0:00:05 > 0:00:10ANIMAL HOWLS
0:00:10 > 0:00:14SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Argh!
0:00:37 > 0:00:39Ooh-la-la!
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Ah!
0:00:44 > 0:00:46Urgh!
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Argh!
0:00:49 > 0:00:51Eek!
0:01:02 > 0:01:08So far in this series, we've concentrated on the good news
0:01:08 > 0:01:12from the Rococo - travel, pleasure,
0:01:12 > 0:01:14the pursuit of happiness.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Although it lasted most of the 18th century,
0:01:20 > 0:01:24the Rococo was art's happy hour
0:01:24 > 0:01:27when much fun was had by many.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Unfortunately, there's a downside.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34When you spend as much energy as the Rococo did,
0:01:34 > 0:01:38running away from reality, there comes a time
0:01:38 > 0:01:42when unreality becomes the norm,
0:01:42 > 0:01:47when common sense gives way to madness and the darkness sets in.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54And that's what this film is about - the madness of the Rococo,
0:01:54 > 0:01:59the monsters that crawl out of the dark when reason has had
0:01:59 > 0:02:05too much to drink and the artistic imagination goes on the prowl.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11We're going to see some very queer things in this film.
0:02:11 > 0:02:17Goya, for instance. Was there ever an artist who explored
0:02:17 > 0:02:22the dark more energetically than Goya?
0:02:24 > 0:02:26Or Messerschmidt?
0:02:26 > 0:02:31Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, from Austria.
0:02:31 > 0:02:37What kind of a sculptor in what kind of an age produces art like this?
0:02:39 > 0:02:43And then there's Longhi. Ah, yes, Longhi,
0:02:43 > 0:02:48observer in chief of Venetian decadence,
0:02:48 > 0:02:53who looked beneath the mask and found another mask.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02All that's coming up, as we explore Rococo's dark side.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05But first, we're going to Britain,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09where the madness flourished particularly fiercely
0:03:09 > 0:03:14and where some very strange people made some very strange appearances
0:03:14 > 0:03:16in some very strange art.
0:03:20 > 0:03:27Allow me to introduce you to Sir Francis Dashwood - Libertine,
0:03:27 > 0:03:33fantasist and inveterate Rococo dresser-up.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38This, believe it or not, is Dashwood too,
0:03:38 > 0:03:43in his guise as a Turkish Sultan.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46And here he is again as the Pope,
0:03:46 > 0:03:50worshipping a topless goddess.
0:03:53 > 0:03:59But the maddest of these mad Rococo depictions of Sir Francis Dashwood
0:03:59 > 0:04:03is surely this one, painted by William Hogarth.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10Dashwood as a monk, pretending to be St Francis of Assisi.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16In most countries, a man like this would be arrested
0:04:16 > 0:04:20and put into a mental home, but in Rococo Britain,
0:04:20 > 0:04:25he was encouraged to enter politics, held several important
0:04:25 > 0:04:30government posts, and eventually became Chancellor of the Exchequer.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37Dashwood's career has a familiar ring to it.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41He went to Eton, painted here by Canaletto,
0:04:41 > 0:04:46where he made his important political friendships.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50He was a Tory and in his younger days,
0:04:50 > 0:04:55before he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, Dashwood was
0:04:55 > 0:05:00a keen member of various drinking clubs,
0:05:00 > 0:05:05including the most notorious of them all,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07the Hellfire Club.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18The Hellfire Club was a gentleman's club
0:05:18 > 0:05:21with a religious bent.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Its members, who included many of the leading
0:05:24 > 0:05:28politicians of the time, dressed up as monks.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31They called themselves "Brother".
0:05:35 > 0:05:41They met in these spooky caves in West Wickham, where they managed
0:05:41 > 0:05:45somehow to combine anti-Catholicism
0:05:45 > 0:05:47with drinking too much
0:05:47 > 0:05:49and wenching.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58No-one knows for sure what the Hellfire Club got up to
0:05:58 > 0:06:03down here, it's all very mysterious, but some information did seep out.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13Dashwood, dressed as St Francis, would lead the pretend monks through
0:06:13 > 0:06:19a series of outrageous religious ceremonies, mocking the Catholics.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Then, they'd all get immensely drunk
0:06:24 > 0:06:28and turn their attention to the prostitutes -
0:06:28 > 0:06:31or nuns, as they called them -
0:06:31 > 0:06:34they'd invited along to their black mass.
0:06:40 > 0:06:46So here we are, slap in the middle of the so-called Enlightenment,
0:06:46 > 0:06:51yet here is half the Government dressed up as monks, drinking
0:06:51 > 0:06:56themselves stupid and chasing after pretend nuns in a cave.
0:06:56 > 0:07:01That's why I love the Rococo. It's completely potty.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09According to rumours, Hogarth was also a member of the Hellfire Club.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13He was definitely associated with it in some way.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16And in this very strange
0:07:16 > 0:07:22portrait of Dashwood as St Francis, Hogarth shows
0:07:22 > 0:07:27the Chancellor of the Exchequer worshipping a crucified Venus.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34Instead of a Bible, he's reading a pornographic novel.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40And the fruit at his feet has taken a naughty form
0:07:40 > 0:07:42and looks like a woman's buttocks.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50Hogarth, who is usually thought of as the first truly great
0:07:50 > 0:07:55British painter, and who looked more like his pug than his pug did,
0:07:55 > 0:08:01was another Rococo frequenter of drinking clubs.
