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00:42Good morning.
00:45This is the day that God has made.
00:51Look at this room.
00:54Over 2,000 people are gathered here.
00:58More than one rabbi and more than one priest and not a few Muslims.
01:04What a cross-section of religions and races and cultures and national origins.
01:11The United States of America is the most religious country in the West.
01:15More than three-quarters of its people believe in some kind of Judeo-Christian God.
01:21Moreover, it's the only society in the world where new religions, cults, sects and therapies,
01:27all based upon Christianity, are being invented every day.
01:30And no powerful person is more powerful than you.
01:34Religious fervour goes back a long way in America.
01:37The ministry that built this high-tech megachurch dates back to the 17th century.
01:42It was the early religious missions that played a vital role in the artistic and cultural development of America.
01:59What could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness full of wild beasts and wild men?
02:05They looked behind them and there was the mighty ocean which they had passed
02:09and was now as a gulf to separate them from the civil parts of the world.
02:13What could sustain them now but the Spirit of God and His grace?
02:22So wrote William Bradford after he and his fellow pilgrims landed in 1620 at Plymouth,
02:28fleeing religious persecution in England.
02:33That mightest presently, shall hope of thee, and me I shall not laugh.
02:43In brass he folds, he down doth make me lie.
02:49He gently leads me, quiet waters by.
02:54He doth return my soul for his name's dead.
03:00In brass of justice leads me, quiet lie.
03:05It is now no time to pamper the flesh, live at ease, snatch, catch, scrape and pill and hoard up,
03:15but rather to open the doors, the chests and vessels and say,
03:19brother, neighbour, friend, what want ye?
03:28All the year round, tourists come in droves to this late 20th century reconstruction of the first Plymouth colony.
03:36After all, the ancestry of about 15 million Americans today began in, or perhaps behind,
03:42the lost originals of these primitive huts.
03:46Here it is always 1627, seven years after the Mayflower arrived.
03:53Nothing remains of the original Plymouth,
03:55and this is an elaborate facsimile built on the coast nearby,
03:58historically, ecologically and technically accurate,
04:01down to the last sheep and shoelace and saw pit.
04:05The Pilgrims were the most radical wing of 17th century English Puritanism.
04:10They were, in effect, the Protestants' Protestants.
04:12They regarded mainstream Anglicanism as just as impure and hopelessly corrupt as the Church of Rome,
04:18and they wanted to make a fresh start on a clean slate over here in the New World.
04:26Almighty Jehovah, we pray that thou wilt look down upon us this day
04:30and hear the prayer of thy faithful, O Lord.
04:32Thou hast oft brought us many blessings here in this wilderness.
04:36From our first coming into this land, O Lord,
04:38thou hast brought us out of this wilderness.
04:42You have a well-made house, you have delicious food,
04:45you have silverware and books and pottery and everything that domestic life requires,
04:51except it seems one thing.
04:52I don't see any pictures here.
04:54Why is that?
04:55We are not like those Dutchmen.
04:57Having lived in Leiden, I can assure you, sir,
04:59you might find there fine paintings upon the walls of a man's house.
05:03It is a great fashion.
05:04I think it is no great ill,
05:07though I must say I am well contented with the more simpler life we have in this place.
05:12But in particular, you don't have any pictures of the kind that a Catholic might have,
05:18pictures of Jesus and the saints.
05:21The shrines and relics, this is all a great superstition unto mankind
05:25and much of the work of the devil,
05:27blinding men with things of man's art
05:30and keeping man from the proper reverence unto God.
05:48The first colonists in the 17th century
05:50saw the unexplored land as a blank slate
05:53on which they could write their designs
05:55and find their chance to create utopia.
05:59And their visions of what such a place might mean
06:01have left indelible traces on the identity of modern America.
06:11The wilderness was untamed.
06:13They were right about that.
06:14But it was not no man's land.
06:17To about 12 million American Indians,
06:19it was home.
06:20And the first big cultural collision between colonist and native
06:24took place here in the desert tablelands of the southwest.
06:30Charged with the hunger for conquest,
06:32just 50 years after Columbus,
06:34the Spaniards marched north to what would be known as New Mexico.
06:42The Spaniards thought they would find infinite gold
06:45as Cortes and his conquistadores had in old Mexico.
06:48They hoped that paradise was here for the taking.
06:51They'd heard talk of golden cities,
06:53the seven cities of Cibola,
06:55but instead they found tribal Indians
06:57living in multi-story villages,
07:00the Pueblo Indians.
07:01They had pottery, but not gold.
07:05The Spanish never did find gold,
07:08but on their wild goose chase
07:10after non-existent treasure,
07:11they at last arrived at the foot of Sky City,
07:14the ancient city of Acrema.
07:18One bemused Spaniard called it
07:21the greatest stronghold ever seen in the world.
07:26With its 2,000 dwellings,
07:28this is the oldest continuously populated city
07:31in North America.
07:32The Acrema's had lived here for 1,000 years
07:35before the Spanish arrived.
07:37For them, it was a sacred place,
07:40but not for the invaders.
07:44In 1599, the Spanish massacred most of the Acrema's
07:48and sold the rest into slavery.
07:50Yet the Acrema's built up their community again,
07:53and their descendants were persuaded
07:55by the Franciscan missionaries
07:56to build an immense shrine on the rock
07:59to their god, the Catholic god.
08:06The Church of San Esteban was finished by the 1720s.
08:09By then, it was by far the largest mission church
08:11in all of New Mexico,
08:13with its immense cyclopean walls
08:1510 feet thick at the base
08:16and its 150-foot-long nave,
08:19all of it entailing something like
08:2120,000 tonnes of rock and clay,
08:24every ounce of which had to be brought up
08:26from the valley floor below on people's backs
08:28because there wasn't any loose fill
08:29on top of the mazer.
