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This is a series about an artistic
era that is looked down on,
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and never gets the respect it
deserves.
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It is a shadowy era so shadowy,
people even disagree about its name.
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So I'm going to use the old one,
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the one that best sums up its
dilemmas.
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I'm going to call it the Dark Ages.
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The Dark Ages go roughly from the
fourth century to roughly the 11th.
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They begin when the Roman Empire
starts to crumble,
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and they end
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when William the Conqueror
invades England.
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Now in this shadowy slab of time,
everything changed.
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The greatest empire
the world has seen
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melted back into
the cultural shadows.
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Various powerful artistic forces
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stepped up to take its place.
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Later in the series,
we'll be examining those much
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misunderstood creatives
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the Barbarians.
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What wondrous bling
they brought into the world.
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What fabulous things they achieved.
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I will also be looking at that
joyous and inventive religion,
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Islam, which did so much
to light up the Dark Ages.
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But we begin with a group of people
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whose achievements were enormous.
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They started with nothing
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and ended up with so much.
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I'm thinking, of course, of those
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thoroughly underestimated
Dark Age creatives,
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those intrepid
voyagers into the unknown.
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The Christians.
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Art never lies.
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And the story that art tells us of
these exciting times
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is that this was never
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an age of darkness.
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This was an age of light.
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These are the famous
ruins of Pompeii.
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As I am sure you know, Mount
Vesuvius erupted here in 79 AD,
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and all of this
was covered in ashes
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and preserved for posterity
in perfect conditions.
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Now, one of the things they found
here, which really surprised them,
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was proof that there were already
Christians here by 79 AD.
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The thing they found that
proved it...
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..was this.
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It's what they call a Rotas square
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and these Rotas squares
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are deeply mysterious.
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They have been found all over the
Roman Empire, in Syria, in Gaul,
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even in England, in Cirencester,
they found one of these.
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They are usually inscribed on the
walls of houses,
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or sometimes on the columns outside
the house,
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but, of course,
when they found them,
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they didn't have a clue
what these were.
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Just mysterious word games,
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plastered outside houses.
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What it is is a letter square,
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made up of five Latin words
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Rotas,
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Opera,
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Tenet,
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Arepo
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and Sator.
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Rotas at the top
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is Sator backwards.
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And you can see Rotas down
this side, as well.
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And Sator down that side.
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And here in the middle, Arepo,
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is Opera, "work", backwards.
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The actual words mean something like
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"As ye sow, so shall ye reap."
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But only if you ignore Latin
grammar.
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Various code-breakers twisted it
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this way and that for decades,
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but it still didn't mean much.
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But then, a eureka moment.
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One of these code-breakers realised
that the important
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thing about the Rotas square
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was not the words,
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but the letters.
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Because these letters of the
Rotas square
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can be rearranged
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to form a cross,
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which reads the same
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both ways,
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up and down.
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It says Paternoster,
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which is Latin for "Our Father,"
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the opening words of the Lord's
prayer.
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What's more, these two letters
that are left over,
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Alpha and Omega,
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are the first and
last letters of the Greek alphabet.
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Alpha and Omega in their Roman form.
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You can see them down in the Roman
catacombs popping up everywhere.
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Alpha and Omega
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the beginning and the end.
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Popular Christian code
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for the one true God.
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So these mysterious word squares
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were put outside houses to signify
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that the occupants were Christians,
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and also as a kind of lucky charm to
ward off evil.
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Of course, this isn't art yet,
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this is an inscription,
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but it has artistic
implications.
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What you see in here,
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this appetite for signs and symbols
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and secret meanings,
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that Christian appetite
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is something that transferred to
Christian art.
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The Christian art of the dark ages
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is an art of mystery and magic.
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Of suggestions and miracles.
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Transcendence and light.
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The Rotas square isn't art
yet,
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but it is an excellent pointer
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to a new artistic direction.
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One of the reasons early Christian
art is so exciting is
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because you find it in exciting
places.
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Rome is wild enough on the
surface,
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but when you descend into
its underground
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look how scary and
fascinating it becomes.
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People often imagine the catacombs
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were hiding places, underground
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shelters in which persecuted
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Christians hid from the Romans.
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But you can't hide an underground
city as huge as this
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under anyone's nose.
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The Romans knew these were here,
all right.
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What they didn't know,
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is what one Christian was saying
to another down here.
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Because the first Christian art
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was filled with secret signs
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and hidden meanings.
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That's why the fish became
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a ubiquitous Christian symbol.
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When two Christians met on the road
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it is said that one of them
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would draw this shape in the sand.
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The other one would draw this shape
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and two of them
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knew immediately that they were
Christians together.
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This famous Christian sign,
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the Christogram, or Chi-Rho,
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represents Jesus himself.
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It is made by combining two Greek
letters,
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Chi and Rho, the first
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two letters of the word Christos,
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which means "the anointed one."
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It is said that the sign
had magic powers.
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Even today, we still call
Christmas, "Xmas", because of this.
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Another popular Christian sign
was the anchor.
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For the simple reason that the
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top of it here looked like a cross.
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Everywhere you look in these
haunting Roman catacombs, the first
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Christians are declaring their faith
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in such mysterious and cryptic ways.
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These symbols and signs
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weren't just a secret language,
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they were also a different way
of seeing things, a different way
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of understanding, not just with your
eyes, but with your imagination.
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What is most interesting about this
first Christian art
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you find down here
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is how few pictures there are in
it.
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No images of Jesus,
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no Marys, no saints.
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For the first few
centuries of Christianity
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there were no Christian images.
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It is not
until the beginning of our period,
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the so-called Dark Ages,
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300 years after the birth of Christ
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that figures and scenes
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begin to pop
up at last in Christian art.