0:08:19 > 0:08:24In 1732, he became a founder member
0:08:24 > 0:08:29of something called the Sublime Order of Roast Beefs,
0:08:29 > 0:08:34a patriotic eating club and drinking club.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39# When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food
0:08:39 > 0:08:42# It ennobled our hearts and enriched our blood
0:08:42 > 0:08:47# Our soldiers were brave and our cultures were good... #
0:08:47 > 0:08:52They met in an upstairs room at the old Covent Garden Theatre,
0:08:52 > 0:08:54where they drank too much beer
0:08:54 > 0:09:01and sang nationalistic songs about the potency of British beef.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04# Oh, the roast beef of old England
0:09:04 > 0:09:07# And old English roast beef
0:09:08 > 0:09:13# Our fathers of old were robust and strong
0:09:13 > 0:09:16# And kept open house with good cheer all day long... #
0:09:20 > 0:09:26That boozy, burpy, rude tone you get in Hogarth's art,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30it's the tone of the tavern.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34In the modern world, you still get it at football matches.
0:09:34 > 0:09:41All that swearing, mocking of the opposition, the jingoism.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46# Who sully those honours which once shone in fame... #
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Hogarth's noisy nationalism
0:09:49 > 0:09:53is usually brushed over by his defenders.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57It's all good fun, they say. He was just being boisterous.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03# And old English roast beef. #
0:10:04 > 0:10:07I'm not sure about that.
0:10:07 > 0:10:13With Hogarth, the devil is always in the details, and in Calais Gate -
0:10:13 > 0:10:19his most famous picture - there's a lot going on that's very unpleasant.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28Calais Gate, or The Roast Beef Of Old England,
0:10:28 > 0:10:33as it's properly called, shows a busy French street,
0:10:33 > 0:10:37with Hogarth himself lurking in the crowd.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43You can actually see him there in the picture,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47about to be arrested, and all this is based on a real event.
0:10:47 > 0:10:53In 1748, Hogarth went over to Calais
0:10:53 > 0:10:56and while sketching the city gates,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00he was detained as a spy by the French police.
0:11:02 > 0:11:08This infuriated him immensely and as soon as he got back to London,
0:11:08 > 0:11:14he got his revenge by painting this picture.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Now, the city walls were part of Calais's defences
0:11:17 > 0:11:22and the British had only just finished their war with the French,
0:11:22 > 0:11:26so drawing the city defences at such a time was very foolish.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Of course he was going to get arrested.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37But what's really unpleasant here is the religious nastiness of this
0:11:37 > 0:11:43picture, the dark anti-Catholic ideas that are being expressed here.
0:11:44 > 0:11:50Hogarth has set his scene in the build-up to Easter,
0:11:50 > 0:11:55Lent, when French Catholics were not supposed to eat any meat.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01So the British taverns in Calais, hungry for the roast beef
0:12:01 > 0:12:06of old England, had to import it specially from home.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12And this great slab of British beef has just arrived at the port.
0:12:15 > 0:12:20This fat French friar here, fingering the side of beef,
0:12:20 > 0:12:22he's quite funny.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26And these hungry French soldiers having to make do with
0:12:26 > 0:12:30a thin gruel, they're pretty funny too.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35But what isn't so funny is what's going on in the rest of the picture.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Here at the front, on the left,
0:12:38 > 0:12:43there are three hideous nuns worshipping a dried-out fish.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51The fish, remember, was a traditional symbol of Christ.
0:12:51 > 0:12:57So this comic fish's face is a giggling and perverse reference
0:12:57 > 0:13:02to the true face of Christ that was said to have been left
0:13:02 > 0:13:08on Veronica's veil when she wiped his dying face.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15In a Catholic Mass, at the climax of the Mass,
0:13:15 > 0:13:20the moment of Communion, the holy wafer
0:13:20 > 0:13:25and the goblet of wine become the body and blood of Jesus.
0:13:26 > 0:13:33It's the centre of Catholic belief, this idea of transubstantiation.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37And that is what Hogarth is mocking here.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43At the back of the picture, a Catholic priest outside
0:13:43 > 0:13:50a tavern was handing out the Communion to his congregation.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55While the English eat good old English beef,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59the French get Jesus as a wafer.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06And right at the top, the most unpleasant detail of all,
0:14:06 > 0:14:12a crow has landed on a cross, and its hungry beak has begun
0:14:12 > 0:14:17pecking uselessly at Jesus' symbolic body.
0:14:24 > 0:14:30In France, at Lent, even the crows are hungry for a bit of flesh.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36# Oh, the roast beef of old England
0:14:36 > 0:14:39# And old English roast beef. #
0:14:39 > 0:14:41Wahey!
0:14:44 > 0:14:49So beneath the Rococo's jollity, there was darkness.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53And beneath its beauty, there was darkness too.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58Have you ever wondered why women try to make their faces
0:14:58 > 0:15:01whiter by using makeup?
0:15:04 > 0:15:08It's a status thing. Goes back long before the Rococo.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12If you were poor, you worked outdoors, right?
