NARRATOR: FROM THE MOMENT THEY MEET, CIVILIZATIONS BEGIN TO INFLUENCE ONE ANOTHER'S ART.

DURING THE 15th CENTURY, EUROPEAN SAILORS EMBARKED ON A NEW AGE OF EXPLORATION.

CULTURES THAT PREVIOUSLY WERE VAST OCEANS APART NOW MET FOR THE FIRST TIME...

BUT BEFORE THIS BECAME A STORY OF CONQUEST, PLUNDER, AND EMPIRE, THERE WAS A FORGOTTEN ERA OF DISCOVERY... AND FOR MANY, THIS WAS A GOLDEN AGE WHEN CURIOSITY, MUTUAL RESPECT, AND THE EXCHANGE OF GOODS AND IDEAS WERE RECORDED IN THE ART OF COUNTLESS HUMAN ENCOUNTERS.

THESE ARE THE BENIN BRONZES.

LOOTED FROM AFRICA IN THE 19th CENTURY, THEY ARE NOW RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE CONTINENT'S GREATEST ARTISTIC MASTERPIECES.

MADE AS COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUES, THEY WERE CREATED TO DECORATE THE ROYAL PALACES OF THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF BENIN.

THEY ALSO TELL THE STORIES OF BENIN'S FIRST ENCOUNTERS WITH OTHER CIVILIZATIONS.

[SINGING IN NATIVE LANGUAGE] TODAY, BENIN CITY IS NOW PART OF NIGERIA, A LAND RULED FOR 1,000 YEARS BY TRIBAL KINGS CALLED THE OBA.

BENIN IS STILL RULED BY AN OBA, AND MANY OF THEIR ROYAL BRONZES HAVE BEEN PRESERVED.

EWUARE II IS THE 39th RULER IN A LINE THAT STRETCHES BACK TO THE 12th CENTURY.

IT WAS UNDER THE OBA'S PATRONAGE THAT BRONZE CASTERS CREATED THEIR WORKS OF ART, PASSING DOWN THEIR SKILLS FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION RIGHT UP TO THE PRESENT-DAY MASTERS.

BENIN'S BRONZE CASTERS USE TECHNIQUES THEY HAD INHERITED FROM OTHER WEST AFRICAN PEOPLES THAT DATED BACK TO THE 10th CENTURY.

THESE HEADS, CREATED BY THE EFÉ PEOPLE, DEPICT NOW FORGOTTEN KINGS AND QUEENS.

DAVID OLUSOGA: THE BRONZE CASTERS OF BENIN WERE NOT JUST GREAT ARTISTS.

THEY WERE ALSO, IN A SENSE, HISTORIANS BECAUSE IT WAS THEIR ART, THEIR STATUES AND THEIR PLAQUES, THAT RECORDED THE GREAT EVENTS IN BENIN'S CIVILIZATION, WHICH INCLUDED IN THE 15th CENTURY THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST EUROPEANS.

WE NEED TO REMEMBER THAT IN MANY SETTINGS EUROPE WAS A BIT PLAYER.

THEY DIDN'T HAVE A TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE ALWAYS, THEY SUFFERED IN THE CLIMATE, THEY WERE TINY GROUPS OF PEOPLE GOING TO VAST REALMS.

NARRATOR: FOR CENTURIES, BENIN'S BRONZE CASTERS HAD ACQUIRED THEIR RAW MATERIALS FROM MUSLIM MERCHANTS COMING ACROSS THE SAHARA...

BUT THE ARRIVAL OF PORTUGUESE TRADERS CREATED A BOOM IN BRONZE MAKING THAT WOULD ENRICH BOTH SOCIETIES.

AT FIRST, THE PORTUGUESE SOUGHT COMMERCE, NOT CONQUEST.

THEIR MERCHANTS, MISSIONARIES, AND MERCENARIES, LIKE THIS ONE, CAME TO BENIN, AND THE OBA SENT HIS REPRESENTATIVES TO LISBON.

ON THE OBA'S PALACE WALLS, BRASS PANELS SHOWED PORTUGUESE FACES WITH THEIR CARICATURE LONG NOSES AND BEARDS...

BUT PERHAPS ONE OF THE GREATEST AND MOST MYSTERIOUS OF BENIN TREASURES IS THIS.

EXQUISITELY CARVED FROM IVORY, THIS ELEGANT NATURALISTIC FACE PROJECTS AUTHORITY, AS BEFITS THE 16th CENTURY QUEEN MOTHER IT IS BELIEVED TO REPRESENT.

CALLED IDIA, ALMOST HIDDEN IN HER CROWN IS AN IMPORTANT CLUE TO HOW THE BENIN REGARDED THEIR NEW TRADING PARTNERS.

A ROW OF TINY BEARDED FACES.

ARE THEY THE BEARDED WATER GOD OF THE BENIN CALLED EDO, OR ARE THEY PORTUGUESE SAILORS?

PERHAPS IDIA'S HEADDRESS WAS AN ATTEMPT TO INCORPORATE EUROPEANS INTO THE EVOLVING BENIN WORLDVIEW.

TRADE WITH THE PORTUGUESE MEANT THAT THE KINGDOM OF BENIN, LIKE A NUMBER OF AFRICAN SOCIETIES, WAS DRAWN INTO A NEW ATLANTIC WORLD.

AFRICAN TRADERS LOADED LOCALLY PRODUCED GOODS ONTO EUROPEAN SHIPS THAT SAILED UP AFRICAN RIVERS.

THEY TRADED IN CLOTH AND IN PEPPER, IN GOLD AND IVORY, AND ALSO IN SLAVES, THOUGH AT THIS POINT IN VERY SMALL NUMBERS, BUT AFRICANS ALSO EXPORTED THE WORK OF AFRICAN ARTISTS, WHO FOUND NEW CUSTOMERS IN EUROPE.

THE FIGURES ON THIS IVORY SALT CELLAR WEAR EUROPEAN CLOTHES AND CHRISTIAN CROSSES.

THE LID IS CROWNED WITH A TINY PORTUGUESE SAILING SHIP TOPPED WITH A CROW'S NEST.

ON A MUSICAL HORN MADE FROM AN IVORY TUSK, HERE IS ENGRAVED THE COAT OF ARMS OF PORTUGUESE ROYALTY, THE HOUSE OF AVIZ.

ALL THESE TREASURES WERE DESTINED FOR PORTUGAL'S GREAT PORT CITY LISBON... AND WITH THESE BEAUTIFUL WORKS OF ART COME THOUSANDS OF NEW ARRIVALS, A REALITY THAT IS CAPTURED IN AN EXTRAORDINARY PAINTING "THE KING'S FOUNTAIN."

OLUSOGA: THIS IS LISBON IN THE 16th CENTURY AT THE VERY HEIGHT OF PORTUGAL'S GLOBAL TRADING EMPIRE.

IT'S A PART OF THE CITY CALLED THE KING'S FOUNTAIN.

THE FOUNTAIN IS SHOWN HERE, BUT WHAT'S OBVIOUS, WHAT'S STRIKING ABOUT THIS PICTURE IS THE PEOPLE.