08:34Indian labour, Spanish techniques.
08:37The basic unit of San Esteban
08:39is the mud brick, the adobe,
08:42a simple technology which the Spaniards
08:44had brought with them from the Old World.
08:50Because the adobe is only dried mud,
08:53the rain melts it,
08:54and it is in constant need of repair.
08:56The repeated coats of mud
08:58produce singular organic forms
09:01that are the signature of the adobe style,
09:03as in this church at Ranchos de Taos.
09:13Seventy years ago,
09:14these fluid shapes would inspire
09:16the work of modernist artists
09:18like Georgia O'Keeffe.
09:24The pure and primal character
09:26of the southwestern desert
09:27would draw her and other artists
09:29from New York,
09:30looking for the primitive,
09:32as Goga was drawn to Tahiti.
09:39In the magnificent, fierce mourning
09:41of New Mexico,
09:42wrote D.H. Lawrence,
09:44the old world gave way to the new.
09:50So bring that adobe brick on wheels
09:52over to squeaky clean car...
09:54Modern New Mexico fetishises
09:56its cultural past.
09:58Founded in 1610,
10:00Santa Fe is the oldest
10:01European city in North America.
10:06But here,
10:07the adobe style isn't just pervasive,
10:09it's mandatory.
10:10The law says you can't build a chain store
10:13or a gas station
10:14unless it's in the manner
10:15of a 17th century mission church.
10:18This goes hand in hand
10:20with the artiness of the place,
10:22stuffed with every kind of pious ethno-kitch,
10:24displaying its multi-culti credentials.
10:39To see earlier examples of artistic fusion
10:42on the southwestern frontier,
10:44it's better to go to places like the Church of San Jose
10:47in Laguna, Pueblo.
10:50It was built around 1700,
10:52and its friars embraced Pueblo out.
10:57Indian designs along the walls
11:00lead to the florid altar screen
11:02with the sun, the firmament, and the moon on top
11:05painted in the Indian way,
11:06and the blessed trinity
11:08in Spanish style below them.
11:12On the right is St. Barbara,
11:13who protected you from thunder and gunshot wounds,
11:17a useful saint for Indians to have.
11:22In this fusion between European
11:24and Native American traditions,
11:26a rich aesthetic rises from cultural collision,
11:29and this would be very much part
11:31of the story of the arts
11:33in a nation made of immigrants.
11:42The priests secured the frontier.
11:45Then came Spanish settlers.
11:48They built their big, self-contained farmhouses
11:50or haciendas like fortresses
11:53to withstand attacks from hostile Indians.
11:56Made of adobe,
11:57most of these have perished.
11:59And this is one of the few that remain,
12:01Casa San Ysidro.
12:03The early Spanish colonists
12:05led isolated and harsh lives
12:07in a culture of survival
12:09propped up by faith.
12:14Today, this is the home
12:16of Ward Allen Minge.
12:47What was this room?
12:49This happens to be a chapel.
12:51I suppose it seems strange to us nowadays,
12:53but in the old Spanish homes,
12:57especially if we were large enough
12:58with a large family,
12:59they often had their own chapels
13:01such as this.
13:03It's very plain, actually,
13:06by those that you might find
13:08in Mexico or Spain,
13:09but it reflects, I think,
13:11the hard life
13:11that the settlers had
13:13here in New Mexico.
13:15When the colonists,
13:16including the missionaries,
13:18were here,
13:19they were pretty much
13:19on their own, weren't they?
13:20That's true.
13:22And the isolation
13:23is what many of us feel
13:26has resulted
13:27in a rather unique cultural expression
13:30that we find in this area.
13:38The Franciscans encouraged images
13:41that were simple and direct,
13:43crudely carved,
13:44highly coloured,
13:45full of sacrifice and death.
13:49You needed the impact
13:51to drive home religious doctrine.
13:53It reaches an extreme
13:55in a type of statue
13:56made by penitential cults
13:58in New Mexico
13:58known as Doña Sebastiana,
14:01death riding in a cart.
14:08This skull-headed crone
14:11wielding her bow and arrow
14:12is Eros reversed.
14:14These death carts
14:16are among the most powerful
14:17and unnerving sculptures
14:19produced in North America.
14:35The Spanish settlers
14:36brought to the new world
14:37the culture of the old.
14:39But there was a more radical idea to come,
14:42Americans as a new people
14:44for whom God
14:45had marked out
14:45a special role
14:46in human history.
14:48This came with another group,
14:50English Puritans,
14:51who landed on the cold coast
14:52of Massachusetts
14:53in the 17th century.
15:09The arrival of the Puritans
15:11was a truly mythic event.
15:13Mythic because it was meant to be.
15:15In the famous phrase
15:16of their leader,
15:17John Winthrop,
15:18they would build a city on a hill
15:20whose example would shine back
15:22across the Atlantic
15:23and reform the corrupt old world.
15:27We must consider that
15:29we shall be as a city upon a hill.
15:34The eyes of all people are upon us.
15:39We shall be made a story
15:42and a byword through the world.
15:49Winthrop spoke those words
15:51in Mid-Atlantic
15:51on board the ship Arbella.
15:53He believed his flock
15:55had been chosen by God
15:56to begin a new phase
15:57of human history,
15:58a renewal of the story of Exodus.
16:03These men and women too
16:05were biblical fundamentalists.
16:07They imagined their leaders
16:08as Moses,
16:09as Abraham,
16:10as elected saints.
16:12They were the first
16:13to call themselves Americans
16:15and the society they created
16:17has proved absolutely basic
16:19to the way Americans
16:20imagine themselves today.
