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Thank you Fiona and good afternoon everyone. And I shall immediately share my screen so Hopefully everyone be able to see the slides of my lecture.
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We can.
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Here we go. So we need to talk about symbolism in art. I'm going to explore first what we mean by a symbol.
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And then look at some very specific paintings which have got a real depth of symbolism and some of them really quite puzzling symbolism.
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And try to work our way through what they're about of what the artists were trying to say. So Let's start with What is the symbol?
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Well, we'll recognize this symbol, don't we? McDonald said on 3 or 4 years ago I read this that the golden arches as they called are the most recognizable symbol in the world.
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Well, I'd like to think the Christian Cross or perhaps the Muslim Crescent is more recognizable than McDonald's Golden M.
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But it's more than a symbol, it's a symbol and a sign somehow. Because when I see that, I know that I can go in there and get a burger and chips.
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But also it says something about the spread of American culture. Then because there's one of those in Paris and in Amman and in Jerusalem and all over the world it says something about the way American culture spread.
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This is just a sign. This means that ladies can go to the loo there. And it's a sign which is understood in our culture.
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But not necessarily in all cultures. I suspect if you go in the Amazon jungle are looking for a loo, you probably wouldn't see that sign.
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It's not something people there use or recognize.
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But these are symbols. If I were to outside the American Embassy in London and burn this stars and stripes, you would know I was saying something symbolic.
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Saying something about my dislike of America, perhaps, and their policies. And so what is really quite an ordinary bit of colored cloth?
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Takes on a huge amount of meaning. When it becomes a stars and stripes or a union jack or a tricolour or whatever.
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And this is quite an important symbol. I wearing one of those bands of gold on my finger.
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And it's a band of gold that's been there for over 40 years. Now, if I lost it.
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I could easily buy another one for I don't know a couple of 100 pounds worth of gold I guess.
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But it wouldn't be the same would it? Wouldn't be the same as this one on my finger now that my wife put on my finger when we got married.
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So that bit of that bit of metal. In a sense has changed its meaning. Because it went through the wedding ceremony.
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And it is a special significance to me.
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This is a symbol that King Charles was given. In his coronation earlier this year. It's the orb.
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And it's symbolizes in that service, symbolizes the world. Over which Christ's cross reigns.
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It's a reminder to the monarch that actually he or she is not the ultimate authority. There is something even greater than the monarch.
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And how about this for a symbol? Now this is by Zerberan. It's obviously a sheep tied up.
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And if I were to show you this and say, what's that about? Where you'd say it's a tied up sheep.
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But the title gives us a clue. Because Zerberan entitled this the Lamb of God.
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A highly symbolic comment, and in, in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, The the prophecy refers to the Lamb of God who will be slaughtered.
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And that was applied to Jesus in the New Testament. So if you can read that sort of symbolism, you begin to understand what Zerbran was trying to do.
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When he painted a symbol such as this.
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So what are the beginnings of symbolism in art? Well, the beginnings are actually quite difficult to read.
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Because we haven't got any texts. We haven't got any oral traditions. We have not people around who know what some of these objects or some of these paintings were for.
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So this ivory lion man for example. Between 30 and 40,000 years old. Found in Germany.
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It's been calculated that it would taken someone about 6 weeks to carve this piece. And also has been quite smooth by handling.
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So it's been handed around perhaps. Perhaps people sitting around around the fire. Or in a large hut.
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One in a cave and it's clear that he held some significance for them. That it symbolized something.
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But we don't know what. We don't know what it's about because we've got nobody to interpret the symbolism of it for us.
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And how about this this rock art in Australia? This piece is perhaps 8 to 10,000 years old. The archaeologists say.
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Now, is this the community? All holding hands is the family. Is it meant to be the whole of humanity?
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Is this symbolising something? About living together in harmony and peace. You see what I'm trying to do now is tease out some meaning.
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From pieces of art to tease out some meaning from bits of art which is no explanation for us. We don't really know what it's about, but we can we can perhaps make good guesses.
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So what do very early art suggest? Well, it might suggest as that one seems to the relationship between people and animals and spirits.
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And it is perhaps an attempt to make sense of our place in the world. Who are we? What are we doing here?
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How do we relate to each other? That's always underlying much of art that's made. It might be about an element of control.
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Some of the paintings that you might know in the caves in France where there are a bison and deer being painted is that about controlling them?
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He said, art about controlling the weather? And perhaps some art and this might come into that category. Is about connection with one's ancestors.
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It's not just the family now, it's the family stretching back through the ages that they're wanting to commemorate.
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He is a similar one. These are handprints. They presumably made by putting your hand in some sort of pigment, pressing it onto the wall.
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But I'm going to go now to some. What we might call proper art. Art that you may have seen.
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Or that is clearly symbolic. And is often really quite difficult to read. And I get I could talk about 3 pieces of what between the National Gallery in London.
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This is the ambassadors painted by Holbein in 1533. They the French ambassador and the French bishop.
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Holbein was well known for his portraits of the Tudor Court. And indeed we probably view the Tudor Court through Holbein's eyes more than anyone else's eyes.
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And this famous portrait of Henry, for example. We know what Henry looked like because Holbein told us or rather Holbein showed us.
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So here are the ambassadors. What do we see? Well, we see 2 clearly very well off gentlemen.
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Imagine how much that coach cost him. And this fur coat. But we see them. Leaning on a table.
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And this table has lots of slightly odd things on it. I can see and a quick look, I see a loot.
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And an open book and perhaps a globe. Various mathematical instruments here that I don't quite understand.
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They're standing on quite a rich carpet. There's a green curtain behind them. But the curtains just drawn aside there to show something.
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Behind the curtain. We'll look at that in a moment. And there's this very odd shape here.
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What's that about? Well, there's the globe. And remember, you know, in 1533, the world is just opening up.
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It's, it's barely 50 years since Columbus failed to America. The world is being discovered.
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Always saying these 2 men are men of the world. Literally. They understand places to understand the globe.
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And that odd thing there If you were to look at this painting from down in this corner Good at the National Gallery.
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Look, look up from that corner and squint at it. You see a skull. What's that?
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Well, is it a reminder? To these clearly very well off. Well-traveled men of the world renaissance men that actually you know you don't possess all this stuff.
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One day you're going to end up like this because everybody does.
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And behind that curtain? There's a half of a crucifix. The crucifix just being hidden, either that curtain is just being pulled across.