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Look how puzzling they were.
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We are in a third century
Christian burial chamber,
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in the catacombs of Priscilla.
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A rich, Christian family was
buried here,
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and look what's on the walls.
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Over here, some peacocks.
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Over there,
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three chaps standing in a fire.
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And over here,
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some kind of sea dragon,
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with someone coming
out of its mouth.
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So, let's decode all of this.
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The peacocks are symbols of
eternity.
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Because peacocks replace
their beautiful feathers every year,
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the ancients believed
their flesh couldn't rot.
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It was eternal.
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The three young men are described
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in the Bible by the prophet, Daniel.
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Three young Israelites were
set on fire by the Babylonians,
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but God protected them
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and the Babylonian fires
couldn't touch them.
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The chap coming out of the sea
monster is the prophet, Jonah,
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who you may remember was
swallowed by a whale
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for three whole days.
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After three days,
the whale spat him out again,
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and he returned to dry land,
a wiser man.
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The thread that unites all these
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cryptic images is salvation.
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Hope.
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"God save the three young
men from the fire,
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"he saved Jonah from the whale
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"and he will save you, too."
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Jonah is also the subject
of the
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earliest surviving
masterpieces of Christian sculpture.
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Found today in the Cleveland
Museum of Art.
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Jonah, swallowed by the whale,
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spat out by the whale
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and returned to dry land a wiser
man.
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Jonah is particularly significant
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because the early Christians used
him
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as a stand-in for Jesus himself.
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Jesus, remember,
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also
rose from the dead after three days.
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The reason why Jonah is
so popular in the catacombs is
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because he is a way of showing
Jesus...
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..without showing Jesus.
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Replacement another code,
a symbol.
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We've been down here, what, five
minutes,
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and look how many different ways
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we have already seen to represent
Jesus
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without actually showing him.
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He is the Chi-Rho,
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the word sign,
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he's Jonah in the whale,
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he's the fish,
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the anchor.
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What we haven't seen yet is a Jesus
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we can all recognise.
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A Jesus who actually
looks like Jesus.
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The truth is, no-one in early
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Christian art had a clue what
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he actually looked like.
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The Bible doesn't describe him,
no-one does.
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So art took an extremely long time
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to come up with a face for Jesus.
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And I think, the search for that
face is the greatest artistic
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tussle of the Dark Ages.
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The proof that no-one actually knew
what Jesus looked like is
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this controversial relic.
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The Shroud of Turin.
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It is said to be the cloth in which
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Jesus was wrapped at his death.
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This haunting likeness is
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the true face of Christ,
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preserved miraculously in his blood,
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or so they say.
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The Shroud of Turin doesn't get
shown very often, but
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when it does, thousands of pilgrims
flock to Turin to see it.
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00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:27,680
Most of them believe they are
looking at the true face of Christ.
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When I went to see it,
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there was such a powerful atmosphere
in the church,
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so many people,
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00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:39,640
so certain they were
staring at the remains of Jesus.
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I am afraid they weren't, because
Jesus Christ didn't look like that.
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At least, not according to
the evidence left behind
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00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:54,000
by the first Christian artists
who described him.
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00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:58,040
According to these first
Christian artists,
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Jesus actually looked...
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..like this.
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Blonde, fresh-faced, boyish,
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00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:10,800
the earliest images of Jesus looked
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nothing like the Jesus
we know today.
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And nothing like the Jesus
on the Turin Shroud.
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Jesus at first is a happy-go-lucky
character,
266
00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:26,360
curly-haired and handsome.
267
00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:30,880
He is usually shown
waving his wand about,
268
00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:33,480
performing remarkable miracles.
269
00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:36,520
So here, he is turning
water into wine at the wedding
270
00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:38,800
feast at Cana,
271
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:40,560
and here
272
00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:42,640
he is curing the paralytic,
273
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:46,200
who couldn't walk
until he met the baby-faced Jesus.
274
00:17:47,360 --> 00:17:49,440
And over here,
275
00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:53,240
a blind man is being
cured by Jesus again.
276
00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:59,240
And finally, with a wave of that
Harry Potter wand of his,
277
00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:03,680
this is Jesus raising
Lazarus from the dead.
278
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:06,600
You can always tell
Lazarus in early Christian art,
279
00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:10,240
because he looks like an Egyptian
mummy, all wrapped up.
280
00:18:18,360 --> 00:18:22,680
What you never see in these very
first examples of Christian
281
00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:25,720
art is a Jesus who is
suffering
282
00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:27,520
in pain,
283
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:29,560
covered in blood like the one
284
00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:31,800
on the Turin Shroud.
285
00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:36,480
That Jesus doesn't turn
up in art for 1,000 years or so,
286
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:42,560
because the tortured Jesus is
a creation of the Middle Ages,
287
00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:46,200
an expression of medieval guilt
and terror.
288
00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:53,480
What horrible pains the artistic
mind went on to
289
00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:57,680
inflict on the crucified
Jesus in the centuries ahead.
290
00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:01,200
How harshly it whipped him
291
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:02,960
and scourged him
292
00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:04,360
and punctured him.
293
00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:13,680
In the beginning,
though, artists didn't do that.
294
00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,000
The first Jesuses in art
295
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,640
are young, handsome, curly-haired
296
00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:20,680
and free.
297
00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:24,120
So, either Jesus deliberately
298
00:19:24,120 --> 00:19:26,320
misled his followers about what
299
00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:27,600
he actually looked like
300
00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:29,720
for the first 1,000 years or
301
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:32,640
so of Christianity,
302
00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:36,840
or the
Turin Shroud is a medieval fake.
303
00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:40,200
I know what I think.
