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(MUSIC) MONTEVERDI:
Introduction to Orfeo
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The ancient church of St Mary Major,
Santa Maria Maggiore,
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stands in the centre of modern Rome.
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(Hum of traffic)
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The hellish Roman traffic swirls all round it.
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But, if you go inside,
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you'll find the original columns
of the 5th-century church
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built in rivalry with the neighbouring
Temple of Juno, the mother goddess.
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Since old St Peter's was pulled down,
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there is nowhere else in Rome where
one gets such a powerful impression
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of the Christian church
before the barbarian conquests.
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This is the grandeur
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that the Roman Church had once
achieved, and was to achieve again.
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Above the columns
the mosaics of Old Testament stories
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are almost the earliest illustrations
of the Bible that exist -
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brilliant, fresh colours, like early Matisse.
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One sees what was lost
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when almost the whole
of early Christian art was destroyed.
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(MUSIC) Mass for Feast
of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
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From the roof of Santa Maria Maggiore,
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I can see long straight streets
stretching for miles up and down,
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and each ending in front of a famous church.
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Down there is St John Lateran
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and in the opposite direction
is Santa Trinita dei Monti.
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And at each of the piazzas
are Egyptian obelisks,
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symbols of that god-directed state
which Rome had superseded.
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Papal Rome, the Rome of Sixtus V,
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is the most grandiose piece
of town planning ever attempted.
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And it anticipated by 50 years
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all the great town plans
of France and Germany.
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And the amazing thing
is that it was done
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only a generation after Rome had been,
as it seemed, completely humiliated -
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almost wiped off the map.
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The city had been sacked and burnt,
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the people of northern Europe were heretics,
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the Turks were threatening Vienna.
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It could have seemed
to a far-sighted intellectual,
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that the papacy's only course
was to face the facts
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accept its dependence on the gold of America,
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doled out through Spain.
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Well, as you can see, this didn't happen.
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Rome and the Church of Rome
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regained many of the territories it had lost,
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and became once more a great spiritual force.
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But was it a civilising force?
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In England, we tend to answer no.
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We've been conditioned by generations
of liberal Protestant historians
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who tell us that no society based on
obedience, repression and superstition
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can be really civilised.
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But no-one with an ounce of historical feeling
or philosophic detachment
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can be blind to the great ideals,
to the passionate belief in sanctity,
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to the outpouring of human genius
in the service of God
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which is made triumphantly visible to us,
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every step we take in Baroque Rome.
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(MUSIC) GIOVANELLI: Nunc Dimittis
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(MUSIC) Salutare tuum
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(MUSIC) Quod parasti ante faciem
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(MUSIC) Ante faciem
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(MUSIC) Omnium populorum
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Whatever it is, it isn't barbarian or provincial.
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Add to this that the Catholic revival
was a popular movement,
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that it gave ordinary people
a means of satisfying,
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through ritual, images, symbols,
their deepest impulses,
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so that their minds were at peace.
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And I think one must agree
to put off defining the word civilisation
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till we've had a look at the Rome of the Popes.
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(MUSIC) PALESTRINA: Lamentation
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The first thing that strikes one
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is that those who say the Renaissance
had exhausted the Italian genius are wrong.
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After 152?r, there was a moment
of discouragement, a failure of confidence,
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and no wonder.
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Historians say the Sack of Rome
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was more a symbol
than an historically significant event.
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Well, symbols sometimes
feed the imagination more than facts.
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Anyway, the Sack was real enough
to anyone who'd witnessed it.
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Michelangelo's Last Judgement,
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which was commissioned by Clement VII
as a kind of atonement for the Sack
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fills the whole end wall
of the Sistine Chapel behind me.
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It's a disturbing, a crushing work.
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Most of the figures are embodiments
of fear or despair.
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(MUSIC) PALESTRINA: Lamentation
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Look at the damned
being ferried across the Styx.
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If you compare them
with The Creation of Adam, on the ceiling,
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you can see that something very drastic
has happened
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to the foremost imagination of Christendom.
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Michelangelo had been reluctant
to undertake The Last Judgement.
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Under Clement's successor, Paul III Farnese
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he was persuaded to continue it,
although with rather a different purpose.
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It ceased to be an act of atonement
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or an attempt to externalise a bad dream,
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and became the first and greatest
assertion of the Church's power,
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and of the fate that would befall
heretics and schismatics.
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(MUSIC) PALESTRINA: Lamentation, Incipit Orario
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The Last Judgement
belongs to a period of severity,
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when the Catholic Church
was approaching its problems
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in rather the same puritanical spirit
as the Protestants.
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It's curious that this period
should be inaugurated by Paul III,
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because he was in many ways
the last of the humanist popes.
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He was cradled in corruption.
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He was made a cardinal
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because his sister, known as La Bella
had been the mistress of Alexander Borgia.