16:28New people
16:29and the beginnings
16:30of a new architecture.
16:31The four-square old ship
16:33meeting house in Hingham
16:34could hold the whole community,
16:36700 people.
16:40This is the oldest church
16:41in New England.
16:42It's also the last surviving
16:44Puritan meeting house.
16:45Its frame was raised
16:47by the people of Hingham
16:48in three days
16:49in the summer of 1681
16:50and it opened for worship
16:52six months later.
16:53It came to be known
16:54as the old ship meeting house.
16:57Why the name?
16:58Nobody seems to know
16:59except that people
17:01must have been reminded
17:02by the great structure
17:03of the roof
17:03with its massive timber beams
17:05of the inverted hull
17:06of a ship.
17:07A lark.
17:11There can't be many oaks
17:12left in Massachusetts today
17:14big enough to supply
17:15the timber
17:16for these huge
17:17king post trusses.
17:18This is very pure architecture
17:20as befits its purpose.
17:23How long were the ceremonies here?
17:25They'd be here
17:26for six hours on a Sunday
17:27in two sittings
17:29on very hard backs
17:31benches without backs.
17:34One can see
17:35in the mind's eye
17:37the women with small children
17:39here on their laps
17:41the older people
17:43in the front
17:44all of them
17:45centered on the word.
17:47That's what was happening here.
17:48They came before a pulpit
17:50that would often have
17:51an eye painted
17:52on the front of it
17:52which was God's
17:54omniscient eye
17:55watching them.
17:56And this would be
17:57the only decoration
17:58in the church?
17:58This would be very nearly it.
18:00They stripped away
18:01everything else
18:01the stained glass
18:02the stained glass words
18:04all of them gone.
18:06It's interesting to see
18:07the light in this building.
18:09I was struck
18:09when I was in
18:10Wells Cathedral
18:11in England
18:12where the Puritans
18:12had smashed
18:14the stained glass windows
18:16and white glass remained
18:17and there was a kind
18:18of intensity
18:19of that light
18:20which one sees here.
18:22I think they wanted
18:24to see things
18:24clearly and directly.
18:26They wanted
18:26no intermediaries.
18:28There was a kind
18:29of seriousness
18:30and urgency
18:30about all of this
18:31and it's made America
18:33what it is today.
18:35These Puritans
18:36delighted in radical
18:37bareness.
18:38They would not tolerate
18:40graven images
18:40of God or the saints.
18:42Some of them
18:42must have felt sorry
18:44that New England
18:44had no Catholic icons
18:46for them to smash.
18:47Yet the Meeting House
18:48does have its aesthetic.
18:50It exists to frame
18:51the spoken word
18:52to which the visual image
18:54must forever defer.
19:11simple gravestones
19:12were their only religious art
19:14and their only sculpture.
19:17Puritan society
19:18was fixated on death
19:20to a degree
19:20that modern Americans
19:21can hardly imagine.
19:23Today,
19:24we sweep death
19:25under the carpet.
19:26Then,
19:27it held the foreground
19:28of social life.
19:36At funerals,
19:37whole villages
19:38would get drunk
19:39and children
19:40were dragged
19:40snivelling
19:41to the edge
19:41of open graves
19:42to teach them
19:43that they too
19:44would die.
19:45The death's head
19:46on the stone
19:47reminded you
19:48that this world
19:49was only an anti-room
19:50to a real
19:51and eternal one,
19:52that its realities
19:53were insubstantial,
19:55its modest achievements
19:56all in vain.
20:11The Puritans
20:12were at least
20:12as superstitious
20:13as the Indians
20:14whose beliefs
20:15they scorned.
20:16In their world,
20:17nothing was accidental.
20:19Good was part
20:19of God's plan.
20:20Evil was the result
20:22of diabolic conspiracy.
20:23They lived in a world
20:25of omens and portents.
20:26They were obsessed
20:27by witchcraft.
20:29This hysteria
20:30started in 1692
20:32during the ministry
20:33of Parson Joseph Capon.
20:35His house still stands
20:37in the small village
20:38of Topsfield.
20:39He was one of the few
20:41to try and save
20:42those accused
20:42as agents of Satan
20:44in the famous
20:45Salem witchcraft trials.
20:52Parson Capon tried
20:53to remonstrate
20:54with the witch hunters
20:55at Salem
20:55but he failed
20:56and the women
20:57were all hanged.
20:59His house
21:00in Topsfield
21:00still stands
21:01and it gives you
21:02these low ceilings
21:04and the heavy beams
21:05a strong sense
21:07of the kind of world
21:08that these people
21:09were constructing
21:09for themselves.
21:11Intimate
21:11and close-knit
21:12and designed
21:14to keep
21:14the family in
21:15and the wilderness out.
21:18Built in 1683
21:20the Parson Capon house
21:22is probably the best
21:23surviving example
21:24of Jacobean architecture
21:25in America.
21:27Its brick chimney
21:28was a sign
21:29of affluence
21:29for the times.
21:30The door
21:31is double thickness
21:32clinched with nails
21:33against Indian attack
21:35and this hanging
21:37finial
21:37was one of the few
21:38ornamental touches.
21:40The Puritans
21:41didn't invent
21:42a severe domestic style
21:43to reflect a severe ideology.
21:45Many 17th century
21:47English houses
21:47looked like this.
21:50But in other parts
21:51of their culture
21:52we do start to see
21:53the faint stirring
21:54of something
21:55that can be called
21:56American.
21:58Farmer Henry Treat
21:59made this chest
22:00in 1673
22:01to commemorate
22:03his wedding anniversary.
