eating, with all the different courses served on gorgeous
0:16:55 > 0:17:00pieces of crockery, that was a Rococo idea.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05The bedroom.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13When it comes to the pursuit of pleasure, the bedroom was,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16of course, especially important.
0:17:19 > 0:17:25Before the Rococo Age, the bedroom was a room for sleeping in,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28but now...
0:17:28 > 0:17:33Well, now, it became a room full of pleasurable possibilities.
0:17:37 > 0:17:43What we're actually watching here is the invention of modern living.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48Frilly bedrooms, elegant dining rooms,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51single level living in a bungalow.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56The Rococo were so prescient, it even invented...
0:17:59 > 0:18:02..the home study.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13Study was now seen as one of life's great pleasures.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16People started having libraries at home.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22As Voltaire put it, probably in this very room because he stayed
0:18:22 > 0:18:28here once, "Study delivers us from the burden of our leisure."
0:18:33 > 0:18:37(Hmm... Casanova...)
0:18:37 > 0:18:39HE CHUCKLES QUIETLY
0:18:41 > 0:18:43Ah!
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Ooh!
0:18:48 > 0:18:51HE READS QUIETLY TO HIMSELF
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Do you know what the Greek word for beautiful is?
0:18:55 > 0:18:57It's omorfi.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01And the only reason I know that is because of Casanova, here.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06During one of his interminable searches for love,
0:19:06 > 0:19:11Casanova encountered a young Irish girl called Louise O'Murphy.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18O'Murphy was the daughter of an Irish soldier who had somehow
0:19:18 > 0:19:21ended up in France.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Casanova saw her naked one day and was
0:19:25 > 0:19:31so struck by her teenage beauty, he had her picture painted.
0:19:31 > 0:19:38And on this picture, he says he added the inscription "Omorfi" -
0:19:38 > 0:19:40beautiful, in Greek.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44A pun on her name, O'Murphy.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49Like most of what Casanova wrote,
0:19:49 > 0:19:55the Omorfi story is obviously nonsense. He just made it up.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00But Louise O'Murphy isn't nonsense. She definitely existed.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09The proof is this infamous painting of her by Francois Boucher,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12court painter to Louis XV.
0:20:13 > 0:20:19The picture, nicknamed the Blond Odalisque, hangs at the Pinakothek
0:20:19 > 0:20:26in Munich, and shows Louise O'Murphy sticking out her bottom, brazenly.
0:20:28 > 0:20:34The real Louise O'Murphy was Louis XV's teenage mistress.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39She bore him children, gave him her best years, and then he dumped her.
0:20:39 > 0:20:44So, nothing remarkable there. A typical story of the French court.
0:20:45 > 0:20:51But Boucher's portrait is remarkable for its sheer licentiousness.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Art has given us plenty of nudes before,
0:20:58 > 0:21:03but none of them was quite as shameless and direct as this.
0:21:03 > 0:21:09Boucher is often viewed as the Rococo's most typical painter,
0:21:09 > 0:21:13particularly by those who don't like the Rococo.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16As Louis XV's official artist,
0:21:16 > 0:21:21he was the go-to painter in the Rococo's naughtiest moments.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24Do I like his work? No.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29Do we have to deal with it? Yes.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36Because Boucher's frilly nudes and pink bottomed goddesses mark
0:21:36 > 0:21:41the arrival in art of a new type of sensuality.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46Crude, pink, and artificial.
0:21:46 > 0:21:53In Boucher's art, nothing looks real. It's like Rococo Manga.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57A cartoonish world,
0:21:57 > 0:22:02in which the pursuit of pleasure has had all its complications removed.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07No doubt, no guilt,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10no hesitation,
0:22:10 > 0:22:16just desire, raw and colour-coded, a plastic pink.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26Boucher painted another notorious female portrait in the same
0:22:26 > 0:22:30pose as Louise O'Murphy. It hangs in the Louvre now.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35And this one is nicknamed the Brunette Odalisque.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42This time, the woman in the picture is Boucher's own wife.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47Poor Madame Boucher has spread-eagled herself for him
0:22:47 > 0:22:51and pulled up her nightdress.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55So distressed was the French encyclopaedist Diderot by this
0:22:55 > 0:22:59notorious image that he accused Boucher of prostituting
0:22:59 > 0:23:01his own wife.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06"In Boucher," fumed Diderot,
0:23:06 > 0:23:13"degradation of taste, colour, composition, character,
0:23:13 > 0:23:18"expression and drawing have all kept
0:23:18 > 0:23:21"pace with moral depravity."