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At first sight, he looks like a crafty old fox.
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But, if you look
at Titian's portrait of him in Naples,
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one of the greatest portraits ever painted,
it's a wise old head.
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And the longer you look,
the more impressive it becomes.
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And he took the two decisions
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that were successfully
to counter the Reformation:
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he sanctioned the Jesuit order
and he instituted the Council of Trent.
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For almost 20 years,
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several hundred bishops and cardinals
from all over the Catholic world
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met in the Cathedral of Trent
to discuss the future of the Church.
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There was a good deal of high politics,
as well as theology.
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But in the end, the Council did draw up
a plan for the Catholic revival
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which held good
right up to the middle of the 19th century.
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Michelangelo could refuse him nothing.
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He not only finished The Last Judgement,
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but in 1546 he accepted from the Pope
the post of architect of St Peter's.
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Thus Michelangelo,
by his longevity no less than by his genius,
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became the visual link
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between the Renaissance
and the Counter-Reformation.
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One of the reasons why
medieval and Renaissance architecture
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is so much better than our own
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is that the architects were artists
individual artists of genius.
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The master masons of the Gothic cathedrals
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started as carvers, working on the portals.
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In the Renaissance, Brunellesco
was originally a sculptor, Bramante a painter.
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And of the great architects whom
we shall see later on in the programme,
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Pietro da Cortona was a painter
and Bernini was a sculptor.
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This has given to their work
a power of plastic invention,
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a sense of proportion and articulation
based on the study of the human figure,
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which knowledge of the tensile strength of steel
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and other prerequisites of modern building
doesn't always produce.
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Well, of all non-professional architects,
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Michelangelo was the most adventurous,
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the least constrained
either by classicism or functional requirements.
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Not that he was unpractical -
he did drawings for the fortification of Florence,
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which from standards of military necessities
are most ingenious,
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and are also like
the most superb works of abstract art.
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For that matter, all his ground plans
are thrilling abstract designs.
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But he felt himself free
to play with the elements of architecture
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in such a way as to express his feelings.
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And, as so often happens with a great artist,
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they were prophetic feelings.
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You can see what I mean
in the building that stands behind me,
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the Palazzo dei Conservatori
here on the Capitol of Rome.
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Grandeur and Obedience.
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Well, it's grand all right.
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And, if man is to take any pride in his history,
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the Roman Capitol should be grand.
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But the extraordinary thing
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is how Michelangelo
had expressed in his architecture
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the principle of subordination.
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In an earlier Renaissance building,
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the parts maintained their identity
with a harmonious independence.
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In the Michelangelo fa�ade,
everything is subordinate
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to powerful rhythms
that run right through the building.
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He gave his immense authority
to the device of a single pilaster
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running up through two storeys.
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In Renaissance architecture
and Roman buildings for that matter,
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you had one column per storey,
one on top of the other.
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In this building, the small columns
are pressed into the foot of the giant pilaster.
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They don't assert themselves;
they simply add to its power.
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These commanding verticals
are met by even more assertive horizontals,
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and the inevitable collision
of these two directions
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gives the building
an extraordinary feeling of energy.
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It seems as dramatically tense
as a human situation.
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Perhaps only Michelangelo
had the energy of spirit
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to pull together
the vast, inchoate mass of St Peter's.
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Four admirable architects
had worked on it before him.
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The central piers were already built,
and part of the surrounding walls.
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But he was able to give it
the unifying stamp of his own character.
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(MUSIC) MONTEVERDI: Vespers
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It's the most sculptural of all his designs -
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perhaps the grandest piece
of architecture ever built
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a vast, simple unit that carries the eye round
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as if it were the carving of a torso.
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(MUSIC) Domine ad adiuvandu me festina
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(MUSIC) Sicut erat in principio
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(MUSIC) Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
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(MUSIC) Alleluia
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(MUSIC) Alleluia
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People don't always appreciate
the awe-inspiring grandeur
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of the walls and cornices of St Peter's
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but everybody knows the dome.
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For centuries
Lovers of art have gone into ecstasies
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about its noble, energetic arc,
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expressive of Michelangelo's
spiritual aspirations.
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It's perhaps the most
commanding dome in the world,
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easily dominating the other Roman cupolas
that one sees as one looks across the city.
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However, all the evidence suggests
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that it does not represent
Michelangelo's final intention.
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As you can see in this print,
he wanted it to be much more spherical,
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less pointed.
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It was in fact designed
by an architect called Della Porta,
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after Michelangelo's death.
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Well, we can go on admiring it,
and think rather more of Della Porta.
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The last stone of the dome of St Peter's
was put in place in 1590,
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a few months before the death of Sixtus V.
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The long period of austerity
and consolidation was almost over.
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The Catholic Church was victorious.
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Now, how had that victory been achieved?
