Original subtitles

[Music]

I'm up here

this way I'm up on the colonnade of st.

Peter's Cathedral in Rome high above the

crowd looking down on all these

Catholics not many people are allowed up

here you know what the falcons like has

been ruling the Catholics for 2,000

years there's no need to be nice to me

but I told them what I wanted to do up

here and they agreed immediately because

they could see as well but this is the

best place to do what I wanted to do

which is to understand properly at last

that great sprawling ungainly but

glorious art movement

the barricade doesn't have a nice clear

outline it sprawled across the 17th

century and beyond it wasn't a tidy

movement but it spawned some of our

greatest art

the architects of it's astounding square

Jan laurenzo Bernini was one of the key

players of the Baroque understand

Bernini and you understand the whole

thing and what he invented here in his

Piazza was this huge colonnade that

encircles you gathers you up it's like a

giant pair of arms now three hundred

thousand people could fit in here that's

three times more than Wembley Stadium

and every single one of them gets this

big hug from Bimini's Piazza

so that's the first thing the baroque

does it goes after you and ingratiates

itself with you other art movements sit

there on their pedestals and arrogantly

assume you'll be interested in them but

the Baroque knows you better it gets off

the pedestal and hunts you down

another of its ambitions is to impress

you with its vigorous its grandeur its

drama would you look at the size of that

[Music]

and when it fell into the hands of

intense geniuses it became dark and edgy

got all psychological on us and blurred

the divide between art and reality and

when painting wasn't enough the Baroque

roped in all the other arts to work on

you as well

architecture sculpture music everything

at once

it was after you so it threw the kitchen

sink at you

what we're going to do in this series is

follow the barack from st. peter's to

st. paul's from rome where it all began

to london where it fetched up eventually

because another of the things that makes

the barack special is its rage it went

everywhere and basically spent the

entire 17th century traveling about and

the really cunning thing about it is

that wherever it went it adopted the

local customs and changed in the first

place we're going to visit is up here

northern italy trenton

[Music]

Trento in the Italian Dolomites is a

pretty town which I recommend for

walking holidays and mountain views but

don't let its modern tranquility fool

you because the Great War started up

here a war of art

[Music]

the barack is best understood as a fight

back a marvelous display of

counterpunching by a waspish church that

had come out fighting

[Music]

when Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis

on to the church door in Wittenberg in

1517 and launched the Protestant revolt

against what he called the sink of

Romans sodomy the Pope's the Cardinals

he wasn't just taking on the Catholic

Church Luther was taking on the whole of

Italy the entire southern Mediterranean

worldview and all that goes with it the

colors the fruitiness the passions

[Music]

those days Trento was in Austria not in

Italy and it was here that the mighty

Council of Trent met in 1545 to plot the

fight back a wild boar has invaded the

vineyard complained Pope Leo the 10th

memorably the Barack's task was to hunt

that boar down and dispatch it for

nearly 20 years the Council of Trent met

here in a Cathedral Trento to plan the

catholic riposte art was involved start

[Music]

the Lutheran's had been against art they

saw it as a regrettable vanity that led

to the worship of false idols terrible

waves of my conical azzam a torn across

northern Europe destroying paintings

burning statues but the Catholic Church

had always believed in art it relied on

it it knew that people liked to see what

their worshipping they liked images and

that gave art tremendous power

[Music]

great profit is derived from all sacred

images declared the council and when we

kiss the sacred image and prostrate

ourselves before it we adore Christ

if anyone shall teach contrary to these

decrees concluded the council scarily

let him be anathema anathema anathema

[Music]

check the mad barack of course it was

produced in amsterdam in 1617 a villain

blough the finest and busiest of the

baroque mapmakers Wow

would like to be employed by the East

India Company to chart the new world

that was being discovered at this time

but first he drew Europe see the big

capitals of Europe at the top London

Paris Amsterdam and down the sides what

people were wearing in these fashionable

new capitals look there are the English

in their silks and over here those

baroque heroes the poles the feathers in

their hats so the Baroque fightback

began up here in Trento but it's

epicenter the place where the fireworks

really went off was down south in Rome

Eternal City had a fight on its hands as

the clock ticked over from the 16th

century to the 17th its architecture

group prouder louder

Shriya and bold up through the roman

skyline but as I said the Baroque went

after you with all the Arts at once and

while architecture and sculpture were

frolicking in the Roman sunshine the art

form that needed the most drastic

attention painting chose another path

the Council of Trent instructed its

artists to get out there and grab

people's attention but how do you do

that

[Music]