0:23:24 > 0:23:27One of the main subplots of this series,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30apart from showing you all the different sides of the Rococo,
0:23:30 > 0:23:37is to prove to you that the Rococo age invented the modern world.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41If I show you a Watteau, that doesn't really do it, does it?
0:23:43 > 0:23:49Watteau's too subtle and elusive. Too whispery and gentle.
0:23:50 > 0:23:56But if I show you a Boucher, well, that's us, isn't it?
0:23:57 > 0:24:03Pleasure without consequences, nudity without modesty,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06desire without boundaries.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12Get yourself down to your local newsagent, have a look
0:24:12 > 0:24:18at the top shelf and I think you'll find those are our preferences too.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24But just because Boucher painted so many subservient women
0:24:24 > 0:24:29doesn't mean that all the women of the Rococo were subservient.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31They weren't.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37DOOR CLOSES
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Right, we're going to have general knowledge quiz.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46On this table, I have three things and I want you to tell me
0:24:46 > 0:24:49what it is that connects them.
0:24:49 > 0:24:55So the first thing is a champagne glass, in that Babycham shape,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58what they call a coupe de champagne.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01So that's object number one.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Next, Elvis in his pomp. Note the hairstyle.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09That's the clue.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14And finally, this bottle of nail polish.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17Pink nail polish.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21A particular kind of pink.
0:25:23 > 0:25:29So, pink nail polish, Elvis, and a champagne glass.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32What connects them?
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Easy-peasy, right?
0:25:34 > 0:25:37I bet all you Stephen Frys out there got it straightaway.
0:25:37 > 0:25:44What connects all these objects is that momentous Rococo presence.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50The infamous, the all-powerful,
0:25:50 > 0:25:52Madame de Pompadour,
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Louis XV's favourite mistress,
0:25:58 > 0:26:03the first and greatest of the Grandes Horizontales.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Just in case you didn't get it, Elvis's hairstyle here,
0:26:08 > 0:26:13all piled up in a teddy boy quiff, that's called a Pompadour.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19It's how Madame de Pompadour wore her hair,
0:26:19 > 0:26:23brushed up from the front, an uplifting style.
0:26:31 > 0:26:36And this colour, here, that's very specifically Pompadour Pink.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Pink was her favourite colour.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47It was particularly popular in the Sevres porcelain factory,
0:26:47 > 0:26:52on which she lavished so much of her attention and the nation's money.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Madame de Pompadour's pink
0:26:56 > 0:27:00became one of the Rococo's definitive colours.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08And this, according to legend, this type of champagne glass,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11the flat type, the coupe de champagne,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15this is supposed to have been inspired, say the French,
0:27:15 > 0:27:19by the shape of Madame de Pompadour's breasts,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21which were cupped gently, like this.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Madame de Pompadour is supposed to have met the French king,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33Louis XV, at a fancy dress ball
0:27:33 > 0:27:37in February 1745 in the famous
0:27:37 > 0:27:41Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Madame de Pompadour came as a sexy shepherdess,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51while the king, bizarrely, was dressed as a tree.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55So he didn't even have to lure her into the bushes to
0:27:55 > 0:27:59have his wicked way with her. He WAS the bushes.