LISBON IN THIS PAINTING LOOKS MORE LIKE A 21st-CENTURY CAPITAL BECAUSE AS PORTUGAL'S TRADING EMPIRE EXPANDED AROUND THE WORLD, PEOPLE FROM ACROSS THAT EMPIRE CAME TO LISBON, AND INCREDIBLY, IT'S BELIEVED THAT 1 IN 10 OF LISBON'S POPULATION WERE AFRICANS.

THE AFRICANS IN THIS PAINTING ARE EXISTING AT EVERY LEVEL OF THE SOCIAL STRATA.

THERE'S A CRIMINAL WHO'S BEEN ARRESTED HERE.

THERE ARE THE BOATMEN, WHO ARE FERRYING PEOPLE ACROSS THE RIVER.

THERE ARE THE AGUADEIROS.

THESE ARE WATER CARRIERS.

THEY ARE ALMOST CERTAINLY SLAVES, CARRYING WATER ON THEIR HEADS BACK TO THE HOMES OF THEIR MASTERS, BUT THERE WERE WHITE SLAVES, AS WELL AS BLACK SLAVES, IN LISBON IN THE 16th CENTURY, BUT THERE'S ALSO FIGURES LIKE THIS.

THIS IS A BLACK KNIGHT, A MAN OF THE ORDER OF SANTIAGO, ON HIS HORSE WITH HIS SWORD AND HIS CLOAK AND ALL HIS FINERY, AND IT'S A SNAPSHOT OF A WORLD THAT WE'VE FORGOTTEN ABOUT, LISBON AT THE CENTER OF THE FIRST AGE OF GLOBALIZATION.

[SEA GULLS CRYING] NARRATOR: THIS IS THE FORTIFIED TOWER OF BELÉM, BUILT TO PROTECT LISBON HARBOR.

UNDER ITS WATCHFUL GAZE, PORTUGAL'S NAVIGATORS SET OUT TO MAP THE GLOBE AND AT THE SAME TIME CREATE ONE OF THE WORLD'S FIRST GLOBAL TRADE NETWORKS.

ON ONE CORNER OF THE TOWER IS A CELEBRATED ICON OF PORTUGUESE GLOBAL REACH.

IT'S A RHINOCEROS, A REAL ANIMAL SENT TO THE KING OF PORTUGAL BY AN INDIAN PRINCE.

IT WAS LATER IMMORTALIZED BY THE GERMAN ARTIST ALBRECHT DURER, BASED ONLY ON A WRITTEN DESCRIPTION.

BUT DESPITE ITS INACCURACIES, THANKS TO THE EMERGING TECHNOLOGY OF PRINTING, DURER'S IMAGE WOULD BECOME THE DEFINITIVE PICTURE OF WHAT EUROPEANS THOUGHT A RHINO LOOKED LIKE FOR THE NEXT 200 YEARS.

ALTHOUGH THE PORTUGUESE WOULD LATER SAIL FROM HERE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC, IT FELL TO THEIR NEIGHBORS, THE SPANISH, TO INITIATE THE FIRST DRAMATIC ENCOUNTER WITH THE NEW WORLD.

ON THE EVE OF SPAIN'S ARRIVAL, CENTRAL AMERICA WAS DOMINATED BY THE AZTECS.

DESPITE POSSESSING WRITING, A SOPHISTICATED CALENDAR, AND A GREAT SKILL AT FASHIONING GOLDEN JEWELRY, THEY WERE ABOUT TO MEET MEN AS BLOODTHIRSTY AS ANY OF THE AZTEC GODS.

THE SPANISH CONQUISTADORS WERE LED BY HERNÁN CORTEZ.

IN TRIBUTE, THE AZTEC EMPEROR MOCTEZUMA SENT HIM AN IMAGE OF THEIR GOD QUETZALCOATL.

OLUSOGA: IT'S BELIEVED BY MANY EXPERTS THAT THIS COULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE GIFTS THAT MOCTEZUMA GAVE TO CORTEZ IN THAT FATEFUL MEETING BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE CONQUISTADOR.

IT'S KNOWN TODAY AS "THE DOUBLE-HEADED SERPENT."

IT'S A PIECE OF CARVED WOOD THAT'S BEEN COVERED IN A MOSAIC MADE UP OF HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF TINY PIECES OF TURQUOISE, EACH OF THEM VERY PRECISELY FITTED INTO PLACE, AND IT'S BELIEVED THAT IT'S A REPRESENTATION OF THE AZTEC GOD QUETZALCOATL, WHO WAS SOMETIMES SHOWN AS A SNAKE COVERED IN THE SHIMMERING FEATHERS OF THE QUETZAL BIRD.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW IS WHY.

WHY DID MOCTEZUMA PERHAPS GIVE THIS TO CORTEZ?

IT COULD HAVE BEEN MOCTEZUMA BELIEVED THAT HE COULD WITH THIS AND OTHER GIFTS APPEASE THE SPANISH AND SAVE THE AZTEC EMPIRE.

NARRATOR: ONE REASON OFTEN GIVEN FOR MOCTEZUMA'S INDECISION WAS THAT HE COULDN'T DECIDE WHETHER CORTEZ WAS A DEADLY ENEMY OR THE EMBODIMENT OF QUETZALCOATL, WHOSE IMMINENT RETURN HAD LONG BEEN PROPHESIED.

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH] BUT THE RICHES INTENDED TO BUY OFF THE SPANISH ONLY INTENSIFIED THEIR LUST FOR GOLD AND CONQUEST.

MEXICO WAS SWIFTLY AND BRUTALLY CONQUERED.

AS SMALLPOX AND FLU RAVAGED THE INDIGENOUS POPULATION, THE ARTISTIC LEGACY OF A GREAT CIVILIZATION WAS LOOTED OR MELTED DOWN TO FILL THE COFFERS OF SPAIN.

THEN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES SET ABOUT ERADICATING ALL TRACES OF WHAT THEY SAW AS A DEVIL-WORSHIPING CULTURE OF HUMAN SACRIFICE.

TO BREAK THE BOND BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND THE GODS, THEY SET ABOUT THE WHOLESALE OBLITERATION OF THE AZTEC RELIGION.

HUNDREDS OF TEMPLES WERE DESTROYED, AND ON THEIR RUINS, CHURCHES WERE RAISED.

SOMETIMES, THEY WERE BUILT FROM THE SAME STONES, AND THOUSANDS OF STATUES TO THE AZTEC GODS WERE TOPPLED AND BURNT.

NARRATOR: BUT AZTEC ART AND CULTURE DID NOT COMPLETELY VANISH.

IN FACT, THE VERY PEOPLE TASKED WITH ERASING IT FROM HISTORY WERE THE ONES WHO INADVERTENTLY PRESERVED IT.

MOTIVATED BY A COMBINATION OF CURIOSITY AND THE FEAR OF BEING DECEIVED BY THEIR NEW CONVERTS, CHRISTIAN FRIARS COMMISSIONED AZTEC PAINTERS TO CREATE A SERIES OF BOOKS CALLED CODICES.

THEY DETAILED THE EVERYDAY LIVES AND RITUALS OF THE AZTEC.