one very effective trick is to make

dramatic use of the dark and turn

painting into theater

that was the strategy of the Barack's

greatest revolutionary a pictorial

genius who made damn sure that the

religious message of the

counter-reformation came after you like

a spotlit rot viola

this master of dramatic darkness was of

course Michelangelo Merisi da caravaggio

who deserves our sympathy as well as our

admiration for Caravaggio for 300 years

he was completely forgotten his

reputation in tatters

then the 20th century rediscovered him

and began misunderstanding him in such

terrible ways

[Music]

what rubbish has been spouted about

Caravaggio even sensible commentators on

sensible TV channels have insisted on

seeing him as a knife mad predatory

homosexual who went berserk in baroque

Rome the Ripper of Rome on this demonic

image of Caravaggio annoys me like

nothing else in the Baroque world as if

a sex mad out-of-control

Roman crazy could really have painted

this

thank heavens recent research into

Caravaggio has begun correcting all this

nonsense and we can start seeing him

again for what he really was the most

important religious painter of the

counter-reformation

[Music]

Caravaggio did everything the council of

trent demanded of its artists he created

a vivid new religious art that spoke to

the people in a language they could

effortlessly understand a language that

moved them and changed them

before Caravaggio came along religious

art was set somewhere out there

somewhere distant and fluffy but he made

sure it took place right under your nose

here now close enough to touch

[Music]

the cast list changed to real people

rounded up in taverns and markets and

chosen for their characterful faces

replaced the impossible gods of old

there's that old bloke from the market

and that beautiful waitress from the

tavern these are people you recognize

from the streets people you can touch

and whose plight touches you

[Music]

it's as if Caravaggio has set himself

the task of completely reinventing

religious art and he uses every baroque

trick in the book to get your attention

the way this basket of fruit is about to

fall over so you want to reach in and

push it back or the Apostles hands

shoved out into your face it's all so

real so tangible so believable the

churches of Baroque Rome are filled with

magnificent three helpings of Caravaggio

just go in

pretend you're praying and feel his

power

here in the Church of Santa Maria del

Popolo where he began working in 1600 he

pushes a horse's backside into your face

so uncouthly

and ensures you will not miss the

dramatic calling of Saint Paul taking

place at the horse's feet on the other

wall st. Peter is being crucified upside

down did you ever see such sweaty effort

such tugging such pulling such pain look

how different it all was from the usual

way of spreading the religious message

[Music]

Caravaggio's art was so tangible so

vivid so cinematic that the Roman clergy

which was used to an altogether rosier

religious palette found him a challenge

some of his greatest paintings were

rejected by the churches and that have

commissioned them

this one here was originally going to

hang in Saint Peter's Jesus and Mary

stamping on the snake of sin was he a

little too human for them

was she a little too sexy

even his great death of the Virgin was

rejected by the monks Mary they spat

looked like a bloated whore

who'd been pulled out of a river but I

don't think she does she just looks like

a real woman

and in my book Caravaggio was the best

painter of convincing Mary's the world

of art has seen are they too beautiful

for their own good

maybe do I mind that not at all

while the clergy complained the public

responded and understood Caravaggio's

lessen his darkness his drama seeped out

of Rome and infiltrated the

International baroque was an astonishing

speed and wherever it fetched up in

Spain in Flanders in Holland it

transformed the local art

it's a strange name for an art movement

don't you think Batroc what does it mean

where does it come from if you think of

the Renaissance that's a very clear idea

Renaissance is French for rebirth the

rebirth of civilization but Barack it

actually comes from a Portuguese word

Baraka

which means a Miss shapen pearl like

this one

[Music]

all these Portuguese explorers were

setting off around the world and they

were coming back with gorgeous pearls in

all shapes and sizes

now this pearl is not the rock this is

like the Renaissance perfectly formed

exquisite delicate so civilised precious

this one however the baroque pearl is

blobby exuberant miss shapen difficult

to handle and exciting in a deformed

kind of way so this is their own essence

this is their Baroque

[Music]

nowhere was this bad Rock got outline

more obvious than in the Bendi direction

now taken by architecture

[Music]