0:28:01 > 0:28:07By the end of the evening, she'd climbed into his branches.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12That night, the courtiers saw her carriage parked outside
0:28:12 > 0:28:14the royal apartments,
0:28:14 > 0:28:17where it stayed for the next 20 years.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25What Madame de Pompadour seemed to realise straightaway,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29as she set about becoming the most powerful woman in France,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33and then the most powerful woman in the world, was that she could
0:28:33 > 0:28:37use art to shape her image and maintain her power.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44In reality,
0:28:44 > 0:28:49she was just the daughter of a failed Parisienne financier,
0:28:49 > 0:28:54but in art, she could become something else, something new.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59In art, Madame de Pompadour could
0:28:59 > 0:29:02become a captivating Rococo presence.
0:29:05 > 0:29:10Her favourite portraitist, Boucher again,
0:29:10 > 0:29:14was particularly skilled at portraying her.
0:29:14 > 0:29:20He shows her playing a piano, or reading a book.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25Beauty, yes, but also brains.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30Notice how in most of Boucher's pictures of her,
0:29:30 > 0:29:34she shows you this side, her best side,
0:29:34 > 0:29:39but in this one, unusually, she's looking straight at us.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43What's really interesting about the way Boucher portrayed her is
0:29:43 > 0:29:47how unregal she looks, how informal.
0:29:47 > 0:29:53By this time, 1750, her power was absolute.
0:29:53 > 0:29:58Pompadour sent more people to the Bastille than any French king.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05She started wars, she changed world history,
0:30:05 > 0:30:08but in Boucher's art,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11she's such a light and delicate
0:30:11 > 0:30:13and kittenish presence.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18One of the chief functions of these pictures
0:30:18 > 0:30:21was to keep the King interested.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23He was paying for them all, after all,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26so that coquettish tone they have,
0:30:26 > 0:30:30that shy thing looking out through the big eyes,
0:30:30 > 0:30:36that's not aimed at you or me, that's aimed at Louis XV.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42The most powerful woman in Europe is saying,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45"I'm only a delicate little flower,
0:30:45 > 0:30:47"so come and protect me,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49"you big hunk of a king."
0:30:58 > 0:31:03Elsewhere in the Rococo, the female cast of this exciting age
0:31:03 > 0:31:06was achieving a different kind of power.
0:31:09 > 0:31:10Religious power.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17This is the Church of the Carmini in Venice,
0:31:17 > 0:31:20and inside are a couple of beautiful altarpieces,
0:31:20 > 0:31:22one by Cima da Conegliano
0:31:22 > 0:31:25and the other by Lorenzo Lotto.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27But we're not going to see them
0:31:27 > 0:31:29because they were painted in the Renaissance,
0:31:29 > 0:31:31and this is a film about the Rococo.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42So instead, we're going next door to the Scuola Grande dei Carmini.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52These "scuolas" were charitable organisations set up
0:31:52 > 0:31:56to help the poor, so if you were homeless in Rococo times,
0:31:56 > 0:32:00you came in here and they'd put you up.
0:32:00 > 0:32:01Not bad for a hostel, is it?
0:32:05 > 0:32:08This particular scuola grande was set up
0:32:08 > 0:32:14by an organisation of charitable women called the Lay Carmelites.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17They weren't actually nuns - they were friends of nuns,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20associated with the Carmelite order.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24And their main task here was to make these -
0:32:24 > 0:32:26scapulars.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32The scapular is a Catholic talisman,
0:32:32 > 0:32:36something you wear around your neck to ward off evil
0:32:36 > 0:32:38and keep you on the straight and narrow.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43It's just two bits of cloth connected at the sides,
0:32:43 > 0:32:47and you wear it around your neck like that, under your shirt.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49I used to have one as a kid,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52but I'm afraid I strayed from the straight and narrow,
0:32:52 > 0:32:56and this is a recent purchase.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02If you wear a scapular, the story goes,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04and lead a pious life,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07you're sure to go to heaven.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11The Virgin Mary herself has guaranteed it.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20This entire building, the whole scuola,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24was funded on the proceeds of selling these things.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28They were very popular, as you can imagine - free ticket to heaven.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Anyway, the reason I've brought you in here
0:33:31 > 0:33:34is because the Rococo masterpiece we're here to see
0:33:34 > 0:33:37is all about scapulas.