22:05So this is really
22:06the sort of
22:07earliest form
22:09of American furniture
22:10a six board chest.
22:12The six board chest
22:13is really the
22:14dumbest piece
22:15of furniture
22:15known to man.
22:16It's so simple to make
22:17and yet this shows
22:18an early emphasis
22:19a kind of yearning
22:20to ornament
22:21and to embellish
22:22even amongst people
22:23whose situation
22:24in life
22:25was very tenuous
22:26and insecure.
22:27This was a frontier community
22:29on the edge
22:29of the wilderness.
22:30It's one of the earliest
22:31pieces of American furniture
22:32and the earliest piece
22:34of Connecticut furniture
22:35with its date
22:36carved right on the front.
22:37From the days
22:38when the west
22:38was in the east?
22:39When the west
22:39was in the east, right.
22:41Well when you first see it
22:41it looks like
22:42it's just about
22:42one notch up
22:43the evolutionary scale
22:45from a packing case
22:46but what is it?
22:47It's pretty much
22:47I mean it's simple.
22:48You know this is no
22:50backwoods Michelangelo
22:51here.
22:51It's pretty dumb
22:52carving essentially
22:53but it works
22:54and it creates
22:55quite an elaborate effect
22:56to an otherwise
22:57remarkably simple
22:58piece of furniture.
23:00There seems to have been
23:02this kind of love-hate
23:04relationship with nature.
23:05One imagines
23:05the Puritans
23:06as sort of
23:0817th century
23:08Daniel Boone's
23:09at home in the wilderness.
23:12A truer picture
23:13is that they probably
23:14hated the wilderness.
23:15It was an oppressive
23:16presence on all sides
23:17of them
23:18and when they were
23:18in their domestic
23:19environments
23:20in their homes
23:20they wanted evidence
23:22of control
23:22of order
23:24and of artifice
23:25so that they took wood
23:26and rendered it
23:27colourful,
23:28carved,
23:29decorative
23:29and even
23:30mathematically structured.
23:43The only kind
23:44of painting
23:45the Puritans
23:45encouraged
23:46was portraiture.
23:47How did they
23:48see themselves?
23:49This is the only
23:51known Puritan
23:52self-portrait.
23:53It's a Boston
23:54mariner in the
23:541680s,
23:55Captain Thomas Smith.
23:57The lace at his throat
23:59tells you he is well off.
24:00The skull
24:01that he accepts
24:02is impending death.
24:03Under the skull
24:05the poem reads
24:06Why, why
24:07should I the world
24:08be minding
24:09therein a world
24:10of evils finding
24:11then farewell world?
24:14Such portraits
24:15were made as a record
24:16to commemorate
24:17a person's social place
24:19to honour his memory
24:20after death
24:21and to remind you
24:22of the transience
24:23of life.
24:25Some Puritan effigies
24:27to put it mildly
24:28lack the zing
24:29and suppleness
24:30of European portraiture.
24:31They're awkward
24:32shades of virtue
24:33or else
24:34they're an index
24:35to wealth.
24:37These are the Freaks
24:39a pair of New England
24:40yuppies
24:41in the 1670s.
24:43Mrs Thomas Freak
24:44holds her baby
24:45Mary.
24:46The nameless painter
24:47has done them
24:48in an old-fashioned
24:49Elizabethan style
24:50flat and formal
24:52but with every detail
24:53of lace and jewellery
24:54carefully listed.
24:56She's a trophy wife
24:57and her minxy little face
24:58radiates delight
24:59in her status.
25:02Her husband
25:03John Freak
25:04a rich young
25:05Boston merchant
25:06is just as grandly
25:08kitted out
25:08with his lace and gloves.
25:10Money was a sign
25:11of God's approval
25:12so why not
25:13show it off?
25:14Thus
25:15the Puritans
25:16left the first portraits
25:17of individual Americans.
25:24For we must consider
25:27we shall be as
25:29the city upon a hill.
25:32It is a mistake
25:33to think of the Puritans
25:34as conservatives.
25:36The truth is very
25:37nearly the opposite.
25:38They invented the idea
25:40of American newness
25:41imagined as the sign
25:43of a special history.
25:44Newness underwrote
25:46the American Revolution
25:47and it was the root
25:48of the long-lasting belief
25:49that Americans
25:50are a special case.
25:54But they believed
25:55in freedom for themselves
25:56not for others.
25:58They were not
25:58very tolerant
25:59or democratic.
26:00The legacy
26:01of those admirable traits
26:03came more
26:04from other settlers
26:05who arrived
26:06in what is now
26:07Pennsylvania.
26:08Pennsylvania.
26:20This is a meeting
26:22of Quakers.
26:23No sermon.
26:24No singing.
26:25They wait patiently
26:27for the inner spirit
26:28to reveal itself.
26:32I feel much blessed
26:35to be in this room
26:37with seekers.
26:41We have peace.
26:45We have beautiful
26:46surroundings.
26:47Comfort.
26:51The Friends
26:52settled in Pennsylvania
26:53in 1682.
26:55They hoped to create
26:56a haven from religious
26:57persecution
26:58not just for themselves
27:00but for all Protestants.
27:04Quakers distrusted
27:06the arts
27:06but their ideal
27:07of a pluralist society
27:09shows in the works
27:10of one of their
27:10few painters
27:11Edward Hicks.
27:13In his numerous
27:14versions of
27:14The Peaceable Kingdom
27:15Hicks showed
27:17the biblical prophecy
27:18that the lamb
27:19and the leopard
27:19will lie down
27:20with the kid
27:21and a little child
27:22shall lead them.
27:23In the background
27:24the colony's founder
27:26William Penn
27:26is signing a treaty
27:28with the Delaware Indians.