304
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:48,480
The first Christians weren't
looking for a god who made them
305
00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:50,800
feel guilty.
306
00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:53,280
That would never have caught on.
307
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:56,640
They were looking for a God who
would save them,
308
00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:58,280
and fill them with hope.
309
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:04,440
So as their model for the first
Jesus, Christian artists
310
00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:08,720
selected the youngest
and handsomest of the pagan gods.
311
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:13,280
They chose Apollo,
the god of the sun.
312
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:17,440
Blond, and un-bearded,
313
00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:19,480
youthful and curly-haired.
314
00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:24,920
Apollo
was a God who made you feel good.
315
00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:32,560
So the first Jesuses
were curly-haired and pretty,
316
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:35,560
because they borrowed that
look from Apollo.
317
00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:37,560
And it went further than that.
318
00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:42,280
When this mysterious Christian
statue was dug up out of the
319
00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:45,760
ground it was thought to represent
a woman,
320
00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:48,200
an unknown goddess, a muse.
321
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:52,440
Only later was it realised that
this, too,
322
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:54,280
was an early Jesus.
323
00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:05,600
In that wonderful
museum in Cleveland,
324
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:07,960
the one with the Jonah marbles,
325
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,240
there is a carving of Apollo
326
00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:13,120
performing a miracle with Nike,
327
00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:15,960
the goddess of victory.
328
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:19,200
Apollo is the robed figure on the
left.
329
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:22,960
And look how shapely he is.
330
00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:26,880
How easily we might
mistake him, too, for a woman.
331
00:21:30,120 --> 00:21:32,920
Pagan gods could be male and female.
332
00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:37,600
They could amalgamate the sexes,
represent both genders at once.
333
00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:39,120
Just like this Jesus here.
334
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:42,320
Extraordinary
as it sounds,
335
00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:45,000
the first Jesuses were sometimes
336
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,680
made to look feminine on purpose.
337
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,040
They were given suggestions
of breasts,
338
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,680
beautiful faces,
339
00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:57,760
soft bodies and long hair.
340
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,520
"There is neither male nor female,"
341
00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:04,760
wrote Saint Paul to the Galicians.
342
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,360
"You are all one in Jesus."
343
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:13,400
The pagans had lots of goddesses to
worship
344
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:14,600
Venus,
345
00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:15,720
Isis,
346
00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:16,880
Diana.
347
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:18,720
But Christianity had none.
348
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,320
Christianity believed in one true
God
349
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,440
and he was masculine.
350
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,840
There was an entire feminine
side missing.
351
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:32,080
So the feminisation of Jesus was
a deliberate artistic attempt
352
00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:36,920
to cater for both sexes.
353
00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:42,160
It produced some of the Dark Ages'
most unexpected imagery.
354
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:46,680
In Ravenna, in the magnificent Arian
Baptistery,
355
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,200
there is an un-bearded Jesus
356
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,920
being baptised in the River Jordan.
357
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,640
He is so soft and feminine.
358
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,640
A podgy and delicate Christ
359
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:03,200
with childbearing hips.
360
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:07,840
Before this girlish Jesus could
become fully masculine,
361
00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:11,280
grow a beard and turn into a man,
362
00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:14,720
Christianity needed to find a
363
00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:17,560
feminine presence of its own.
364
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:30,000
The borrowing of Christ's face from
Apollo shouldn't really surprise us.
365
00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:34,480
The early Christians
borrowed from the pagans
366
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:36,480
because that's what art does.
367
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:39,280
It uses what's already there.
368
00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:42,760
It is important to remember,
too, that for
369
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,600
most of these early centuries
of Christianity,
370
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:49,080
Christians and pagans lived together
371
00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,040
in reasonable harmony.
372
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:54,360
Those terrible periods of
persecution,
373
00:23:54,360 --> 00:23:58,000
when the Romans murdered
the Christians in terrible ways,
374
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:02,000
those were rare,
the exception, not the rule.
375
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:08,920
Later, when the Roman Empire became
officially Christian,
376
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:11,600
under the Emperor Constantine,
377
00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:13,000
aggressive Christian writers,
378
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,240
looking back on these times,
379
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:19,800
did what the victor always
does in a war.
380
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:22,800
They rewrote history
from their point of view.
381
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:26,640
Dramatised it, exaggerated it.
382
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:34,720
In most of the Roman Empire,
particularly at the borders,
383
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:37,080
like here, in Roman Syria,
384
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:39,880
pagans lived next door to
Christians,
385
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:42,880
Christians
lived next door to Jews,
386
00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,200
and all of
them muddled along together.
387
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:53,320
The earliest known Christian church
has been found in the Syrian
388
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:56,120
border town of Dura-Europos.
389
00:24:57,360 --> 00:25:01,680
It was next to the earliest
known synagogue.
390
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:02,920
And around the corner
391
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:04,680
was the temple of the bull-god,
392
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:06,840
Mithras.
393
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:09,640
All these different religions
394
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:11,880
swapped each other's converts,
395
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:14,320
borrowed each other's gods,
396
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:16,960
and influenced each other's art.
397
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:23,440
Take the halo, that miraculous
circle of light which you
398
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:26,920
see around the heads of holy figures
in Christian art.
399
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:29,680
At first, there were no halos,
400
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:31,720
Jesus was the magician with
401
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,600
the wand, and that was enough to
differentiate him.
402
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:36,960
But as Christian art grew busier,
403
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:40,360
and more and more characters popped
up in it,
404
00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:44,160
Jesus needed to look more
obviously divine.
405
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:48,040
So Christian artists
did what the pagans did,
406
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,040
they gave him a halo,
407
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:53,080
borrowed once again from Apollo.
408
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:57,400
Long before Jesus acquired
409
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:59,880
his miraculous nimbus of light,
410
00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:02,640
Apollo already had one.