0:33:41 > 0:33:46It's by Tiepolo, the greatest ceiling painter of the Rococo.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50We saw him in film one of this series, the one about travel,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53working for the rich and famous in Bavaria.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58Here, in his hometown of Venice,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02in the Scuola Grande dei Carmini,
0:34:02 > 0:34:03he's working for God...
0:34:05 > 0:34:08..and the scapular.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11What the ceiling actually shows us
0:34:11 > 0:34:15is the moment the Virgin Mary handed the first scapular
0:34:15 > 0:34:19to a saint called St Simon Stock.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24He's the old boy with the beard on the left,
0:34:24 > 0:34:29who's being handed the scapular by a handsome angel.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35Tiepolo's most haughty Madonna,
0:34:35 > 0:34:37a grand dame of the skies,
0:34:37 > 0:34:41looks down her nose at us in that Venetian way...
0:34:42 > 0:34:46..whilst Stock, the grateful Carmelite saint,
0:34:46 > 0:34:50reaches out pathetically for her gift,
0:34:50 > 0:34:55like a down-and-out in a doorway asking for "a couple of bob, guv".
0:34:58 > 0:35:03Do you know where we're actually meant to be, where all this is set?
0:35:05 > 0:35:07It's actually Cambridge in England
0:35:07 > 0:35:11because that is where the Virgin Mary appeared
0:35:11 > 0:35:17to the English saint, St Simon Stock, on July 16th, 1251.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23He'd been asking for a favour from her.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27And she gave him the scapular with the words,
0:35:27 > 0:35:31"Whosoever dies wearing this scapular
0:35:31 > 0:35:34"shall not suffer eternal fire."
0:35:36 > 0:35:40If you wear one of these, you're sure to be saved.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46So the Carmelites did really well out of the scapular.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48Lots of people wanted one
0:35:48 > 0:35:53and, in 1749, to mark this great success,
0:35:53 > 0:35:58Tiepolo was commissioned to paint this ceiling.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04So why are WE here,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07with our scapulars and our unlikely saints' tales?
0:36:09 > 0:36:13Because this is an excellent place to witness
0:36:13 > 0:36:18the pleasure principle at work in the religious art of the Rococo.
0:36:19 > 0:36:24Tiepolo has set his action in the cool and calm light of dawn.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31The sky is blue, the sun tints the clouds a gentle pink.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36The lighting of Tiepolo's skies is delightful.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41This is the ceiling of the nearby Church of the Gesuati.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45It was cleaned just recently.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48And look how cool and refreshing the skies are.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54Tiepolo took religious art out of the thunder,
0:36:54 > 0:36:58the storms and explosions of the Baroque,
0:36:58 > 0:37:03and relocated it in the cool, calm, delicious light
0:37:03 > 0:37:04of a Venetian dawn.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10It's one of his greatest achievements.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15They've lit a lot of fires in here in the past 300 years,
0:37:15 > 0:37:20so it's all yellower than it should be, but you can still feel
0:37:20 > 0:37:24this new airiness of Tiepolo's religious vision.
0:37:26 > 0:37:32In the Baroque age, religious art tried to awe you into submission.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37In the Rococo, it enchants you,
0:37:37 > 0:37:39entices you, seduces you.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45Tiepolo's art is a religious honey trap,
0:37:45 > 0:37:51with perfect weather conditions, beautiful religious babes,
0:37:51 > 0:37:57and, if you wear one of these, a short cut to Heaven.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00Who could resist all of that?
0:38:00 > 0:38:04Where's the ladder? I want to go up there!
0:38:14 > 0:38:16MUSIC AND LAUGHTER
0:38:20 > 0:38:23Venice, France, Germany...
0:38:26 > 0:38:29You expect the Rococo to have fetched up in those places,
0:38:29 > 0:38:31don't you?