MEXICO BECAME CATHOLIC, HELPED IN PART BY THE EERIE PARALLELS BETWEEN AZTEC IDEAS ABOUT BLOOD SACRIFICE AND CHRISTIANITY'S EMPHASIS ON CHRIST'S BLOOD BEING SHED FOR THE SALVATION OF ALL HUMANITY.

[HORNS PLAYING] AND AS THE NEW RELIGION SPREAD, IT ABSORBED INDIGENOUS BELIEFS INTO CHRISTIAN RITUAL.

THE AZTEC DAY OF THE DEAD MERGED INTO ALL SAINTS' DAY, A CELEBRATION WHEN MEXICANS COMMUNE WITH THEIR LOST LOVED ONES USING BEAUTIFUL DISPLAYS OF FOLK ART THE CLEARLY EVOKE THEIR AZTEC HERITAGE.

SPAIN WAS ALSO TRANSFORMED BY ITS CONQUESTS, NOT JUST MATERIALLY BY THE GOLD, SILVER, AND WEALTH GENERATED BY EMPIRE AND SLAVERY BUT SPIRITUALLY BY A NEW ARTISTIC SENSIBILITY.

JONATHAN JONES: THERE'S AN ODD SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE RELIGION OF THE AZTECS AND THE SPANISH BAROQUE BECAUSE BOTH ARE ACTUALLY ABOUT VERY GORY DEATH AND BLOOD.

IN THE CASE OF THE AZTECS, THAT'S LITERALLY HUMAN BLOOD FLOWING DOWN TEMPLES.

VERY SHOCKING AND HORRIBLE, BUT THE BAROQUE ART THAT THEN EMERGES IN 17th-CENTURY SPAIN AND REACHES KIND OF HEIGHTS OF PASSION AND INTENSITY, ODDLY ENOUGH THAT'S ALSO ABOUT BLOOD.

IT'S A VISCERAL, PASSIONATE, ECSTATIC KIND OF FAITH, WHICH PRODUCES SOME VERY VISCERAL, POWERFUL ART.

NARRATOR: ONE OF THE GREATEST EARLY PROPONENTS OF THIS PASSIONATE AND SPIRITUALLY ENGAGED STYLE OF PAINTING LIVED AND WORKED IN SPAIN.

BORN ON THE GREEK ISLAND OF CRETE, DOMÉNIKOS THEOTOKÓPOULOS FIRST TRAVELED TO ITALY BEFORE SETTLING IN TOLEDO IN 1577.

HE IS KNOWN IN SPAIN AS EL GRECO, THE GREEK.

HERE, HE PAINTED HIS NEW HOME IN A DRAMATIC AND UNNATURALISTIC STYLE, DEPICTING A STORMY SKY SWIRLING ABOVE THE CITY'S CATHEDRAL... GOD'S ANGER MADE MANIFEST, A FITTING IMAGE FOR A CITY IN THE GRIP OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION, WHO WERE TORTURING AND BURNING SO-CALLED HERETICS ALIVE.

THIS WAS AN ORGANIZATION A FOREIGNER LIKE EL GRECO WOULDN'T WANT TO ALIENATE, AND IT WAS PERHAPS BECAUSE OF THIS THAT HE PAINTED ONE OF THE GREAT MASTERPIECES INSIDE THE CATHEDRAL ITSELF.

THIS IS THE SACRISTY, WHERE PRIESTS PUT ON THEIR ROBES BEFORE PERFORMING THE MASS, SO IT'S FITTING THAT EL GRECO CHOSE AS HIS SUBJECT THE DISROBING OF CHRIST.

WHAT WE SEE IS THE MOMENT BEFORE CHRIST'S CLOTHES ARE RIPPED OFF HIS BODY JUST BEFORE THE CRUCIFIXION.

OLUSOGA: NOW, THERE'S NO BLOOD IN THIS PAINTING, BUT WE ARE SYMBOLICALLY REMINDED OF THE VIOLENCE THAT'S TO BE DONE TO THE BODY OF CHRIST THROUGH THE DEEP, INTENSE RED OF THE ROBE.

IT REMINDS US THAT THE CRUCIFIXION WAS A BLOOD SACRIFICE, A STRANGE ECHO OF THE HUMAN SACRIFICES THAT WERE AT THE HEART OF THE RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE WHO SPAIN HAD CONQUERED, THE AZTECS.

NARRATOR: SPAIN'S CONQUESTS IN THE NEW WORLD, WHILE BY FAR THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE, WEREN'T THE ONLY INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CIVILIZATIONS IN THE 16th CENTURY.

IN JAPAN, EUROPEAN MERCHANTS ENCOUNTERED A FEUDAL SOCIETY TOO ROBUST TO BE CONQUERED.

ALTHOUGH THE DETAILS ARE VAGUE, IT'S BELIEVED THAT THE VERY FIRST EUROPEANS TO REACH JAPAN ARRIVED BY ACCIDENT.

THEY WERE A GROUP OF PORTUGUESE MERCHANTS ON BOARD A CHINESE SHIP THAT WAS DRIVEN ASHORE BY A STORM AROUND THE YEAR 1543.

THE JAPANESE WERE FASCINATED BY THESE NEW ARRIVALS, WHO THEY REGARDED AS LITTLE MORE THAN EXOTIC NOVELTIES, BUT WITHIN JUST A FEW YEARS, THE PORTUGUESE BEGAN TO ARRIVE IN THESE WATERS IN THEIR OWN SHIPS, AND FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, IT WAS OBVIOUS TO THEM THAT THE JAPANESE WERE NOT A PEOPLE WHO THEY COULD TREAT THE WAY THE SPANISH HAD TREATED THE AZTECS.

JAPAN WAS EXTREMELY WEALTHY.

SHE HAD AN ENORMOUS POPULATION, A HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED CULTURE, AND MILITARILY, SHE WAS A FORMIDABLE POWER.

THIS WAS NOT A COUNTRY IN WHICH EUROPEANS COULD EVEN DREAM OF BEING CONQUISTADORS, SO THE PORTUGUESE INSTEAD BECAME JAPAN'S TRADING PARTNERS.

NARRATOR: PORTUGUESE TRADERS BROUGHT NEW GOODS AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES FROM EVERY CORNER OF THEIR TRADING EMPIRE.

THOUGH JAPAN BELIEVED FIRMLY IN THE SUPERIORITY OF ITS OWN ANCIENT CULTURE, TO BEGIN WITH, IT OPENED ITS DOORS TO EUROPEAN MERCHANTS... AND THE ARRIVAL OF EXOTIC STRANGERS HELPED SPAWN A WHOLE NEW JAPANESE ARTFORM, NAMBAN SCREENS.

OLUSOGA: NAMBAN WAS THE JAPANESE WORD FOR EUROPEANS, AND WHAT IT MEANS, RATHER UNFLATTERINGLY, IS "SOUTHERN BARBARIANS" BECAUSE THE JAPANESE WERE NOT AT ALL IMPRESSED BY EUROPEAN STANDARDS OF HYGIENE OR EUROPEAN TABLE MANNERS.

WHAT THESE SCREENS TEND TO SHOW ARE THE GREAT BLACK OCEAN-GOING SHIPS OF THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE LOADED WITH EXOTIC TRADING GOODS.