411
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,000
A circle of symbolic sunshine
412
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,120
emanating from his head to
413
00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:09,760
signify his solar divinity.
414
00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:16,760
Another crucial borrowing from
pagans was the image of the angel.
415
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,840
If you look at a typical Roman
sarcophagus from the early
416
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:26,680
Christian era, you will usually see
a pair of winged figures
417
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:32,160
carrying a portrait of the deceased
upwards in glory.
418
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:34,480
They look exactly like angels,
419
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:36,440
but they're not.
420
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:39,160
They're Roman figures of victory.
421
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,440
Nikes, pagan transporters of
the soul.
422
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:52,080
But the most significant of these
pagan borrowings was a female
423
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,520
figure adapted from Egyptian art.
424
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,160
She became very
popular in Christianity.
425
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:02,560
Indeed, she was central to it.
426
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:04,920
But that is not how she began.
427
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:13,720
The Egyptian earth mother, Isis,
428
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:17,920
was one of the most
revered of all pagan gods.
429
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,480
She was the goddess of fertility,
430
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:22,600
the mother goddess,
431
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,480
from whom all life
originally sprang.
432
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:31,120
When you wanted babies,
433
00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:32,840
you prayed to Isis.
434
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,320
When you wanted your crops to grow,
435
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:37,520
you prayed to Isis.
436
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,320
Whoever you were, slave, servant,
437
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:45,040
outcast, you prayed to Isis,
438
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,840
because Isis would protect you.
439
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:52,800
To emphasise her caring nature,
440
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:54,720
Isis was often shown with
441
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:56,640
a baby on her knee
442
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,520
whom she breastfeeds regally.
443
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:03,160
He is Horus, son of Isis.
444
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:05,920
Horus was the god of the sky,
445
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,200
the Egyptian Apollo,
446
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:09,760
and his birthday
447
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:12,600
fell at the winter solstice,
448
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:16,600
sometime around December 25.
449
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,720
When Christian art grew
hungry for a distinct female
450
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:24,000
presence to worship,
451
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,440
a mother goddess who nurtured you
and
452
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:28,200
protected you.
453
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:30,000
Isis, the mother of Horus,
454
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:31,960
was an obvious model, and the
455
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,200
two of them were soon successfully
456
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,280
transported into Christian art.
457
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:42,720
This is the first known
image of Mary,
458
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,840
holding the baby Jesus on her lap.
459
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:50,080
It was found in the Roman
catacombs of Priscilla,
460
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,040
a touching fragment of a mother
and her child.
461
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:59,680
Mary, caring for the baby Jesus,
became one of the most
462
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,920
popular of all the Christian
images
463
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:04,880
of the Dark Ages.
464
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:07,760
With such glorious results.
465
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:17,200
This great artistic discovery, the
Virgin Mary,
466
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:19,120
had an important by-product
467
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:24,880
because it did away with the need to
feminise or soften Jesus.
468
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:28,320
When Mary emerged as a
powerful divine presence,
469
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:32,200
Jesus no longer needed to be
girlish.
470
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:35,960
His image was free to
become fully masculine.
471
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:41,520
But where to put all this powerful
new art
472
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,920
that Christianity was inventing.
473
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:49,960
It's all very well finding a new
image for Jesus and Mary,
474
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,920
but what also needed to be invented
475
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,640
was the Christian church.
476
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,280
The Roman Empire was huge.
477
00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:09,520
It stretched
from the Middle East at one end
478
00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:13,560
to this primitive cultural backwater
at the other.
479
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:17,520
The place we now call Britain.
480
00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,400
When you're imagining
the Roman Empire,
481
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,480
you need to stop thinking
about countries
482
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:30,160
because there weren't any.
483
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:34,760
No clear divisions, either,
between Asia and Africa or Europe.
484
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:37,120
All of them...
485
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:43,560
..were part
of this massive collar of power
486
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,200
surrounding
the entire Mediterranean.
487
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:49,120
The mightiest empire
the world has seen.
488
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:53,400
Christianity got to Britain
quite early,
489
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:55,160
all the way from over here
490
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:57,480
right up to here.
491
00:30:57,480 --> 00:30:59,920
And just about there,
492
00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:03,680
in a village in Dorset
called Hinton St Mary,
493
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,920
they've dug up one of the earliest
mosaic images of Jesus.
494
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:13,680
He looks stately, doesn't he?
495
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:18,360
More like a Roman senator
than a Christian God.
496
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:22,400
Except for the large Chi-Rho
that surrounds his head,
497
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:24,680
the sign of Christ.
498
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,440
This is Lullingstone in Kent.
499
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:37,640
And we're here because
I wanted you to see what's left
500
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:41,600
of one of the earliest known
Christian churches.
501
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:50,320
If you're thinking to yourself
that this looks more like
502
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:53,600
the remains of a big house,
not a church,
503
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:55,520
you'd be absolutely right.
504
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:59,200
The first churches
were ordinary houses
505
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:02,160
adapted for Christian use.
506
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:08,760
Some Christians were richer and more
active in the community than others.
507
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:13,000
And their house became
the neighbourhood house church.
508
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:16,800
The house church
they found in Dura-Europos,
509
00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:19,560
the one next door
to the Jewish Synagogue,
510
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:25,040
was just a small town house in which
the Christians had done some DIY,
511
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,360
knocked down a wall,
roofed over a courtyard
512
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,440
to create more space
for their meetings.
513
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,480
On the walls
of this makeshift church,
514
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:41,120
the Dura Christians painted
Christ walking on water.
515
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:46,960
And there he is again,
healing a cripple,
516
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:49,400
making him walk, too.
