1 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:14,720 Every year, thousands of people from across the world come together 2 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:18,280 at a single spot in rural Cambodia. 3 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:23,640 It's the spring equinox, 4 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:27,280 and they're here to witness an extraordinary sight. 5 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,760 The moment when the sun rises over the central spire 6 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:36,240 at the temple of Angkor Wat. 7 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:50,480 I don't usually think of myself as a pilgrim 8 00:00:50,480 --> 00:00:53,240 but this morning I got up well before dawn with 9 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:57,640 thousands of others to come to see the sun at Angkor Wat. 10 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:04,200 Certainly, when the sun seemed to balance for a second or two 11 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,280 on top of the central tower of the temple, 12 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,880 there were gasps of amazement and wonderment. 13 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:15,560 It's religious art at its most spectacular. 14 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:17,160 It's show stopping. 15 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:25,600 But the spectacle of Angkor Wat doesn't stop there. 16 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:31,720 Built by the kings of the Khmer empire in the 12th century, 17 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:35,120 Angkor is intended to give concrete form 18 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:37,840 to the claims of Hindu religion. 19 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:44,240 Five high towers are said to represent the mythical Mount Meru, 20 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:46,240 centre of the cosmos. 21 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,080 Religious patterns and symbols adorn the walls. 22 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:04,200 And a seemingly endless narrative frieze 23 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,680 is wrapped around the centre of the temple. 24 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,800 Angkor Wat is one of the biggest 25 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:19,920 and best-known religious monuments in the world. 26 00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:22,160 When you look at the sculpture 27 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:26,480 and the decorative patterns on the walls, the extravagant, 28 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:31,440 in-your-face superfluity of it all, the sheer excess... 29 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:37,160 ..the basic point is clear that this is a building 30 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:43,160 designed to unify the natural, the human and the divine worlds. 31 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:53,840 For millennia, art has been used to bring the human and divine together. 32 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:58,280 And it's given us some of the most majestic 33 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:01,320 and affecting visual images ever made. 34 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,360 I want to explore what really lies behind 35 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,320 these extraordinary creations. 36 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:15,560 And reveal the kind of religious work that art does 37 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:17,440 all around the world. 38 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:24,360 But, for me, the story of religious art is about more than this. 39 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:27,760 It's about controversy and conflict, 40 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:30,480 danger and risk. 41 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:34,720 Whether it's Muslim or Christian, Hindu or Jewish, 42 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:39,720 I want to expose the dilemmas that all religions face 43 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:44,080 when they try to make gods visible in the human world. 44 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:50,560 When does the worship of an image turn into dangerous idolatry? 45 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:58,480 Where does divine glorification end and worldly vanity begin? 46 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:04,520 What actually counts as an image of God or of God's word? 47 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:11,840 Treading these fault lines, I'll even show how the defacement 48 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:16,680 of religious art is fraught with its own problems and paradoxes, 49 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:20,280 and I want to end on what we often think of 50 00:04:20,280 --> 00:04:24,440 as the cradle of Western civilisation itself 51 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:26,880 to ask what it is we now worship 52 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:31,800 and how far we still look with the eye of faith. 53 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:14,280 "There are gods, gods everywhere. And nowhere left to put my feet." 54 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:21,240 Those are the words of a 12th century Indian poet, as he cast 55 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:25,640 his eyes on the mass of religious images that surrounded him. 56 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,680 Several centuries on, you can still see what he meant. 57 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:46,360 Coming to a place I'm not so familiar with, like India, 58 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:51,600 helps to open my eyes to the fact that religious art gets everywhere. 59 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:55,640 You don't only find it in churches, temples and galleries. 60 00:05:55,640 --> 00:06:00,400 Religion has always brought out the artfulness in people, 61 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:04,080 on the body, in the home, and on the street. 62 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:08,240 And it can seem quite simple, 63 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:12,600 whether it's a matter of religious awe, or a way of satisfying 64 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:17,000 our curiosity by peeking into the hidden world of the divine. 65 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:24,160 But if we go a bit deeper 66 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:28,600 and try to explore how these religious images actually work... 67 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,800 ..it turns out to be a little harder than you might think. 68 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:47,600 It was 1906 when the artist-explorer Christiana Herringham 69 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:51,800 was trekking through this remote part of central India. 70 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:58,080 She had been intrigued by stories of an ancient religious site 71 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:00,080 long hidden in the hills. 72 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:04,160 And, after weeks of very rough travel, 73 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:07,080 she was astounded by what she saw. 74 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:17,520 Spanning an entire rock face were the Ajanta Caves. 75 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,600 This network of Buddhist prayer holes 76 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:25,800 and monasteries was begun around 200 BC 77 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:28,240 and added to over the centuries. 78 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:35,200 Gradually, hundreds of sculptures 79 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:38,920 and reliefs of the Buddha were carved out of the rock. 80 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:45,800 But what Herringham really wanted to find 81 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:48,640 lay inside the caves themselves. 82 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:58,000 These are some of the earliest Buddhist paintings in the world. 83 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:03,200 By then in a perilous state, Herringham set about recording them 84 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:05,760 before they finally faded away. 85 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:15,360 This amazing book is how she preserved the paintings. 