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To hide it was just been pulled open to reveal it.
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And there's a hymn book. It's a hymn book. Scholars tell us, is in book of hymns by Luther.
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One of the founders of the Reformation. And there's an arithmetic book. And the arithmetic book is open interestingly.
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At a page about division.
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So, on there's a loot. And the lute if you look very closely as a broken string.
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You just see the string there that I'm outlining.
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No, are all those? Symbols of religious. And political division. That's the suggestion.
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The crucifix is half obscured by Green Curtain. Symbolizes the division of the church.
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The broken string on the lute. Is about ecclesiastical disharmony during the Reformation.
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The open book of music is Lutheran. And the book of mathematics is open our page of division.
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Now, all that seems to suggest that when Holbein painted it, He was painfully aware. Of the way Europe was being divided by the Reformation.
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And he's putting all of that into his painting in in really quite obscure symbolism. Which is really rather difficult to read.
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But that's not all this other stuff.
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So there's a shepherd's dial. This is what a shepherd takes into the fields to read the time.
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There is a universal equinoxial dial. Goodness knows what none of those is. I haven't got a clue.
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But it is used to show something about the movement of the moon and the stars. There's a polyhedral sundial.
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Which will tell you the time at various places. On the planet. And there's torquitum.
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Designed to take and convert measurements made in 3 sets of coordinates. So you calculate where you are.
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You calculate the horizon, the equator and the elliptics and tells you where you're.
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What are all those about?
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Well, clever people who handed them all up. Say the instruments indicate the eleventh of April. 1533 at 1030 a.
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M. Wonder if anybody put into chat what happened at that time on that day. Well, surprise, surprise, that's the day and the time.
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That Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn. That was their public marriage. They had a a private marriage some months before that no one knew about.
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But that was the day they got married. So is Holbein saying The date these people got married is the date all these divisions.
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Coming apart. That the known world is breaking up into bits.
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This guy Penovsky, a Jewish emigre writing in America in the 19 fiftys and 60.
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I talked about symbolism in art and tried to understand it. He said, imagine that you're walking in the park.
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And you see a friend come towards you who raises his hats. Why is she doing that? What's that about?
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What do you know because you're part of the same culture? That this is your friend and he's raising his hat in greeting.
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But there's it another layer going on, says Penovsky. Why does he raise his hat?
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Why is that a symbol of greeting? If you dig a bit, you discover that in medieval times Medieval knights in armor when approaching each other, if they were friendly.
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Would both remove their helmets. Because when you do that, you're vulnerable. You're open to attack.
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So you only do it to a friend. So says Penelope, there are 3 layers going on.
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Let's look at a painting. With the strata in mind. So this primary subject matter. As the natural form. What is this?
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This is a man raising his hats. Secondary, what does it mean? My cultural knowledge tells me that he's my friend, so he's greeting me.
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Thirdly, what does it mean? Well, this is derived from medieval knights who raised their helmets in greeting.
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Let's supply it to this Leonardo da Vinci. What do I see? I see a mother and her child.
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An obvious ubiquitous image isn't it? But my cultural knowledge suggests. Because it's painted in the Reformation in Western Europe and because I've got a background in theology, my cultural knowledge suggests this is Mary and Jesus.
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It's a Madonna. But let's interpret it further. What is the child doing? He is reaching out to a red carnation.
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A red coronation the color of blood. The child is reaching up to it. He's accepting his destiny.
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Is saying that I know that one day I'm going to die.
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Not quite sure where the red streak has come from across the screen. I think I put it there.
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Paul Tillick, a philosopher writing in America. Said that while signs are invented and forgotten symbols are born and die because symbols are complex.
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I'm certainly not doing that. Simples are complex. Their meanings can evolve. As the individual or culture evolves.
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So all that makes us ask, how do we read art? Reread it because we got a cultural background.
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We bring to it stuff we already know. And we bring to it our experience. But also we need to understand some of the symbols in order to read the art.
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So do we need an interpreter? We need someone to tell us what these symbols mean. Well, it looked with that very ancient art I was showing you, that lion man.
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But yeah, we need someone to tell us, don't we? Take us by the hand and say this is about so and so.
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And also we need a certain degree of artistic and spiritual sensitivity in order to read what's going on.
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And there may be class issues as well. If you ask a Marxist about art, they say it's all about class division and struggle.
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I't get into that tonight. So here's another one. Also in the National Gallery.
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Bye, Jan Van Eyck. Painted in about the 14 twenties probably. It's called the Arnold Feeny portrait.
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So what's going on here? Well, we know that this guy is a rich Flemish merchant.
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Sorry, he's an Italian merchant, but he's in low countries painted by the Flemish painter, Jan Van Ike.
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You know this is his wife we know their names We see these 2 people we see. Puzzling me a pair of outdoor clogs there.
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We see a little dog, well the dog is easy. A dog is usually a symbol of faithfulness.
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You see a mirror? We see a chandelier. If we look at this closely we see that on this side it's got lighted candles.
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And on this side the candles have burned out. Is she pregnant? That's quite a part of the debate.
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Really. Is it a marriage portrait? And engagement portraits. Is it a portrait to Celibate that she's about to give birth?
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If we look in the mirror, which is between them there. You see something very strange. We see the backs of these 2 people whose portrait is being painted.
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And in the door we can see 2 or maybe 3 figures. Is that the artist? Is it me and you?
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Is that the viewers of the painting? Is it witnesses to a wedding that's going on? How do we begin to unpick all of that?
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And understand what's going on there. And there are loads of suggestions about this portrait.
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One even. Is that she has recently died. Which is why the candles on this side are out.
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And the candles on this side alighted. And if we look closely. At the mirror we find that it's it's all scenes from the life of Christ around this side He's still alive.
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Loads part the passion story. And on this side, he's died. Now, I'm not convinced by that.
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I don't think it's a portrait showing this girl after she's died. Is she pregnant or not?
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Well, one suggestion is she died in childbirth. Again, I'm not convinced by that.
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Some people are suggesting, well, he's a cloth merchant. Look at how much cloth she's got here on her dress.
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So she's just lifting it up so she can walk. You take your pick on that one.
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What do you think is going on? We can probably never get to the bottom of it. But it's a really interesting puzzle.
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To try and struggle with what's going on. Here's another piece in the National Gallery in London.