NOW, MOST OF THESE GOODS WEREN'T FROM LISBON, THEY WEREN'T EUROPEAN GOODS.

THEY WERE GOODS FROM OTHER PARTS OF THE PORTUGUESE TRADING EMPIRE.

AT THE HEART OF THE TRADE WAS SILK FROM CHINA.

NOW.

THE JAPANESE ARTISTS WHO PRODUCED THESE SCREENS WERE VERY CAREFUL TO PICK OUT THE MOST EXOTIC AND THE MOST VALUABLE PRODUCTS-- EXOTIC ANIMALS THAT WERE EITHER RARE OR UNKNOWN TO THE JAPANESE BEING BROUGHT ASHORE IN CAGES, BUT THERE'S ALSO A HORSE, AN ARABIAN WARHORSE, AN EXTREMELY DESIRABLE OBJECT IN A MILITARIZED SOCIETY LIKE FEUDAL JAPAN, BUT JUST AS EXOTIC AND JUST AS EXCITING AS ANY OF THESE GOODS ARE THE PEOPLE COMING OFF THESE PORTUGUESE SHIPS.

AFRICANS, BOTH FREE AND ENSLAVED, BUT THERE'S ALSO INDIANS, THERE'S MALAYS, THERE'S ARABS.

NARRATOR: FROM THIS GLITTERING PARADE IS APPARENT NOT JUST THE FASCINATION THE JAPANESE MUST HAVE FELT WHEN THIS GLOBAL CIRCUS FIRST ARRIVED BUT WARINESS.

THE SCREENS ALSO DEPICT A MORE CONTROVERSIAL ARRIVAL-- CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES.

THE STABILITY OF JAPAN WAS THREATENED BY COMPETING FOREIGN INFLUENCES BENT ON CHANGE.

IN DEFENSE OF TRADITIONAL JAPANESE VALUES, A NEW REGIME AROSE, THE SHOGUNATE.

THE SHOGUN KNEW OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE AZTEC AND INCA EMPIRES AND WAS DETERMINED THE SAME FATE WOULD NOT BEFALL JAPAN, SO HE DECIDED TO ACT.

OLUSOGA: ALMOST ALL FOREIGNERS, NOT JUST THE MISSIONARIES, WERE REJECTED, AND JAPANESE PEOPLE THEMSELVES WERE PREVENTED FROM TRAVELING ABROAD.

THE SHOGUNS THEN PROMOTED A SORT OF JAPANESE CULTURAL RENAISSANCE, ONE THAT LOOKED NOT OUTWARDS TO OTHER CIVILIZATIONS BUT INWARDS TO JAPAN'S OWN CULTURAL TRADITIONS, AND THEY USED JAPAN'S ARTISTIC TRADITIONS AS A WAY OF TIGHTENING THEIR GRIP ON POWER AND CREATING A NEW SENSE OF WHAT IT MEANT TO BE JAPANESE.

NARRATOR: ONE OF THE SHOGUN'S FIRST PRIORITIES WAS TO TAME LOCAL WARLORDS AND THE WARRIOR CLASS, THE SAMURAI.

THEY DID THIS THROUGH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

TEMPLES TAUGHT THE SAMURAI POETRY, CALLIGRAPHY, AND THE SELF-DISCIPLINE OF ZEN BUDDHISM.

TO COMPLEMENT THEIR TRAINING, THE SAMURAI WERE ALSO SCHOOLED IN THE CIVILIZING RITUALS OF THE TEA CEREMONY.

AN ACT OF PERFORMANCE ART IN ITS OWN RIGHT, THE TEA CEREMONY DEMANDS CALM SELF-CONTROL AND A RESPECT FOR TRADITION.

THE POTTERY USED IN THE TEA CEREMONY HAS EVOLVED INTO AN ARTFORM.

THE MATSUBAYASHI FAMILY HAS BEEN MAKING ITS UNIQUE ASAHI BOWLS FOR 16 GENERATIONS.

[MAN SPEAKING JAPANESE] JAPAN BEGAN MORE THAN TWO CENTURIES OF ISOLATION THAT WOULD TRANSFORM THE SAMURAI INTO A HIGHLY EDUCATED CLASS OF WARRIOR-BUREAUCRATS THAT RAN THE STATE.

IT IS TEMPTING TODAY TO LOOK AT JAPAN'S LONG AGE OF ISOLATION AND CONCLUDE THAT THIS COUNTRY'S DISTINCTIVE CULTURE MUST HAVE DEVELOPED IN SOMETHING OF A VACUUM, BUT THE IDEA THAT THE JAPANESE WERE EVER COMPLETELY ISOLATED IS A MYTH.

IT WAS OFFICIAL POLICY THAT JAPAN SHOULD BE A CLOSED COUNTRY, BUT THE JAPANESE WERE NEVER COMPLETELY CUT OFF FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD OR FROM THE INFLUENCES AND THE IDEAS OF OTHER CIVILIZATIONS.

NARRATOR: THE SHOGUNS HAD MADE ONE EXCEPTION TO THEIR RULE BANNING OUTSIDERS.

IT WAS CALLED DESHIMA ISLAND, AND IT WAS THE ONLY PLACE IN JAPAN WHERE EUROPEANS WERE ALLOWED TO LIVE, AND THE ONLY EUROPEANS ALLOWED TO LIVE THERE WERE DUTCH TRADERS.

OLUSOGA: THE DUTCH LEARNED HOW TO CURRY FAVOR.

THEY PAID TRIBUTE AND SWORE ALLEGIANCE TO THE SHOGUN.

THEY BECAME, IN EFFECT, PART OF JAPAN'S FEUDAL SYSTEM, AND THEY DID THIS BY ACKNOWLEDGING THE SHOGUN AS THEIR MASTER.

NARRATOR: THE TINY BRIDGE BETWEEN DESHIMA AND MAINLAND NAGASAKI BECAME THE ONLY LIFELINE TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD.

IT WAS ALONG THIS MINIATURE TRADE ROUTE THAT A NOVELTY ITEM WOULD TRAVEL AND TRANSFORM JAPANESE ART.

CALLED DUTCH GLASSES BY THE LOCALS, THESE CONVEX LENSES WERE THE 3-D GLASSES OF THEIR DAY.

SOLD IN TOY SHOPS, THEY WERE GIMMICKS THAT GAVE FLAT IMAGES A 3-DIMENSIONAL EFFECT.

ACCORDING TO SOME ACCOUNTS OF HIS LIFE, ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO USED TO SELL THEM WAS YOUNG MARUYAMA OKYO.

IT WAS HIS PAINTINGS CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR STEREOSCOPES THAT WOULD LAUNCH HIS CAREER AS AN ARTIST.

WHAT'S REGARDED AS HIS GREATEST WORK, "CRACKED ICE," COMBINES EVERYTHING OKYO KNEW FROM BOTH EASTERN AND WESTERN TRADITIONS.

OLUSOGA: IT'S SO SUBTLE, SO MINIMAL A WORK OF ART THAT IT ALMOST FEELS LIKE IT ISN'T THERE, AND EVERYTHING ABOUT IT FEELS EPHEMERAL AND FRAIL.