0:15:12 > 0:15:14So you got suntanned.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17And the moment somebody saw you, they knew you were poor.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23With paleness, the opposite was true.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29If you were pale, you stayed indoors, enjoying your leisure.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34So your skin was white,
0:15:34 > 0:15:40a condition that found particular favour in the Rococo.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42It wasn't just the women either.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46There were plenty of Michael Jacksons out there as well,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49trying desperately to look less dark than they were.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56But it was the women who really suffered,
0:15:56 > 0:16:00and among whom the fiercest tragedies were enacted.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08See this mirror, a beautiful Georgian mirror,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12made by William Linnell in 1759.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16This mirror used to belong to a famous Rococo beauty called
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Maria Gunning.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24Maria Gunning came from Ireland.
0:16:24 > 0:16:30Her family was poor, so she became an actress and wowed them
0:16:30 > 0:16:32with her looks.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36First in Dublin, and then in London.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41She arrived in London in 1751.
0:16:41 > 0:16:47She was 18 and quickly became the Angelina Jolie of her times,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50a celebrity actress, famed for her beauty.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56When Maria went by in her carriage,
0:16:56 > 0:17:00crowds would line the streets, in the hope of glimpsing her.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04She got so famous,
0:17:04 > 0:17:09her shoemaker began charging people sixpence just to see her shoes.
0:17:13 > 0:17:19So it didn't take her long to find herself an Earl, and in 1752,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22she married the Earl of Coventry
0:17:22 > 0:17:26and settled down to a life of being beautiful.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30This is the actual mirror he bought for her.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34It used to hang above the mantelpiece in her dressing room.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42Every day, Maria Gunning would spend hours painting her face,
0:17:42 > 0:17:46getting ready to appear before her doting public.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51And soon enough, that's what killed her.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58The whitener she used was made of lead white,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01which achieves excellent coverage.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05But the lead began combining with the moisture in her skin
0:18:05 > 0:18:10to form an acid that began eating away at her face.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18To cover up these patches where her skin had fallen off,
0:18:18 > 0:18:23Maria Gunning would apply even more whitener.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30The rouge on her cheeks, a fashion imported from France,
0:18:30 > 0:18:34where the country-girl look became briefly popular,
0:18:34 > 0:18:38was made from lead paste and cinnabar -
0:18:38 > 0:18:41a waste product of mercury mining.
0:18:41 > 0:18:47So, rouge gave you lead poisoning and mercury poisoning.
0:18:51 > 0:18:58As for her lipstick, Maria Gunning liked to use mercuric fucus -
0:18:58 > 0:19:00a seaweed extract
0:19:00 > 0:19:04with a particularly high concentration of mercury.
0:19:06 > 0:19:12So the acid ate away at her skin, the lead poisoned her
0:19:12 > 0:19:16the mercury seeped into her veins
0:19:16 > 0:19:19and as the sores grew ever more visible,
0:19:19 > 0:19:24so more and more makeup was needed to cover them.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32She died at the age of 27
0:19:32 > 0:19:35and spent her final year in a darkened room
0:19:35 > 0:19:38where no-one could see her.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46This lovely George II giltwood overmantle mirror,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49given to her by her husband,
0:19:49 > 0:19:53with its exuberant acanthus scrolls
0:19:53 > 0:19:56and its brimming basket of flowers,
0:19:56 > 0:19:58would have seen all this.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02And the poor mirror must have thought to itself,
0:20:02 > 0:20:07"Human beings, you couldn't make them up!"
0:20:16 > 0:20:17Back in Venice,
0:20:17 > 0:20:22history clearly had it in for the city of masks.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26And the good times were now numbered.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30The pesky Dutch and English
0:20:30 > 0:20:33had stolen the most important trade routes.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38Venice was no longer the gateway to the East.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42Its naval power had crumbled, so, as we saw in film one,
0:20:42 > 0:20:43the one about travel,
0:20:43 > 0:20:48Rococo Venice needed to reinvent itself...
0:20:49 > 0:20:51..as a tourist trap.
0:20:54 > 0:21:00To attract the louche, but increasingly crucial Grand Tourists,
0:21:00 > 0:21:05the Serenissima had turned itself into the international centre
0:21:05 > 0:21:08of European naughtiness.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12If drinking was your vice, or gambling,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16or chasing after women and men,
0:21:16 > 0:21:19then Venice was the place for you.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26The best time to go was, of course, carnival time,
0:21:26 > 0:21:31when you could wear a mask and be as decadent as you wanted.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33No-one knew who you were.
0:21:35 > 0:21:41Fortunately for us, to record this immense social naughtiness,
0:21:41 > 0:21:46Venice managed to produce one more great painter.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51He was born Pierre Antonio Falca,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55but we know him better by his Rococo stage name -
0:21:55 > 0:21:58Pietro Longhi.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04Longhi was the Venetian Hogarth,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07a satirical, nosy-parker,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11keeping his eye on his fellow citizens.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14But, because he was a Venetian,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18Longhi could never be as burpy
0:22:18 > 0:22:21and beery as Hogarth.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Longhi's tactic was to charm the truth out of you.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32He'd giggle and he'd sweet-talk
0:22:32 > 0:22:38until he was close enough to peep behind the mask.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46You could wear a mask in Venice from St Stephen's Day,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48that's 26th December,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52till Shrove Tuesday - so that's three months or so.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57And also, from 5th October until Christmas.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01So that's another three months.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04So for near as damn six months of the year,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07the Venetians could go about pretending
0:23:07 > 0:23:09they weren't who they were.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17The Venetian mask had various purposes.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19In the cramped streets of Venice,
0:23:19 > 0:23:24it was a way of hiding in full view of your fellows.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29And it was particularly useful in the gambling dens,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33where no-one knew who you were
0:23:33 > 0:23:36or how much you owed them!