Rome is basically a baroque creation I

know it's got the great ancient ruins

and the fine Renaissance palaces but the

default architecture here the stuff that

gives the city its main mood is Barack

[Music]

this beautiful little baroque secret is

a courtyard designed in the 1630s by a

genius of the Roman Baroque called boar

Amelie Francesco Borromini for emini in

my opinion was the single most exciting

architect there's ever been a genius

a man of twisted brilliance the Picasso

of architecture

this tiny courtyard he designed for the

Church of San Carlo in Rome is almost

gothic in its brooding intensity I don't

know if you can feel it in the film but

in the flesh

you can certainly sense the solemnity

the sparse profundity of this tiny

little space and remember architecture

speaks to the body not just the eyes

baura mean II was so inventive can you

see the balustrade up there look at the

actual balusters the way some of them

bulge at the top and others bulge at the

bottom what for they're amazed on would

never have done something as wayward and

playful as that but Bora meanie was a

rule-breaker by instinct and that makes

him totally Barak

[Music]

so this is the cloister around which the

monks would walk and read their Bibles

now look at the church it's like walking

into

Stoney piece of sculpture

I've been in here scores of times I

never miss it if I'm in Rome and I've

stared and stared at this remarkable

interior but if you're asking me to draw

what's happening to the walls in here I

couldn't do it it's too complicated too

fidgety too inventive but what I can do

is to try and draw a plan of the

building because it's completely crazy

what aura mean is trying to do here is

to blend two completely different shapes

out here there's a kind of blunt Greek

cross the Greek cross with the ends

taken off

[Music]

but in the middle when that becomes a

perfect oval so this is the edge of the

church all this seemingly chaotic going

in and out but underlying it as you can

see is this perfect bit of geometry

hold up rectangles

load up of triangles and these circles

here and that's what bar emini always

does he builds this exact mathematical

basis and then he just ruffles it up

like someone messing up your hair

[Music]

I've seen geometry as madly busy as that

on the great domes of Islam but never in

a Christian Church

[Music]

gorromini supplied Baroque architecture

with something dark and emotional its

feminine principle it's yen but every

year of course needs a yang and in

baroque Rome the undisputed king of Yang

was Jan lorenzo bernini

the great Bernini was everything that

Borah mean he wasn't handsome rich warty

a smooth operator who charmed the Kings

and the Pope's at architect a sculptor

as painter the man could do everything

and the raw spirit of the Baroque cost

through his veins as fiercely as the

water spouting from one of his fountains

where boramy knee was almost certainly

homosexual and he died this terrible

death he committed suicide threw himself

on sword and took a long time to die

Bernini was a ladies man and through and

Bernini would never have dreamt of

killing himself because that would have

deprived the world of his flamboyant

genius

son Andrea al quieren alley by Bernini

it's just a couple of hundred feet up

the road from borromini's san carlo but

it seems to come from a different

architectural planet or emini invented

the curved church facade that bends the

front of the church out into the street

but Bernini he got really good at it too

and then out here another curve of going

the other way and that's the Baroque for

you it twists this way and that always

on the move like a restless dragonfly

[Music]

walking into Bernini's an Andrea it's

like walking into a piece of theater

[Music]

Benini fills his church with rich color

[Music]

we've got yellow glass up there so when

the Sun shines it's as if the whole

interior has been flooded with this

gorgeous golden divine light

[Music]

Bernini's Church has this very specific

storyline for you to notice and follow

so st. Andrew the patron of the church

has been martyred here he's heading up

towards heaven there and right at the

very top in the lantern he's being

welcomed into heaven the little cherubs

are even standing aside to make room for

him so you can go up there it's a very

theatrical effect very different for

anything or merely ever tried to do

[Music]

the Borg had a taste for theatricality

that's why it liked Bernini so much and

if you want to witness some truly

stupendous barak theater and follow me

into st. Peters

[Music]

an extraordinary creation in front of us

is Bernie's bow turkey now

put up under the transept

between 16 24 16 33 now you have a good

look at it you tell me is that sculpture

or is it architecture or is it a

combination of the two so it doesn't

really matter I go for the last option

that's what you get with a Barak all the

dividing lines get blurred

[Music]