IT'S PAINTED ON PAPER, NOT CANVAS AS IN THE WEST, AND GREAT EXPANSES OF IT ARE JUST WHITE BLANK AREAS THAT SEEM ALMOST UNTOUCHED BY THE ARTIST, AND YET ALL OF THAT BELIES THE FACT THAT THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST SOPHISTICATED WORKS OF CULTURAL SYNTHESIS THAT I KNOW.

IT SHOWS A SHEET OF ICE PRESUMABLY ON A LAKE, AND THESE BROKEN, JAGGED CRACKS IN THE ICE DISAPPEAR INTO THE MIST.

THE EFFECT IS A 3-DIMENSIONAL SPACE.

NOW THAT IS EUROPEAN VANISHING POINT PERSPECTIVE, AND YET THIS, ONE OF OKYO'S MASTERWORKS, JUST COULD NOT BE MORE JAPANESE BECAUSE IT'S A PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEMPLATION OF TWO CONCEPTS FUNDAMENTAL TO BUDDHISM-- IMPERFECTION AND IMPERMANENCE.

IMPERFECTION BECAUSE THESE LINES ARE UNCONTROLLED AND IRREGULAR, AND IMPERMANENCE BECAUSE OF COURSE THE ICE WILL MELT, AND THOSE TWO CONCEPTS ARE JUST AS FUNDAMENTAL TO JAPANESE ART AS THE CLASSICAL GREEK-ROMAN IDEAS OF BEAUTY AND PERFECTION ARE TO EUROPEAN ART.

SO THIS IS OKYO INCORPORATING EUROPEAN IDEAS INTO HIS ART BUT IN WAYS THAT ARE IN KEEPING WITH JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY AND JAPANESE TASTES.

NARRATOR: SUCH MASTERPIECES WOULD HAVE BEEN UNTHINKABLE WITHOUT THE ENRICHING ENCOUNTERS THAT TOOK PLACE BETWEEN TWO VERY DIFFERENT CULTURES SEPARATED BY THOUSANDS OF MILES.

YET IT WAS ONLY ONE RELATIONSHIP AMONG MANY FOR THE TINY, OUTWARD-LOOKING DUTCH REPUBLIC-- AT THAT TIME THE WORLD'S GREATEST SEAFARING NATION.

IN THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE OF THE 17th CENTURY, AMSTERDAM WAS ONE ENORMOUS MARKET.

EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING WAS BEING BOUGHT AND SOLD HERE.

WHEN THE FRENCH PHILOSOPHER DESCARTES ARRIVED IN THE 1630s, HE DESCRIBED IT AS A CITY WHERE ALL OF THE COMMODITIES AND ALL OF THE CURIOSITIES THAT ONE COULD WISH FOR COULD BE BOUGHT.

SO WHEREAS THE JAPANESE HAD TRIED TO BLOCK OUT THE WIDER WORLD, THEIR DUTCH TRADING PARTNERS COULDN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT.

NARRATOR: AMSTERDAM WAS THE BIRTHPLACE OF MODERN CAPITALISM, WALL STREET HUNDREDS OF YEARS BEFORE WALL STREET.

THE MERCHANT NAVY HAD MADE IT A CENTER OF GLOBAL TRADE, AND THE REPUBLIC'S NEWLY WEALTHY GLOBAL BUSINESSMEN BUILT THEIR GRAND CANALSIDE VILLAS AND FILLED THEM WITH ARTWORKS FROM AROUND THE WORLD-- BLUE-AND-WHITE CHINESE POTTERY... JAPANESE LACQUERWARE SHIPPED FROM NAGASAKI, THE FINEST PERSIAN SILK CLOTHES, TABLEWARE FORGED FROM NEW WORLD GOLD AND SILVER OR EXOTIC SHELLS OR COCONUTS, AND TO SERVE THE DUTCH THEIR FINE WINES, THEY IMPORTED ENSLAVED AFRICAN BOYS, WHO BECAME ONE OF THE GREAT FASHIONS OF THE AGE AMONG THE RICH.

JAN SIX: YOU COULD LITERALLY FIND EVERYTHING, AND OF COURSE IT WAS THE MAIN PORTS FOR THE HINTERLAND, WHICH WAS EUROPE.

AMSTERDAM BECAME EPICENTER OF THE WORLD, AND OF COURSE, THAT HAS A MAJOR REFLECTION ON ART BECAUSE ART IS A REFLECTION OF WEALTH AND OF IDEAS AND OF IDENTITY.

NARRATOR: IN THIS FRENZY OF TRADE AND WEALTH, DUTCH ART ALSO BECAME THE OBJECT OF CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION.

A MODERN COMMERCIAL ART MARKET WAS BORN, SUPPLYING LANDSCAPES, STILL LIFES, PORTRAITS, AND SCENES FROM DUTCH LIFE TO THE ASPIRATIONAL NEW MERCHANT CLASS.

WHAT THEY WANTED IN THEIR ART WAS NOT THE POMP OF MONARCHY OR THE FLAMBOYANCE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BUT A NEW TYPE OF REALISM, ONE THAT REFLECTED THEIR PROTESTANT DESIRE TO PORTRAY THE WORLD AS IT TRULY WAS, OFTEN WITH WARTS-AND-ALL MORAL LESSONS.

SIX: WITH ART FROM THE RENAISSANCE, IT'S ABOUT BEAUTY.

DUTCH ART, IT'S NOT ABOUT THAT.

IT'S ABOUT REALITY, SO YOU DO PAINT ROTTEN FRUIT, AND YOU DO PAINT FAT LADIES THAT JUST WOKE UP IN THEIR BED, AND YOU DO LOOK AT DIRTY DOGS IN THE STREET BECAUSE IT'S ABOUT NATURE IN EVERY SENSE AND NOT JUST IN THE SENSE THAT YOU WANT IT TO BE BUT IN THE SENSE IT IS.

NARRATOR: ONE OF THE STAR ARTISTS OF THIS GOLDEN AGE OF DUTCH PAINTING WAS VERMEER.

JOHANNES VERMEER IS NOT AN ARTIST KNOWN FOR HIS EPIC LANDSCAPES.

MOST OF HIS PAINTINGS ARE FAMOUSLY INTIMATE, SET WITHIN THE NEAT, ORDERED, ALMOST CLAUSTROPHOBIC WORLD OF THE DUTCH HOME.

WHAT JOHANNES VERMEER SPECIALIZED IN WAS THE ART OF EVERYDAY LIFE, AND HIS WORLD WAS AN INTERIOR WORLD.

WHAT HE CAPTURED ON CANVAS WERE SIMPLE, FLEETING MOMENTS.

A WOMAN READING A LETTER IS BATHED IN A DELICATE LIGHT THAT POURS IN FROM A SIDE WINDOW, BUT THAT ONLY SERVES TO EMPHASIZE THE FACT THAT WE'RE IN AN ENCLOSED ROOM AND THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD IS HIDDEN FROM SIGHT, THAT IT'S SOMEWHERE OUT THERE.

BUT IF YOU LOOK A LITTLE MORE CLOSELY AT THE DETAILS, WHAT YOU REALIZE IS THAT VERMEER'S SEEMINGLY INTERIOR DOMESTIC SPACE IS INFUSED WITH THE GLOBALISM OF THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE.