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In England, most of us
were brought up to believe
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that it depended on the Index,
the Jesuits and the Inquisition.
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00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:08,308
Well, I don't believe
that a great outburst of creative energy,
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such as took place in Rome
between 1620 and 1640
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can be the result of negative factors.
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00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:18,940
But I do admit that the civilisation of those years
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did depend on certain assumptions
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that are out of favour
in England and America today.
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The first of these, of course
was the belief in authority,
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the absolute authority of the Roman Church.
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And this belief extended to sections of society
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which we now assume to be
naturally rebellious, like artists.
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It comes as something of a shock
to find that with a single exception,
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the great artists of the time
were all sincere, conforming Christians.
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Guercino spent much of his mornings in prayer.
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00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:57,588
Bernini frequently went into retreats
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00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,828
and practised
the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius.
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Even Rubens attended mass
every morning before beginning work.
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This conformism
wasn't based on fear of the Inquisition,
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but on the simple belief
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that the faith which had inspired
the great saints of the preceding generation,
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saints like St Filippo Neri,
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was something by which
a man should regulate his life.
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The mid-16th century was a period
of sanctity in the Roman Church,
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almost equal to the 12th.
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St John of the Cross
the great poet of mysticism;
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00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:40,828
St Ignatius Loyola,
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the visionary soldier turned psychologist;
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St Teresa of Avila
the great headmistress,
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with her irresistible combination
of mystical experience and common sense;
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00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:02,028
and St Carlo Borromeo
the austere administrator.
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00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:07,190
One doesn't need to be
a practising Catholic to feel immense respect
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00:20:07,269 --> 00:20:11,180
for a half-century
that could produce these great spirits.
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00:20:12,308 --> 00:20:14,690
However, I'm not trying to pretend
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00:20:14,788 --> 00:20:17,380
that this episode in the history of civilisation
237
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:22,548
was of value chiefly because of its influence
on artists or philosophers.
238
00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:27,630
On the contrary,
I think that intellectual life developed more fully
239
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,390
in the freer atmosphere of the north.
240
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:32,588
The great achievement of the Catholic Church
241
00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:37,868
lay in harmonising, humanising, civilising
242
00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:41,788
the deepest impulses of ordinary people.
243
00:20:43,588 --> 00:20:47,130
(MUSIC) GABRIELI: Jubilate Deo
244
00:21:59,348 --> 00:22:01,578
Harmonising, humanising, civilising.
245
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:04,348
Take the cult of the Virgin.
246
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:05,990
In the early 12th century,
247
00:22:06,068 --> 00:22:09,380
the Virgin had been
the supreme protectress of civilisation.
248
00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:13,670
She'd taught a race
of tough and ruthless barbarians
249
00:22:13,750 --> 00:22:16,338
the virtues of tenderness and compassion.
250
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:20,990
The great cathedrals of the Middle Ages
were her dwelling places upon earth.
251
00:22:21,068 --> 00:22:24,420
And then in the Renaissance
while remaining the Queen of Heaven,
252
00:22:24,509 --> 00:22:26,858
she became also the human mother
253
00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:28,910
in whom everyone could recognise
254
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,990
those qualities of warmth and love
and approachability.
255
00:22:33,068 --> 00:22:37,778
Now, imagine the feelings
of a simple-hearted man or woman -
256
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,548
a Spanish peasant, an Italian artisan -
257
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:45,150
on hearing that the northern heretics
were insulting the Virgin,
258
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:49,390
desecrating her sanctuaries,
pulling down or decapitating her images.
259
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:53,588
He must have felt
something deeper than indignation.
260
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:59,348
He must have felt that some part
of his whole emotional life was threatened.
261
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:01,068
And he would have been right.
262
00:23:02,108 --> 00:23:05,180
The stabilising, comprehensive
religions of the world,
263
00:23:05,269 --> 00:23:08,700
the religions which penetrate
to every part of a man's being,
264
00:23:08,788 --> 00:23:11,858
in Egypt, India, China,
265
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:17,078
gave the female principle of creation
almost as much importance as the male
266
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:22,828
and wouldn't have taken seriously
a philosophy that failed to include both.
267
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:24,548
Of course, I'm bound to say,
268
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:29,150
these were all what HG Wells
called "communities of obedience".
269
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:34,390
The aggressive, nomadic societies,
what he called "communities of will" -
270
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:37,308
Israel, Islam, the Protestant north -
271
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:39,470
conceived their gods as male.
272
00:23:40,750 --> 00:23:42,500
Now, it's a curious fact
273
00:23:42,588 --> 00:23:47,220
that the male religions have produced
very little religious imagery -
274
00:23:47,308 --> 00:23:50,930
in most cases have positively forbidden it.