Santa Maria della Vittoria which many

people consider to be Bernini's

masterpiece including Bernini it shows

the Spanish saint st. Teresa of ávila at

a moment when she's having a vision

Mangel has come down to her from heaven

and he's piercing her heart with a

flaming arrow

so real was the pain to me that I moaned

out loud several times and yet it was so

indescribably sweet that I could not

wish to be released from it when the

angel withdrew his spear I was left with

a great love of God

[Music]

he's done here is create Theatre in the

church neither side in sitting in these

boxes is the family that commissioned

the Cornero Chapel the canaro family up

there on the right with a little beard

looks a little bit like Shakespeare

Federico Cornaro he's the one who

actually paid for it all so the canaro

family has gathered to witness his

miraculous event at the center

the other thing that people always pick

up on about this one is this look Saint

traders face this open mouthed moaning

look know what billion is trying to do

here is to find some sculptural form for

this religious ecstasy that she's

feeling but the Twitter Center in

particular has misinterpreted that look

on her face all sorts of smutty remarks

have been made about her ecstasy

what kind of ecstasy is it wink wink I

really disagree with all of that imagine

trying to find a sculptural form for

something that's difficult as a young

woman being overpowered by the love of

God how do you convey that what do you

show well I'll tell you the answer

that's what you do

[Music]

this is art dazzling new with miracles

in Bernie knees hands stone comes alive

and stops behaving like stone he could

turn rock into flesh women into trees

his work is filled with movement and

Restless transformation the corner road

Chapel is a fusion of sculpture painting

marbling gilding even the real light of

God has been roped into achieving this

great Baroque effect

[Music]

if you're investigating the baroque this

is a position I recommend because from

here you can see the baroque properly

the Baroque loved painted ceilings

filling the air above you and around you

with remarkable sights was a very

baroque ambition of course painted

ceilings had existed in Italian art for

centuries the Sistine Chapel was just

the best-known example but they're

difficult to do the Baroque however was

never afraid of effort whatever it took

whatever it cost the Baroque was up for

it and it developed such a fierce

appetite at the painted ceiling when the

art is all around you and above you it

creates this other world into which

you've stepped the new reality think of

it perhaps as a kind of 17th century

virtual reality because these painted

ceilings blur the divide between the art

and you this is the first great painted

room of the Baroque age these days it's

the French Embassy in Rome and it kindly

let us in because the French are such

fine people

but back in the Baroque age this fine

palace belonged to Cardinal Eduardo

Farne Z one of the most powerful clerics

in Rome and in 1597 at the very dawn of

the baroque era Farne z commissioned a

young painter from bologna annie ballet

karachi

to come to Rome with his brothers were

also artists and to paint this

[Music]

Cardinal Eduardo Farne Z should have

been a man of God and perhaps in his

public life he was but in his private

life back here in his palace he seems to

have unleashed his sinful side and what

he commissioned an ebola karate to paint

in the piano nobile a of the faun Daisy

palace is a room filled with stories

about the mad love affairs of the gods

[Music]

wherever you turn in here pagan gods are

loving other gods in a divine orgy of

love and conflict and role-playing and

naughtiness Karachi has somehow managed

to celebrate 20 different divine love

affairs simultaneously on this one

ceiling and to do that he's employed a

cunning optical trick

each of the love-affairs is taking place

inside its own picture and all these

pictures have been crammed onto the roof

where they're held long curly in place

by a busy assortment of Cupid's nudes

and statues

[Music]

and then it gets even more complicated

because all these cherubs refuse to stay

outside the action so they get involved

sometimes they're inside the picture

other times they're outside the picture

[Music]

time and space are being played with by

a master sonographer they're being

pulled out of the true in this glorious

jumble of realities

[Music]