86 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:21,960 You've got a preliminary set of essays, 87 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:26,840 talking about how the work was done and what the paintings meant. 88 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:31,640 But then the most gorgeous colour plates. 89 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:36,520 But Herringham not only preserved these scenes 90 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:38,360 from the life of the Buddha. 91 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:41,120 In her mind's eye and on her page, 92 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:45,680 she radically and problematically reinterpreted them. 93 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:53,320 When she looks at the colour, the perspective, 94 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:56,600 the careful lines and composition, 95 00:08:56,600 --> 00:09:00,680 what she sees is the Indian equivalent 96 00:09:00,680 --> 00:09:03,800 of Italian Renaissance art, 97 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:06,560 and she actually talks about them as frescoes, 98 00:09:06,560 --> 00:09:10,160 and she talks about the caves as a picture gallery. 99 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:15,240 And, in a way, this book is part of that vision. 100 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:21,200 By giving you small snapshots and giving you them like this 101 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:25,560 so that you could, if you wanted to, just put them up on your wall, 102 00:09:25,560 --> 00:09:31,160 as pictures, what this book is doing is it's translating 103 00:09:31,160 --> 00:09:34,600 and Indian Buddhist site... 104 00:09:35,680 --> 00:09:39,200 ..into the heritage of world art. 105 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:45,720 Of course, we now see plenty of religious art 106 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:47,720 in the safe space of a gallery. 107 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:53,600 But, to understand how these paintings really work, 108 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:57,400 we need to look at them in the caves for which they were made. 109 00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:08,000 Almost every surface is painted. 110 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:13,080 Some still showing traces of vivid colour. 111 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:16,760 Others have become muted over time. 112 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:24,000 Over and over again, we see the Buddha as he rejects 113 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,920 the vanities of the world in search of enlightenment. 114 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,120 But this is not an easy read. 115 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:39,920 The scenes are often in a puzzling order 116 00:10:39,920 --> 00:10:42,800 and many details get lost in the darkness. 117 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:48,560 But it's partly their fragmentary layout 118 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:53,320 and their shadowy setting that gives these pictures their meaning. 119 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:03,960 These paintings made the viewers do religious work. 120 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:11,440 They demanded that you identify, find and refind for yourself... 121 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:16,320 ..the stories that you probably knew in outline already. 122 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:19,400 You couldn't come here and be a passive consumer 123 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:20,840 of religious images. 124 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:24,120 You had to be an active interpreter of them. 125 00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:28,680 I think there's also a point about the fragmentariness 126 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:30,440 of religious narration. 127 00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:33,880 These paintings echo, in a way, 128 00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:38,080 the many different versions we have of religious stories. 129 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,880 Their open-endedness, their contradictions, 130 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,400 and their inconsistencies. 131 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:49,000 And even the lack of light has its part, too. 132 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:53,520 When you came in here, with your flickering candle trying to 133 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:57,320 make out what was on the walls, in a way, 134 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:01,720 that was a perfect metaphor for one kind of religious experience. 135 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:05,400 The idea that you were searching for the truth, 136 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:08,880 searching for the faith amidst the darkness. 137 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:15,040 The images at Ajanta invite their viewers to seek out 138 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:17,520 the Buddhist message for themselves. 139 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:21,680 And forge their own path to enlightenment. 140 00:12:27,680 --> 00:12:31,080 But just when the last of these scenes were being painted, 141 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:34,480 on the other side of the world, religious imagery was being 142 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:39,440 deployed much more aggressively in religious controversy. 143 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:45,080 In the 6th century AD, 144 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:48,000 the marshlands of Italy's Adriatic coast, 145 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,520 which had previously been host to little more than remote 146 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:56,160 fishing villages, became the front line in an ideological war. 147 00:12:59,560 --> 00:13:02,040 Early Christians who, at this stage, 148 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:04,640 were certainly not a unified faith... 149 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:10,200 ..argued furiously over fundamental parts of their doctrine. 150 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:15,680 And, amid this controversy, 151 00:13:15,680 --> 00:13:19,840 they harnessed the power of art in a most forceful way. 152 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:25,240 Here in Ravenna is the church of San Vitale, 153 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:27,960 named after a local saint and martyr. 154 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:36,360 Built in the 540s from the ruins of ancient Roman buildings, 155 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:42,840 its very fabric is a reminder of the Christian conquest of pagan Rome. 156 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:48,600 And, throughout the church, every technique has been used 157 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:54,080 to assert the Christian message and demonstrate its awesome power. 158 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:05,880 Stories from the Bible tell how the one true God first revealed 159 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:07,800 himself to humankind. 160 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:24,360 The image of the Christian emperor, flanked by bishops 161 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:30,560 and soldiers, expresses the unity of the church, state and military. 162 00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:36,240 And the golden mosaics, the great innovation of early Christian 163 00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:40,640 artists, reflect divine light into the darkness. 164 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:47,680 But there is one image that dominates the church. 165 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:51,520 It's the figure of Jesus himself. 166 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:55,800 And it was he who lay at the heart 167 00:14:55,800 --> 00:15:00,640 of early Christianity's theological battles. 168 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:08,960 The early centuries of Christianity were not a period 169 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:11,120 of peace and goodwill. Far from it. 170 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:14,960 They were torn apart by religious controversy about the nature 171 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:17,840 and divine essence of Jesus. 