275
00:23:51,028 --> 00:23:55,220
The great religious art of the world
in every country
276
00:23:55,308 --> 00:23:58,380
is deeply involved with the female principle.
277
00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:01,630
Of course, the ordinary Catholic
who prayed to the Virgin
278
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:03,670
wasn't conscious of any of this,
279
00:24:03,750 --> 00:24:08,500
nor was he or she interested
in the really baffling theological problems
280
00:24:08,588 --> 00:24:11,980
presented by the doctrine
of the Immaculate Conception.
281
00:24:12,068 --> 00:24:16,538
He knew simply
that heretics wanted to deprive him
282
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:21,788
of that sweet, compassionate,
approachable being,
283
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:23,430
who would intercede for him
284
00:24:23,509 --> 00:24:28,098
as his mother might have interceded
with a hard master.
285
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:31,230
Take another human impulse
that can be harmonised
286
00:24:31,308 --> 00:24:33,380
but shouldn't be suppressed -
287
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,038
the impulse to confess.
288
00:24:36,108 --> 00:24:40,900
A historian can't help observing
how the need for confession has returned
289
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:45,230
even, or especially,
in the land of the Pilgrim Fathers.
290
00:24:45,308 --> 00:24:47,019
The difference is
291
00:24:47,108 --> 00:24:51,460
that instead of confession being followed
by a simple, comforting rubric,
292
00:24:51,548 --> 00:24:54,660
which has behind it
the weight of divine authority,
293
00:24:54,750 --> 00:24:59,058
the modern confessor must grope
his way into the labyrinth of the psyche,
294
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,940
with all its false turnings
and dissolving perspectives.
295
00:25:04,068 --> 00:25:08,338
A noble aim, but a terrifying responsibility.
296
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:14,150
No wonder that psychoanalysts have
the highest suicide rate of any vocation.
297
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:18,150
Perhaps, after all, the old procedure
had something to recommend it,
298
00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:20,068
because, as a rule
299
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:25,180
it's the act of confession that matters
not the attempted cure.
300
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:31,348
The leaders of the Catholic restoration
had made the inspired decision
301
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:36,230
not to go halfway to meet Protestantism
in any of its objections,
302
00:25:36,308 --> 00:25:39,980
but rather to glory in those very doctrines
303
00:25:40,068 --> 00:25:45,980
that the Protestants had most forcibly -
sometimes most logically - repudiated.
304
00:25:46,068 --> 00:25:48,578
Luther had repudiated the authority of the Pope.
305
00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:50,828
Very well. No pains must be spared
306
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:55,630
to make a gigantic assertion
that St Peter, the first Bishop of Rome,
307
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:59,788
had been divinely appointed
as Christ's vicar on earth.
308
00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:01,670
Ever since Erasmus
309
00:26:01,750 --> 00:26:04,858
intelligent men in the north
had spoken scornfully of relics.
310
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:08,578
Very well. Their importance must be magnified,
311
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:14,230
so that the four piers of St Peter's itself
are gigantic reliquaries.
312
00:26:14,308 --> 00:26:19,430
This one contained parts of the lance
that pierced Our Lord's side.
313
00:26:19,509 --> 00:26:23,618
And in front of it stands Longinus,
314
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:28,430
looking up with a gesture
of dazzled enlightenment.
315
00:26:28,509 --> 00:26:32,259
The veneration of relics was connected
with the cult of the saints
316
00:26:32,348 --> 00:26:35,460
and this had been equally condemned
by the reformers.
317
00:26:35,548 --> 00:26:41,338
Very well. The saints should be made
more insistently real to the imagination,
318
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:46,950
and in particular their sufferings
and ecstasies should be vividly recorded.
319
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:50,868
In all these ways,
320
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:56,150
the Church gave imaginative expression
to deep-seated human impulses.
321
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,028
And it had another great strength,
322
00:26:59,108 --> 00:27:02,019
which one may say
was part of Mediterranean civilisation,
323
00:27:02,108 --> 00:27:06,058
or at any rate a legacy
from the pagan Renaissance:
324
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,750
it was not afraid of the human body.
325
00:27:09,828 --> 00:27:11,778
Titian's Assumption of the Virgin,
326
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:17,108
a Baroque picture
almost 100 years before its time,
327
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:22,470
was painted in the same period
as his great celebrations of paganism.
328
00:27:22,548 --> 00:27:24,220
Early in the 16th century,
329
00:27:24,308 --> 00:27:30,410
Titian had given his immense authority
to this union of dogma and sensuality.
330
00:27:30,509 --> 00:27:35,700
And when the first Puritan influence
of the Council of Trent was over
331
00:27:35,788 --> 00:27:37,858
Titian's work was there
332
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:42,710
to inspire both Rubens,
who made superb copies of it...
333
00:27:45,348 --> 00:27:47,578
..and, I think, Bernini.