0:23:38 > 0:23:41Women wore a mask called a moretta,
0:23:41 > 0:23:43which means "the dark lady".
0:23:43 > 0:23:48They were oval and you kept them in place with your teeth,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51biting on to a little button inside.
0:23:54 > 0:24:00So, a woman in a moretta couldn't speak without her mask falling off,
0:24:00 > 0:24:02giving away her identity.
0:24:04 > 0:24:10Venetian women evolved a subtle language of silent flirtation.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12An inclination of the head,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15a flutter of the eyelashes,
0:24:15 > 0:24:17a nod, a wink.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21WOMAN GIGGLES
0:24:25 > 0:24:30The men, meanwhile, wore a white mask called a bauta,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33shaped like a face, except for the bottom.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37It stuck out like a projecting chin,
0:24:37 > 0:24:43so you could eat and drink and gossip while wearing it.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52The Venetian bauta wasn't just worn at Carnival time.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55It had a political role too.
0:24:56 > 0:25:02Venetian nobles wore them at important decision-making events
0:25:02 > 0:25:05so they could cast their votes anonymously.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12But the chief role of the mask was to hide the darkness within.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Venetian society had grown decadent and rotten.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20It did not want everyone to know.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28This interesting Longhi painting, called The Charlatan
0:25:28 > 0:25:34shows a phony doctor flogging his wares at carnival time
0:25:34 > 0:25:38in the dark arcades of the Doge's palace.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42But the real charlatan here
0:25:42 > 0:25:45is the anonymous nobleman in the foreground...
0:25:45 > 0:25:46MAN LAUGHS
0:25:46 > 0:25:51..who makes a crude grab for a passing woman's skirt.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56We'll never know exactly what's going on in Longhi's art.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00His symbolism is too twisted and Venetian.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05We've lost touch with too many of its secret meanings.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07But one thing we can be sure of
0:26:07 > 0:26:09is there are no heroes in his pictures,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12no-one we should look up to.
0:26:13 > 0:26:14So, what have you got?
0:26:20 > 0:26:24HE LAUGHS
0:26:34 > 0:26:39In Longhi's art, the corrupt, the flighty,
0:26:39 > 0:26:44the ridiculous, have elbowed out the gods and the heroes
0:26:44 > 0:26:47and grabbed the leading roles.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50In Rococo Venice,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53it wasn't the meek who inherited the earth
0:26:53 > 0:26:56but the schemers,
0:26:56 > 0:26:59the mountebanks, the charlatans.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05WAVES LAP
0:27:08 > 0:27:13So, the pleasure capital of Europe was awash with naughtiness.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18Whatever your vice, Venice catered for it.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21But vices cost money.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25And if you didn't have any, and got into debt,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29then they sent you somewhere very Rococo -
0:27:29 > 0:27:31prison.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37The prison island of Santo Stefano,
0:27:37 > 0:27:41a busy Rococo location with a hellish history.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48The Italians have been sending people to Santa Stefano
0:27:48 > 0:27:50since Roman times.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54Nero's wife, Octavia, was exiled here.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00A couple of thousand years later,
0:28:00 > 0:28:04this is where Mussolini sent his political prisoners.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09But it got really interesting in Rococo times,
0:28:09 > 0:28:16when Santo Stefano led the way in prison architecture.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22Prisons played a huge part in the Rococo.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26They were crucial in literature, for instance -
0:28:26 > 0:28:32Casanova, that archetypal Rococo seducer, was in and out of prison.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36And his life story is full of prison escapades.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44The Marquis de Sade was another one.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47An archetypal Rococo rogue,
0:28:47 > 0:28:50who did all his best work locked up.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05So the Rococo specialised in prisons,
0:29:05 > 0:29:09and here at Santo Stefano there's a unique survival
0:29:09 > 0:29:13of the Rococo's biggest and darkest prison idea.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23You must've heard of Jeremy Bentham -
0:29:23 > 0:29:27he's one of the Rococo's weirdest presences,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30and he's still with us.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32Or, at least, bits of him are.
0:29:33 > 0:29:39Bentham left his corpse to University College, London,
0:29:39 > 0:29:45and every day his Rococo skeleton goes on display
0:29:45 > 0:29:49encased in a pretend-body stuffed with horsehair.
0:29:52 > 0:29:57As for his head, well, they keep that in a box.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02And it only gets taken out on special occasions.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13Bentham was a social philosopher,
0:30:13 > 0:30:17constantly thinking up better ways for us to live.
0:30:17 > 0:30:24And he invented a new way of thinking called utilitarianism.
0:30:25 > 0:30:31Utilitarianism's big idea was that usefulness brought happiness,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35so everything should be really, really useful -
0:30:35 > 0:30:37especially a prison.
0:30:43 > 0:30:45According to Bentham,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49the greatest happiness for the greatest number
0:30:49 > 0:30:52was the measure of right and wrong.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57So whatever made a prison work best, that's what you need to do.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06So he invented a new type of prison
0:31:06 > 0:31:09called a panopticon...