172 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:20,560 There were crucial religious issues at stake. 173 00:15:21,600 --> 00:15:26,040 What was the exact relationship between Jesus and God? 174 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:32,600 What and where had Jesus been before he was born to Mary? 175 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:38,400 How could a perfect and indivisible God 176 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:42,240 give up part of himself to create a son? 177 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:46,760 And, so - and this was the killer question for many - 178 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:51,880 were Jesus and God made of the same substance? 179 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:54,160 Or were they just very like each other? 180 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:03,720 The mosaics here make a very strong case for the divine status of Jesus, 181 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:07,040 as if to erode any misunderstanding 182 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:13,200 because he appears as part of a calculated scheme of images designed 183 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:19,280 to end the controversy, telling the viewer exactly what to believe. 184 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:26,880 In perfect alignment are three different aspects of Jesus. 185 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:31,800 The apse, there's the beardless Jesus, young, 186 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:33,200 the son of God. 187 00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:37,800 The centre of the ceiling, 188 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:42,080 there's Jesus as the symbolic lamb of God, 189 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:46,440 the Jesus who's to be sacrificed on behalf of humanity. 190 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:49,960 And, at the top of the entrance arch, 191 00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:55,080 there's the older, bearded, all-powerful Jesus, 192 00:16:55,080 --> 00:17:00,080 who's about as indistinguishable as you could get from God the Father. 193 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:07,520 So, there's a lesson here in seeing Jesus. 194 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:12,240 And, also, particularly in that last image, a clear steer. 195 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:20,920 These images are telling us never to doubt the divinity of Jesus Christ. 196 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:32,000 But elsewhere in the Christian world, and at other times, 197 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:37,160 images can have some unexpected and just as controversial consequences. 198 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:45,160 Behind the facades of its palazzian churches, 199 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:49,680 the city of Venice contains a treasure trove of religious 200 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:54,240 paintings that remain exactly where they were intended to be seen. 201 00:17:55,520 --> 00:18:00,360 And beyond these walls is one of the most spectacular. 202 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:07,200 This is the meeting house of a religious brotherhood, 203 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:09,920 known as the Scuola di San Rocco. 204 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,040 A bit like a Renaissance version of a Rotary Club, 205 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:20,160 moneyed Phoenicians would meet here to share 206 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:22,920 in their selfless concern for the poor. 207 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:26,240 And the paintings that surrounded them 208 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:29,400 offered reminders of their charitable obligations. 209 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:35,400 If you look at the scene of the birth of Jesus, 210 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,440 there's no doubt that's happening in poverty. 211 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:45,000 And if you look at the Last Supper, 212 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:50,440 the most prominent figures in the canvas in front of Jesus 213 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:55,080 and the disciples are actually two beggars and a dog... 214 00:18:56,960 --> 00:18:59,920 ..who's presumably looking for some scraps from the table. 215 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:06,280 Most of the artwork we now see was produced in the 16th century 216 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:09,640 and the man responsible was Jacopo Tintoretto. 217 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:12,680 A home-grown Venetian favourite, 218 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:14,840 he spent years decorating 219 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:18,280 the meeting house with over 50 paintings. 220 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:20,920 And his most famous image is this... 221 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:26,080 ..the crucifixion of Jesus. 222 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:47,080 People who come here now have all kinds of different reactions 223 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:51,160 to this painting. Some are overwhelmed by the size. 224 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:54,920 Some are puzzled by the busy bits of detail. 225 00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:01,000 Critics and art historians have had different reactions, too. 226 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:05,160 Some of them have honed in on the technique, picking out 227 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,080 Tintoretto's bold brushstrokes 228 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:11,640 or the contrast between light and shade. 229 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:16,360 Some have concentrated instead on the emotion of the scene. 230 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:21,800 And that's the line that John Ruskin took in the 19th century 231 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:26,040 when he was so dumbfounded by it, that he said the painting 232 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:29,240 was absolutely impossible to analyse. 233 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:33,240 Think he might have tried a bit harder. 234 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:41,480 What Tintoretto has done 235 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:45,680 is blur the lines between the viewer and the painting. 236 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:52,600 Some of the characters there are wearing modern, 237 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:56,280 that is 16th century, dress, not biblical outfits. 238 00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:00,520 And there are some ordinary 16th century people 239 00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:05,560 doing the digging, tugging on the ropes and putting up the ladders. 240 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:12,400 More than that, if we stand in front of it, it's almost as if you 241 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:17,920 become part of the encircling crowd around that central scene. 242 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:23,880 What's being hammered home here is the fact that the crucifixion 243 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:29,240 is both a historical event in past time 244 00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:32,440 and a religious event, 245 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:36,480 which breaks down the barriers of time and space. 246 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:44,400 But there is another, more controversial reading 247 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:47,040 of this painting which often gets lost 248 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:49,880 on the connoisseurs who stand before it. 249 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:55,280 This painting was produced at a really critical 250 00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:57,600 moment in the story of the brotherhood 251 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:02,480 when they were being attacked for spending far too much on bling 252 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:07,240 and on doing up their premises, and not half enough on helping the poor. 253 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:09,720 In some of his pictures, 254 00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:14,240 Tintoretto seems to be responding to that charge. 