0:38:31 > 0:38:34As we saw in film one,
0:38:34 > 0:38:38it was an artistic impulse hellbent on travel.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42So sooner or later,
0:38:42 > 0:38:45it had to arrive in Britain as well.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53The British aren't naturally Rococo types, of course,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56but this wasn't some will-o'-the-wisp art movement
0:38:56 > 0:38:59that flutters briefly and it's gone.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03The Rococo LOOKS fragile and delicate,
0:39:03 > 0:39:06but it turned out to be... unstoppable.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14It was a sandstorm of pleasure that blew in everywhere.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18Even the dour and cold-blooded Britons
0:39:18 > 0:39:21couldn't keep it out for ever.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28It got here eventually and look what it gave us -
0:39:28 > 0:39:31Gainsborough, the most dashing, quick-fingered,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35loose-wristed painter Britain has ever produced.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40Gainsborough could paint anything.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42He was that good.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48He did landscapes that are so breathy and healthy and British.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53He painted men of power,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56and gave them an air of interesting complexity.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01And he painted himself, too,
0:40:01 > 0:40:05as a modest chap with strong eyes.
0:40:09 > 0:40:15So he did all that. But there are two things he did particularly well.
0:40:15 > 0:40:21The first is, paint women, which he did with breathtaking bravura.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27I think this one's my favourite -
0:40:27 > 0:40:30Countess Howe of Kenwood House.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34It's her pink dress that intoxicates me.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39And the fact that she looks so much like Helen Mirren.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45But, wait, THIS could be my favourite, too.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49Mrs Robinson at the Wallace Collection.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56Look how much character he finds in that exceptional Rococo face.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00Oh, here's to you, Mrs Robinson!
0:41:03 > 0:41:08This is Sophia Charlotte Digby, Lady Sheffield.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12She's just got married, hence the big Rococo getup.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15Look how she casually dangles her arm,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18making sure we can all see her wedding ring.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25Sophia Charlotte Digby knows we're looking at her.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28But she pretends she doesn't.
0:41:29 > 0:41:34It's brilliant pictorial psychology from a painter who obviously
0:41:34 > 0:41:37knew a thing or two about women
0:41:37 > 0:41:43and their Rococo desire to express themselves through their clothes.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48And look at her feet. She's moving.
0:41:48 > 0:41:54You can almost hear all those extravagant silks rustling
0:41:54 > 0:41:56as she glides towards us,
0:41:56 > 0:41:59a bouquet on the move.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05This movement, the strolling, the gliding, was new.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09For 3,000 years portraits had basically stayed still.
0:42:09 > 0:42:14The artist plonked the sitter in front of you and you examined them.
0:42:14 > 0:42:15That was the deal.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Gainsborough, though, was different.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24Gainsborough put his sitters strolling towards us,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27heading for OUR space,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30ambling through the parks,
0:42:30 > 0:42:36and even dancing to the pleasurable new beat of the Rococo.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42It's a bit like television presenters.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45In the old days you plonked them in front of the subject
0:42:45 > 0:42:47and they stayed there.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52But these days your modern presenter is often on the move,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56and sometimes has to throw in some serious walking.
0:43:00 > 0:43:06The second thing Gainsborough was particularly good at was children.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10My, but Gainsborough was good at children!
0:43:15 > 0:43:20The Rococo invented childhood as we know it.
0:43:20 > 0:43:25Before the Rococo came along, children were seen as mini-adults,
0:43:25 > 0:43:29humankind in its imperfect early form.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37In a world where half of all newborns died before they were five,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41childhood was seen as something you survived.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45The quicker you grew out of it, the better.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51It wasn't till the Rococo years
0:43:51 > 0:43:55that childhood began to be recognised
0:43:55 > 0:44:00as something precious which needed to be protected and enjoyed...
0:44:03 > 0:44:07..a brief and beautiful moment of innocence
0:44:07 > 0:44:08and freedom.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17As Rousseau, the influential French philosopher
0:44:17 > 0:44:19and champion of childhood, put it
0:44:19 > 0:44:23to all those parents afraid their kids were now doing nothing,
0:44:23 > 0:44:26"Is it nothing to be happy?