334
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:54,420
Protestantism, in its overzealous
condemnation of sins of the flesh
335
00:27:54,509 --> 00:27:58,818
had also cut itself off
from the kind of comforting physical presence
336
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:02,230
that one finds in Bernini's Charity.
337
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:13,108
For all these reasons
the art we call Baroque was a popular art.
338
00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:17,150
The art of the Renaissance
had appealed through intellectual means -
339
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:20,670
geometry, perspective, knowledge of antiquity -
340
00:28:20,750 --> 00:28:24,288
to a small group of humanists.
341
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:26,858
The Baroque appealed, through the emotions,
342
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:28,750
to the widest possible audience.
343
00:28:29,788 --> 00:28:33,019
Sometimes it does so by dramatic illustration.
344
00:28:33,108 --> 00:28:37,970
This is The Calling of St Matthew,
by Caravaggio, who was, on the whole,
345
00:28:38,068 --> 00:28:41,900
the greatest,
certainly the most original, painter of the period.
346
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:46,150
And like many other artists of the time,
he uses a means of communication
347
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:48,190
that reminds one of the films.
348
00:28:48,269 --> 00:28:50,900
Caravaggio experimented, as you can see here,
349
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,750
with violent contrasts of light and shade
350
00:28:54,828 --> 00:28:57,390
that were popular in highbrow films of the '20s.
351
00:29:02,509 --> 00:29:08,538
And later Baroque artists, like Bernini,
delighted in the emotive close-up,
352
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:12,950
the tears and open lips and restless movement -
353
00:29:13,028 --> 00:29:17,058
all those devices that were
to be rediscovered in the movies.
354
00:29:18,348 --> 00:29:20,098
The extraordinary thing is
355
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:24,588
that Baroque artists did it
in bronze and marble, and not on celluloid.
356
00:29:27,028 --> 00:29:29,380
Of course, in a way, it's a frivolous comparison,
357
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:32,108
because however much one admires the films
358
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,990
one must admit that they are
often vulgar, always ephemeral,
359
00:29:37,068 --> 00:29:41,660
whereas the work of Bernini
is ideal and eternal.
360
00:29:41,750 --> 00:29:43,940
He was a very great artist.
361
00:29:44,028 --> 00:29:45,700
And although his work may seem
362
00:29:45,788 --> 00:29:50,500
to lack the awe-inspiring seriousness
and concentration of Michelangelo,
363
00:29:50,588 --> 00:29:55,019
it was in its century
even more pervasive and influential.
364
00:29:55,108 --> 00:29:58,700
He not only gave Baroque Rome its character,
365
00:29:58,788 --> 00:30:01,618
but he was the chief source
of an international style
366
00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:03,588
that spread all over Europe,
367
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:07,588
as Gothic had done
and as the Renaissance style never did.
368
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:10,308
He was dazzlingly precocious.
369
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:14,750
At the age of 16, one of his carvings
was bought by the Borghese family,
370
00:30:14,828 --> 00:30:17,180
and by the time he was 20,
he was already commissioned
371
00:30:17,269 --> 00:30:20,618
to do a portrait of the Borghese pope, Paul V.
372
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:24,990
In the next three years he became
more skillful in the carving of marble
373
00:30:25,068 --> 00:30:28,298
than any sculptor has ever been,
before or since.
374
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:33,519
His David, in contrast
with the static David of Michelangelo,
375
00:30:33,588 --> 00:30:36,538
catches the sudden twist of action.
376
00:30:38,788 --> 00:30:43,538
And the vehement expression
of the head is almost overdone.
377
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,390
Actually, it's a self-portrait of the young Bernini,
378
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:48,750
who made a face into a mirror -
379
00:30:48,828 --> 00:30:52,858
said to have been held for him by his patron,
the cardinal Scipione Borghese.
380
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:57,548
The Apollo and Daphne
is an even more extraordinary example
381
00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:02,230
of how marble can be made
into something fluid and fleeting,
382
00:31:02,308 --> 00:31:04,259
because it represents the moment
383
00:31:04,348 --> 00:31:10,900
when Daphne, crying for help to her father,
is changed into a laurel tree.
384
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,509
Her fingers are becoming leaves already.
385
00:31:14,588 --> 00:31:18,538
It's just beginning to dawn on Apollo
that he's lost her.
386
00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:23,108
And if he could look down, he would see
387
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:27,509
that her beautiful legs
are already turning into a tree trunk...
388
00:31:33,269 --> 00:31:39,740
..and her toes are becoming roots and tendrils.
389
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:51,150
All these brilliant works
were done for the Borghese family.
390
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:54,150
It was very bright of them
to commission so young a man,
391
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,068
But by the 1620s, the rich Roman families,
392
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,538
who were in fact
the families of successive popes,
393
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,308
had begun to compete
as patrons and collectors,
394
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:05,230
often in a somewhat piratical manner.