255 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:17,840 When he included beggars in the scene of the Last Supper, 256 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:20,720 or the kind of ordinary people the brotherhood was supposed to 257 00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:24,600 support in the scene of the crucifixion that really 258 00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:29,120 looks like a calculated defence of their charitable aims 259 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:31,200 in the face of opposition. 260 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:37,200 But the whole controversy points to a crucial problem in religious art. 261 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:40,360 The more you plough your resources 262 00:22:40,360 --> 00:22:43,320 into the visual glorification of God... 263 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:48,000 ..the more you lay yourself open to the accusation 264 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:52,400 that you're more interested in the material than in the spiritual. 265 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:57,560 That you're more interested in worldly vanities than in piety. 266 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:06,200 We're now treading the fault lines between art and religion 267 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,920 and the problems of picturing the divine. 268 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:14,040 And here the perils of vanity are just the beginning. 269 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:23,480 Seville has been a centre of Catholic image making for centuries, 270 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:27,240 home to some of Spain's greatest religious painters... 271 00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:31,640 ..Velazquez, Zurbaran and Murillo. 272 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:41,040 And images still play a big part in the religious life of the city. 273 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:47,040 WOMAN RECITES PRAYER IN SPANISH 274 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:59,120 But, here in Seville, there's one image that has a peculiar power. 275 00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:03,600 WOMAN CONTINUES PRAYING 276 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:16,840 Housed in the church of the Macarena is a statue of the Virgin Mary. 277 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:27,160 She's been here for over 300 years, 278 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,960 crying in sorrow at the death of her son, Jesus. 279 00:24:37,120 --> 00:24:38,960 She's tremendously impressive. 280 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:43,240 She was started in the 17th century 281 00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:48,480 and one story is she's the work originally of a female sculptor 282 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,840 because only a woman could quite capture the Virgin like this. 283 00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,400 But she's been added to ever since - 284 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:59,000 when she got that splendid gold crown, 285 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:02,360 when she started wearing those very big capes, 286 00:25:02,360 --> 00:25:06,120 and she's got a large wardrobe, 287 00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:09,080 and she often changes her dress. 288 00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:14,680 The every day care and attention paid to this statue 289 00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:16,440 might at first seem a little odd. 290 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:23,160 But she was intended to have an aura of humanity about her. 291 00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:33,040 Her tears may be made of glass but her hair is real human hair. 292 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:38,320 Her exposed flesh, that's her head and hands, are made of wood because 293 00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:42,440 they thought wood was much warmer than marble, was more organic. 294 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:49,160 And, in other ways, she's treated as if she's a human being, 295 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:54,400 so, no-one apart from the nuns are allowed to take her clothes off. 296 00:25:55,720 --> 00:26:00,680 In many ways, she's not finished but a work in progress which only 297 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:05,440 becomes complete for a single night at the most sacred time of year... 298 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:08,720 ..at Easter. 299 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,600 The holy cross is presented to the crowd 300 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,520 and hooded penitents begin to march. 301 00:26:24,360 --> 00:26:28,600 For many, this is highly charged and emotional. 302 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:43,000 Now they wait, longing for the extraordinary moment when the Virgin 303 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,760 appears at the threshold, 304 00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:49,360 and a moment of transformation is at hand. 305 00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:58,520 HE KNOCKS 306 00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:11,960 Carried on a throne, she begins her journey into the night. 307 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:17,840 And, as she moves, the statue seems to come to life. 308 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:26,320 It's as if the likeness of the Virgin has become her presence. 309 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,360 And you can see that in the astonishing 310 00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:34,560 reaction of the faithful. 311 00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:39,960 CHEERING BECOMES LOUDER 312 00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:44,880 But this adoration breeds suspicion 313 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:49,640 because here in Seville there are some in the church who fear 314 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:51,840 that the image of the Virgin 315 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,840 has stolen the limelight from the Virgin herself. 316 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:06,880 The big question is what are the worshippers worshipping? 317 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:12,760 Is it the idea of the Virgin Mary who somehow is out there, 318 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:14,320 beyond the image? 319 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,680 Or are they worshipping the statue itself? 320 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:22,320 That's to say this is the idolatry question, 321 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,400 which almost all religions have faced. 322 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,120 The hierarchy of the church has always been anxious 323 00:28:35,120 --> 00:28:39,840 about reactions to such statues and the expense lavished on them. 324 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:47,640 It has seemed uncomfortably close to the worship of images 325 00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:50,440 prohibited by the Ten Commandments. 326 00:28:56,160 --> 00:29:01,640 The Catholic Church has to be very careful about those people 327 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:06,760 who are... whose faith is not very deep. 328 00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:11,160 Because the problem is that people in front of the statue 329 00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:12,760 think that that's all. 330 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:20,360 The danger is that they believe that everything is that, the statue. 331 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:22,280 And we have to be careful. 332 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:23,800 That's not the way. 333 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:29,400 It has been blessed, and things like that, but it's a statue. 334 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,920 That's a representation of something higher. 335 00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:37,080 You have to believe that through that statue 336 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:39,840 you go up to the divinity. 337 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:47,360 It's a basic and perennial problem of religious art, 338 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:49,640 which all religions must face. 339 00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:54,960 But they take different views of how to handle it. 340 00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:58,240 And of religious imagery more generally. 