0:31:11 > 0:31:14..and he persuaded the English government to help him develop it.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20His plan was to build one of these in London,
0:31:20 > 0:31:24exactly where Tate Britain is today.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26And it would've looked much like this.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34The panopticon was round,
0:31:34 > 0:31:38and its big idea was that the prisoners on the perimeter
0:31:38 > 0:31:41could be spied on constantly
0:31:41 > 0:31:44by the guards watching them from the centre.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50It was all about surveillance.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54How could a few people keep track of lots of people?
0:31:55 > 0:32:00In a panopticon, the cells went all the way round,
0:32:00 > 0:32:05and in the middle was an observation tower patrolled by the guards.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09And this observation tower had blinds in it -
0:32:09 > 0:32:11venetian blinds, as it happens -
0:32:11 > 0:32:15so the guards could watch the prisoners,
0:32:15 > 0:32:18but the prisoners could never be sure
0:32:18 > 0:32:21if they were being watched or not.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29It's a very sinister idea.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33What Bentham was trying to engineer with his Rococo panopticon
0:32:33 > 0:32:38was a situation in which the prisoners controlled themselves.
0:32:38 > 0:32:43In their imaginations, they always believed they were being watched,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46so they could never feel...
0:32:46 > 0:32:49unwatched.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53And, of course, Bentham was right,
0:32:53 > 0:32:56the modern world is being invented here,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59and its sophisticated surveillance.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06With the CCTV camera, the building doesn't have to be round any more.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11But the panopticon's big idea,
0:33:11 > 0:33:15that the few can spy on the many, has survived.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27Once he'd invented his panopticon,
0:33:27 > 0:33:31Bentham wanted to expand its use.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35Hospitals could be based on this model, he said,
0:33:35 > 0:33:37mad houses,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39and even schools.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45So, as the Rococo slipped ever deeper
0:33:45 > 0:33:48into the blackness of its own ending,
0:33:48 > 0:33:53the craziness of Jeremy Bentham's daft ideas
0:33:53 > 0:33:57ceased slowly to appear so crazy...
0:33:58 > 0:34:03..and began to look more and more like the norm.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15When the Rococo uncorked the inner man
0:34:15 > 0:34:18and pushed him out onto art's stage,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21it made public bits of the mind
0:34:21 > 0:34:24that had previously remained private.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30This is Vienna,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34where Sigmund Freud would later tunnel so invasively
0:34:34 > 0:34:37into the human psyche.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41What, I wonder, would Freud have made
0:34:41 > 0:34:45of the Rococo mindset that produced these?
0:34:52 > 0:34:56These were made by the Viennese sculptor
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02And I know this is the Rococo
0:35:02 > 0:35:07and that all sorts of private fears and desires
0:35:07 > 0:35:10came bubbling up from the inner man,
0:35:10 > 0:35:14but still...they're particularly creepy, aren't they?
0:35:17 > 0:35:21Born in the German Alps in 1736,
0:35:21 > 0:35:24Messerschmidt began his career
0:35:24 > 0:35:29as a conventional sculptor working for the Viennese court.
0:35:29 > 0:35:34Here's his portrait of the Emperor Francis I.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38And here's the Empress, Maria Theresa.
0:35:38 > 0:35:40Competent?
0:35:40 > 0:35:42Yes.
0:35:42 > 0:35:43Special?
0:35:43 > 0:35:44No.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49So, it was all going swimmingly,
0:35:49 > 0:35:53he had a prestigious position at the court...
0:35:53 > 0:35:57when suddenly something went wrong.
0:35:57 > 0:36:03In about 1770, Messerschmidt began having hallucinations
0:36:03 > 0:36:05and bouts of paranoia,
0:36:05 > 0:36:09and for no discernible reason,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12he began making these.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18In 1774, he applied for a professor's job
0:36:18 > 0:36:21at the Vienna Academy Of Art
0:36:21 > 0:36:24and was turned down.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26Messerschmidt, they said,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29was suffering from confusion in the head.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37So he left for Pressburg -
0:36:37 > 0:36:40nowadays called Bratislava -
0:36:40 > 0:36:43and for the final ten years of his life,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46these were all he did.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52He called them his Character Heads.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55Some were sculpted from marble,
0:36:55 > 0:36:57others cast from lead.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02They are basically self-portraits,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05each one featuring a different grimace,
0:37:05 > 0:37:10in what Messerschmidt claimed was a full catalogue
0:37:10 > 0:37:14of the canonical grimaces of the human face.
0:37:17 > 0:37:23In 1781, a German writer called Friedrich Nicolai
0:37:23 > 0:37:27visited Messerschmidt in his studio.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30It's the only eyewitness account of him there is.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33And Messerschmidt explained to Nicolai
0:37:33 > 0:37:38that he was suffering from intense pains in his abdomen.
0:37:38 > 0:37:44The illness has since been diagnosed as Crohn's disease.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48And to relieve these sharp pains,
0:37:48 > 0:37:54Messerschmidt would pinch himself hard in the stomach,
0:37:54 > 0:37:59and then he'd record the expression on his face
0:37:59 > 0:38:02in these extraordinary heads.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07There was more.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11Scattered about the studio were bits and pieces
0:38:11 > 0:38:15of occult imagery and books on magic.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21Messerschmidt told Nicolai he was a follower
0:38:21 > 0:38:27of Hermes Trismegistus, the ancient occult god,
0:38:27 > 0:38:32whose name has given us the modern adjective "hermetic".