517
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:52,720
Here in Lullingstone,
518
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:58,240
the house church was on the first
floor of this elegant Roman villa.
519
00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:00,840
It was just above
520
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,120
that pagan shrine there.
521
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:06,520
Basically, it was a simple room
522
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:08,720
with painted walls.
523
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:16,120
Decorating it was a procession
of praying Christians
524
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,520
with crosses on their robes.
525
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:21,480
There was also a Chi-Rho.
526
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:24,440
And around this Chi-Rho,
527
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:28,520
the two momentous
letters of the Greek alphabet again.
528
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:30,600
Alpha and omega,
529
00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:32,800
the beginning and the end.
530
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:38,800
If you put
all those four letters together,
531
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:42,240
alpha, rho, chi and omega,
532
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:44,680
you get the word "arco",
533
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:46,840
which means "I rule".
534
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:52,040
From the outside,
you wouldn't have known
535
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,360
the Lullingstone house church
was there.
536
00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:58,600
It was a modest Christian conversion
537
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:00,360
and almost invisible.
538
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:06,240
And for the first 300 years,
539
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:08,880
all churches were like this.
540
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,880
Humble spaces in people's houses,
541
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:14,200
wonky bits of DIY
542
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:17,400
where Christians
could worship and celebrate.
543
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:18,720
And then...
544
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:22,560
..in 313 AD,
545
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:28,120
..Constantine the Great
converted to Christianity,
546
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:29,960
and everything changed.
547
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:36,360
Suddenly, this cryptic
and secretive religion,
548
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:40,640
with its instinctive fondness
for codes and clues,
549
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:44,920
became the official religion
of the Roman Empire.
550
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:49,240
And modesty was no longer an option.
551
00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:00,520
Ooh, he's a big one, isn't he?!
552
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:05,760
Constantine the Great -
553
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:09,160
Roman Emperor, mighty warrior
554
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:11,200
and defender of the faith.
555
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:17,640
Constantine's mother,
St Helena, was a Christian
556
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:21,120
and he probably inherited
the faith from her.
557
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:24,320
In 313 AD,
558
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:27,640
Constantine's famous Edict of Milan
559
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:31,160
made Christianity legal
in the Roman Empire.
560
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,040
And from then on, its power grew
561
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:35,280
and grew...
562
00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:37,480
..and grew.
563
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,960
Constantine was
a builder by instinct.
564
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:46,800
Look at this magnificent
triumphal arch
565
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:49,480
he plonked in front of the Coliseum.
566
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:56,440
But his greatest achievement
as a builder
567
00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:58,720
was the unexpected invention
568
00:35:58,720 --> 00:36:01,120
of the Christian church.
569
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:08,560
Until Constantine,
570
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:11,880
Christian churches
were small and makeshift,
571
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:13,960
often hidden away,
572
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:18,440
but when Christianity
became the official religion
of the Roman Emperor,
573
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:20,240
everything changed.
574
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:26,000
Suddenly,
all the building resources
575
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:29,240
of the mightiest empire
the world has seen
576
00:36:29,240 --> 00:36:32,880
began to be lavished
on Christian architecture.
577
00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:39,240
And a religion which hitherto had
made do with wonky house churches
578
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:42,440
found itself having to invent
579
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:44,920
a grand new style of worship.
580
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:54,400
These huge Christian basilicas
that Constantine began building
581
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:58,320
were another Christian achievement
for which there was no precedent.
582
00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:03,880
The little house churches
were useless as an example
583
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:07,280
for these giant halls of worship.
584
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:11,880
This was a completely
new kind of architecture.
585
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:18,960
This is Santa Sabina in Rome,
586
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:22,880
the best preserved
of the first Christian basilicas.
587
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:27,720
It's a new type of religious space.
588
00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:32,280
No-one in any religion
had worshipped like this before.
589
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:39,280
Pagan temples worked very
differently from a Christian church.
590
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:44,160
Pagan temples were spaces
for worshipping outdoors.
591
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:50,600
In a pagan temple,
the congregation stayed outside.
592
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:55,240
Only the priests of the cult
could enter the holy sanctuary
593
00:37:55,240 --> 00:37:58,080
in which the sacred idol was kept.
594
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:04,480
Christian churches
were the opposite.
595
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:09,160
A Christian church was a huge
assembly hall with a roof
596
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:12,000
where people could worship indoors.
597
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:15,600
And the style of worship
was different, too.
598
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:20,760
Nowadays, churches have these
neat rows of pews
599
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,320
where everybody sits quietly
and piously.
600
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:28,480
But in the first Christian churches,
there were no pews.
601
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:36,600
In the beginning, Christian
churches were huge open spaces
602
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:39,920
in which an ecstatic Christian crowd
603
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:42,440
would heave and circulate.
604
00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:46,080
This was a space for moving
605
00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,440
and chanting and talking.
606
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,360
At the start of the ceremony,
607
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:56,320
the priests would enter
608
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:58,720
in a magnificent procession
609
00:38:58,720 --> 00:39:01,880
that went all the way up
to the front.
610
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:09,760
You see them illustrated sometimes,
high up on Christian walls.
611
00:39:11,720 --> 00:39:14,800
An ornate and stately priesthood
612
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:17,120
progressing through these new naves
613
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:20,880
in a magnificent wave
of finery and colour.
614
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:29,640
So these were spaces
full of constant movement
615
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:31,600
and chaotic crowding.
616
00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:34,360
And the only precedent
for such a building
617
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:37,240
was a useful Roman construction
618
00:39:37,240 --> 00:39:39,560
called a basilica.
619
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:44,240
Basilicas were public meeting halls
620
00:39:44,240 --> 00:39:47,120
built to house big crowds.