395
00:32:05,308 --> 00:32:06,980
One's reminded of the competition
396
00:32:07,068 --> 00:32:11,700
between monster American collectors
of 60 years ago - Mr Frick, Mr Morgan -
397
00:32:11,788 --> 00:32:17,220
with the difference that Roman patrons
competed for the works of living artists,
398
00:32:17,308 --> 00:32:20,660
not simply for certified "Old Masters".
399
00:32:20,750 --> 00:32:22,380
The leading Roman families
400
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,348
put painters under contract, like television stars.
401
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:28,750
And the painters really got paid,
which they never did in the Renaissance.
402
00:32:28,828 --> 00:32:30,618
As often happens, I believe,
403
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:34,828
a sudden relaxation and affluence
after a period of austerity
404
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:37,710
produced an outburst of creative energy.
405
00:32:37,788 --> 00:32:40,420
The 1620s were relaxed all right,
406
00:32:40,509 --> 00:32:44,180
as one can see from Bernini's portrait
of that most affluent cardinal
407
00:32:44,269 --> 00:32:47,298
Scipione Borghese.
408
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:52,828
Of all these papal families,
one easily outshone the rest: the Barberini.
409
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,670
This was due to the pontificate
of Matteo Barberini
410
00:32:55,750 --> 00:33:00,578
who, in 1623, became Pope Urban VIII.
411
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:03,670
He survived as Pope for 20 years.
412
00:33:03,750 --> 00:33:07,778
But, as he himself foresaw, he survives in history
413
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:11,470
very largely because
he was the patron of Bernini.
414
00:33:11,548 --> 00:33:15,700
At the time of Urban's accession
Bernini was only 25,
415
00:33:15,788 --> 00:33:19,538
and the very next year
he was made architect of St Peter's
416
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:24,348
a project that was to occupy him
for more than 40 years.
417
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,588
At the end of that time, he had made visible
418
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:29,630
the victory of the Catholic Church.
419
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:34,788
The pilgrim approaching St Peter's
before Bernini
420
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:38,910
would have found himself in a venerable
and picturesque quarter of the city,
421
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,028
with a few large buildings,
422
00:33:41,108 --> 00:33:44,180
isolated from one another
by trees and meadows;
423
00:33:44,269 --> 00:33:50,818
individually grand, but not making
the impact of a complete architectural idea.
424
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:56,548
Now imagine his experiences
after Bernini had done his work.
425
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:58,910
He would cross the Ponte St Angelo,
426
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:02,390
with its marble angels from Bernini's workshop,
427
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:08,110
and from the other side
make his way to Bernini's piazza.
428
00:34:08,190 --> 00:34:13,699
(MUSIC) GABRIELI: Canzon Primi Toni
429
00:34:43,230 --> 00:34:46,219
Bernini is perhaps the only artist in history
430
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:52,420
who's been able to carry through
such a vast design over so long a period.
431
00:34:52,510 --> 00:34:56,659
And the result is a unity of impression
432
00:34:56,760 --> 00:35:00,070
that exists nowhere else on so grand a scale.
433
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:28,789
Then, when our pilgrim
passes through the enormous fa�ade,
434
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:32,150
the feeling of complete unity of style
is maintained.
435
00:35:32,230 --> 00:35:34,900
You get a better impression
of the interior of St Peter's
436
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:37,559
from this painting than from a photograph.
437
00:35:37,630 --> 00:35:41,539
It was painted 200 years ago,
but in fact very little has changed.
438
00:35:51,070 --> 00:35:56,900
Not only is the decoration basically
all conceived by Bernini in a uniform style,
439
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:59,349
but the eye passes without a break
440
00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:03,869
through the Baldacchino
and up to that astonishing construction,
441
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:06,389
the throne of St Peter.
442
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:11,309
But perhaps what would have impressed
our pilgrim most of all
443
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:13,190
would have been the bronze Baldacchino.
444
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:20,550
Bernini started work on it in the year he became
architect of St Peter's, and it's incredible.
445
00:36:20,630 --> 00:36:24,739
Yes, if one knows anything about
bronze casting, it really is incredible.
446
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:28,989
It involved every sort of engineering difficulty.
447
00:36:29,070 --> 00:36:33,900
And then there's the amazing richness
and audacity of Bernini's invention,
448
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:38,989
and the perfection of craftsmanship,
which extends to every detail.
449
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:52,590
More extraordinary still,
450
00:36:52,670 --> 00:36:56,139
Bernini seems already to have foreseen
in his imagination
451
00:36:56,230 --> 00:36:59,300
what the whole development
of St Peter's would be like
452
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,110
because this work
which is the first thing he designed,
453
00:37:02,190 --> 00:37:06,659
is completely in harmony
with the great progression of works
454
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:10,909
executed over the whole span of 40 years.