0:38:33 > 0:38:36According to Hermes Trismegistus,
0:38:36 > 0:38:43our duty on earth is to pursue a universal balance.
0:38:43 > 0:38:45"As above, so below" was his doctrine.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53Unfortunately, Messerschmidt's sculptures
0:38:53 > 0:38:56had angered the Spirit of Proportion,
0:38:56 > 0:39:01an ancient being who protected these occult secrets,
0:39:01 > 0:39:05and so angry was the Spirit of Proportion with Messerschmidt
0:39:05 > 0:39:10for making these that he began visiting him at night
0:39:10 > 0:39:14and subjecting him to terrible tortures.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21This particular head - The Beak, it's called -
0:39:21 > 0:39:26is a record of one of these ghastly nights
0:39:26 > 0:39:30and of what happened in the mind of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt,
0:39:30 > 0:39:35when the Spirit of Proportion commenced his torture.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40Only the Rococo could have come up with
0:39:40 > 0:39:43an artistic storyline like this one.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58That craze for wearing masks and costumes
0:39:58 > 0:40:00that we saw in Longhi's paintings -
0:40:00 > 0:40:04swapping identities, pretending you're someone else -
0:40:04 > 0:40:07that wasn't just a Venetian craze.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10It caught on all over the Rococo world,
0:40:10 > 0:40:13particularly in France.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19You'll remember in the last film
0:40:19 > 0:40:24how we admired the art of Antoine Watteau
0:40:24 > 0:40:27and his dreamy "fete galante".
0:40:28 > 0:40:31All those mysterious couples
0:40:31 > 0:40:32flirting,
0:40:32 > 0:40:34strolling,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37searching for love.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40Who are they?
0:40:40 > 0:40:44And why are they dressed like that?
0:40:49 > 0:40:52You should recognise him - he's Harlequin -
0:40:52 > 0:40:56and he appears in lots of Watteau paintings.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00And so does he - Pierrot.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05And they are all characters from the commedia dell'arte.
0:41:07 > 0:41:12The commedia dell'arte was a type of travelling theatre
0:41:12 > 0:41:15originally from Italy,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18which toured Rococo Europe
0:41:18 > 0:41:23mounting spontaneous, on-the-spot entertainments.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30They'd turn up at your village and put on a show.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33Like fairs today. Or the circus.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38And the main characters were always the same - Harlequin, Pierrot -
0:41:38 > 0:41:41but the stories were constantly changing,
0:41:41 > 0:41:44improvised specially for the day.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50The usual explanation for the presence
0:41:50 > 0:41:55of these commedia dell'arte characters in Watteau's art
0:41:55 > 0:42:01is that they're part of the Rococo's escape from reality,
0:42:01 > 0:42:03a symbolic blurring
0:42:03 > 0:42:08of the divide between real life and the theatre.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13There's definitely some of that going on.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16Watteau's art raises intriguing questions
0:42:16 > 0:42:19about the nature of reality and all that.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23But I think the reason why the people in his pictures
0:42:23 > 0:42:27are wearing all these mixed-up costumes is much simpler -
0:42:27 > 0:42:31they're attending a fancy-dress ball.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38Masquerades were all the rage in Rococo France.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42They were notoriously decadent,
0:42:42 > 0:42:46full of the flirtation and intrigue.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52And the most popular costumes to wear at a masquerade,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56the ones you could rent most easily off the shelf,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59were the commedia dell'arte costumes
0:42:59 > 0:43:02which everyone knew and recognised.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11If you were going to a fancy-dress ball in the Rococo era,
0:43:11 > 0:43:14you hired a commedia dell'arte costume.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18And they were still popular a few centuries later.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23As Bertie Wooster puts it in Right Ho, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse,
0:43:23 > 0:43:25"For costume parties,
0:43:25 > 0:43:30"every well-bred Englishman dresses as Pierrot."
0:43:34 > 0:43:38One Watteau painting in particular - his masterpiece, I think -
0:43:38 > 0:43:41pokes about so interestingly
0:43:41 > 0:43:46in the deeper meanings of this Rococo identity swapping.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52A gangly young man in a Pierrot costume
0:43:52 > 0:43:55stands before us looking nervous.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59The costume doesn't fit properly.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02It's too big for him,
0:44:02 > 0:44:05like an off-the-peg morning suit
0:44:05 > 0:44:08hired cheaply for a wedding.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14In commedia dell'arte shows, Pierrot, the sad clown,
0:44:14 > 0:44:19is always chasing after the beautiful Columbine,
0:44:19 > 0:44:23but she prefers the dashing Harlequin.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28You know how women always go for the bad boys.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31So she rejects poor Pierrot,
0:44:31 > 0:44:34over and over and over again.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39Unlucky in love,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42unlucky in everything,
0:44:42 > 0:44:47Watteau's Pierrot is so palpably human and vulnerable.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54Yes, he's had a go at being someone else in his ill-fitting costume,
0:44:54 > 0:44:58but he's not very good at it, is he?