341 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:12,400 Out on the rural fringes of Istanbul is one of the most striking 342 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,640 religious creations of modern times. 343 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:23,960 It appeared on the landscape less than a decade ago 344 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:26,560 and has drawn people in ever since. 345 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:33,360 It's the Sancaklar Mosque... 346 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:38,720 ..the work of one of Turkey's most visionary architects. 347 00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:00,880 This is one of the most startling mosques in the world. 348 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,920 What the architects wanted to do is to harness 349 00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:07,760 the power of modernism, which is 350 00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:12,320 often thought of as a very secular movement, to express the very 351 00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:17,480 essence of religious space, stripped of all the non-essentials. 352 00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:23,080 And it's certainly untraditional in all kinds of ways. 353 00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:25,840 But, in other ways, 354 00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:29,480 it's exploiting the traditions of Islam very heavily. 355 00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:36,000 This inside space is meant to be reminiscent of the Cave of Hira, 356 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,120 where the Prophet Muhammad first received 357 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:43,760 the revelation of the Word of God that became the Koran. 358 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:45,480 And, of course, 359 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:50,080 it also evokes one of the classic stereotypes that many people now 360 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:57,160 have of Islam, that it's a religion that is in some way artless. 361 00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:01,320 That it prohibits not just the image of God and the Prophet, 362 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:06,400 but the images of living creatures which only the creator, God, 363 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,840 is supposed to be able to create. 364 00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:14,840 In fact, the only man-made image is a wonderful 365 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:19,360 piece of calligraphy which is a quote from the Koran. 366 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:24,200 It's as if what we're expected to do when we come in here 367 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:28,120 is to see and go away with the Word of God. 368 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:37,760 Islam, as a faith of the word, is enshrined in the Koran itself. 369 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:44,200 There are many famous sayings and stories that condemn idolatry 370 00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:48,280 and give warning about the dangers of images. 371 00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,480 But in the ancient city of Istanbul itself, 372 00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:01,960 a very different picture of Islam fills our field of vision. 373 00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:23,200 Islam is absolutely not an artless religion. 374 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:30,800 In the whole history of the faith, 375 00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:34,120 you cannot trace a single, uncontested line 376 00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:38,560 about images of living creatures or about the image of God. 377 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:43,920 In the Middle Ages, the Islamic world held some of the most 378 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:48,880 intricate debates on aesthetics, the nature of beauty, 379 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:51,480 the optics of the human eye, 380 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,840 and our sensory experience of the natural world. 381 00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,280 And there's a kaleidoscope of stories 382 00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:05,280 and parables that are Islam's conversation with itself 383 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:09,480 about the role of the artist and the purpose of the image. 384 00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,280 And one of the most revealing takes us 385 00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:17,960 into the domestic life of the Prophet Muhammad himself. 386 00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:26,960 One day, Muhammad came home to discover that his wife Aisha 387 00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:29,560 had acquired a tapestry 388 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:34,120 with images of living creatures woven into the design. 389 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:35,760 And she'd hung it up. 390 00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:39,840 Muhammad is furious, he won't even go into the house 391 00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:44,480 because it's the creator God who's supposed to create living 392 00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,080 creatures, not some tapestry artist. 393 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:52,640 So, Aisha takes it down but she doesn't let it go to waste. 394 00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:56,720 She cuts it up and turns it into cushion covers, 395 00:34:56,720 --> 00:34:59,760 and that, apparently, creates no problem. 396 00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:05,440 The story of Aisha's cushion is a wonderful illustration of how 397 00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:09,040 Islamic attitudes can shift according to the role 398 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:11,000 and the setting of the image. 399 00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:15,520 But there's one kind of Islamic art whose role 400 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:19,520 and function is much more significant than any other. 401 00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:27,080 As soon as Muhammad received the Word of God 402 00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:29,080 in the 7th century, 403 00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:34,600 calligraphy, or the art of beautiful writing, was taken 404 00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:37,800 to the very heart of Islamic identity. 405 00:35:41,720 --> 00:35:46,320 There's an obligation on the calligrapher to serve 406 00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:50,800 the community in which he or she is writing for. 407 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:55,760 But calligraphers were highly esteemed. 408 00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:59,400 The pen is the potent symbol of knowledge. 409 00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:11,160 The art of calligraphy became the means by which the sacred word 410 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:17,080 could be set down, spread, and remain uncorrupted for all time. 411 00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:20,400 From the very birth of Islam, 412 00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:25,240 the first verses revealed to the Prophet Muhammad were by the pen. 413 00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:29,960 Therefore, it sanctified the use of the pen at the outset of Islam. 414 00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:36,120 And, ever since that point, artisans have been trying to beautify 415 00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:38,560 the divine word through that pen. 416 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:42,760 Of course, the text of the calligraphy 417 00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:44,480 is very impressive 418 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,120 but, for me, what is more important is the visual 419 00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:49,640 of the calligraphy, the graphic, 420 00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:53,160 the balance and the rhythm of the calligraphy. 421 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:57,320 To be a good calligrapher, you have to have years of work in you. 422 00:36:57,320 --> 00:36:59,720 Even on one single letter. 