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Botticelli the mystical relativity painting 1,500. Now here We know perhaps a little more.
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About what's going on. But you had Botticelli helpfully. Gives us a paragraph at the top of the art.
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It's sensitivity. He is married in Jesus. With Joseph, we got a wonderful garland of angels dancing around.
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And some very funny business going on down here. Let's have a closer look. There's Mary and the baby.
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The oxen the ass as usual. Of Joseph has fallen asleep. Of Joseph's had a hard night of this so he deserves to sleep clearly.
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Here's some angels. Here. It looks like one or 2 people. Actually being dragged up out of their graves.
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We're a bit closer. Here the dancing angels. Each of them holding a scroll. Saying things like, hallelujah, welcome the newborn king and so on.
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These 3 angels here who are reading a book. And that book is probably Books of prophecies about Jesus.
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Down below? Well, I just love, see a little demon there. And little demon there. These demons are are running away.
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Because of the birth of this child. The angel here. Who was pointing these shepherds.
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Towards the birth and the same happened this side. And here are angels dragging people up out of the earth.
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Out of their graves. The symbol of resurrection, obviously. So what's it all about?
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Well, along the top Botticelli paints this. This picture at the end of the year 1,500 in the troubles of Italy, Italy's just been invaded by France again.
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I, Alessandro Botticelli, Now, there's a puzzling bit in the half time after the time.
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Painted according the eleventh chapter of St. John. In the second war of the apocalypse during the release of the devil for 3 and a half years, then he shall be bound in the twelfth chapter.
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And we shall see him buried. As in this picture. What on earth is that about? We go back to the picture.
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What do we looking at? Well, there was a sort of theory around it 1,500. That the world was about to end.
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Because there's a very odd bit in the book of Revelation the last book in the New Testament about the devil being let loose.
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For a time and half a time. But after that A woman will give birth to a baby. And the devil will be defeated.
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So bodyicelli is painting something to do with that. Whether we could decipher it any further, we certainly see hints of resurrection in it.
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We see hints of these devils here being defeated. But Botticelli has given us and it's a small painting, it's only 1820 inches across.
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Has given us a real puzzle in this. I'm challenging us really to go and stand in front of it.
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And work out what it's about from the clue that he's given us.
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Get a fast forward 300 years or so. To the Pre-raphaelites. Because the Pre-raphaelites absolutely love symbolism.
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There's a huge amount, the Pre-raphaelites, are almost embarrassingly rich in symbols.
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It drips out of them. And Holman Hunt is one of the biggest culprits of overdoing symbolism.
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This is the Highland Shepherd.
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It's in I think it's in Manchester in Manchester or Liverpool.
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I can't remember Hmm. And here is the bad shepherd. You might remember Jesus described himself as the good shepherd.
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This is the bad shepherd. Because the bad shepherd, is ignoring his sheep.
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They've got bloat. Here's the lost sheep wandering off into the distance. Why is the bad shepherd doing all of that?
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Because he's been distracted by a pretty girl. A little bit closer. Well, there's there's a half an apple here.
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Isn't that interesting? Is Holman Hunt suggesting that this is really mirroring? What happened in the Garden of Eden.
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When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. That's half an apple is always a clue in paintings.
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He's holding, which we can't see properly here. He's holding what's been identified as a death's head moth.
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Why is he showing this pretty girl the death said moth? What's that about? So obviously it's something about.
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The nature of the bad ship and the good shepherd. What distracts someone and turns them into a bad shepherd?
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What happens to the sheep when they when they're neglected?
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And this is Holman's wonderful painting the scapegoats. Holman Hunt was struggling with belief.
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In the mid 18 fiftys and so as you do took himself off to the Holy Land for a couple of years to paint out there to see if he could rediscover his faith.
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And the scapegoat is one of the sacrifices in the Old Testament.
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And in the Old Testament the high priest on the day of Atonement puts his hands on the head of a goat.
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And symbolically transfers the sins of all the people onto the goats. They then tie a red ribbon around the goat sawns.
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And send the goat out into the wilderness. Carrying with him the sins of the people.
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He doesn't last very long because he is last year's goat and there's the year before goat and is another goat.
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But ritually symbolic. And see the care with the Cholman hunters painted this. Each hair of the goat lovingly painted.
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And you can see the weight of the people sins on the goat's shoulders, can't you?
00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:20.000
This is a very famous Holman hunt. You've probably seen this on all sorts of cards. The light of the world.
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:26.000
But Jesus says, look, I'm standing at the door and knocking. And I'll come in if you let me in.
00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:34.000
And the interesting thing about the way Holman Hunters painted this, there's no handle on the outside of the door.
00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:43.000
It's a bit like Downing Street. No handle on the outside. You can only open that door from the inside.
00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:51.000
And this is by Millay, another of the Pre-raphaelites. This one is, embarrassingly dripping with symbolism.
00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:55.000
I've stood in front of this way, it's in the Tate Britain in London.
00:26:55.000 --> 00:27:04.000
And tried to count the symbols in it just just too many to counter really Here's the boy Jesus.
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:13.000
With his mother Mary. And his father, Joseph. The boy Jesus has hurt his hand on a nail.
00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:20.000
He's pierced his hand with a nail that's obvious bit of symbolism There's the nail having been pulled out of his hand.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:28.000
Joseph is making a door. Jesus said, I am the door to the sheepfold. Here's a boy with a ball of water.
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:36.000
John the Baptist is a ladder. Jacob Ladder leading the angels up and down from heaven with a dove sitting on it.
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:51.000
The dove being of the symbol of the Holy Spirit. Here are a load of sheep. Re see better out of that window there's a vine out of that window so everywhere you look there's this sort of riches of symbolism.
00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:53.000
But the critics at the time said, This is just too obvious. There's just too much of it.
00:27:53.000 --> 00:28:04.000
He's so overdone the symbolism. There's a triangle there symbolizing the Trinity for example.
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:11.000
But the other sort of symbol, I've talked I've talked really about symbols so far that you have to decipher.
00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:18.000
Symbols that are puzzles for you to work at. Some of which you might recognize quickly, like in that one.
00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:25.000
But some of them, and like in that Arnolphini portrait, that need a lot of deciphering a lot of work.
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:33.000
Some of them are meant to pass on information. If you see a saint with a key, You know it's Saint Peter.
00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:39.000
Why is it Peter? Because Jesus says to Peter, behold, I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:43.000
You can let people in let people out.