27:30Tolerance really
27:31mattered to the Quakers
27:32as it didn't
27:33to the Puritans.
27:44William Penn
27:45made Pennsylvania
27:46a haven
27:47for any
27:47and every
27:48Christian sect
27:49that wanted
27:49to create
27:50a new life
27:51in America.
28:01They came from
28:02Switzerland,
28:03Germany and France
28:04as well as England.
28:05They were Mennonites,
28:06Hutterites,
28:07Moravians and Amish.
28:12The Amish especially
28:13have stuck to their
28:14traditions rejecting
28:16worldliness and modernity.
28:18Indeed,
28:18they shun the lens
28:19of the camera.
28:34The less messianic migrants,
28:36known to their
28:36conservative neighbours
28:37as the gay Dutch,
28:39brought with them
28:40the bright,
28:41heraldic designs
28:42of German folk art.
28:54There was no desire
28:55to express anything
28:56through the art.
28:57It was simply
28:58to decorate something
28:59that they were going
28:59to use.
29:01Pennsylvania German folk art
29:02has to be seen
29:02as a copycat art.
29:04They imitated
29:05a great deal.
29:06They copied designs
29:07from anything they saw.
29:09And you know,
29:10one of the designs
29:10that came into
29:11Pennsylvania German folk art
29:12is the unicorn.
29:13And a lot of ink
29:15has been wasted
29:15on the subject
29:16of its symbolic meaning.
29:18In fact,
29:19if you look at it
29:20very carefully,
29:20it's simply a unicorn
29:21taken off of British
29:22design elements,
29:24coats of arms.
29:25It's from the lion
29:26on the unicorn.
29:27Precisely!
29:29You can even find
29:30the lion as well.
29:31I know a piece of Frachter
29:31that has two unicorns
29:33facing each other
29:33and down underneath
29:34it two lions
29:35facing each other.
29:36They disassembled
29:37the original
29:37and reassembled it
29:38to match the Pennsylvania
29:39German fetish
29:40for symmetry.
29:41Like Norman,
29:42he likes to quilt.
29:44Sometimes it's a symbol
29:46isn't big enough.
29:47Of all the folk arts,
29:48one flourished
29:49especially among
29:50the German migrants
29:51and was the work
29:52of women.
29:53It was the quilt.
29:56A lot of these ideas
29:58came from Germany.
30:00My parents died
30:04when I was very small,
30:05but I lived with
30:05my uncle and aunt
30:06and the aunt
30:07was a great quilter.
30:08she did a lot
30:10of quilting
30:10and so of course
30:11I had to learn
30:12how to quilt
30:13and I do enjoy it.
30:15The quilts that have
30:16attracted the most
30:17attention
30:18were made by the wives
30:19and daughters
30:20of the Amish.
30:39They're grandly abstract.
30:41You can't look at these
30:43Lancaster quilts
30:43and think
30:44how cute.
30:45You may think
30:46how modern,
30:47but no,
30:47to the Amish
30:49newness
30:49was
30:50and is
30:50anathema.
30:52Nevertheless,
30:53the work of these
30:54Amish women
30:54was as much
30:55a part of the story
30:56of high aesthetic
30:57effort in America
30:58as any painting
30:59or sculpture.
31:00They refute the idea
31:02that folk art
31:03is just innocent
31:04social bird song.
31:19Today,
31:22the popularity
31:23and price
31:24of these quilts
31:25and of Pennsylvania
31:26German folk art
31:27in general
31:28just grows
31:29and grows.
31:30It reminds
31:30modern Americans
31:31of their roots,
31:32real or imaginary,
31:34in a simpler
31:35pre-industrial time.
31:3646 and 50,
31:3746, 50,
31:38now 4700 dollars,
31:40394, 195.
31:41Americans couldn't
31:42bear to live
31:43in such a world,
31:44but they like
31:45to be reminded
31:45of it.
31:46The great example
31:47of this
31:47is in the work
31:48of the Shakers.
31:50Everyone wants
31:51Shaker objects,
31:52but very few
31:53want to lead
31:54the Shaker life.
31:56And the number
31:57is 182.
31:59Right there.
32:00Oh, brethren,
32:01if you have me,
32:02oh, brethren,
32:03if you have me,
32:04you're brethren,
32:05ain't you happy
32:06followers of the land.
32:08Sing on,
32:09dance on,
32:10followers of Emmanuel.
32:12Sing on,
32:13dance on,
32:14you followers of the land.
32:15By the mid-19th century,
32:17there were more than
32:17100,000 Shakers,
32:19but today,
32:20there are just eight.
32:22...powers of the land.
32:23Sing on,
32:24dance on,
32:25this is the last
32:26Shaker community.
32:28It is at
32:29Sabbath Day Lake
32:29in Maine.
32:30I'm glad I am
32:32a Shaker,
32:33I'm glad I am
32:34a Shaker,
32:35I'm glad I am
32:36a Shaker,
32:37you followers of the land.
32:39Sing on,
32:40dance on,
32:41followers of Emmanuel.
32:43Sing on,
32:44dance on,
32:44you followers of the land.
32:45Founded by
32:46Mother Anne Lee
32:47when she came
32:48across the Atlantic
32:49in 1774,
32:50they were called
32:51Shakers
32:52because of their
32:53quivering dancers
32:54in which the spirit
32:55seized them.
33:03They believed
33:04in complete
33:05sexual equality
33:06and hoped to
33:07restore the
33:07primitive Christian
33:08church on American
33:09soil with its
33:11stress on community,
33:12celibacy,
33:13and the indwelling
33:14spirit of Christ.
33:15Unlike the Amish,
33:17the Shakers
33:17did believe in
33:18innovation.