0:45:01 > 0:45:05This isn't humanity disguised,
0:45:05 > 0:45:08it's humanity revealed.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12What we've got here - and this is so brilliant - is a painter
0:45:12 > 0:45:16who's using costumes not to escape reality,
0:45:16 > 0:45:18but to confront it.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23These days, the sad clown
0:45:23 > 0:45:27has become a bit of a cliche,
0:45:27 > 0:45:30but the Rococo invented him,
0:45:30 > 0:45:36and Watteau's Pierrot was the first and greatest of them.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48OWL HOOTS
0:45:48 > 0:45:51So it was all getting darker.
0:45:51 > 0:45:56All over Europe, the naysayers were taking over art,
0:45:56 > 0:46:00dredging up the black stuff from their imaginations.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03ANIMAL HOWLS
0:46:03 > 0:46:08And the loudest noes could be heard in Spain,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12when the incomparable Goya turned up
0:46:12 > 0:46:14on the front line of art.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18Every now and then an artist comes along
0:46:18 > 0:46:21who doesn't just do things differently
0:46:21 > 0:46:24but actually tears up the rulebook,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27reinvents what art can and should do.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30Goya was one of those.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37His first notable successes in art,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40were the Rococo tapestries he designed
0:46:40 > 0:46:43for the royal court in Madrid.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47They are supposed to be jolly and sweet
0:46:47 > 0:46:50in a typical Rococo fashion,
0:46:50 > 0:46:52and some of them are,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56but others...aren't.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01The tapestry designs brought Goya to the attention
0:47:01 > 0:47:03of the Spanish royal family
0:47:03 > 0:47:05and, as with most royal families,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09they were hungry for artistic immortality.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13And so, foolishly - very foolishly -
0:47:13 > 0:47:17they invited Goya to paint their portraits.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23The result was a display of royal mockery
0:47:23 > 0:47:27on a scale unimaginable in any other epoch.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31Only at the tail-end of the Rococo
0:47:31 > 0:47:33could Goya have got away
0:47:33 > 0:47:39with this damning portrayal of Charles IV and his family
0:47:39 > 0:47:45with its startling determination to tell it like it is.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51And just look what he made of the next king in the line,
0:47:51 > 0:47:54Ferdinand VII - the ugliest king in art.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59The Desperate Dan chin,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02the half-formed mouth,
0:48:02 > 0:48:04the wolverine sideburns...
0:48:06 > 0:48:10If this were YOUR king, you'd want a republic, wouldn't you?
0:48:17 > 0:48:20Goya was born without the flattery gene.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23He was incapable of diplomacy,
0:48:23 > 0:48:26and when he looked at the world around him
0:48:26 > 0:48:31and saw stupidity, evil, darkness,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34he just couldn't help himself -
0:48:34 > 0:48:37he had to point it out to us.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42In his private paintings,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45the ones he made for himself,
0:48:45 > 0:48:48it all comes tumbling out.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54Here is the Casa De Locos - The Madhouse -
0:48:54 > 0:48:59a terrifying stone jail where the crazies have taken over,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02and all manner of unmentionable acts
0:49:02 > 0:49:04are performed in the dark.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10Here's the Inquisition.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13Come to church to judge the dunces
0:49:13 > 0:49:16and then to torture them.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22And here's a procession of penitents in Holy Week
0:49:22 > 0:49:26who don't need the Inquisition to torture them
0:49:26 > 0:49:30because they're so keen to torture themselves.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39That's Goya there, asleep.
0:49:39 > 0:49:45Slumped over his desk with all these monsters pouring out of his head.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53"The sleep of reason produces monsters"
0:49:53 > 0:49:55is written on the desk.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59This was going to be the title plate
0:49:59 > 0:50:05of the Rococo's most inventive and brilliant torrent of darkness -
0:50:05 > 0:50:11the great suite of etchings known as Goya's Caprichos.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20The original copper plates from which these etchings were made
0:50:20 > 0:50:25are now are found in the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28If you get a chance to see them, take it,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32because they bring you so close to Goya.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40The Caprichos are always exciting,
0:50:40 > 0:50:42but they're particularly exciting
0:50:42 > 0:50:44when you press your nose against them
0:50:44 > 0:50:48and savour the beautiful scratchings of Goya's burin.
0:50:51 > 0:50:56This is graphic art of spectacular freedom and wildness.
0:50:57 > 0:51:02In this dark cascade of 80 scabrous images,
0:51:02 > 0:51:06describing the horrors of the world around him,
0:51:06 > 0:51:10Goya poured out all his disappointment,
0:51:10 > 0:51:12his hatred,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15his fear.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18Who invented the graphic novel?
0:51:18 > 0:51:20Goya.
0:51:22 > 0:51:26Who invented Frankenstein's monster?
0:51:26 > 0:51:27Goya.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31Who invented zombies?
0:51:31 > 0:51:32Goya.
0:51:34 > 0:51:36Who invented scarecrows?
0:51:36 > 0:51:39Horror movies?
0:51:39 > 0:51:42And even Harry Potter?
0:51:43 > 0:51:44Goya!