00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:54.000
And this is the book of Kells. Held in Trinity College Dublin. Produced some time in the late eighth century probably.
00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:03.000
And this is the the front page as it were. These beautiful, beautiful medieval. Illustrative manuscripts.
00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:12.000
And each of these is symbolizing one of the 4 gospel writers. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, each of them has a symbol.
00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:17.000
Showing who he is.
00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:32.000
The same figures are here. In this tapestry in Coventry Cathedral. When the old Coventry cathedral was bombed in 1941 The cathedral was rebuilt and reopened in 62 or 63.
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:39.000
And many of you have probably been to it it's a wonderful a repository for great works of art.
00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:46.000
And this is the written Christ. With those 4 symbols. Of the 4 gospel writers.
00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:56.000
Same as those. Good updated in modern art around him. And the most moving thing about this is look here.
00:29:56.000 --> 00:30:08.000
There is a human being. Showing both our insignificance. Also the protection that there is in Christ offers.
00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:15.000
Which saint is this. Which saint would be pictured with a wheel. Well, it's near Bonfire Night.
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:20.000
It's St. Catherine. That's Catherine's real Catherine's wheel.
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:31.000
But how about this? Well this guy has got 3 balls of gold. 3 balls of gold which became the porn broker's sign.
00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:41.000
And the legend is that this bishop in the fourth century A. Noting that those a very poor man in the town.
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:49.000
This poor man had 3 daughters. And that 3 daughters, because the man was so poor, couldn't afford a diary.
00:30:49.000 --> 00:31:01.000
3 daughters would be sold into prostitution. So the bishops secretly on 3 successive nights went to the house and dropped a bag of gold.
00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:07.000
Down the chimney or a gold ball down the chimney, depending on which between the legend you believe.
00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:14.000
He is of course Saint Nicholas and that's the beginning of our St. Nicholas for the Christmas legend.
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:25.000
He's he was a real man who is a bishop in Turkey at the beginning of the fourth century.
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:30.000
Any of these in art, particularly in Renaissance arts.
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:41.000
Does this wonderful George and the Dragon? By Ucelo. Paolo Ucello painted in around 1460, 1450, 1460.
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:51.000
And George and the Dragon was a very frequent symbol. Of the fight between good and evil. In Renaissance Italy.
00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:59.000
Here's George on his white charger. Here's the princess looking remarkably medieval.
00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:08.000
Is a wonderful dragon good enough to be in Harry Potter. There's sunrise just coming up over the hills.
00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:21.000
There's a violent storm here. Almost threatening to overpower George. There's a bit more going on than that because There's quite a bit of sexual implication here as well with this girl.
00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:34.000
Chained to the dragon or tied to the dragon with the lead and it's George's long sharp hard spear that rescues her.
00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:40.000
This is the same subject. Interest if you get the National Gallery in London that's in one room in the Sainsbury wing.
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:48.000
You walk through to the next room into the old gallery and this Jacob, just George and the Dragon is there by Tintoretto.
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:58.000
Don't in Venice almost exactly a century later. This is just to show you really the contrast between very early Renaissance art.
00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:06.000
And Venetian. Renaissance, high renaissance it's called. And the differs the princess in this one.
00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:16.000
Is. A snack. The dragon has put aside for later. Is George and there he's piercing the dragon again.
00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:22.000
But this is why my favorites is my altar time favorites. This is by Hieronymus Bosch.
00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:26.000
It's in the Prado Museum in, in Madrid. I'm called the God of earthly delights.
00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:36.000
And it's in the shape of a triptych. An altarpiece you can close the doors of this.
00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:41.000
It's got a left hand panel, a center and a right hand panel. The left hand panel is the Garden of Eden.
00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:54.000
Everything is perfect. Adam and Eve, here they are. Unashamed to be naked. Or sitting down have your conversation with God.
00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:09.000
And around them Everything is getting on harmoniously. An elephant. And the giraffe looks as if Bosh has actually seen an elephant giraffe lots of painters painted them having clearly not seen them.
00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:18.000
A couple of unicorns here drinking from this lake. And the theory at the time was that unicorns really existed.
00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:25.000
But you and Conn didn't make it into Noah's Ark. And therefore didn't exist after the time of the arc.
00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:34.000
But there's one little hint that not everything is perfect. There's a cat carrying off a dead mouse.
00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:43.000
There is some sort of conflict, some sort of violence even. Underlying all of this perfection that we see.
00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:50.000
And that fountain at the heart of the garden is where life comes from.
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:58.000
In the central panel everything goes wrong. In the central panel, human beings get up to all sorts of things they shouldn't do.
00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:03.000
Is a man making love to a mermaid. People of different colours. Consorting with each other.
00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:08.000
People going in this secret tunnel here to get up to no good. The consequence of it says Bosh is this.
00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:23.000
The consequence is a dystopian world, a world in which everything is on flame, a world in which everything is crumbling.
00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:34.000
Another symbol of good and evil is David. And the fight between David and Goliath. This is Michael Angelo's David in in Florence.
00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:42.000
This is kind of Caravaggio's David. Kind of Agios David is just slain Goliath and has cut off his head.
00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:56.000
And whose portrait is the head? This is Carabaggio himself. Bizarrely, very oddly putting his own his own self-portrait in the place of Goliath.
00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:59.000
Just been slain by David.
00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:10.000
And then were symbols of death. Death in the Middle Ages, was often portrayed by artists, partly because it was all around.
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:16.000
Partly because the effects of the plague as well admit the death was so common.
00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:20.000
Got to find a way to deal with it.
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:27.000
So we see something like this. This is the Earl Arundel in Sussex. I'm here he is in his full armour.
00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:37.000
The But underneath him is his own cadover. Stripped of his armor stripped of his dignity.
00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:45.000
Is this saying when you walk into this chapel? Yeah, you think you're strong, you think you're well armored, but one day you will end up like me.
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.000
One day you'll end up under here.
00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:55.000
This is a horrific portrayal, is in Belgium. It means the man with the worms.
00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:01.000
And you can see these worms are eating away. This is on, on the guy's tomb top.
00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:14.000
And the worms are consuming his body as he lies there seemingly in agony. Hmm. And this was a very popular medieval theme called the dance macabre.
00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:20.000
This one is in Tallinn in Estonia. And it was a common theme.
