[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:04.36,0:00:08.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Looking at a very large panel painting by Piero della Francesca
Dialogue: 0,0:00:08.70,0:00:10.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the Baptism of Christ
Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.98,0:00:13.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it is a typical fabric that we see a lot
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.47,0:00:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but not a typical treatment.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:15.00,0:00:19.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Piero is one of those Renaissance artists that I think the modern era has loved
Dialogue: 0,0:00:19.58,0:00:22.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's partly because of the...of geometry,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:22.96,0:00:25.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and a kind of abstraction of space and form.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:25.38,0:00:28.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He really stands out as having a really unique style
Dialogue: 0,0:00:28.81,0:00:30.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the early Renaissance.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:30.26,0:00:34.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's defined by a kind of stillness of the figures,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:34.21,0:00:36.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a kind of quiteness.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:36.04,0:00:39.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It has all of the characteristics of an ideal moment:
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.32,0:00:41.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,this is a moment, literally, the moment
Dialogue: 0,0:00:41.98,0:00:43.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when John allows the water
Dialogue: 0,0:00:43.91,0:00:46.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to pour from that bowl onto Christ's head
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.43,0:00:51.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and would be that moment when the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, appears.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:51.23,0:00:57.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,John is so ever so gently and tentatively pouring that water over Christ
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.45,0:01:02.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because Chirst asked John to baptize him and John had first refused
Dialogue: 0,0:01:02.76,0:01:07.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and Christ insisted that John, no you should baptize me.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:07.19,0:01:11.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The angels on the left look equally concerned and there is a kind of tentativeness
Dialogue: 0,0:01:11.06,0:01:13.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,look at the focus in John's eyes.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:13.48,0:01:17.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This tentativeness is expressed in his left hand.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:17.16,0:01:19.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, oh, absolutely, and you consider then
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.09,0:01:21.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the hands of the angels as well.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:21.11,0:01:22.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There is a kind of stillness
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.78,0:01:26.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and sense of linearity to the figures.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:26.17,0:01:30.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Christ occupies the exact centre of the composition,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:30.09,0:01:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,directly under the dove
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.00,0:01:35.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,he stands in a lovely "contrapposto", with his hands in prayer.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:35.57,0:01:39.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There is a really strict geometry of the verticality, that you've already mentioned,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.49,0:01:45.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but normally this would be symmetry of correspondence in the centre of the canvas by john
Dialogue: 0,0:01:45.73,0:01:50.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being quite... fo the angels very... the tree... and actually all the trees.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:50.82,0:01:53.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And then there is a series of perfect horizontals:
Dialogue: 0,0:01:53.12,0:01:58.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,look at the way that John's belt continues the movement of the man who is taking off his shirt to the right,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:58.49,0:02:02.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,moves across Christ's waist and picks off the belts of the middle angel.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:02.75,0:02:05.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, you have a kind of perfect horizontal that moves across,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:05.65,0:02:11.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that's echoed by the horizontality of the dove, whose line is continued by the clouds;
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.94,0:02:16.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then, there is a series of circles; the painting itself has an arch
Dialogue: 0,0:02:16.39,0:02:19.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but that arch that ...is picked up and continued
Dialogue: 0,0:02:19.67,0:02:25.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by the arch of top of the cloth that covers Christ's waist
Dialogue: 0,0:02:25.12,0:02:27.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then by John's hand and arm,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:27.98,0:02:34.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and even by this sort of line that's created as the man pulls his shirt over his head.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:34.04,0:02:37.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, there you've got really this sort of continued negative arch
Dialogue: 0,0:02:37.29,0:02:39.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or the bottom of the arch of the circle.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:39.35,0:02:42.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And this love of geometry,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:42.57,0:02:45.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we know that perspective was something that Piero also
Dialogue: 0,0:02:45.57,0:02:48.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was really interested in and wrote a treatise about;
Dialogue: 0,0:02:48.45,0:02:53.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,he is interested in the mathematical foundations of beauty and harmony
Dialogue: 0,0:02:53.40,0:02:56.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as nearly we really see very broadly in the Early Renaissance.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:56.78,0:03:00.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think there is an additional kind of peculiarity,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:00.25,0:03:01.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which has to do with the placement:
Dialogue: 0,0:03:01.66,0:03:04.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,clearly this is not the Middle East.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.24,0:03:05.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The hill town that we see
Dialogue: 0,0:03:05.35,0:03:10.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,just below Christ's elbow is clearly of Tuscany and...
Dialogue: 0,0:03:10.42,0:03:13.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,maybe ... where Piero was from, just Borgo Sansepolcro.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:13.87,0:03:16.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's right, but we have a reference of the river Jordan,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:16.04,0:03:21.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,coming back of Christ which is.. peculiar, almost just
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.72,0:03:25.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,minimized and attracted into a little stream, that almost ... to stop
Dialogue: 0,0:03:25.42,0:03:29.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as if was a little pathway actually. ... going back and reflect.. pathway
Dialogue: 0,0:03:29.42,0:03:32.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It is a kind of intentionality here,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:32.52,0:03:37.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and a kind of formality that I think it's very appealing in the XXI century.