NARRATOR: FROM THE INNOVATIVE POTTERY OF HIS HOMETOWN OF DELFT, WHICH MIMICKED CHINESE PORCELAIN, TO PRIZED RUGS FROM THE ORIENT AND A GEOGRAPHER WEARING A FASHIONABLE JAPANESE ROBE, VERMEER CAPTURES A WORLD BUILT ON ENCOUNTERS WITH DISTANT CIVILIZATIONS AND PEOPLES... AND WITH THEIR NEWFOUND WEALTH, THE DUTCH WERE ALSO ABLE TO SPONSOR ENCOUNTERS OF A DIFFERENT SORT WITH THE NATURAL WORLD.

THE SCIENTISTS AND ARTISTS LEADING THESE INVESTIGATIONS DEFIED CONVENTION.

MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN WAS PERHAPS THE FOREMOST ENTOMOLOGIST OF THE AGE, AND UPON MOVING TO AMSTERDAM, HER STUDIES OF INSECTS BECAME A PUBLISHING PHENOMENON.

SIX: THERE WAS NO CENSORSHIP, THERE WAS A LOT OF CAPITAL.

IT WAS A CONCENTRATION OF SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE THAT IT MADE COMPLETE SENSE FOR HER TO TRAVEL TO AMSTERDAM AND TO BE PART OF THAT WONDERFUL EXPLOSION OF KNOWLEDGE.

OLUSOGA: IN HER NATIVE GERMANY, THERE'S NO WAY THAT MARIA SIBYLLA WOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO PRODUCE A BOOK LIKE THIS IN WHICH SHE LAID OUT ALL HER OBSERVATIONS AND HER DISCOVERIES IN PROSE BUT ALSO IN HER DETAILED, METICULOUS WATERCOLORS.

AT THE TIME, MANY PEOPLE BELIEVED THAT INSECTS EMERGED FULLY FORMED SPONTANEOUSLY FROM THE EARTH, THAT SOMEHOW THEY WERE BORN OUT OF THE MUD, BUT MARIA EXPLAINED AND PAINTED THEIR LIFECYCLE, THEIR METAMORPHOSIS FROM CATERPILLAR TO CHRYSALIS TO BUTTERFLY.

SHE NOT ONLY EXPLAINED THAT PROCESS, SHE SHOWED WHICH PLANT SPECIES EACH BUTTERFLY SPECIES WAS DEPENDENT UPON.

NARRATOR: BUT EVEN IN THE FREE CITY OF AMSTERDAM, THERE WERE RESTRICTIONS ON THE WAY MARIA SIBYLLA COULD PAINT.

THERE'S A REASON WHY THESE PAINTINGS ARE EXECUTED IN WATERCOLOR RATHER THAN IN THE MORE POLISHED MEDIUM OF OIL PAINT, AND IT'S BECAUSE--AND THIS IS ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE TODAY-- THE SYSTEM OF GUILDS THAT CONTROLLED THE ARTISTIC PROFESSION IN EUROPE DIDN'T ALLOW WOMEN TO PAINT IN OILS.

DESPITE OBSTACLES LIKE THAT, THIS BOOK REVOLUTIONIZED THE STUDY OF INSECTS IN EUROPE, BUT IT ALSO HELPED MARIA RAISE THE FUNDS TO EMBARK UPON A JOURNEY TO STUDY THE MORE EXOTIC CREATURES THAT SHE KNEW SHE WOULD FIND IN THE TROPICAL REGIONS OF THE DUTCH EMPIRE.

NARRATOR: IN 1699, MARIA DID WHAT WAS THEN UNTHINKABLE FOR A WOMAN.

AT THE AGE OF 52, SHE TRAVELED WITHOUT A MALE COMPANION TO SOUTH AMERICA AND THE DUTCH COLONY OF SURINAM.

HERE, SHE SPENT TWO YEARS ON HER OWN EXPEDITION.

THE ANIMALS AND PLANTS SHE ENCOUNTERED-- MANY PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN TO EUROPEANS-- BECAME THE SUBJECT OF A BEST-SELLING BOOK THAT BROUGHT HER INTERNATIONAL RENOWN AND HELPED REVOLUTIONIZE SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION.

SIX: SHE'S A FORCE OF NATURE.

THIS IS A WOMAN WHO GOES OUT ON HER OWN TO SURINAM IN--YOU KNOW, IMAGINE THIS-- IN A BIG DRESS, GOING TO THIS IMMENSE HEAT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLOBE, TRYING TO FIND BUTTERFLIES AND BEETLES AND FLOWERS, AND SHE STAYED THERE, AND SHE MADE ALL THESE DRAWINGS AND ALL THESE LITTLE NOTES, AND THEN SHE WENT BACK TO HOLLAND AND MADE ALL THESE FANTASTIC BOOKS.

NARRATOR: AS THE DUTCH EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES BROUGHT PREVIOUSLY DISCONNECTED PEOPLES INTO CONTACT WITH EACH OTHER, SO, TOO, DID THE NOTORIOUS BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY.

WILLIAM DALRYMPLE: THE EAST INDIA COMPANY HAS TENTACLES ALL OVER THE WORLD, AND BY 1800, IT HAS AN ARMY TWICE THE SIZE OF THE BRITISH ARMY.

NOT THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT BUT A PRIVATE CORPORATION.

IMAGINE HALIBURTON WITH NUCLEAR SUBMARINES OR GOOGLE WITH FIGHTER JETS.

IT'S AN UNBELIEVABLY POWERFUL ORGANIZATION, AND UNBELIEVABLY GLOBAL, SO WHEN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION HAPPENS, IT'S EAST INDIA COMPANY TEA THAT'S DUMPED IN BOSTON HARBOR.

NARRATOR: IN THE MID 1700s, THE COMPANY'S MAIN SPHERE OF INFLUENCE WAS THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT.

TO BEGIN WITH, THE BRITISH WERE JUST BIT PLAYERS, TRADING OUT OF MODEST COASTAL SETTLEMENTS ON THE FRINGES OF THE GREAT MUGHAL EMPIRE.

IT WAS A RISKY BUSINESS THAT ATTRACTED OUTSIDERS, GAMBLERS, AND THOSE HOPING TO MAKE A NAME AND FORTUNE FOR THEMSELVES.

AMONG THEM WAS GERMAN-BORN ARTIST JOHANN ZOFFANY.

JASANOFF: JOHANN ZOFFANY SUPPORTED HIMSELF ON THE BASIS OF COMMISSIONS, AND ZOFFANY, HAVING HIMSELF BEEN AN IMMIGRANT, COMING FROM THE CONTINENT TO BRITAIN, WAS A MAN WHO WAS OPEN TO OPPORTUNITIES AND NEW ADVENTURES.

SO ZOFFANY SHOWS UP IN LUCKNOW IN 1784, AND HE DECIDES TO STAY THERE FOR APPROXIMATELY, I THINK, 9 MONTHS BECAUSE HE FINDS IN LUCKNOW THE MOST VIBRANT, THE MOST COSMOPOLITAN, THE MOST KIND OF COLORFUL IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY COURT CULTURE IN INDIA AT THE TIME.