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:26.000
And this this this piece was originally about 40 panels long, although, and only about 7 of them.
00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:32.000
Here is the Empress. And the Empress is being taunted by these skeletons.
00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:38.000
Who are saying, oh you think you're rich and beautiful, you think you've got wonderful clothes.
00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:45.000
You could any day end up like me. And underneath is a long poem in Latin. Here's a quote from it.
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:56.000
This is the cardinal. He's next one down from the Empress and the Cardinal's poem says this, have mercy on me Lord, now it has to happen.
00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:04.000
There's no way from me to escape from you. Whether I look before or behind, I always sense death close to me.
00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:14.000
Of what use can the high rank be to me which I attained? I have to leave it behind and instantly become less worthy than a foul stinking dog.
00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:23.000
This art is not meant to make you feel joyful. This art is not meant for you to stand there and say, oh isn't that lovely?
00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:35.000
What a pretty pain. It's actually to make you reflect on your own mortality and it does that really quite brutally and disturbingly.
00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:41.000
This is the same theme, but this time in a book. This is in Lambeth Palace Library in London.
00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:54.000
Really interesting because These are printed properly as we know it with movable type. These pieces were printed with A woodblock.
00:38:54.000 --> 00:39:01.000
And then they were hand colored. So here for instance is the monk. There's the monk's poem.
00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:07.000
There's the monk's skeleton reminding me of his death. Here is the money lender.
00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:14.000
I look at the way the skeleton is picking the money lenders pocket as the money lends money to a poor beggar.
00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:24.000
But it's showing us 3 different types of production with movable type. Woodblock print and hand coloring.
00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:32.000
And I got finished last 5 min with the surrealism. Which is again dripping with symbolism.
00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:41.000
Serialism was a movement which you probably know in the middle of the twentieth century. And it was influenced by Sigmund Freud.
00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:55.000
This is Freud on the right, a cigar is sometimes just a cigar. And what surrealism was trying to do was to access your unconscious mind or the artist's unconscious mind.
00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:10.000
Freud had this theory that 80% of our mind is below the surface. So I'm not spelled unconscious wrongly sorry about that so down below what you know is going on is all the other stuff which is driving you.
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:19.000
All the hidden memories of childhood, all your sexual desires which are not good enough to be let out into the public and so on.
00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:26.000
All your hates and your desires are down there somewhere and they're driving what you do all the time.
00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:32.000
So here's Max Enst in 1922, Edipus Rix.
00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:44.000
What's that about? Well, it's dripping with symbolism. There's something in it about a walnut is a testicle.
00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:51.000
Because we remember Eddie Pusx kills his father and marries his mother. Is that what's going on in that?
00:40:51.000 --> 00:40:58.000
Is that the effect of a dream? Is he showing us one of his own dreams as soon as he wakes up?
00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:09.000
So art is becoming Not so much about what I see out there in the world. It's becoming much more to do with what is here in the artist's head.
00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:23.000
Or the artist subconscious or the artist's heart. And much twentieth century art and we could do a whole session on surrealism and twentieth century art, much twentieth century is not about the outside world.
00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:31.000
It's about the inside of the artist or the inside of the viewer. Here's the best known surrealist Salvador Dali.
00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:37.000
In, in many ways, himself, he was a work of art.
00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:53.000
This is the persistence of memory. When I was a student in London in the 19 seventys, pretty much every self-respecting student had a poster on their wall of a work of art by Dali.
00:41:53.000 --> 00:42:03.000
And Dolly tells us about this one in his diary. You had a dream and he woke up and tried to paint what was in the dream.
00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:14.000
But he said it was obviously related to things that were going on the day before. Because the day before he'd been reading about Einstein's theory of time.
00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:19.000
And you might remember, Einstein says that time is flexible. Time isn't fixed.
00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:38.000
It varies with the speed that you're travelling. So here are flexible timepieces. But Dali also said that last night I was eating a particularly runny camon bear.
00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:44.000
And that camon bear was almost sliding off the edge of the table.
00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:53.000
And in his dream world He's putting together the flexibility of time. With a runny camon bear.
00:42:53.000 --> 00:43:00.000
But some pretty horrendous bits this watch here. He's covered with ants, you can't see him very well in this production.
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:17.000
These ants are squat scrawling over this time. This tree is bare and broken. Well, that's an image that a lot of First World War artists used when they were showing the devastation in northern France, for example, at the battlefields.
00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:26.000
And Dolly's world here. Is devoid of human beings. It's almost as if he's floating around.
00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:34.000
A depopulated world. And again, that's a theme that often crops up. In the aftermath of the First World War.
00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:44.000
Because artists are saying to themselves, Given the devastation of the First World War and then of the Second World War later.
00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:59.000
What can I paint now? I can't paint pretty pictures any longer. I've got to paint something about the horror of the destruction that human beings have brought upon themselves and upon their world.
00:43:59.000 --> 00:44:14.000
And here on the seashore. Is a dead whale. So it's a pretty horrendous picture, really, of the sort of world that Dali thought he was inhabiting and we are inhabiting.
00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:21.000
So I'm going to stop there. And hopefully I can see numbers of things in chatter going up.
00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:26.000
So hopefully Fiona will be able to feel some of the questions. I shall stop sharing.
00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:31.000
I certainly will. We've got a few questions here, so I'm just going to launch in everybody.
00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:32.000
Nick?
00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:38.000
And now, in fact, I'm going to start with one of the questions that's just come in just just now actually.
00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:39.000
Did the person, this is from JM, sorry, I don't know your proper name.
00:44:39.000 --> 00:45:02.000
And did the person, this is kind of quite a general question, did the person who commissioned the painting discuss and agree with the painter the type of symbols to be used or did they have autonomy and secondary to that, Caroline is asking Who commissioned the whole bind?
00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:04.000
And might it help to say for some meanings?
00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:07.000
Hmm. Bye, Tipboard, sorry.
00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:17.000
Might help if you know who commissioned the Holbein might it help decide for the the meanings by you know knowing who who had commissioned it in the first place.
00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:24.000
We don't know who commissioned it. That's the first thing to say. Second thing to say about the Holbein.
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:37.000
Is, I think it's quite a dangerous painting. I think I think painting a painting that that presumably Henry 8 would see Well, if we knew who'd commissioned it, we wouldn't know when he'd seen it or not.