621
00:39:48,240 --> 00:39:50,360
There was nothing
religious about them.
622
00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:55,120
Every sizable Roman settlement
had a basilica.
623
00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:02,800
Roman basilicas were entered
from the side, somewhere about here.
624
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:05,600
But when the Christians
took over the shape...
625
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:11,600
..they swivelled it around
and put the entrance over here.
626
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:15,680
So the entire building...
627
00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:19,080
..pointed that way.
628
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:25,920
One of the most common uses
of a Roman basilica
629
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:28,080
was as a law court.
630
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:31,080
The populace would mill about
down here
631
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:34,160
while the magistrate
would sit up at the end,
632
00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:37,440
raised on a magisterial throne,
633
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:40,960
sitting in a special rounded apse
634
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:42,880
that signalled his importance.
635
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:52,200
The Christians took over
the magistrates apse as well.
636
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:55,240
It's where they put
their sacrificial altar,
637
00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:58,680
and above it, a great apse mosaic,
638
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:03,640
the climactic moment of this
magnificent religious journey.
639
00:41:08,240 --> 00:41:11,880
But you're looking up
at this glorious apse mosaic
640
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:13,600
and you're thinking,
641
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:17,160
"Hmm,
there's Jesus with a big beard.
642
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:20,240
"hat happened
to the curly-haired boy?"
643
00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:24,400
Well, he just wasn't grand enough
644
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:26,960
for Constantine's new basilicas.
645
00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:32,320
So the early Christians wanted
a god they could look up to,
646
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:35,280
a God who was a match
for all the other gods.
647
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:41,680
And when the time came for
a more imposing Jesus to emerge,
648
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:43,800
Jesus the adult...
649
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:48,480
.the Christians turned
once again to that reliable source
650
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:52,040
of raw materials
that lay all around them.
651
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:56,040
The art of the pagans.
652
00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:03,920
The most powerful and important
of all the Roman gods was Jupiter,
653
00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:06,640
or in his Greek incarnation,
654
00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:09,680
Zeus, King Of the Gods.
655
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:15,160
Zeus, or Jupiter,
was grand and bearded.
656
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,640
In the great Temple of Zeus
at Olympia,
657
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:22,640
the most famous sculptor
of the classical age, Phidias,
658
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:27,160
had shown the King Of the Gods
enthroned in Majesty,
659
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:31,640
an image the Christians
were determined to match.
660
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:37,200
They took it all - the beard,
the hair, the throne,
661
00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:40,040
that sense of omnipotent power.
662
00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:42,520
It was all borrowed from Zeus.
663
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:46,080
And the curly-haired youth
with the girlish body
664
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:48,920
who'd buzzed around performing
all those miracles
665
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:53,720
was replaced
by this manly, mature Jesus
666
00:42:53,720 --> 00:42:56,760
who sits in judgment on his flock,
667
00:42:56,760 --> 00:42:59,320
stern and unsmiling,
668
00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:01,600
wise and infallible.
669
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:10,080
Meanwhile,
670
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:13,480
back down in the Roman catacombs,
671
00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:17,320
darker Christian forces
were also stirring.
672
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:25,240
When I said the persecution of the
Christians has been exaggerated,
673
00:43:25,240 --> 00:43:28,440
I didn't mean it never happened.
Of course it did.
674
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:33,040
Particularly under Constantine's
predecessor, Diocletian.
675
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:37,200
Though not perhaps in the numbers
we've been led to believe.
676
00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:44,120
Some estimates say that only
about 2,000 Christians
677
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:48,120
were killed
in the Roman persecutions.
678
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:51,200
I think there must have been
more than that.
679
00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:55,680
But the modern age is definitely
better at killing Christians
680
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,440
than the Romans ever were.
681
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:00,640
In the Spanish Civil War,
682
00:44:00,640 --> 00:44:03,400
7,000 priests, monks
683
00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:06,000
and nuns were murdered.
684
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,160
And you'd never hear about them.
685
00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:18,440
But for the early Christians,
death had a special significance.
686
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:21,560
The idea took hold
in their imaginations
687
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:25,320
that suffering was a necessary part
of redemption.
688
00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:26,960
It was crucial.
689
00:44:26,960 --> 00:44:29,160
And this belief in death
690
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:32,800
had a profound influence
on their art and their architecture.
691
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:40,840
These are the catacombs
of St Agnes of Rome.
692
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:44,040
She's the patron saint of chastity -
693
00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:47,280
of teenage girls, engaged couples,
694
00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:50,080
rape victims and virgins.
695
00:44:57,040 --> 00:45:00,080
Agnes was a 13-year-old girl
696
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:03,240
murdered in the reign of Diocletian.
697
00:45:03,240 --> 00:45:08,200
The story goes that a Roman prefect
wanted her to marry his son
698
00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:10,600
but Agnes was a Christian.
699
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:11,960
She refused...
700
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:14,760
..so the Roman prefect...
701
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:17,800
..condemned her to death.
702
00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:27,800
Roman law didn't permit the
execution of virgins,
703
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:32,360
so Agnes was stripped,
paraded naked through the streets,
704
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:35,000
and dragged to a brothel.
705
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:41,880
Afterwards they tried to burn her,
but the flames wouldn't touch her
706
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:48,120
and everyone who looked at her
naked body was blinded.
707
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:52,120
In the end, a Roman soldier
beheaded her,
708
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:58,400
and her body - decapitated -
was kept here in this church.
709
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:03,880
But her skull... That's in
Sant'Agnese in Piazza Navona,
710
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:09,160
where the faithful come
to kneel before it and worship it.
711
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:18,840
Martyrs like Agnes were believed
to offer special protection for
the early Christians.
712
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:25,840
They were baptised in blood and sat
next to God in the next world.