NARRATOR: WITHIN A YEAR OF HIS ARRIVAL, ZOFFANY UNDERTAKES A COMMISSION FOR A MEMBER OF THE BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY.

KNOWN FOR HIS SHARP, OBSERVATIONAL PORTRAITURE, IN IT, HE CAPTURES THE JOSTLING FOR POWER AND STATUS THAT IS GOING ON BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND THEIR INDIAN HOSTS.

JASANOFF: WHAT IT SHOWS IS A COCKFIGHT IN WHICH ASAF-UD-DAULA, THE NAWAB, HAS HIS FIGHTING COCK TO MEET A FIGHTING COCK PUT FORWARD BY JOHN MORDAUNT, WHO WAS THE BODYGUARD FOR ASAF-UD-DAULA, AND THERE IS AN EMBEDDED PUN IN THIS PAINTING BECAUSE ASAF-UD-DAULA, DESPITE HIS REPUTATION FOR WINE AND SONG AND WOMEN AND MEN, WAS ALSO REPUTED TO BE IMPOTENT.

SO TO HAVE ASAF-UD-DAULA THERE AS THE REPUTEDLY IMPOTENT NAWAB WITH THE COCKFIGHT GOING ON BRINGS THIS CONSTELLATION, THE INDIAN, THE IMPOTENT ALL AROUND THIS COCKFIGHT, PUN INTENDED, VERY MUCH SQUARELY IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS PAINTING, BUT IT ALSO SHOWS SOMETHING ABOUT, I THINK, A EUROPEAN ATTITUDE TOWARD HIM.

YOU KNOW, THIS IS NOT EXACTLY THE MOST LAUDATORY WAY OF DEPICTING AN INDIGENOUS INDIAN RULER.

NARRATOR: ZOFFANY'S MOCKING PAINTING ILLUSTRATES THE ATTITUDE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY TOWARDS THE LOCAL RULERS AND THE PATH THE BRITISH WERE ON IN INDIA FOR TOTAL CONTROL.

ONE OF THE MEN WHO WOULD BE INSTRUMENTAL IN DRIVING THIS SHIFT OF POWER WAS A YOUNG SCOT CALLED WILLIAM FRASER, WHO ARRIVED IN INDIA IN 1806.

HIS MISSION--TO SINGLEHANDEDLY PACIFY THE WARRING TRIBES ON INDIA'S AFGHAN BORDER FOR THE BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY.

DALRYMPLE: WILLIAM FRASER'S A WILD MAN.

HE'S A BIT LIKE SORT OF COLONEL KURTZ IN "THE HEART OF DARKNESS."

HE GOES OUT, HE RAISES A PERSONAL BODYGUARD OF MEWATI TRIBESMEN WHO SLEEP AROUND HIS BED, AND SO YOU GET THIS IMPRESSION OF THIS SORT OF CHARACTER GROWING INDIAN MUSTACHES, NOT SPEAKING ENGLISH FOR MONTHS AT A TIME.

NARRATOR: HE HAD, IN THE WORDS OF RESPECTABLE ENGLISH ARISTOCRATS, "GONE NATIVE."

DALRYMPLE: WILLIAM FRASER SOON GETS A REPUTATION AMONG THE BRITISH FOR BEING QUITE STANDOFFISH AND EXTREMELY ECCENTRIC.

A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF'S WIFE DOES A MILITARY VISIT TO DELHI IN ABOUT 1810, AND WRITES THAT "I WAS VERY ALARMED TO SEE "THAT MR. FRASER HAD ADOPTED NATIVE WAYS AND IS ALMOST A HINDU, AS MUCH A HINDU AS A CHRISTIAN."

AND IT'S ONE OF THOSE MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF COLONIALISM THAT SORT OF DEFIES ALL OUR STEREOTYPES BECAUSE THE BRITS ARE NOT COLONIZING.

THEY'RE BEING COLONIZED CULTURALLY THEMSELVES.

NARRATOR: EAGER TO DOCUMENT INDIAN LIFE, FRASER COMMISSIONED INDIAN ARTISTS TO PAINT IT.

KNOWN AS "COMPANY PAINTINGS," THEY DEPICT CHARACTERS FROM EVERY LEVEL OF INDIAN SOCIETY WITH STRIKING HUMANITY.

IT'S A CAPTIVATING RECORD OF A MOMENT WHEN BRITAIN BEGAN A ROMANCE WITH INDIAN CULTURE, NOT JUST ITS RESOURCES.

ONE OF THE GREATEST OF THESE COMPANY ARTISTS WAS GHULAM ALI KHAN.

OLUSOGA: GHULAM ALI KHAN WAS NOT JUST A MASTER PAINTER.

HE WAS PART OF A LONG TRADITION OF MUGHAL ARTISTS, AND HE WAS ONE OF THE FEW WHO SIGNED HIS OWN WORK.

HE WAS THE PATRIARCH OF A SCHOOL OF PAINTERS, BUT HE WAS ALSO A MEMBER OF A FAMILY THAT FOR CENTURIES HAD PROUDLY SERVED AS PAINTERS TO THE MUGHAL COURT.

NARRATOR: BUT NOW THE IMPOVERISHED MUGHALS COULD NO LONGER AFFORD GHULAM ALI KAHN, SO HE OFFERED HIS VERSATILE SKILLS TO HIS NEW ANGLO-INDIAN PATRONS...

AMONG THEM THE CELEBRATED ADVENTURER COLONEL JAMES SKINNER, ANGLO-INDIAN SON OF AN ARISTOCRATIC BRITISH FATHER AND AN INDIAN PRINCESS.

KHAN WAS ALSO COMMISSIONED TO PAINT MANY OF HIS COUNTRY'S GREAT ARCHITECTURAL TREASURES, CAPTURING THE RICHNESS AND DIVERSITY OF INDIA JUST BEFORE BRITISH RULE WOULD CHANGE IT FOREVER.

IT WAS A PROJECT FRASER NEVER FINISHED.

150 YEARS LATER, A DESCENDANT OF WILLIAM FRASER RETURNED TO INDIA UNDER DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES TO START HER OWN PAINTING PROJECT.

OLIVIA FRASER: I DECIDED TO START UP WHERE HE'D LEFT OFF WITH PAINTING ARCHITECTURAL ELEVATIONS OF THE EXTRAORDINARY MONUMENTS OF DELHI THAT I SAW HERE.

AFTER A WHILE, I FOUND THAT WASN'T ENOUGH, AND I WANTED TO DIVE IN PROPERLY INTO THE WHOLE TRADITION HERE IN INDIA.

NARRATOR: AS OLIVIA FRASER BECAME MORE AND MORE IMMERSED IN INDIAN ARTISTIC CULTURE, SHE DISCOVERED THE CONTINENT'S RICH TRADITION OF MINIATURE PAINTINGS, A TRADITION OPEN TO NEW INFLUENCES AND PRACTITIONERS.

MOVING TO JAIPUR, SHE BEGAN AN APPRENTICESHIP UNDER AN INDIAN MASTER AND BEGAN DEVELOPING HER OWN STYLE, BLENDING MINIATURE PAINTINGS WITH ABSTRACT MOTIFS AND SPIRITUAL THEMES.