0:44:26 > 0:44:29"Nothing to run and jump all day?
0:44:29 > 0:44:35"Give nature time to work before taking over her business."
0:44:44 > 0:44:48I think this is my favourite painting of children
0:44:48 > 0:44:50in the whole of art.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53There are a couple of Picasso's that are in this sort of league,
0:44:53 > 0:44:55but nothing else.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02These are actually Gainsborough's own daughters,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05Margaret on the left, Mary on the right.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08She was five, and she was six.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15The two girls skip through a wood, chasing a butterfly.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19Margaret reaches out to grab it...
0:45:20 > 0:45:26..while Mary, the older one, holds back.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29I love that yellow dress she's wearing.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32It's a triumph of flashing Rococo brushstrokes.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39But just because it's dashingly done
0:45:39 > 0:45:40doesn't mean it's carefree.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45Yes, the Rococo chased after pleasure,
0:45:45 > 0:45:50but it wasn't always blind to the consequences.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55Look where the butterfly has landed.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58A thorn bush. Uh-oh.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02When Margaret grabs it, she'll prick her hand,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06so what we've got here is a doting dad
0:46:06 > 0:46:09who happens to be an artist of genius,
0:46:09 > 0:46:14warning his daughters of the dark reality that lies ahead.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17When childhood finishes...
0:46:17 > 0:46:19this begins.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21MUSIC PLAYS
0:46:22 > 0:46:25Tragically, the symbolism of the butterfly
0:46:25 > 0:46:29and the thorn bush turned out to be horribly pertinent.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34It's almost as if Gainsborough had some kind of premonition.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39His beloved daughters pop up often in his art,
0:46:39 > 0:46:43and you can watch their lives unravelling
0:46:43 > 0:46:47in these exceptionally tender pictures.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54This one here, Mary, made a disastrous marriage
0:46:54 > 0:46:58to a German oboe player called Johann Christian Fischer.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02That's his music you can hear playing.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07Decent composer, dreadful husband.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12The marriage lasted a year,
0:47:12 > 0:47:16by which time poor Mary had begun to lose her mind.
0:47:19 > 0:47:24Margaret, meanwhile, remained a lifelong spinster,
0:47:24 > 0:47:29and when her sister's life fell apart, she moved in with her,
0:47:29 > 0:47:33and the two of them lived out their old age together.
0:47:35 > 0:47:42How spooky that Gainsborough managed somehow to intuit all this.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54GEESE CACKLE
0:47:54 > 0:47:56Back at Versailles,
0:47:56 > 0:48:01the adults of the Rococo were also having trouble growing up.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07Welcome to the world's largest doll's house.
0:48:10 > 0:48:16This is the fake village built at Versailles for Marie Antoinette,
0:48:16 > 0:48:19the notorious Queen of Louis XVI.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24It was built between 1783 and 1787.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30And every single inch of it is a fantasy.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37The Hameau de la Reine, the Queen's Hamlet, as it's called,
0:48:37 > 0:48:40was meant to look like a village in Normandy...
0:48:41 > 0:48:44..with these dinky, half-timbered cottages
0:48:44 > 0:48:50and the useful front garden filled with picture-book cabbages.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57Most of the fake village actually worked.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01This dairy here was a functioning dairy,
0:49:01 > 0:49:05and once the servants had washed down the cows for her,
0:49:05 > 0:49:08Marie Antoinette would do the milking herself
0:49:08 > 0:49:12using porcelain buckets made specially for her
0:49:12 > 0:49:14by the Sevres factory.