713
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:32,120
If a martyr favoured you, you too
were guaranteed a place in heaven.
714
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:37,040
To improve their chances of
salvation
715
00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:39,880
every Christian wanted to be
buried
716
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:42,480
as close to a martyr as possible.
717
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:49,280
And so the catacombs became a very
desirable piece of real estate.
718
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:58,880
Directly above Agnes's tomb are the
ruins of a giant funeral basilica.
719
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:05,400
All this was once
covered in Christian graves.
720
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:08,880
But the building I really want
to show you is this one.
721
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:11,120
The one next door to the basilica.
722
00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:15,080
This is Santa Constanza.
723
00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:18,880
It's a Christian church now.
724
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:22,720
But, originally,
this was a Roman mausoleum.
725
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:29,280
It was it was built by Constantine's
own daughter, Constanza.
726
00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:32,600
This...is where she was buried.
727
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:35,720
In this big sarcophagus here.
728
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:43,400
The story goes that
when Constanza was a little girl,
729
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:46,440
she contracted leprosy.
730
00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:51,760
So she prayed to Saint Agnes,
and Agnes saved her.
731
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:56,280
That was the power that martyrs had.
732
00:47:56,280 --> 00:47:59,640
Their miracles could change history.
733
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:07,080
That's why Constanza wanted to
buried here as close to St Agnes
as she could be.
734
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:14,320
These Roman mausoleums,
as you can see,
735
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:18,040
were a completely different shape
from the basilicas.
736
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:22,400
Mausoleums were round.
737
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:27,160
They weren't places for the crowds
to charge up and down,
738
00:48:27,160 --> 00:48:31,320
these were places of burial
and contemplation.
739
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:34,160
Sacred spaces that enfold you.
740
00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:40,880
And these round Roman mausoleums
were to have a profound effect
741
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:42,840
on the Christian church.
742
00:48:57,560 --> 00:48:59,760
See this famous book.
743
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:04,960
It's The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon.
744
00:49:04,960 --> 00:49:09,200
The history of Rome
in 12 mighty volumes.
745
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:14,840
This is the Roman Empire
at the time of Constantine.
746
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,920
Now, according to Gibbon here,
747
00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:23,040
Rome collapsed because the Romans
grew decadent and soft,
748
00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:27,400
but I think you can see from this
map here, what the real problem was.
749
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:31,080
The empire was just too big.
750
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:36,280
This way it went all the way
to Scotland.
751
00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:41,160
And the other way - deep into
the Middle East.
752
00:49:41,160 --> 00:49:46,240
There was just too much empire
to govern efficiently.
753
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,280
And when Constantine came along,
754
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:54,920
he made the momentous decision
to divide the empire in two -
755
00:49:54,920 --> 00:49:58,280
with a western empire over here,
756
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:01,680
and an eastern empire over there.
757
00:50:04,440 --> 00:50:06,720
To govern this new eastern empire,
758
00:50:06,720 --> 00:50:09,080
which came to be called
Byzantium,
759
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:14,080
Constantine founded a new
Christian capital on the Bosphorus.
760
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:18,960
A grand ruling city
designed from scratch,
761
00:50:18,960 --> 00:50:23,000
which he named after himself -
Constantinople.
762
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:27,560
Though these days
we call it Istanbul.
763
00:50:30,640 --> 00:50:33,040
Here in the western
half of the empire,
764
00:50:33,040 --> 00:50:36,760
Rome was no longer cut out to be
the capital either.
765
00:50:36,760 --> 00:50:41,080
It was living on former glories.
A pretty collection of ruins.
766
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:45,280
The empire needed somewhere more
vigorous to be ruled from.
767
00:50:45,280 --> 00:50:47,240
Somewhere better-placed.
768
00:50:47,240 --> 00:50:52,960
Somewhere near the sea, perhaps,
with good connections to the east.
769
00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:55,840
Somewhere about here.
770
00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:57,720
Ravenna.
771
00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:06,520
The mosaic lovers among you
will know Ravenna already.
772
00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:09,160
You'll know that it's mosaic heaven.
773
00:51:09,160 --> 00:51:11,760
Where the
Christian mosaic excelled itself.
774
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:19,400
How could anyone ever have thought
any of this constituted a Dark Age?
775
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:49,440
This is the church of San Vitale.
776
00:51:49,440 --> 00:51:53,400
It's one of the group of churches
in Ravenna
777
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:57,520
that's filled with these
stunning mosaics.
778
00:51:59,560 --> 00:52:02,720
But the reason I brought you
to this particular church,
779
00:52:02,720 --> 00:52:05,040
is because of its shape.
780
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:08,280
As you can see, it's round.
781
00:52:09,560 --> 00:52:11,600
Like a mausoleum.
782
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:14,840
Not long and thin like a basilica.
783
00:52:18,520 --> 00:52:21,720
These round churches of early
Christianity
784
00:52:21,720 --> 00:52:24,520
have a particular effect
on the visitor.
785
00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:29,680
They offer a 360 degree experience.
786
00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:32,400
A sense of enclosure and centring.
787
00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:38,160
The early Christians used
round architecture,
788
00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:41,880
particularly for churches
devoted to the martyrs.
789
00:52:41,880 --> 00:52:43,960
Like San Vitale up there.
790
00:52:43,960 --> 00:52:48,120
Who'd stood up to Diocletian
and died for his faith.
791
00:52:54,640 --> 00:53:00,160
The basilicas were action spaces,
where you met and assembled,
792
00:53:00,160 --> 00:53:02,040
and paraded.
793
00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:05,040
But these round churches -
794
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:08,200
these are thinking spaces.