33:19They invented
33:20the washing machine,
33:21the flat broom,
33:22and stay-pressed
33:23clothes,
33:23among other things,
33:24because labour-saving
33:25devices left you
33:27more time to pray.
33:28They embraced
33:29the new,
33:29they equated it
33:31with piety
33:31and they sought
33:32it in design.
33:37I think that
33:38in order to explain
33:39why,
33:40and I say this
33:41with modesty,
33:42why the Shakers
33:43have made
33:44such beautiful,
33:44beautiful things
33:45is due to the
33:48mottos that we
33:49have been given
33:49to live by.
33:50The first, of course,
33:52is hands to work
33:53and hearts to God.
33:54And this is literally
33:55lived out in
33:56Shaker communities.
33:57And the other is
33:58do all of your work
33:59as though you
33:59were going to live
34:00a thousand years
34:01and yet as though
34:01you were going
34:02to die tomorrow.
34:03And when I go
34:04through the museum,
34:05which I still do
34:06occasionally,
34:06and I see these
34:07beautiful, beautiful
34:08things that are there,
34:09I think,
34:11when people made
34:12these things,
34:12they didn't make
34:13them,
34:13thinking they're going
34:14to be in a museum.
34:15They didn't make
34:16them and put them
34:16in a museum.
34:17They made them so well
34:18and they made them
34:19well because they
34:20integrated their
34:20religion into it.
34:22I'm convinced
34:23that religion
34:23and work
34:24has gone
34:25and hopefully
34:26continues to go
34:27hand in hand
34:28with Shaker arts,
34:29crafts.
34:30I'm glad I am a Shaker,
34:32I'm glad I am a Shaker,
34:34I'm glad I am a Shaker.
34:36You follow the...
34:37People talk about
34:38a Shaker's style,
34:39but really the,
34:40I guess,
34:40the fundamental question
34:41is use, isn't it?
34:42It's what the thing
34:43is used for
34:44that dictates
34:44how it's going to look.
34:45Exactly.
34:46Form, indeed,
34:47does follow function
34:48for a Shaker.
34:50So we have many,
34:51many things here
34:52that have really
34:52stood the test of time
34:54for several reasons.
34:55One, A,
34:56they were made well
34:56and second of all,
34:57they've always been
34:58used well.
34:59And although the pieces
35:00in our museum,
35:01like this Taylor's Bunk...
35:02Taylor's Bunk?
35:03Bunk.
35:04What, this is a
35:05Taylor slept on it?
35:06Well, no, actually.
35:07It's just good old
35:08Maine country terms.
35:09It's spelled B-E-N-C-H
35:11but it's pronounced Bunk.
35:13And this is a piece
35:15that is designed
35:15for tailoring on,
35:17cutting out
35:17all of your clothing
35:18and cloth.
35:19And there's no way
35:19of improving
35:20on the design.
35:20No.
35:21It's as simple as can be.
35:22Nice, large,
35:23cutting surface
35:24and ample storage
35:25underneath.
35:27Schools like the Bauhaus
35:28and then modern Danish
35:30that pick up on it too
35:31also saw that likeness,
35:33the elegant design,
35:36really,
35:36that was inherent.
35:37Just that finding
35:38down of proportions.
35:38Exactly.
35:39I mean, you have
35:39the most perfect example
35:41of that is a chair
35:42that came from
35:42the Enfield,
35:43New Hampshire community.
35:44Literally so light
35:45that it can be picked up
35:46with one finger.
35:49What does that weigh?
35:51Probably about five pounds.
35:52Five pounds.
35:54And it's set back,
35:55again,
35:55it's totally refined,
35:56flame finials.
35:57These were really
35:58the finest chairs
35:58that were ever produced
35:59in any of the shaker communities.
36:01Something that adds
36:02to that overall effect too
36:03was that they came the seats.
36:05So you had even more air
36:06playing through it.
36:07Even more transparency.
36:08Exactly.
36:09And a lot stronger
36:09than it looks.
36:10Very much so.
36:11Someone over 200 pounds
36:13would not have a problem
36:14sitting in this chair
36:14or harming it.
36:15Well, I'm not going
36:16to try it, but...
36:17Take my word.
36:18Also something else,
36:19when we talked
36:20about inventions,
36:21this was a very practical
36:22shaker invention
36:23and you talk about
36:24form and function.
36:25People always are going
36:26to sit back
36:27in their chairs
36:27no matter how you try
36:28not to.
36:29So what are these?
36:30So these are called
36:30tilters,
36:32ball and sockets.
36:33And it allows you
36:34to indeed tilt.
36:36And as you tilt,
36:37you see the chair
36:38does not actually move.
36:39Oh, yes.
36:39So you're not going
36:40to destroy the chair,
36:41the floor.
36:41to skid forward, yeah.
36:42And probably you also
36:44won't go down with it.
36:47We will sustain
36:49the structure
36:51God's great
36:52and glorious plan
36:55Which he had mercy
36:57These people
36:58have sustained
36:58the structure,
36:59kept intact
37:00their utopian vision
37:01of religious community.
37:02But the broad currents
37:04of American history
37:05rose around
37:06such ideas
37:07isolating them.
37:09Their new Jerusalem
37:10of no mine or thine,
37:12no masters or servants
37:13was the exact opposite
37:14of what by then
37:16had been created
37:16down south
37:17in Virginia.
37:21Oh, yes.
37:38Here in Virginia,
37:40the Middleburg hunt
37:41keeps alive
37:41quite different
37:42English traditions.
37:45This was the outcome
37:46of another migration.