this room was to be hugely influential

and what the Karachi invented here was

to become one of the main ingredients of

the Baroque we dart about in this series

going here and there with me telling you

this and that trying to grasp the

Baroque but to be honest there's a much

easier way all you have to do to

understand the Baroque fully and

perfectly is to come in here and look up

and that that is the Baroque

we're in the Jesuit Church of San

Ignacio it was built to celebrate the

canonization of Ignatius Loyola the

founder of the Jesuits that's him up

there on the cloud in 1626 Pope Gregory

the fifteenth officially made Ignatius a

saint and all this could begin

Jesuits like to keep things in-house

kept down the costs and ensured that the

opinions being expressed by the artists

were Jesuit opinions so for this church

they got in a Jesuit lay brother from

Trent Oh Padre pots Oh

[Music]

cazzo was a master of illusion

he was the best there's ever been that

making small spaces look huge

his influential book on achieving these

amazing optical illusions was read by

everybody through the ages even say that

Cecil B DeMille consulted it when

planning his biggest cinema moments

because Padre pot so was a wonderful

moviemaker born 300 years early

what's those first work in here was this

dark illusionistic dome which unlike a

real dome was cheap and easy to repair

you just got someone in and repainted it

[Music]

the little dome was so convincing the

Jesuits decided to unleash pot so on the

rest of the church

all that is basically a flat roof the

entire sky has been painted every cloud

every architrave every column what Potts

has done here is to use his baroque

magic to open up the roof and create

this stupendous shortcut to heaven right

in the middle floating up on a cloud

with st. Ignatius himself he's going up

to heaven where Jesus is waiting to

greet him

and see that glorious light emanating

from the wound in Jesus's side that's

the light of divine revelation pouring

out of Jesus and into Saint Ignatius

then it's being scattered further to the

four corners of the earth to Asia with

that rather wonky camel to Africa with

what I suppose must be a crocodile

Europe rather tame in comparison and

America where a bare-chested red Indian

Amazon looks down at a roaring cougar

all these were places that the Jesuits

have their missions

it's what my daughter might call rather

cheese in it the Jesuit propaganda but

what fantastic theater

what ambition what scale what excitement

[Music]

something I want to show you it's a

little Barak Jim secret it's more work

by Pedro boxer

so it's a kind of illusionistic

colonnades well painted by pot so

showing the story of the life of st.

Ignatius because we're in the Jesuit

college deep inside somewhere I'm not

sure exactly which bit of it now what's

amazing about this is that you can get

really close to the pot so painting and

see how it's done for example can you

see the two figures over there holding

up an urn on the Left I'm going to point

it out

god

that's how wide they have to be

it's a horde of these figures or the

architecture has been corrected so that

only looks right in one place like all

of potsos work you have to stand on a

particular spot for it to look good

someone asked pot sir about that once

they said what's the point of doing one

of these things when you go to see it

from one place that means only one

person at a time can see it properly and

he said that's their problem

my job is to paint it their job is to

understand it

[Music]

so here in Rome a revolution had been

launched painting had been reinvented

sculpture transformed architecture

revolutionized and it was time for the

Baroque to spread its wings soon enough

it would arrive on the doorstep of most

of the known world had become the first

truly global art movement but first

there was the rest of Italy to conquer

down here in Naples for instance all

sorts of baroque darknesses were

stirring I don't go down there scared

but the story of the Baroque leaves me

no option

[Music]

there's a book that's very popular now

I'm sure you've heard of it a thousand

places to see before you die by Patricia

Schultz maples isn't in it but it should

be because that title about seeing

places before you die is taken from a

line by Goethe see Naples and die wrote

Goethe ambiguously in the 18th century

after he'd spent some time here but what

exactly did he mean is he saying that

Naples is so beautiful that once you've

seen it you'll die happy was he saying

that Naples is so dangerous that if you

come here the chances are you'll end up

dead in Caravaggio's day this was the

second biggest city in Europe after

Paris perfo billion people were squashed

into Naples most of them out of work

living in slums one in ten of the

inhabitants was some sort of cleric the

priest a nun so religion and wickedness

but carved up Naples between them and

the two of them were operating here in

tandem

Caravaggio turned up in Naples

in 1606 he'd gotten into an argument in

Rome over a tennis match and murdered

his opponent now he was on the run

at that time Naples was a Spanish colony

separate from the rest of Italy so all

sorts of ruffians thieves murderers and

good-for-nothings

turned up here fleeing from the Italian

authorities Caravaggio's reputation got

to Naples before he did and he was soon

at work here at his usual breakneck

speed painting some of his greatest

pictures the moment he reached Naples

his art seemed to grow darker Rome may

be where the Baroque was born but Naples

was where it learned to scream and howl

[Music]

this is the peel monte de misericórdia

it's the home Church of another of these

strange little confraternities that were

so busy in the Baroque the misericordia

NIST's dispensed charity to the poor so

as you can imagine they were very busy

in Naples

[Music]