00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:54.000
We would know where to see it a lot. And saying in effect that the marriage of Henry and Boleyn was part of all those splits, maybe even causing some of those splits that are happening in Europe during the Reformation is a pretty dangerous thing to be saying.
00:45:54.000 --> 00:46:00.000
And maybe Holbein is betting. That Henry won't be able to read the Symbols.
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:08.000
And are they just private symbols for him? And the 2 presumably it was commissioned by the 2 characters who sat for it.
00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:13.000
And because their friend he was the French ambassador, he might have gone back to France with him.
00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:14.000
We don't know the history of that painting. Until it appeared in about the 18 fifties again.
00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:25.000
So, so we don't know is the answer to that, but it was it was some pretty dangerous symbolism.
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:31.000
Would the commissioner have agreed the symbolism with the artist? I think it's a yes and no answer.
00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:43.000
In some cases, yes. So in some cases if, for example, your commissioning Leonardo da Vinci to do a mother and child.
00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:56.000
You'd probably have talked through exactly what he's going to do. And interestingly, a medieval artists workshops because they all work together in little groups in guilds.
00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:07.000
The medieval artist workshops we know in Florence had books of symbols. So when they're putting a saint in a painting, they could look through their book of symbolism.
00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:12.000
And find out, you know. How, how do you give a symbol of Saint Athanasius?
00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:17.000
But, but, but, but it was all there for them. And so was other things.
00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:26.000
So, we know, for example, that in, we know, for example, that in, in Delph, where Vermeer was painting, in the seventeenth century.
00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:36.000
There were books of symbols of what all the flowers and leaves meant and what all the animals meant. So the artist to assigned a meaning to each animal.
00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:47.000
And each flower. So when you when you're commissioning a painting you might say well I'm a bit sad at the moment because one of my children has just died.
00:47:47.000 --> 00:47:49.000
Can you put in something about that child as well as it being slightly upbeat? So they did did perhaps discuss what was going into it.
00:47:49.000 --> 00:48:00.000
But, but a lot of it is worth saying as well. Lot of it was subliminal by the artists.
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:08.000
In other words, I don't think that they all the time. Knew exactly what they were saying when they used the symbols.
00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:15.000
It's a bit like, did Shakespeare understand all of Hamlet? I don't think he did probably.
00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.000
It's all coming out of his subconscious.
00:48:19.000 --> 00:48:24.000
Hey, I hope that answers your question, folks. No, I've got another one.
00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:33.000
It's this is in on the whole bind as well. Actually got a couple of questions about the the whole bind.
00:48:33.000 --> 00:48:34.000
Yep.
00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:38.000
You talked about in the whole bind that the partially covered crucifix. But I think is related to the question I'm about to ask from Karen.
00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:46.000
And hopefully I'm right, Gavin. And if that represents Catholics trying to hide the religion.
00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:47.000
Hi.
00:48:47.000 --> 00:48:59.000
Yeah, could well be. I mean, there are a number of paintings and there's some Bible, one by Vermeer as well, about the nature of the Catholic faith.
00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:08.000
In Protestant countries. An obviously what they were doing was hiding it. Now in 1533
00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:15.000
The split hadn't yet occurred with Rome in England. So you didn't really have to hide it in England.
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:23.000
There were, there were moves towards Protestantism going on. But the Actors Click with Rome wasn't until I think 2 years later.
00:49:23.000 --> 00:49:31.000
And Henry wasn't excommunicated until 1538. So nominal at least, Henrietta Catholic.
00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:44.000
The other, the other really interesting fact about England in that period. You might know that the Mary Rose, the ship, the flagship of Henry's, Navy, which sank in the Solomon and was brought up.
00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:56.000
Sank in 14 for 1445 say 1545 70 40 victories which was a number of years after Henry's break with Rome.
00:49:56.000 --> 00:50:03.000
The the the most common item on the Mary Rose. Can you guess what that was Fiona?
00:50:03.000 --> 00:50:06.000
What was the most common item on the major roads which it brought up?
00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:11.000
I'm trying to remember. You remember it from quite some time ago. Okay.
00:50:11.000 --> 00:50:15.000
It was the knit though. There were more nitcomes than there were sailors. Isn't that interesting?
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:17.000
Hmm.
00:50:17.000 --> 00:50:23.000
Just tell, show you what life must be like. Second most common item was the Rosary.
00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:26.000
In a Protestant England.
00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:27.000
Yeah.
00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:35.000
Okay, so which suggests that although Henry and the court might have become Protestant by 1545.
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:46.000
The ordinary guys hadn't. You ordinary guys still prayed with their rosary. So, so trying to read what the division was at the time is really difficult and it may be.
00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:54.000
That Holbein is saying even in 1533 in that painting you know actually got to hide you Catholicism.
00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:59.000
You can't you can't have it out in the open and maybe that's what they're currently saying.
00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:15.000
Hmm. Okay, I hope that answers. Your question Karen another question from Stuart when did Holbein actually do the painting retrospectively was it evident at the time what the impact of the marriage be.
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:23.000
Hmm. I don't know. It's a simple answer. I don't I don't think we know the actual data it was painted.
00:51:23.000 --> 00:51:33.000
Hmm. Okay. Right. Now we have another question from, I think this is, this is in connection with the Botticelli.
00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:34.000
Okay.
00:51:34.000 --> 00:51:40.000
Could think Joseph be bowing in adoration, that's from Eileen.
00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:43.000
Well, maybe. Yeah, okay. That, that, that's, that's a nice comment for Jersey.
00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:56.000
It could be. But having said that, there are lots of medieval paintings in which Joseph is clearly asleep.
00:51:56.000 --> 00:52:05.000
And it's almost as if they're saying Joseph has no part in this. And they might be saying theologically Joseph has no party.
00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:15.000
This is just between Mary and God. You know, Joe Joseph, that there's one, there's one painting that I know that in Cambridge, I can't remember the artist.
00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:22.000
In which Joseph is holding the baby. And I've never seen another painting which Joseph holds a baby.
00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:27.000
Which is really quite sweet. But in a lot of, lot of those Renaissance paintings, he's asleep.
00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:30.000
So I go with him being asleep in the Botticelli.
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:32.000
Okay. Okay.
00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:38.000
As I said, you had a tough night, hasn't he? The man finds it really hard work.
00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:40.000
Yeah.
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:47.000
Okay, we've got another question from Carol. We've obviously looked at a lot of symbols within paintings.