37:48The world
37:49of transplanted
37:50squirearchy,
37:51the Perses,
37:52Throgmortons,
37:52Wyatts and Spencers,
37:54mostly second sons
37:55or dispossessed gentry,
37:56the royalist cavaliers
37:58who had lost out
37:59to the Puritans
37:59in England's
38:00civil war.
38:04They wanted to recreate
38:06aristocratic privilege
38:07in America.
38:08They brought
38:09indentured servants
38:10and later
38:11African slaves.
38:13The top of the pyramid
38:14had to import
38:16its base.
38:22This is Mount Airy,
38:24seat of the Talow family.
38:26Mrs. Talow's forebears
38:28came here
38:28in the 1680s.
38:38But you never really
38:39lost your family
38:40never really lost
38:41its feelings
38:41of contact
38:42with England,
38:43did it?
38:43No, indeed.
38:44We're all Anglophiles.
38:46Right now.
38:47What does the
38:47sort of idea
38:49of England,
38:50the mental picture
38:50of England,
38:51what does it mean
38:52to you?
38:52It means a great deal
38:54to me because
38:54my grandmother
38:55taught me more
38:56about England
38:56than she did
38:57about America.
38:58I could recite
38:59the Kings of England
39:00and never did
39:00learn the President
39:01of the United States.
39:02Oh, for shame.
39:03No.
39:04No.
39:05I loved England.
39:07But did you ever
39:08live there?
39:08No.
39:09I've only been there
39:10twice.
39:10Yeah.
39:18early Virginia
39:19was a fantasy,
39:20so Walter Raleigh
39:21promoted it
39:22as a Garden of Eden
39:23which aristocrats
39:24could colonise
39:25without having
39:26to lift a finger.
39:27Floundering
39:28through the salt marshes
39:29in embroidered
39:30doublets
39:30and silken hose,
39:31both his expeditions
39:33ended in disaster.
39:41Finally,
39:41in 1607,
39:43a kind of settlement
39:44did take hold
39:45in Jamestown.
39:46It was an anarchic
39:48dump where men
39:48died of starvation,
39:50swab fever
39:51and dysentery.
39:54This sickly colony
39:56was saved
39:56by a harsh doctor,
39:58Governor William
39:58Berkeley.
40:00He arrived
40:01in 1642
40:02and set about
40:03re-establishing
40:04the aristocratic
40:05order of power
40:06and patronage.
40:07He recruited
40:08royalist refugees
40:09desperate to leave
40:10Puritan England.
40:24These distressed
40:25cavaliers,
40:26as they were called,
40:27turned into the
40:28colonial oligarchy
40:29of Virginia.
40:30They were its
40:30first families.
40:32They were enticed
40:33here with free land
40:34and spectacular
40:35promises of privilege.
40:37They planted tobacco,
40:39or the sotweed,
40:39as they called it.
40:41They got rich.
40:42One of the richest
40:43of all these clans
40:44was the carters,
40:45who ended up
40:45owning scores
40:46of plantations,
40:47and this was one
40:48of them.
40:49It's called Shirley.
40:57Originally,
40:58this front drive
40:58used to be the back
40:59entrance,
41:00and visitors came
41:01to Shirley
41:01up the James River.
41:05When you first see it,
41:06you think of the homes
41:07of the English Georgian
41:08gentry.
41:09It started in 1723,
41:11a brick box
41:12with English
41:13palladian porticos
41:14and pediments
41:15topped off
41:16with a mansard roof
41:17built by French
41:19Huguenot carpenters.
41:21An odd hybrid
41:23which stares across
41:24the river
41:24with great assurance.
41:35Places like this
41:36weren't big
41:37by English standards,
41:38but in Virginia
41:39they were very grand
41:40indeed.
41:41The flying staircase
41:42framed a hall
41:43where formal dancers
41:45were held.
41:49Virginians entertained
41:50lavishly,
41:50and one royal governor
41:52congratulated himself
41:53that there were
41:54no bad dancers
41:55in his administration.
42:01After the ball,
42:02they would retire
42:03to this parlour
42:04to gamble and gossip
42:05and perhaps
42:06to congratulate
42:07their late governor
42:08Berkeley
42:08for banning free schools
42:10and printing presses.
42:12The Puritans
42:13had passionately believed
42:14in general education.
42:16The southern cavaliers
42:17were against it.
42:18It might disturb
42:19the hierarchy of class
42:21at whose peak
42:22stood men like
42:23the patriarch of Shirley,
42:24Robert Carter,
42:25known as King Carter.
42:27He was the richest man
42:29in the colony.
42:30He owned a third
42:31of a million acres
42:32and set up
42:33his very own church,
42:34Christ Church.
42:39This is one of the most
42:40elegant classical buildings
42:41of the early 18th century
42:43in America,
42:44but nobody knows
42:45its architect's name.
42:47It's detail is perfect
42:48right up to that
42:49massive,
42:50slightly flared hip roof
42:52cushioned on its cornice.
43:00Inside,
43:01it's just as good.
43:02The plan is a stubby cross
43:04with the altar at one end
43:05and the light
43:06washing over those
43:07white barrel-vaulted ceilings
43:09gives it an almost
43:09Venetian effect
43:10whose calm is emphasised
43:12by the thin, dark cornice line.
43:19The sermons from this pulpit,
43:21unlike Puritan ones,
43:23were mercifully short.
43:26This is where the Carters
43:27came to worship.
43:29The sides of its pews
43:32are the highest
43:33of any church in America
43:34and this served
43:34a double purpose.
43:36First,
43:36it enabled the Carters
43:37to concentrate
43:38without distraction
43:39upon the word of the Lord
43:40coming from the pulpit up there,
43:42but secondly,
43:43it stopped the lower orders
43:44from peering in on them.