0:49:20 > 0:49:22In real life, of course,
0:49:22 > 0:49:26Marie Antoinette didn't have a rural bone in her body.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31She was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor,
0:49:31 > 0:49:37an Austrian archduchess bred and brought up to rule the plebs.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43But that was in real life.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46In the Queen's hamlet,
0:49:46 > 0:49:50this extraordinary full-size rural theatre set,
0:49:50 > 0:49:56the Austrian archduchess could play at being a modest milkmaid
0:49:56 > 0:49:58tending her flock.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04The Queen would wander about her village
0:50:04 > 0:50:09dressed as a simple country girl in a plain muslin dress
0:50:09 > 0:50:11and a straw hat.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15And she actually lived in this extra-large cottage here,
0:50:15 > 0:50:19the bijou two-storey cottage.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29In her virtual hameau, Marie Antoinette could be someone else.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35No longer the much-hated Queen of France,
0:50:35 > 0:50:39wasting the nation's money on fancy fripperies,
0:50:39 > 0:50:45but a simple country lass leading a simple country life.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51The usual way to understand all this crazy rural escapism
0:50:51 > 0:50:55is to see it as a display of decadence,
0:50:55 > 0:51:00a grotesque Rococo descent into falsehood and hedonism -
0:51:00 > 0:51:06Marie Antoinette and her Versailles milkmaids drifting further
0:51:06 > 0:51:08and further away from reality.
0:51:12 > 0:51:18But it was also part of something bigger, something more prescient,
0:51:18 > 0:51:22a prediction, if you like, of how the world would go.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29These days, lots of people pour out of the city
0:51:29 > 0:51:30and into the countryside,
0:51:30 > 0:51:34fantasising about the rural way of life.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37The Hameau de la Reine in Versailles
0:51:37 > 0:51:41is a giant version of the country cottage,
0:51:41 > 0:51:46somewhere to flee at weekends from the pressures of city living.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52But instead of moving to the Cotswolds,
0:51:52 > 0:51:57Marie Antoinette could afford to make the Cotswolds come to her.
0:51:59 > 0:52:05This great rural grand design of hers wasn't just an escape,
0:52:05 > 0:52:09it was also a vision of the future.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15MAN SHOUTS AND LAUGHS
0:52:20 > 0:52:22Did you know that the word "school"
0:52:22 > 0:52:26comes from the Ancient Greek "skhole",
0:52:26 > 0:52:29which means "leisure time" or "play"?
0:52:31 > 0:52:35It's like Plato says here in his famous Laws.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40Games and play are a crucial part of our education.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43It's where we really learn about life.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46But that was in Ancient Greece.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50I'm not so sure the same thing applies to Rococo France.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56The relentless make-believe which characterises
0:52:56 > 0:52:59the Rococo's pursuit of happiness,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02and pops up so often in its art,
0:53:02 > 0:53:06doesn't seem particularly educational to me...
0:53:07 > 0:53:12..more like a way of being naughty without making it obvious.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17I don't know if you've ever played "hot cockles".
0:53:17 > 0:53:20It's a Christmas game. It was very popular in the Rococo.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28The rules of "hot cockles" are basic to the point of being inane.
0:53:29 > 0:53:34One person lays his head on the lap of another person
0:53:34 > 0:53:38whilst someone else spanks them from behind on the bottom.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45The point of the game is to guess who spanked you.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49And if you get it right, you get to spank them next.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55So it's a silly game,
0:53:55 > 0:53:58but the reason the Rococo liked it
0:53:58 > 0:54:02and why that quintessential Rococo painter,
0:54:02 > 0:54:06Jean-Honore Fragonard, painted it
0:54:06 > 0:54:11was because "hot cockles" had a powerful erotic undertone.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18Men get to lay their head in the laps of women,
0:54:18 > 0:54:22and women get to lay their heads in the laps of men,
0:54:22 > 0:54:25and then they spank each other.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28I wonder why that caught on in Rococo France(!)
0:54:33 > 0:54:35Fragonard was a pupil of Boucher's,
0:54:35 > 0:54:41who specialised in sly paintings of Rococo people having fun.
0:54:43 > 0:54:44But he wasn't all bad.
0:54:46 > 0:54:51Look at the way he uses that exciting new Rococo colour, yellow.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Ooh, Fragonard was the most exciting user of yellow
0:54:57 > 0:55:00art had so far seen.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04LAUGHTER
0:55:04 > 0:55:06Not so good, however,
0:55:06 > 0:55:09is the clunky eroticism that distinguishes his art.