423 00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:03,200 It takes a complete life 424 00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:06,640 to come to that maturity to do a good calligraphy. 425 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:09,840 So, you see all his life in a single stroke. 426 00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:15,840 With exquisite penmanship, 427 00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:20,720 Islam had an art form to set it apart from many other religions. 428 00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:26,000 And it was said that while the Koran was received in Mecca 429 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,240 and spoken in Cairo, 430 00:37:28,240 --> 00:37:32,720 it was Istanbul that produced the finest calligraphers 431 00:37:32,720 --> 00:37:34,760 able to write it down. 432 00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:40,200 This is the Blue Mosque. 433 00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:47,520 It was commissioned in the 17th century by Sultan Ahmed... 434 00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:53,480 ..and, in its almost excessive size and splendour, 435 00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:57,400 it was designed to surpass all other mosques in the city. 436 00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:04,240 There are no idols or images of living creatures. 437 00:38:04,240 --> 00:38:09,560 Instead, the walls are alive with the most ornate patterns. 438 00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:19,040 Plants and flowers intertwine in the most vivid glaze of ceramic tiles. 439 00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:23,360 And, laced into the scheme, 440 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:25,800 are some of the most extraordinary 441 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:30,160 examples of monumental calligraphy in the Islamic world. 442 00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:39,240 It's as if the Blue Mosque itself was conceived 443 00:38:39,240 --> 00:38:42,560 as a great library of Islamic script, 444 00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:47,240 and it's here that we see calligraphy at its most powerful. 445 00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:55,320 When you enter the building, above the door, there's a message 446 00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:58,200 telling you to expect something special, 447 00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:02,160 that you're going through the Gates of Paradise. 448 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:07,040 And that's just one of a whole series of notices throughout 449 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:11,920 the Mosque, often beautifully written snippets of the Koran 450 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:17,800 which guide the thoughts of the faithful and interpret what you see. 451 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:21,200 If you look up into the dome, you're reminded that it's Allah 452 00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:25,080 who supports the heavens and the world. 453 00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:28,400 And it was a message that basically says that you should take back 454 00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:32,280 there into the outside world the state of purity that 455 00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:34,600 you've reached through prayer. 456 00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:38,600 It's as if there's a written programme here, 457 00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:43,960 telling you how to experience the building and how to look at it. 458 00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:52,840 But for those who worshipped and still worship here, 459 00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,720 there's another way of reading this writing. 460 00:40:00,240 --> 00:40:05,920 Placed high above the prayer hall, the script becomes almost illegible. 461 00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:07,800 When it was first painted, 462 00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,880 many of the faithful would have been illiterate. 463 00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:16,360 And, even for those who could read, the clarity of the message is 464 00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:19,800 obscured in the rhythm and patterns of the text. 465 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:27,400 This very magnificent, elaborate script is quite complex. 466 00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:34,320 It's not always easy to read and I don't think it was meant to be read. 467 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:38,400 Sometimes it's there also as a form of blessing. 468 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:44,960 And, just by looking at it, you can absorb some of that blessing. 469 00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:54,600 What we have to remember is that writing can work in other ways. 470 00:40:56,040 --> 00:41:00,400 Here, we are seeing God represented 471 00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:04,240 in visual form but not as human. 472 00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:10,440 Here, God is displayed as his word in the Koran. 473 00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,960 It's God in the art of writing. 474 00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:23,000 Now, Islam is by no means the only religion to use writing 475 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:28,480 as a way to negotiate the problem of how you represent the divine. 476 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:34,720 The Christian gospels, for example, can claim that God is the word. 477 00:41:34,720 --> 00:41:37,280 But in Islam, more than anywhere else, 478 00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:43,360 we see the image becoming the word, and the word becoming the image. 479 00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:50,520 In the face of all the debates and prohibitions on images, Islamic 480 00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:55,560 calligraphy evolved to redefine what an image of God could be. 481 00:41:57,080 --> 00:42:01,120 No single religion has ever managed completely to resolve 482 00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:06,280 the tension between word and image, but there are some moments 483 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:09,000 when it might just seem possible. 484 00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:28,680 These wonderfully appealing images were made over 500 years ago 485 00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:32,080 and they're from the pages of a Jewish Bible. 486 00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:41,040 What's so remarkable is that they dance around a text that is 487 00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:45,080 dense with warnings about idols and images. 488 00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:50,040 And, yet, they flout them in the most charming and beautiful way. 489 00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:56,440 I've got this extraordinary book open on the page 490 00:42:56,440 --> 00:43:00,320 of the second commandment, the one that prohibits idols. 491 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:03,840 Now, there have been centuries of debate 492 00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:08,920 and disagreement about what that prohibition actually meant. 493 00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:10,320 But, in this case, 494 00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:13,880 unless there's an appallingly flagrant contradiction going on, 495 00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:19,720 it is not taken to forbid a quite extravagant 496 00:43:19,720 --> 00:43:21,440 set of images, 497 00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:24,920 even on the same opening as the second commandment, 498 00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:28,480 you get these two little chaps, little big bums there. 499 00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:36,800 And, throughout the book, you find really lavish pictures. 500 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:42,120 Here is a full page of the menorah. 501 00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:45,560 And the rather lovely narrative scenes, 502 00:43:45,560 --> 00:43:49,000 like Jonah and his encounter with the whale. 