0:51:49 > 0:51:53Pretty much every contemporary darkness you can name
0:51:53 > 0:51:56is prefigured in the Caprichos.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59They're astonishingly prescient,
0:51:59 > 0:52:02and Goya knew all this about the monsters
0:52:02 > 0:52:05produced by the sleep of reason
0:52:05 > 0:52:07because they were his monsters, too.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15Under the strain of all this brilliant invention,
0:52:15 > 0:52:20his remarkable mind began to buckle.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22First, he started going deaf,
0:52:22 > 0:52:26then the panic attacks began.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29Soon his own private horror
0:52:29 > 0:52:33climaxed in a nervous breakdown.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38On the walls of his house outside Madrid
0:52:38 > 0:52:43he began painting his famous black paintings
0:52:43 > 0:52:45and surrounding himself with their horror.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50The witches and monsters were no longer a dream.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53They were there -
0:52:53 > 0:52:58moved into his house and living on his walls.
0:53:17 > 0:53:22In Venice as well, events have now lurched into blackness.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28In 1796, Napoleon invaded Italy
0:53:28 > 0:53:32and quickly conquered the Serenissima.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42The Venetian Republic which had lasted for 1,000 years
0:53:42 > 0:53:45was abruptly terminated.
0:53:45 > 0:53:50Napoleon carted off some of Venice's greatest art treasures to Paris
0:53:50 > 0:53:52as war booty.
0:53:52 > 0:53:571,000 years of history snuffed out just like that.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05So, for politics, these were terrible times.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08But for art,
0:54:08 > 0:54:10they were really interesting!
0:54:12 > 0:54:15This is the Ca Rezzonico,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19Venice's official museum of the 18th century.
0:54:21 > 0:54:26And those are the only two Canalettos in Venice.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29Grim ones from his early days.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36But that's not what we're here for.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40We're here...for this!
0:54:42 > 0:54:46Now, that is a strange fresco, right?
0:54:46 > 0:54:50It was painted by Domenico Tiepolo
0:54:50 > 0:54:52son of the great Giambattista.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56If you remember in film one,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00there was that magnificent staircase in Wurzburg,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03painted by Tiepolo Senior.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08And remember the two portraits in the corner?
0:55:08 > 0:55:11Giambattista Tiepolo on the left,
0:55:11 > 0:55:16and on the right, his son Domenico, who assisted him.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21Tiepolo Junior - Domenico Tiepolo -
0:55:21 > 0:55:24was a really interesting painter too.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26But while his father was alive,
0:55:26 > 0:55:28no-one was going to notice him.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36Poor Domenico was fated to spend most of his career
0:55:36 > 0:55:39in his father's shadow.
0:55:39 > 0:55:44It was only when Tiepolo Senior died, in 1770,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47that Domenico came into his own.
0:55:51 > 0:55:56These strange frescoes were painted for the Tiepolo family house,
0:55:56 > 0:56:00the Villa Zianigo, on the mainland.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04And they were done for his own amusement, privately.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07And that's what makes them so telling.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13This one here was in the entrance hall.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18Imagine, you walk into the Tiepolo family house
0:56:18 > 0:56:22and all these people turn their back on you.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24Why?
0:56:24 > 0:56:27Because they'd prefer to look at the magic lantern show
0:56:27 > 0:56:30taking place in the background.
0:56:32 > 0:56:37In Napoleon's Venice, amusement was what the crowd craved,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40not art.
0:56:42 > 0:56:44So that was the entrance hall.
0:56:44 > 0:56:50But look what Tiepolo Junior painted at the back of the house.
0:56:50 > 0:56:52A room full of Pulcinella.
0:56:56 > 0:57:01Pulcinella was another character in the commedia dell'arte.
0:57:01 > 0:57:07A hunchback with a big nose, whose deceitfulness was legendary.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13This has to be one of the most inventive and outrageous
0:57:13 > 0:57:18fresco cycles in the whole of Italian art.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21All these Pulchinellas haven't just visited the room,
0:57:21 > 0:57:24they've overrun it.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38They're like a troop of monkeys in a zoo.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41And I think that's what they're actually meant to be -
0:57:41 > 0:57:46human monkeys clambering all over the modern world.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50Ugly, itchy and ridiculous.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57Pulcinella, the lecherous Venetian scoundrel,
0:57:57 > 0:58:01has taken over the fresco spaces
0:58:01 > 0:58:06formerly occupied by gods and heroes.
0:58:06 > 0:58:12Where once this ceiling would have shown Apollo riding his chariot,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16or Jesus ascending to Heaven,
0:58:16 > 0:58:19there's now a circus show.
0:58:19 > 0:58:24With a bunch of Pulcinellas clambering along a tightrope.
0:58:26 > 0:58:31Welcome, says Domenico Tiepolo, to the modern world.
0:58:35 > 0:58:39You know, Pulcinella here, the ugly Rococo hunchback,
0:58:39 > 0:58:42was the model for Punch in the Punch and Judy shows
0:58:42 > 0:58:45you still see at the seaside.
0:58:45 > 0:58:48And he's always hitting Judy over the head.
0:58:48 > 0:58:50Just like that.
0:58:52 > 0:58:56And that's the thing about the Rococo,
0:58:56 > 0:58:58it never really went away.
0:58:58 > 0:59:01It's us in our early form.
0:59:03 > 0:59:09In film one, we saw a society that was always going on holiday.
0:59:09 > 0:59:16In film two, celebrity and pleasure became the order of the day.
0:59:17 > 0:59:22And now, in film three, the clowns have taken over
0:59:22 > 0:59:25and nothing's serious any more.
0:59:28 > 0:59:32The Rococo wasn't just a great creative era,
0:59:32 > 0:59:36it was a great creative prediction.