795
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:11,480
They're like a protective bell jar
796
00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:16,560
dropped onto an important location,
protecting it,
797
00:53:16,560 --> 00:53:18,600
and sanctifying it.
798
00:53:22,000 --> 00:53:26,400
You still get a sense here
of a transcendental space,
799
00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:29,840
built around a precious relic.
800
00:53:29,840 --> 00:53:35,840
And that mysterious, magical effect
of an interior sculpted from light.
801
00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:41,320
HEAVY CREAKING DOOR OPENS
802
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:45,640
HEAVY DOOR CLOSES
803
00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:51,520
And it wasn't just the burial
sites of the martyrs
804
00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:53,320
that had special power.
805
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:56,440
Bits of their bodies had it, too.
806
00:53:56,440 --> 00:54:00,160
Their hair. Their bones.
807
00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:03,400
And to house these precious relics,
808
00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:08,200
the Christians began to create
marvellous jewelled containers.
809
00:54:08,200 --> 00:54:09,520
Relic boxes
810
00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:12,280
made from the finest materials
811
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:15,840
with astonishing delicacy
and beauty.
812
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:23,200
Because these relics
had the power too,
813
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:28,680
every Christian altar had to have
a relic inside it to validate it.
814
00:54:28,680 --> 00:54:30,840
Make it sacred.
815
00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:38,080
Relics were like pieces
of portable magic
816
00:54:38,080 --> 00:54:41,720
that could be transported
from church to church.
817
00:54:41,720 --> 00:54:47,480
And wherever they were placed,
they made that space holy.
818
00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:49,880
BELL TOLLS
819
00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:53,600
DOOR CREAKS
820
00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:57,360
So by the time we get to this
glorious Byzantine cathedral
821
00:54:57,360 --> 00:54:59,640
of Monreale in Sicily...
822
00:54:59,640 --> 00:55:01,680
DOOR CREAKS
823
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:08,320
all the ingredients of Christian
worship are in place.
824
00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:12,320
Just look at it.
825
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:19,240
By the time Monreale was finished,
the Dark Ages were over.
826
00:55:19,240 --> 00:55:24,480
But all this was
shaped by Dark Age achievements.
827
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:28,520
At this end,
the nave is like a basilica -
828
00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:30,320
long and thick,
829
00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:34,480
a space for assemblies and parades.
830
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:40,160
At this end of the church,
the east end,
831
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,400
where the main altar is filled
832
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:44,120
with precious relics,
833
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:46,320
the magisterial apse
834
00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:49,520
has grown huge and enveloping.
835
00:55:49,520 --> 00:55:50,880
So at this end...
836
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:53,320
this is like a round church,
837
00:55:53,320 --> 00:55:59,480
a special place filled with light
and a golden magical air.
838
00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:06,960
But over here, it's like a basilica.
839
00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:09,720
A space for assemblies,
840
00:56:09,720 --> 00:56:11,800
and processions.
841
00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:15,720
So up there, a thinking space,
842
00:56:15,720 --> 00:56:18,440
and down here, an action space.
843
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:25,240
All brought together in one
magnificent piece of architecture.
844
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:28,840
High up on the walls,
845
00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:31,120
scenes from Christ's miracles.
846
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:34,720
There he is again,
raising Lazarus from the dead.
847
00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:41,960
And over there, he's curing the
paraplegic, making him walk again.
848
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:45,680
And look what's above the altar -
849
00:56:45,680 --> 00:56:49,920
the Virgin and Child,
borrowed from the Egyptian Isis.
850
00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:55,200
And on either side of her two angels
borrowed from pagan victories.
851
00:56:56,720 --> 00:57:00,160
And above that, trumping them all,
852
00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:02,800
in size and magnificence,
853
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:07,360
sitting so proudly
in his golden apse,
854
00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:12,120
an enormous Byzantine Jesus -
855
00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:16,160
Zeus-like, and bearded -
unmistakably divine.
856
00:57:21,080 --> 00:57:23,240
This is a proper divinity.
857
00:57:23,240 --> 00:57:30,160
A Byzantine ruler-god you can look
up to, magnificent, all-powerful.
858
00:57:30,160 --> 00:57:32,960
And look also,
on either side of Jesus,
859
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:37,560
you can see his name spelled out
in Greek letters.
860
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:43,560
On the left, iota and sigma,
J and S
861
00:57:43,560 --> 00:57:47,720
the first and last letters
of Jesus.
862
00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:52,080
And on the right, chi and sigma,
C and S -
863
00:57:52,080 --> 00:57:55,960
the first
and last letters of Christos.
864
00:57:59,440 --> 00:58:04,000
It's that Christian word code again.
Look at his fingers, too.
865
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:09,720
Christ the ruler is spelling out
this own name with his hands.
866
00:58:09,720 --> 00:58:16,800
There's iota and sigma, J and S,
for Jesus.
867
00:58:16,800 --> 00:58:22,000
And chi and sigma for Christ.
868
00:58:23,200 --> 00:58:28,120
My fingers are a bit too stubby
for it, but he's doing it perfectly.
869
00:58:33,680 --> 00:58:36,480
It's that secret religious language
again
870
00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:39,760
that Christianity had employed
from the beginning.
871
00:58:39,760 --> 00:58:45,920
Even in this giant Jesus,
larger than any Roman emperor,
872
00:58:45,920 --> 00:58:51,200
Christianity couldn't resist
a final moment of mystery.
873
00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:57,400
In the next film, I'll be looking
at the artistic achievements
874
00:58:57,400 --> 00:59:00,280
of the so-called barbarians,
875
00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:05,080
and asking what the barbarians
did for us.
876
00:59:05,080 --> 00:59:07,440
The answer is, plenty.
877
00:59:18,880 --> 00:59:21,920
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
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