503 00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:53,880 But what makes the Bible so precious 504 00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:56,600 is that it's a testament to a brief 505 00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:01,760 but extraordinary moment in Spanish history when Muslim, Christian, 506 00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:04,520 and Jewish traditions came together 507 00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:07,840 in a really productive and imaginative way. 508 00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:14,320 If you look at this book, you can see in some ways the Jewish artist 509 00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:20,280 really celebrating the mixed traditions of medieval Spain. 510 00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,560 Some of it really clearly 511 00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:27,760 has roots in Islamic traditions. 512 00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:32,080 And this is a wonderful image, rather like a carpet, 513 00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:35,120 and, at first sight, it looks very, very Islamic. 514 00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:38,160 Then you discover, when you look carefully, 515 00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:42,240 that it's got this incy-wincy writing all around it, 516 00:44:42,240 --> 00:44:46,160 micrography, it's called, which is really distinctively Jewish. 517 00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:49,920 So, it's a wonderful bit of cultural blending in itself. 518 00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:54,560 And there are bits of Christian tradition, a wonderful picture 519 00:44:54,560 --> 00:45:02,200 of King David actually based on a European playing card. 520 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:06,160 Now, the man who did these extraordinary images 521 00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:09,280 very proudly signs his name 522 00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:15,200 over a whole page at the very end of the book. 523 00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:19,400 He says that 524 00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:25,240 "I Joseph ibn Hayyim decorated and finished this." 525 00:45:25,240 --> 00:45:29,200 Now, these Jewish bibles are not very often signed, 526 00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:33,120 certainly not signed in a way that takes a whole page. 527 00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:36,560 This is wonderful chutzpah, it's a kind of artist who 528 00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:40,400 even at the very end of his work can't keep that artistry in. 529 00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:43,960 But this is much more than a name. 530 00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:50,560 Here Joseph ibn Hayyim is addressing the fundamental issue 531 00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:54,560 of word and image that divides so many religions. 532 00:45:56,240 --> 00:46:00,640 And, in his own way, he settles the debate. 533 00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:05,120 In his hands, they're one and the same thing. 534 00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:14,760 The poignant fact is that under 20 years after this page was completed, 535 00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:19,520 the Catholics expelled the Jews from Spain. 536 00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:24,520 This Bible survives not only as a witness to integration, 537 00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:27,280 but also to religious war. 538 00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:38,760 So too in England. 539 00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:42,960 Through the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestants and Catholics 540 00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:46,720 fought over this land in a conflict whose visual scars 541 00:46:46,720 --> 00:46:49,880 can be found in churches across the country. 542 00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:55,480 There's no more powerful evidence of that than Ely Cathedral. 543 00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,280 Though later much restored, 544 00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:05,040 Ely remains an exquisite jewel of Gothic architecture. 545 00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:11,320 Its cavernous knave, 546 00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:15,280 its ornate carvings that still reflect their medieval colours. 547 00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:23,000 And high above, this extraordinary Octagonal Lantern, 548 00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:25,280 almost a gateway to heaven itself. 549 00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:29,720 But during the great religious schism, 550 00:47:29,720 --> 00:47:33,760 the splendour of Ely would fall victim to one of England's 551 00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:36,800 most infamous Protestant reformers. 552 00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:43,720 On 9 January 1644, Oliver Cromwell, 553 00:47:43,720 --> 00:47:47,640 who was then Governor of Ely, marched into this cathedral 554 00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:51,520 in what is one of the most mythologised and probably 555 00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:56,720 highly embellished incidents in the English Religious Civil Wars. 556 00:47:56,720 --> 00:48:01,400 It's hard to imagine it now because it all feels so tranquil here, 557 00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:03,160 but the story goes that 558 00:48:03,160 --> 00:48:07,760 Cromwell went up to the priest who was conducting evening service, 559 00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,680 told him to put away his version of the prayer book, 560 00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:15,160 to stop the choir singing - a kind of "turn off the music" moment - 561 00:48:15,160 --> 00:48:18,960 and then he either actively encouraged 562 00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:25,040 or at least did nothing to stop his troops turning on the fabric, 563 00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:29,800 and the images and the glass in the place. 564 00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:32,320 As they went through the vestry and the cloisters, 565 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:35,840 what they did was basically smash the place up. 566 00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:43,200 Cromwell's attack was just one assault in a long campaign 567 00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:45,320 against the images at Ely. 568 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:49,160 For these reformers, the worship of holy images 569 00:48:49,160 --> 00:48:51,560 was a Catholic superstition, 570 00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:54,760 a distraction from the pure word of God. 571 00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:56,720 The images at Ely had to go. 572 00:48:56,720 --> 00:48:59,440 And here in the Lady Chapel, 573 00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:04,960 there remains evidence of widespread destruction on another occasion. 574 00:49:04,960 --> 00:49:08,400 Lots of different kinds of iconoclasm have gone on here. 575 00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:13,440 The original stained-glass windows are one obvious casualty. 576 00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:17,560 But they've also gone for the figures - of saints, of kings 577 00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:19,920 and the scenes from the life of the Virgin. 578 00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:27,720 Sometimes the whole sculpture's just been removed, 579 00:49:27,720 --> 00:49:31,360 but quite often what they've done is they've just taken away 580 00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:37,000 the head and the hands, leaving the body in place. 581 00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:42,960 It's as if they were aiming to destroy those bits of the sculpture 582 00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:47,680 that gave it its most living power, the bits that you interacted with. 583 00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:55,200 The point is, I think, that this isn't just random vandalism, 584 00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:59,080 this is quite focused, even thoughtful destruction. 585 00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:05,680 Iconoclasm is something we often deplore, 586 00:50:05,680 --> 00:50:07,760 but there is another way of looking at it. 587 00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:16,080 Those figures minus heads and minus hands have not been made invisible. 588 00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:17,640 It's almost as if they've 589 00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:21,400 been turned into a different sort of image in their own right. 590 00:50:22,720 --> 00:50:25,800 An artful narrative of religious conflict. 