455
00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:16,070
I believe that anyone
who uses his eyes without prejudice
456
00:37:16,150 --> 00:37:19,690
will find his emotions stirred and enlarged
457
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,510
by these marvellous experiences.
458
00:37:22,590 --> 00:37:26,659
As we enter this world of light and movement,
459
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:31,230
of weightless angels
and billowing bishops and tumbling cherubs,
460
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:36,510
we are ourselves no longer
weighed down by earthly things.
461
00:37:36,590 --> 00:37:40,619
We participate imaginatively,
as we do in a ballet
462
00:37:40,710 --> 00:37:44,489
in the ecstatic repudiation
of the forces of gravity.
463
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:53,268
But the word "ballet"
suddenly puts me on my guard.
464
00:38:07,230 --> 00:38:12,579
It was no accident that Bernini
was the greatest scene designer of his age.
465
00:38:12,670 --> 00:38:16,579
John Evelyn, the diarist, records how in 1644
466
00:38:16,670 --> 00:38:18,460
he went to the opera in Rome,
467
00:38:18,550 --> 00:38:21,300
where Bernini painted the scenes,
cut the statues
468
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:23,349
invented the engines, composed the music,
469
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:25,869
wrote the comedy and built the theatre.
470
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,230
And we're told that at Bernini's productions,
471
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:31,590
people in the front row ran out of the theatre,
472
00:38:31,670 --> 00:38:35,260
fearing they would be drenched
by water or burnt by fire,
473
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:39,110
so powerful was the illusion that he created.
474
00:38:39,190 --> 00:38:42,018
Of course, these stage sets have all vanished.
475
00:38:42,110 --> 00:38:44,260
But we have some evidence
of what they were like
476
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:49,429
in the fountain that Bernini designed
for the Piazza Navona, here behind me.
477
00:38:49,510 --> 00:38:52,018
It's an astonishing performance.
478
00:38:52,110 --> 00:38:55,340
A sizeable Egyptian obelisk
is lifted up on a hollow rock,
479
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,429
as if it weighed no more than a ballerina.
480
00:39:02,030 --> 00:39:05,139
And round the rock are four gigantic figures,
481
00:39:05,230 --> 00:39:08,539
symbolising the four great rivers of the world.
482
00:39:08,630 --> 00:39:10,500
First of all the Danube
483
00:39:10,590 --> 00:39:14,780
with its symbolic animal, the horse,
emerging from a grotto -
484
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,268
said to be the only part of the monument
carved by Bernini himself.
485
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:23,429
Incidentally, it's the portrait of a real horse,
called Monte d'Oro.
486
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:27,030
And then the Nile
487
00:39:27,110 --> 00:39:31,018
with a rather... rather ridiculous lion.
488
00:39:31,110 --> 00:39:34,889
And then the Ganges, shrouded from the sun.
489
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:38,550
And finally the river Plate,
490
00:39:38,630 --> 00:39:44,139
symbolised by heaven knows
what sort of fabulous crocodile.
491
00:39:52,630 --> 00:39:56,329
The Plate seems to be reeling back in horror.
492
00:39:56,440 --> 00:40:00,429
The people of Rome used to maintain
that he was showing his alarm
493
00:40:00,510 --> 00:40:02,619
at the sight of the church fa�ade,
494
00:40:02,710 --> 00:40:07,699
by Bernini's only serious rival,
the architect Borromini.
495
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:15,030
Of this theatrical element in Bernini
496
00:40:15,110 --> 00:40:20,099
a sublime example is the Cornaro Chapel
in Santa Maria della Vittoria.
497
00:40:20,190 --> 00:40:24,059
To begin with, Bernini has represented
the members of the Cornaro family
498
00:40:24,150 --> 00:40:25,940
on either side of the chapel,
499
00:40:26,030 --> 00:40:30,219
looking as if they were in boxes,
waiting for the curtain to go up.
500
00:40:31,670 --> 00:40:33,619
Then, when we come to the drama itself
501
00:40:33,710 --> 00:40:37,900
it's presented
exactly as if it were on a small stage,
502
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,829
with a spotlight falling on the protagonists.
503
00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:46,510
But at this point,
the theatrical parallel must be dropped,
504
00:40:46,590 --> 00:40:48,380
because what we see
505
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:50,469
The Ecstasy of Santa Teresa,
506
00:40:50,550 --> 00:40:54,820
is one of the most deeply moving works
in European art.
507
00:40:54,920 --> 00:41:00,869
Bernini's gift of sympathetic imagination,
of entering into the emotions of others,
508
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:06,110
a gift no doubt enhanced by his practice
of St Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises,
509
00:41:06,190 --> 00:41:12,579
is used to convey the rarest
and most precious of all emotional states,
510
00:41:12,670 --> 00:41:14,380
that of religious ecstasy.