43:47This society of deference
43:49and hierarchy
43:50was scoffed at
43:51back home by the English.
43:53They saw through
43:54this wannabe aristocracy
43:55and its pretensions
43:57and indeed,
43:58the way Virginians
43:59pictured themselves
44:00was largely a fantasy.
44:07In a painting
44:08by Justus Engelhardt Kuhn,
44:10one of the sons
44:11of this oligarchy,
44:12Henry Darnell III,
44:14is put in an idealised
44:15garden landscape,
44:17probably copied
44:17from some European print.
44:19All of it is fiction.
44:21No American property
44:23ever looked like this.
44:24The image records
44:26the defiant,
44:27illusory desire
44:28of this colonial gentry
44:29to imagine themselves
44:31as a full extension
44:32of English culture.
44:34A young slave gazes
44:36at Darnell
44:36with submissive adoration
44:38like a favourite dog.
44:40This genteel surface
44:42of hierarchy
44:43was stretched over
44:44a fabric of brutality
44:45supported by slave labour.
44:50At Mount Airy,
44:52Mrs. Talow's ancestor,
44:53John Talow,
44:54owned 380 slaves,
44:57the largest gang
44:57in the colony.
44:58In the dining room,
44:59there hangs a portrait
45:00of the master
45:01by John Wollaston.
45:04I don't think
45:04John Talow
45:05up there sat on a veranda
45:06and drank too many juleps.
45:08Yeah,
45:08he looks pretty tough,
45:09actually.
45:10He looks like a very...
45:11He's a very busy person.
45:12He looks like
45:13a very self-possessed man.
45:15He's all dressed up now,
45:16but I don't think
45:17he was too dressed up
45:17all the time
45:18when he was riding
45:19over his places.
45:20I would imagine not.
45:21He had to tell people
45:22what to do
45:23and how to do it.
45:23Somebody had to
45:24have some brains.
45:26And so,
45:27some Virginians
45:28could pursue their ideas
45:29of freedom
45:30in this newfound land.
45:32Realising freedom,
45:34however you defined it,
45:35was the basic desire
45:36of all these early colonies.
45:38And after religion,
45:40the second freedom
45:41was the liberty
45:42to create wealth.
45:43And culture
45:44followed money,
45:45as it always does.
45:55As the colonies grew,
45:57they grew rich
45:57through technology,
45:59through trade.
46:00In the 18th century,
46:02Massachusetts
46:02and Pennsylvania
46:03swelled
46:04in foodstuffs,
46:05metals,
46:06tea from China,
46:07slaves from Africa,
46:09rum from the Caribbean.
46:11Wealth and worldliness.
46:14But most of the material culture
46:16remained steadfastly English
46:18in appearance.
46:19While the colonies
46:20started to pull away
46:22from England,
46:23cultural independence
46:24didn't come in a rush.
46:26It was gradual,
46:28and signs of it
46:29appear by the 1760s
46:31like small portents.
46:49The first American art
46:51that began to lift
46:52into real originality
46:53was furniture,
46:54like this great bureau table
46:56in mahogany
46:57made by John Townsend
46:59in Newport
46:59around 1765.
47:02It's meant as an image
47:03of material splendor,
47:04but it's completely
47:05unlike anything
47:06in the existing
47:06English pattern books.
47:07It doesn't look
47:08or feel like English furniture.
47:10The big difference
47:11is in what's called
47:13the block front,
47:13which is basically
47:14the stack of drawers
47:16sawn from great solid
47:18blanks of mahogany
47:19bulging out at you.
47:21This is why it commands space
47:23with the kind of authority
47:24that it does.
47:25It's almost architectural,
47:26and the block front style
47:28as it was called
47:29celebrates really
47:31the immense abundance
47:33of the American forests,
47:34the forests of the New World.
47:36This is the delayed Baroque
47:38that Puritanism suppressed,
47:40rich as architecture,
47:42arriving in the middle 18th century,
47:44but better late than never.
47:47Painting was slower to evolve,
47:49but in the Bermuda Group,
47:51a portrait of Bishop George Barclay
47:53and his family,
47:54John Smybert showed
47:55how American art
47:56might begin to detach itself
47:58from its stiff
47:59early colonial conventions.
48:01It manages to set figures
48:03in a natural way in space,
48:05unifying them
48:06with light and air.
48:09On the left,
48:10a friend takes down
48:11the bishop's words of wisdom,
48:13for Barclay was a strong believer
48:15in American destiny
48:16and had written,
48:18There shall be sung
48:19another golden age,
48:20the rise of empire
48:21and the arts,
48:23not such as Europe
48:24breeds in her decay,
48:26such as she bred
48:27when fresh and young.
48:41By the end of the 1760s
48:43in the east of America,
48:44the tide of religious zeal
48:46had end,
48:47but the desire for liberty
48:48which had brought so many
48:50diverse colonists
48:51to these shores
48:52remained.
48:53It was so strong
48:54that it was a wonder
48:55to Europeans,
48:56one of whom,
48:57a visiting Frenchman
48:58named St. John de Cravecoeur,
49:00posed a famous question.
49:02Who then,
49:03he asked,
49:04is this American,
49:05this new man?
49:06No,
49:07no.
49:08I was rests with you,
49:10I,
49:16I,
49:16I,
49:17I,
49:17I,
49:20I,
49:34I,
49:36I,
49:45Packing a punch on BBC Four,
49:47America season continues with boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
49:51A ringside seat tomorrow night from 10.
49:54But next tonight, another story of art.
49:57The lost surrealist, Leonora Carrington.
50:20The lost surrealist, Leonora Carrington.
50:20The lost surrealist, Leonora Carrington.
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