591 00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:32,200 But there are more and perhaps unintended consequences 592 00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:34,280 to such artful destruction. 593 00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:37,800 Liberated, you might almost say, 594 00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:42,480 from the figures of saints and prophets that once crowded the walls 595 00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:47,840 and with its clear stainless windows, the Lady Chapel 596 00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:53,800 has been transformed, giving us another version of beauty. 597 00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:59,000 This is a tremendously aesthetically pleasing space. 598 00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:06,000 It's light and airy and a marvellous mixture of austerity and decoration. 599 00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:11,440 And we owe that to the iconoclasts. 600 00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:20,280 This fine balance between destruction and creation 601 00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:21,920 is often overlooked, 602 00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:25,920 but it's what makes iconoclasm so interesting, so paradoxical. 603 00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:29,000 And it gets yet more intriguing 604 00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:32,240 when we look at other theatres of religious war. 605 00:51:35,240 --> 00:51:41,160 When Muslim armies from Afghanistan invaded India in the 12th century, 606 00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:43,920 they were horrified by what they found. 607 00:51:46,360 --> 00:51:49,920 This was the original home of the Hindu faith, 608 00:51:49,920 --> 00:51:55,400 were people worshipped not one God but millions. 609 00:51:55,400 --> 00:52:00,040 Worse still, artists across India were kept busy 610 00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:03,800 creating a never-ending array of idols 611 00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:06,960 that were central to Hindu religion. 612 00:52:10,960 --> 00:52:13,880 Muslim writers often presented India 613 00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:16,640 as a place of image worship gone mad, 614 00:52:16,640 --> 00:52:20,160 even as the very origin of idols themselves. 615 00:52:20,160 --> 00:52:24,040 One story had it that idols only spread more widely in the world 616 00:52:24,040 --> 00:52:26,640 because they'd been washed away from India 617 00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:28,520 by the waters of Noah's flood. 618 00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:32,120 Along with these stories, 619 00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:35,720 legendary tales were sent back to the Muslim world 620 00:52:35,720 --> 00:52:40,200 of mass idol-breaking and the total destruction of Hindu temples. 621 00:52:41,720 --> 00:52:46,040 And in their place, the Muslim crusaders built this. 622 00:52:55,800 --> 00:52:58,800 This is the first mosque in Delhi. 623 00:53:05,440 --> 00:53:08,320 Constructed in the 1190s, 624 00:53:08,320 --> 00:53:12,400 it was once known as the most imposing mosque in the world. 625 00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:19,120 Huge arches form a grand gateway, 626 00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:24,800 a towering minaret proclaims Islam as the one true faith. 627 00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:28,880 And in the centre, surrounding the prayer hall, 628 00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:31,680 is this extraordinary ornate colonnade. 629 00:53:36,280 --> 00:53:38,240 It's easy to imagine this 630 00:53:38,240 --> 00:53:41,440 as a sanctuary for the Muslims who made it, 631 00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:45,400 an island of Islam in an idolatrous Hindu world. 632 00:53:47,200 --> 00:53:48,880 But in this building, 633 00:53:48,880 --> 00:53:52,960 the Hindu world isn't quite so distant as it may seem. 634 00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:58,160 Various elements of earlier Hindu structures and images 635 00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:02,960 have actually been reused and incorporated into its very fabric. 636 00:54:21,760 --> 00:54:25,440 One point must be to assert conquest by Islam 637 00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:29,640 and to show how the Hindu idols have at least been neutralised. 638 00:54:30,960 --> 00:54:34,560 But even when they have been defaced, some aspects 639 00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:38,880 of the humanity of these human figures have been preserved. 640 00:54:40,720 --> 00:54:42,880 The simple fact, for example, 641 00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:47,120 that they've chosen to place most of them the right way up, 642 00:54:47,120 --> 00:54:51,480 suggests a respect for the human form and its image. 643 00:54:53,720 --> 00:54:57,880 This remarkable mosque portrays a certain appreciation 644 00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:00,680 of the very pictures Islam condemned. 645 00:55:02,560 --> 00:55:05,040 And just like Ely Cathedral, 646 00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:09,680 it demonstrates that even in the most severe cases of iconoclasm, 647 00:55:09,680 --> 00:55:14,240 art lives on - inextricably bound to faith. 648 00:55:17,240 --> 00:55:21,280 But destruction can raise even bigger questions too. 649 00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:34,520 I want to end at one of the world's most famous and densest 650 00:55:34,520 --> 00:55:40,600 religious spaces, a place once the home of the ancient gods, 651 00:55:40,600 --> 00:55:43,720 later converted into a Christian church 652 00:55:43,720 --> 00:55:46,560 and later still turned into a mosque. 653 00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:58,760 Built around 450BC, the Parthenon was originally dedicated to the 654 00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:04,320 goddess Athena, and for centuries it teamed with images of the divine. 655 00:56:08,760 --> 00:56:12,360 It used to be one of the richest and most colourful, 656 00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:16,320 most intense religious places anywhere. 657 00:56:16,320 --> 00:56:19,600 A real phantasmagoria of religious images. 658 00:56:21,480 --> 00:56:25,600 And everywhere you looked, there were religious offerings, 659 00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:28,400 altars for sacrifice and temples. 660 00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:34,680 Only the bare bones of Ancient Greek or any other religion stand here 661 00:56:34,680 --> 00:56:40,520 today, but it's become the focus of a worship of another kind. 662 00:56:42,160 --> 00:56:45,440 It's easy to come to a place like the Acropolis and to assume 663 00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:50,760 that whatever religion there once was here has gone for good. 664 00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:53,680 But I think we should be a bit more careful. 665 00:56:53,680 --> 00:56:56,160 However secular they might be, 666 00:56:56,160 --> 00:56:59,320 when people here look at this monument, 667 00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:04,120 when they admire its art and engage with its mythology, 668 00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:06,680 many are reflecting on questions 669 00:57:06,680 --> 00:57:10,160 that religions have often helped us face. 670 00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:13,800 Where do I come from? Where do I belong? 671 00:57:13,800 --> 00:57:17,360 What's my place in human history? 672 00:57:18,920 --> 00:57:23,560 I think people are engaged in a modern faith here, 673 00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:26,640 the one we call civilisation. 674 00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:31,600 It's an idea that behaves very much like a religion. 675 00:57:32,600 --> 00:57:38,400 It offers grand narratives about our origins and our destiny. 676 00:57:38,400 --> 00:57:41,320 Bringing people together in shared belief. 677 00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:46,080 And the Parthenon has become its icon. 678 00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:52,360 So if you ask me, "What is civilisation?" 679 00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:58,200 I say, "It's little more than an act of faith." 680 00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:12,240 The Open University has produced a free poster that explores 681 00:58:12,240 --> 00:58:16,200 the history of different civilisations through artefacts. 682 00:58:16,200 --> 00:58:19,240 To order your free copy, please call... 683 00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:24,840 ..or go to the address on-screen 684 00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:27,800 and follow the links for the Open University.