0:55:09 > 0:55:15His most famous picture, The Swing, is spectacularly naughty.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17It's just not immediately obvious.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24Who doesn't love a swing?
0:55:24 > 0:55:28Swings provide such childish and innocent pleasure.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31But not in the Rococo.
0:55:32 > 0:55:37In Rococo times, anyone looking at Fragonard's Swing
0:55:37 > 0:55:41would have known immediately what was really going on here.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48The movement of the swing, up and down,
0:55:48 > 0:55:51was a notorious sexual allusion.
0:55:51 > 0:55:56As for the lover on the ground, well, what can he be looking at?
0:56:00 > 0:56:04It would be her underwear, except, of course,
0:56:04 > 0:56:08that in Rococo times there was no underwear.
0:56:09 > 0:56:14Another telling joke in The Swing is that the chap on the ground,
0:56:14 > 0:56:19the one looking up the girl's skirt, is in the exact pose
0:56:19 > 0:56:23of Michelangelo's Adam on the Sistine ceiling.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28And we all know what happened to Adam
0:56:28 > 0:56:30when he took a bite of Eve's apple.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37So all these games the Rococo played,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40which Fragonard painted so slyly,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43weren't really games at all.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45They were pretences, deceits,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49secret ways of being naughty.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56A world obsessed with having fun was losing its moral bearings.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02And no-one was certain any more where real life ended
0:57:02 > 0:57:03and fantasy began.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11WIND HOWLS / BAYING
0:57:15 > 0:57:17What's real and what isn't?
0:57:17 > 0:57:22Where do the games stop and real life begin?
0:57:24 > 0:57:27The Rococo era never could tell the difference.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36This is a very Rococo location,
0:57:36 > 0:57:42perhaps the most Rococo location in London - Madame Tussauds.
0:57:42 > 0:57:47And that's Madame Tussaud herself, wax artist extraordinaire.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50That's her self-portrait.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57As a young girl, Madame Tussaud was taught wax modelling
0:57:57 > 0:57:59by a doctor her mother worked for.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05He took her under his arm and shared his forensic skills with her.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11She got so good at it that, in 1780,
0:58:11 > 0:58:15she was appointed art tutor to Louis XVI's sister,
0:58:15 > 0:58:17Madame Elisabeth.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21And for the next ten years, she lived in Versailles
0:58:21 > 0:58:23and watched its downfall.
0:58:25 > 0:58:30When the French Revolution broke out in 1789,
0:58:30 > 0:58:32Tussaud was also arrested.
0:58:32 > 0:58:35But she talked her way out of it
0:58:35 > 0:58:38and began making death masks
0:58:38 > 0:58:41of those who'd been sent to the guillotine.
0:58:43 > 0:58:47The wax models she made of the decapitated heads
0:58:47 > 0:58:49were put on these poles
0:58:49 > 0:58:53and then paraded through the streets like flags.
0:58:53 > 0:58:56She made Louis XVI's death mask,
0:58:56 > 0:58:59and this one here is Marie Antoinette.
0:59:02 > 0:59:06This, then, was where the pursuit of happiness would eventually lead.
0:59:07 > 0:59:12And how very Rococo of the Rococo that even in death
0:59:12 > 0:59:18it couldn't tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
0:59:20 > 0:59:23So far in this series, I've been enjoying
0:59:23 > 0:59:27the pleasures of the Rococo - the good news.
0:59:27 > 0:59:32But you can't drift as far away from reality as the Rococo did
0:59:32 > 0:59:34without losing your bearings.
0:59:34 > 0:59:36And in the next film,
0:59:36 > 0:59:40we'll be looking at what happens in Rococo art
0:59:40 > 0:59:43when reality creeps out...
0:59:43 > 0:59:46and darkness creeps in.
0:59:47 > 0:59:49LAUGHTER