00:52:47.000 --> 00:52:54.000
She's asking and are there also symbols on artifacts? She's thinking about things like pottery and frescoes.
00:52:54.000 --> 00:53:04.000
Yeah. Very much so. And, and I mean, you can find those sorts of, I mean, I've concentrate on paintings today, obviously.
00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:05.000
Hmm.
00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:14.000
But you can find equal symbolism really in textiles for example. And textiles will a major medieval art form.
00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:20.000
Although they fell out to fill out of popularity. So, so in tapestries.
00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:29.000
Investments. You can find them certainly on pottery. If you look at some pottery by Picasso, for example, and pick up Picasso was a very able potter.
00:53:29.000 --> 00:53:39.000
Was a painter. Lots of them are covered with symbols. I love those symbols. Are borrowed from African art because Picasso was a collector of African art.
00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:47.000
I would say yeah it's on pottery as well it's on tapestries lot in stained glass windows.
00:53:47.000 --> 00:53:51.000
So any art form really is is dripping with symbolism.
00:53:51.000 --> 00:54:01.000
Hmm. Now, actually this is probably more of a comment than a question, but I thought I would put this one too because it's quite interesting.
00:54:01.000 --> 00:54:12.000
It's reminder call. I hope you don't mind. I hope you don't mind Andrew.
00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:13.000
Yeah.
00:54:13.000 --> 00:54:16.000
And he's saying Resumably, symbols and arts become more difficult to read with the passing of time because we're longer soaked in the culture from which they emerge.
00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:17.000
Okay.
00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:22.000
Conversely, there are no doubt symbols in modern art that we just take for granted because we're part of that culture.
00:54:22.000 --> 00:54:30.000
Yep, absolutely right, I think, Andrew. I mean, you know, look at some of those very old pieces of art I put up.
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.000
For example, Australian cave art.
00:54:34.000 --> 00:54:43.000
There's there's a bit of a possibility of reading the Australian stuff because aboriginal people still talk about what that art is.
00:54:43.000 --> 00:54:49.000
So there's some sort of moral tradition. But the lion man, there's no way we know what that was about.
00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:57.000
So you need, you need an interpretative text or an interpretative tradition. Within which to interpret the art.
00:54:57.000 --> 00:55:06.000
The further away you get from that. Either culturally or in time. The harder it becomes to interpret.
00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:16.000
And I think we're now in a situation in much of Western Europe. In which much of the renaissance art doesn't really make much sense to us in terms of symbolism.
00:55:16.000 --> 00:55:28.000
We just haven't got the the language with which to read it really and yeah I mean modern or if you look at If you look at modern art meaning, twentieth and 20 first century art.
00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:37.000
That's also full of symbolism. Dripping with it. But we I mean, I sometimes say a symbol is like a joke.
00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:46.000
So if I tell you a joke, Fiona. And you don't laugh. I then explained the joke to you tediously.
00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:55.000
And a joke that explained is not funny. Is it? You know, and a symbol that has to be explained.
00:55:55.000 --> 00:56:08.000
Doesn't quite work as a symbol. In other words, the symbol ought to work. Without me saying this means so and so and so and so, you ought to see it and take it all in subconsciously.
00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:14.000
As you do, you know, maybe when you watch Hamlet or something. But yeah, I mean, I think that there is.
00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:20.000
There's a real issue when we go to somebody like the National Gallery of trying to read the paintings.
00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.000
Because mostly we don't have the equipment with which to read them.
00:56:24.000 --> 00:56:25.000
Hmm. Okay, very interesting. Okay, we've got a question from Stuart.
00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:37.000
Now, if you forgive me, I'm not entirely sure if this is in relation to one of the specific paintings we looked at but He's asking.
00:56:37.000 --> 00:56:47.000
And so are the chalk cliffs to do with the enormity of time? I wonder if that's the Dally.
00:56:47.000 --> 00:56:48.000
Hmm.
00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:51.000
That's in that last Dolly, isn't it? Yes, I like that.
00:56:51.000 --> 00:57:02.000
You're good with that. Yeah. I mean, I, When I've looked at that page, I've sort of, on, you know, the white cliffs of Dover.
00:57:02.000 --> 00:57:11.000
Is it about the edge of the land and the sea or whatever but I like I like the time thing if you if the painting is is mostly about time which it clearly is.
00:57:11.000 --> 00:57:20.000
He's perhaps saying something about the permanence of the earth and the cliffs. That you know we sort of overwhelmed by it or whatever yeah I'd buy that.
00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:36.000
Hmm. Okay, this is from Karen and Andrew. Do some artists have symbols that they use in different paintings almost like a signature symbol.
00:57:36.000 --> 00:57:49.000
Yeah. A good example is, anonymous boss who we're looking at. In almost every Bosch painting you see there's Owl.
00:57:49.000 --> 00:57:55.000
Sometimes a tiny owl in the corner. Sometimes quite a significant owl.
00:57:55.000 --> 00:58:06.000
And if I ask you what the owl symbolizes Fiona, what do you think the owl symbolizes?
00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:08.000
I don't know, a wise person. Let's see.
00:58:08.000 --> 00:58:12.000
That's what we, that's what most of us would say, would say, symbolizes wisdom.
00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:13.000
Hmm.
00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:18.000
Cause we've read many of the poo, haven't we? And it's, you know, the wise old ours in Winnie in the Pooh.
00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:25.000
For Hieronymus Bosch. The owl symbolizes. A brooding evil presence.
00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:26.000
Hmm.
00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:33.000
Because for Bosh the owl is a creature of the knights. Is a creature of the dark.
00:58:33.000 --> 00:58:39.000
And always for Bosch there's there's evil even if not on the surface this painting just underneath.
00:58:39.000 --> 00:58:44.000
There's something disturbing underneath. And so the owl becomes for him a signature which is also a symbol or symbol which also a signature.
00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:58.000
And there are other examples. I mean there's a there's a stained glass maker. In that the end of the nineteenth century in England.
00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:05.000
I can't remember his name that'll come back while I'm talking and that, maker and his firm.
00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:12.000
In every bit of stained glass by them. There is a little wheat sheaf. Just a little, little thing of corn.
00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:17.000
And if you're going round to church and you look at stained glass, you see a little wheat chief, you know that it is by.
00:59:17.000 --> 00:59:20.000
Got to remember his name. Yep, yep.