Caravaggio painted this soon after he

arrived he was only in Naples for less

than a year but see what he achieved

[Music]

there's a school of thought which

believes that this picture the seven

acts of mercy is the greatest religious

painting of the 17th century and I'm not

about to disagree we're on a street

corner in Naples was a prison on the

right over here out of sight there's a

tavern the original idea was to paint

each of the seven acts of Mercy in a

separate altarpiece in the chapel

Caravaggio has combined all of them in

one picture

now you'll be thinking what the hell are

the seven acts of mercy good question

basically they're seven human kindnesses

that you can and should perform for your

fellows and I'm sure that you do first

you have to bury the dead and that's

going on here see there's the little

feet of a fresh corpse being carried

away another act of mercy is to clothe

the naked and saint-martin here has cut

his cloak in half and presents it to a

naked beggar you also have to help the

sick and the infirm and that's going on

down here too

because the naked beggar is also a lowly

cripple pulling himself along on the

ground you also have to visit those in

prison as she's doing over here and

you're meant to feed the hungry as well

and this kindly daughter is giving suck

to her own imprisoned father it's a

startling sight the charitable are

supposed to offer shelter to pilgrims

he's a pilgrim you can tell from the

shell in his hat so the innkeeper here

is offering him a room for the night

finally the thirsty must be given

something to drink

so Samson in the gloom is gulping down

the contents of an ass's jaw so they had

it seven acts of mercy all recorded in

one baroque tornado of a composition

[Music]

Caravaggio wasn't the only law breaker

to seek refuge in Naples there were many

others including a Spanish painter and

Caravaggio worshiper who Giuseppe Ribera

or as the locals called him last spaniel

Leto the little Spaniard this little

Spaniard Ribera was a quarrelsome devil

he came to Naples to flee his creditors

in Rome and because Naples was under

Spanish control then Ribera had his pick

of rich Spanish clients for most of his

career he painted in the Caravaggio

Manor dark brooding religious art sweaty

and guilty but his Spanish roots began

to show soon enough and his taste for

them a carb was legendary

[Music]

this is Rivera's infamous bearded woman

whom he painted more than once repairer

liked bearded women and this deceptively

cheerful smiling boy is actually a

cripple with a clubfoot when you notice

his deformity the smile on his face

takes on a different meaning

[Music]

Rivera was the main mover in a nasty

little organization a kind of mini mafia

called

the Cabal of Naples he got together with

two other local miscreants a vicious

Greek called

Lorenzo and a fine

Neapolitan painter Caracciola who

deserves a much better reputation than

he's got because Caracciola painted so

magnificently dark Neapolitan pictures

so these three Ribera

carrenza and Caracciola began beating up

and murdering

all their minds

[Music]

if you were foreign painter taking

business away from the cabal of Naples

you'd better beware the Cabal was

particularly cruel to the followers of

an evil a Karachi de Mille Pino came

here to paint a fresco and every morning

the Cabal would remove what he'd done

the day before and then they put sand in

its paint

Damona keno died in Naples poisoned they

say by the Cabal

[Music]

poor old widow Raimi had an even worse

time the Cabal hired an assassin to

murder him and this assassin made a

mistake he killed one of the Raney's

assistants instead and Renny fled to the

city never to return so one of his

pupils was sent down here to finish the

Commission and this pupil was lured onto

a boat in the Bay of Naples and never

heard from again

the cabal of Naples was wound up in 1641

but its work was done the cheerful side

of the Baroque had been kept out of

Naples by the time of the Cabal was done

with it the Baroque had forgotten many

of its good intentions darkness violence

murder horror

those were Naples his black gifts to the

Baroque and particularly to Spain where

our journey continues in the next film

and where the baroque was taken to such

passionate extremes

[Music]

[Music]

you