511
00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:19,550
He's illustrated exactly the passage
of the saint's autobiography
512
00:41:19,630 --> 00:41:23,500
in which she describes
the supreme moment of her life,
513
00:41:23,590 --> 00:41:28,420
how an angel with a flaming golden arrow
pierced her heart repeatedly.
514
00:41:28,510 --> 00:41:31,780
"The pain was so great that I screamed aloud,
515
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:35,630
but simultaneously felt such infinite sweetness
516
00:41:35,710 --> 00:41:39,059
that I wished the pain to last eternally."
517
00:41:39,150 --> 00:41:43,099
"It was the sweetest caressing
of the soul by God."
518
00:41:43,190 --> 00:41:46,579
(MUSIC) MONTEVERDI: Vespers
519
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:00,429
I don't think that anyone can accuse me
520
00:43:00,510 --> 00:43:03,659
of underestimating the Catholic restoration,
521
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:07,030
or its greatest image-maker
Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
522
00:43:07,110 --> 00:43:09,059
So may I end by saying
523
00:43:09,150 --> 00:43:14,739
that this episode in the history of civilisation
arouses in me certain misgivings,
524
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:18,539
and they may be summed up
in the words illusion and exploitation.
525
00:43:19,670 --> 00:43:22,179
Of course, all art is to some extent an illusion.
526
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:26,150
It transforms experience in order
to satisfy some need of the imagination.
527
00:43:26,230 --> 00:43:28,260
But there are degrees of illusion,
528
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:32,670
depending on how far from direct experience
the artist is prepared to go.
529
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:34,550
Bernini went very far -
530
00:43:34,630 --> 00:43:37,980
just how far, one realises when one remembers
531
00:43:38,070 --> 00:43:40,500
the historical Santa Teresa
532
00:43:40,590 --> 00:43:44,940
with her plain, dauntless, sensible face.
533
00:43:45,030 --> 00:43:49,659
The contrast with the swooning,
sensuous beauty of the Cornaro Chapel
534
00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:51,670
is almost shocking.
535
00:43:53,630 --> 00:43:57,219
One can't help feeling that affluent Baroque,
536
00:43:57,320 --> 00:44:02,070
in its escape from the severities
of the earlier fight against Protestantism,
537
00:44:02,150 --> 00:44:06,420
ended by escaping from reality
into a world of illusion.
538
00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:11,018
Art creates its own momentum
and once set on this course
539
00:44:11,110 --> 00:44:15,460
there was nothing it could do
except become more and more sensational.
540
00:44:15,550 --> 00:44:17,739
And this is what happens.
541
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:21,909
In the breathtaking performances
that take place over our heads,
542
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:26,469
in the Gesu, and St Ignazio,
and the Palazzo Barberini
543
00:44:26,550 --> 00:44:29,260
we feel that the stopper is out.
544
00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:33,349
Imaginative energy is fizzing away,
up into the clouds,
545
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:36,869
and will soon evaporate.
546
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:38,909
(MUSIC) MONTEVERDI: Vespers
547
00:45:33,190 --> 00:45:36,500
As for my other misgivings,
548
00:45:36,590 --> 00:45:39,900
of course there was exploitation
before the 16th century,
549
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:42,300
but never on so vast a scale.
550
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:44,110
In the Middle Ages,
551
00:45:44,190 --> 00:45:47,219
it was usually accompanied
by real popular participation.
552
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:48,909
Even in the Renaissance
553
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:54,309
palaces were to some extent
seats of government and objects of local pride.
554
00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,429
But the colossal palaces of the Pope's relatives
555
00:45:57,510 --> 00:46:01,289
were simply expressions
of private greed and vanity.
556
00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:05,179
Farnese, Borghese, Barberini, Loduvisi -
557
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:09,059
these rapacious parvenus
spent their short years of power
558
00:46:09,150 --> 00:46:14,300
competing as to who should build
the largest and most ornate saloons.
559
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:18,989
In doing so,
they commissioned some great works of art,
560
00:46:19,070 --> 00:46:22,739
and one can't help admiring
their shameless courage.
561
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:27,829
At least they weren't mean and furtive,
like some modern millionaires.
562
00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:29,750
But their contribution to civilisation
563
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:32,949
was limited to this kind of visual exuberance.
564
00:46:34,030 --> 00:46:37,570
The sense of grandeur
is no doubt a human instinct;
565
00:46:37,670 --> 00:46:39,739
but carried too far, it becomes inhuman.
566
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:45,659
I wonder if a single thought
that has helped forward the human spirit
567
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:51,590
has ever been conceived
or written down in an enormous room.
568
00:46:52,630 --> 00:46:56,619
(MUSIC) MONTEVERDI: Vespers
Dixit Dominus
51276
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