00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:30.000
That's one for Google. Okay. Right. No, I have another question from Martin.
00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:31.000
Maybe.
00:59:31.000 --> 00:59:40.000
Now this is. This is a very interesting one. Some symbols. Swastika, for example, have changed the meaning.
00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:43.000
Can they ever be redeemed?
00:59:43.000 --> 00:59:44.000
It's quite a big question.
00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:52.000
Bye. The swastika originally. Was an Indian symbol of peace and harmony.
00:59:52.000 --> 01:00:00.000
And interestingly, there is. In the Vatican Museum in Rome. There's, a nativity.
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:08.000
And tippity on on a tombstone. Says the baby Jesus on a tombstone with the ox and the ass so we know tenativity.
01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:14.000
And all along the top There's a seas of swastikas.
01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:22.000
Obviously borrowed from India. How he got into a Roman child's probably tombstone.
01:00:22.000 --> 01:00:28.000
Goodness knows. But there it's clearly still symbolizing. Peace and harmony.
01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:39.000
The Nazis. Not only took the symbol over. But changed it and devalued it, didn't they?
01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:47.000
And I doubt whether Anyone could now use the swastika. As a symbol of peace and harmony.
01:00:47.000 --> 01:00:58.000
And indeed if I were to, you know, where a swastika on my t-shirt and going walk down the high street, it would probably provoke some pretty bad reactions.
01:00:58.000 --> 01:01:12.000
So, yes, symbols do change their meaning. And in that sort of extreme case. Doubt whether the original meaning can be redeemed really.
01:01:12.000 --> 01:01:13.000
Yeah.
01:01:13.000 --> 01:01:21.000
Yeah. Okay, right, got a question here from Mike. And we are going to run on very slightly folks.
01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:25.000
I'm going to give it another couple of minutes just to see if we can get through some more questions.
01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:35.000
This is from Mike. What do the symbols on your cello's dragon convey?
01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:36.000
Hmm.
01:01:36.000 --> 01:01:42.000
But in the painting. I think, I think the storm. He's obviously conveying.
01:01:42.000 --> 01:01:54.000
The darkness and the evil and the scariness of the scene. I think the the rising sun behind the hills is conveying a new dawn.
01:01:54.000 --> 01:02:06.000
And that new dawn is being brought about by St. George killing the dragon. The the dragon is a symbol of that which holds human beings.
01:02:06.000 --> 01:02:16.000
In in in a sort of prison really. You know, we're held in prison to evil for the medieval.
01:02:16.000 --> 01:02:26.000
Be held in some sort of some sort of contract with evil. So along comes George. The poor princess is a symbol of humanity.
01:02:26.000 --> 01:02:38.000
So long comes George kills the dragon in the storm. With. With the mountain showing dawn behind them and sits the girl free.
01:02:38.000 --> 01:02:47.000
And so the symbolism is primarily about setting the maiden princess. Equals humanity. Free from the bonds of evil which hold us.
01:02:47.000 --> 01:03:07.000
And behind the dragon notes is in that you cello is the almost black mouth of the cave. And that's symbolizing the the really scary bit that's it with something something even more scary than the dragon is in that cave and we don't know what it is.
01:03:07.000 --> 01:03:13.000
Hmm. Okay. Right, one more question and then I think we'll need to wrap up folks.
01:03:13.000 --> 01:03:21.000
I will be looking at the chat later. So if I have missed anything, and David, I'll get them sent on to you so you can have a little look at them.
01:03:21.000 --> 01:03:38.000
But, this is from Judas. And which current artists use symbolism and one of our other members, Miranda, has has mentioned Banksy which is one which spring to my mind.
01:03:38.000 --> 01:03:39.000
Yeah.
01:03:39.000 --> 01:03:44.000
Yep. Yeah, and Banks is a really good example. And you may have seen some of the art which Banksy has done.
01:03:44.000 --> 01:03:56.000
In Israel. Banksy has made at least 2 trips to Israel. And in Bethlehem, for example, there's, the, the 2 or 3 Banksy pieces.
01:03:56.000 --> 01:04:02.000
One of which is a dove of peace wearing a flak jacket.
01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:09.000
You know, you don't need to explain that, do you? Another one is too little angels.
01:04:09.000 --> 01:04:19.000
Pulling apart. The wall between the Israeli and the Palestinian bits of Bethlehem. So, Banksy uses it very cleverly and very simply.
01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:35.000
And he's brilliant. I mean, other other examples. Certainly certainly Gormley uses symbolism.
01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:36.000
Yeah.
01:04:36.000 --> 01:04:39.000
I mean the Angel of the North is a very powerful symbol really. And when they angel the north was first put in.
01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:46.000
I think a lot of people thought I don't know about that really but people love it now and it's become a really important symbol of the North, hasn't it?
01:04:46.000 --> 01:04:52.000
When you go past it driving up the A one M one. You sort of think, wow, I've arrived, you know, really important.
01:04:52.000 --> 01:04:54.000
You would see it from the train, you know, when you're passing through.
01:04:54.000 --> 01:04:59.000
We, and, look, if you're on a train with me, everybody looks for it, don't they?
01:04:59.000 --> 01:05:01.000
Okay.
01:05:01.000 --> 01:05:05.000
It's really interesting. So yes, I mean, it's still loads of symbolism around.
01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:07.000
Yeah.
01:05:07.000 --> 01:05:14.000
Okay, right folks, I think we're going to have to wrap up the roast at 10 past 6.
01:05:14.000 --> 01:05:15.000
Thank you.
01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:24.000
And David, that was fabulous. Fascinating, thought-provoking, fascinating, thought-provoking and I think we've probably all come away with a little bit of extra knowledge for the next time we visit an art gallery.
01:05:24.000 --> 01:05:29.000
And one thing I would say is actually in the summer we had the Banksy exhibition in Glasgow and which ran through summer and I went and it's one of the best things I've ever seen.
01:05:29.000 --> 01:05:35.000
Oh, for the local. After seeing that, fantastic.
01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:43.000
And it gives you, he tells you, he, I think is he, he tells you how he actually does.
01:05:43.000 --> 01:05:44.000
Oh, wonderful. I'd love to.
01:05:44.000 --> 01:05:53.000
Thanks. So anyway, and thanks so much for that. I hope everybody really, really enjoyed that. And, yeah.
01:05:53.000 --> 01:05:58.000
Thank you.