NARRATOR: TODAY, OLIVIA FRASER'S WORK IS EXHIBITED ALL OVER THE WORLD, AN ARTISTIC FUSION OF THE TRADITIONAL AND THE MODERN.

FRASER: SO THE PIECE I'M WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT IS CALLED "WHEEL OF TIME."

IT'S "KALACHAKRA."

I'M USING THE LOTUS PETAL AS MY STARTING POINT.

I WANTED TO GIVE A FEELING OF MOVEMENT, OF TIME BEING CREATED AND OF IT BEING ALMOST STATIC AND THEN UNWINDING, WHICH IS WHY I'M USING THE BLUE COLORS OF BRAHMA, VISHNU, AND SHIVA-- THE CREATOR, THE PRESERVER, AND THE DESTROYER.

THE ULTIMATE GOAL IN MEDITATION IS TO REACH UP TO THE THOUSAND-PETAL LOTUS, WHICH TAKES YOU BEYOND, SO THAT WAS THE IDEA BEHIND IT.

NARRATOR: BY THE MIDDLE OF THE 18th CENTURY, THE EAST INDIA COMPANY HAD TAKEN CONTROL OF MUCH OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT.

NO LONGER WAS THE ENCOUNTER A FLOW OF IDEAS BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN CULTURES.

NOW THE COMPANY MEN FANCIED THEMSELVES AS EMPIRE BUILDERS.

NOTHING SYMBOLIZED THAT FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT MORE FORCEFULLY THAN GOVERNMENT HOUSE, BUILT IN CALCUTTA IN 1803 FOR THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

JASANOFF: ONE OF THE PIVOTAL FIGURES IN THIS IS A MAN CALLED RICHARD WELLESLEY.

HE'S GOVERNOR-GENERAL IN THE LATE 1790s.

RICHARD WELLESLEY HIMSELF DIDN'T DRESS IN THE COTTON CLOTHES AND THE TURBANS AND SO ON OF THE WHITE MUGHALS.

RICHARD WELLESLEY WORE EUROPEAN-STYLE DRESS.

HE DECIDES THAT THE EAST INDIA COMPANY NEEDS TO HAVE A NEW GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

IT'S GONNA BE IN CALCUTTA, AND IT'S GONNA BE IN A NEOCLASSICAL STYLE.

NONE OF THIS FUSION FOR RICHARD WELLESLEY, NONE OF THE KIND OF ONION DOMES AND PARAPETS AND SO ON.

HE WAS DRAWING ON A ROMAN CLASSICAL IDIOM FOR WHAT EMPIRE WAS GOING TO BE.

OLUSOGA: THESE ARE PUBLISHED PLANS AND ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS OF THE FINEST STATELY HOMES IN BRITAIN, AND WHAT YOU GET FROM BOOKS LIKE THIS IS A PICTURE OF BRITAIN AT THE HEIGHT OF THE NEOCLASSICAL REVIVAL, THE AGE WHEN GREEK AND ROMAN DESIGNS WERE THE HEIGHT OF TASTE AND FASHION.

NARRATOR: GOVERNMENT HOUSE WAS AN ENGLISH STATELY HOME TRANSPLANTED TO INDIA.

OLUSOGA: TO BUILD STATELY HOMES LIKE THIS IN THE BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE MERELY SAID THAT THE FAMILIES THAT LIVED THERE WERE PEOPLE OF EDUCATION AND TASTE AND RESPECTABILITY.

TO BUILD AN ENORMOUS, NEOCLASSICAL PALACE ON INDIAN SOIL SAID SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

WHAT THIS BUILDING WAS INTENDED TO SAY WAS THAT EUROPEAN REASON AND RATIONALITY WAS SUPERIOR AND HAD TRIUMPHED OVER WHAT THE BRITISH INCREASINGLY REGARDED AS ORIENTAL SUPERSTITION AND DESPOTISM.

THIS BUILDING IS POLITICAL THEATER.

IT IS SHOCK AND AWE IN MARBLE AND STUCCO.

NARRATOR: HUNDREDS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS BUILT IN THE BRITISH NEOCLASSICAL TRADITION WOULD FOLLOW.

THEY REPRESENTED NOT ONLY A SEPARATION OF CULTURES THAT HAD BEFORE FREELY INTERMINGLED, THEY ALSO MARKED THE PASSING OF THE AGE OF DISCOVERY.

THE WORLD HAD ENTERED AN AGE OF HIGH EMPIRE IN WHICH, TO JUSTIFY THEIR EXPLOITATIONS AND CONQUESTS, EUROPEAN POWERS WOULD WILLFULLY OVERLOOK THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF OTHER CIVILIZATIONS.

IT WAS A STORY THAT WOULD BE REPEATED AROUND THE GLOBE, AND WE ARE ONLY JUST EMERGING FROM ITS CULTURAL LEGACY TODAY.

JASANOFF: IN A WONDERFUL TWIST, RICHARD WELLESLEY'S GOVERNMENT HOUSE IS USED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL.

IT HAS BEEN TAKEN BACK BY INDIANS FOR THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT, AND SO WE HAVE TO UNTHINK SOME OF THE INEVITABILITY THAT WE TEND TO ASCRIBE TO ENCOUNTERS THAT ULTIMATELY LED TO EUROPEAN DOMINANCE.

IF YOU LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN ENCOUNTERS WITH THE NON-EUROPEAN WORLD, YOU FIND A HUGE RANGE OF WAYS THAT THESE TOOK SHAPE.

AND ALTHOUGH THERE IS A HISTORY THAT HAS TO BE TOLD, A STORY THAT IS ONE OF IMPERIALISM BUT A STORY THAT IS ALSO ONE OF GLOBALIZATION, ONE OF INCREASING INTERCONNECTION ACROSS DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD THAT HAS YIELDED THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE TODAY.

NARRATOR: OUR MODERN WORLD OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATION HAS MASSIVELY BROADENED THE SCOPE OF OUR ENCOUNTERS, BOTH WITH FOREIGN CULTURES AND CIVILIZATIONS AND WITHIN THE DIFFERENT CULTURAL GROUPINGS OF OUR OWN, AND BY CONNECTING NEW AUDIENCES WITH TRADITIONAL ARTISTIC PRACTICES, THE GLOBAL ART MARKET CONTINUES TO TRANSFORM NEW ENCOUNTERS INTO NEW KINDS OF ART.

FROM THE RE-EMERGENCE OF LONG-OVERLOOKED SACRED ART LIKE THAT OF NORTH AMERICAN FIRST NATIONS, THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF AUSTRALIA, AND THE CARVINGS OF THE AFRICAN MAKONDE PEOPLE... TO NEW ARTISTS SUCH AS GHANAIAN-BORN SCULPTOR EL ANATSUI, WHO SEWS TOGETHER BOTTLE TOPS INTO LARGE-SCALE ASSEMBLAGES THAT COMMENT ON CONSUMPTION, WASTE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT.

TODAY, IN OUR INCREASINGLY GLOBALIZED CIVILIZATION, THE SHEER VARIETY OF OUR ENCOUNTERS, BOTH FOREIGN AND AT HOME, CONTINUES TO BE A MAJOR SOURCE OF INSPIRATION, SHAPING BOTH OUR ART AND OUR WORLD.

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