4/4 Gold : A History of Art in Three Colours (Ep1)

00:14:17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LadcColERyw

Résumé

TLDRThe video delves into the cultural and historical importance of gold, focusing on Augustus's mask as a symbol of unfulfilled desire for power, and the revolutionary invention of electroplating by George Elkington in the 19th century. This process allowed for the mass production of gold-plated items, making what was once a symbol of divine status accessible to the public. Prince Albert's fascination with electroplating showcased its appeal among royalty. The video also examines the work of Gustav Klimt, who used gold to convey profound emotional and spiritual themes. Ultimately, it suggests that gold has shifted from a sacred symbol to a mere commodity in contemporary society, reflecting our most revered values such as money.

A retenir

  • 👑 Augustus's mask symbolizes unfulfilled desires for power.
  • ⚒️ Gold electroplating revolutionized access to gold for the masses.
  • 💡 George Elkington patented electroplating, transforming production.
  • ✨ Electroplating was seen as magical and miraculous in its time.
  • 🏰 Prince Albert embraced electroplating at Buckingham Palace.
  • 🖼️ Gustav Klimt used gold to express profound emotions in art.
  • 📜 Gold reflects what societies hold sacred: power, love, status.
  • 🔑 The democratization of gold made it accessible to common people.
  • 🌌 Gold's significance has evolved from sacred to commercial value.
  • 📊 Modern gold is often a mere statistic, losing its inherent shine.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The text discusses the transformation of Augustus' dream to become a god among mortals, highlighting the inadequacy of gold in fulfilling his aspirations as his mask was made of copper with a thin gold layer. It then transitions into the 19th century, specifically Birmingham, known for its innovation. George Richards Elkington emerges as a key figure, credited with inventing electroplating, which democratized gold by allowing ordinary items to be coated in gold, making it accessible to the masses.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:14:17

    The narrative continues with Elkington's success, as his processes enchanted the Victorian public, enabling them to possess items that appeared made of gold. Meanwhile, Gustav Klimt's artwork '<The Kiss>' reflects a deeper spiritual value of gold, juxtaposing the past's sacred reverence for gold with its current commodification. The text concludes by pondering society's obsession with gold as a representation of what is sacred, noting that it has become more associated with money than its intrinsic beauty.

Carte mentale

Vidéo Q&R

  • What is the significance of Augustus's mask?

    It symbolizes his desire for power and divinity, even though it was made from less valuable materials.

  • Who invented electroplating?

    George Richards Elkington invented electroplating in the 19th century.

  • How did electroplating change access to gold?

    It democratized gold, allowing ordinary people to own gold-plated items instead of solid gold.

  • What did Prince Albert think of Elkington's invention?

    Prince Albert was captivated and even installed his own electroplating suite at Buckingham Palace.

  • What artistic influence did Gustav Klimt have related to gold?

    Klimt used various gold substances in his works, particularly in 'The Kiss,' to emphasize gold's spiritual significance.

  • Why do people value gold so highly?

    Gold reflects values deemed sacred across cultures, such as power, status, and love.

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  • 00:00:00
    and that's why that mask becomes so
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    powerful and so
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    revealing it embodies that desperate
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    desire of Augustus to enter the pantheon
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    of the great gods and the great Kings
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    but the truth is underneath that glowing
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    mask he wasn't Rich enough and wasn't
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    powerful enough to be one of them and
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    that's why this mask is made of copper
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    with a little bit of gold put on the top
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    of it
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    augustus's vision of unlimited gold had
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    failed to
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    materialize but in a little over a
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    hundred years the alchemist's dream
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    would come
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    true and this miraculous Discovery took
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    place in
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    [Music]
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    Birmingham now in the 19th century
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    Birmingham was Far and Away the most
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    inventive place on the planet now let me
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    just give you one example in that period
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    this city registered three times as many
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    patterns as any other city in the world
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    indeed it seemed that hardly a day would
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    pass here without someone inventing
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    something but for me one of those
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    inventions was more remarkable than all
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    the others because For the First Time it
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    promised to bring gold Bo within the
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    reach of
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    everyone that remarkable invention was
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    the brainchild of one George Richards
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    elkington George elkington was a typical
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    product of industrial Birmingham he was
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    inventive he was industrious and he was
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    obsessed with taking out patents he
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    patented virtually everything he ever
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    produced the bifocal for instance but
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    elkington's most profitable license was
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    issued on the 25th of March
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    1840 when he patented away to make gold
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    objects out of almost
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    [Music]
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    nothing years before Edison had even
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    invented the electric light bulb
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    elkington was harnessing Electric
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    to make gold
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    objects he called the process electr
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    plating and it was a Marvel of the
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    Industrial
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    Age now at the center of elkington's
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    factory stood a huge machine that
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    rotated 500 times a minute 24 hours a
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    day 7 days a week and around that
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    machine were these vast troughs of
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    bubbling brown liquid and those troughs
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    transformed ordinary objects in to
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    gold now contemporaries were astounded
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    by the process some of them thought it
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    was magic some of them thought it was
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    Alchemy some thought it was some
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    technology from a distant future but
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    nearly all of them thought it was a
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    miracle
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    one day in
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    1844 elkington was graced with a visit
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    from Prince Albert who had come to see
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    the miracle for
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    himself and for this special occasion
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    elkington had prepared a most wondrous
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    spectacle elkington plucked a small rose
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    from his lapel
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    he then delicately lowered it into one
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    of his troughs of
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    liquid he waited the crowd waited and
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    when the time was just right he withdrew
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    it the crowd was amazed a round of
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    applause broke out because elkington's
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    Rose had been turned to
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    gold and as they looked Clos
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    they grew even more amazed because by
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    chance a small cobweb had been on
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    elkington's
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    rows and the cobweb 2 had been turned
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    into the finest threads of
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    [Music]
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    gold Albert was
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    captivated so
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    captivated that he became an
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    electroplating addict
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    on his return to London it is said that
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    he had his very own electroplating Suite
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    installed at Buckingham
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    Palace finally fulfilling every ruler's
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    dream of unlimited
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    [Music]
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    gold with a royal seal of approval
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    elkington's Factory went into overdrive
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    within a few years he was employing
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    10,000
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    people and his gold was sent across the
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    world to India to Uruguay and even to
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    Egypt elkington was churning out gold
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    objects on a scale never seen
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    before why why do you think people like
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    so much CH that's exactly what they're
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    likeing because if everything was made
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    out of solid metal it would cost a
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    fortune where this will look like it's
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    made out of solid gold it's really
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    [Music]
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    nice that there is gold that's what the
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    actual gold looks
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    like yeah that that's actually gold I
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    don't know how they make it like I'm not
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    going to pretend to know but that there
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    would
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    do hundreds and hundreds of items of
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    work just that small
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    amount and then comes out that it's
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    gold it's a really thin
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    amount you wouldn't be able to buy a a
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    pack of cigarettes with the amount of
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    gold that's on
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    there because that's just a color it's a
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    gold color so people buy it for the what
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    it looks like more than what the value
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    of the gold
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    [Music]
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    is he think he real
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    gold I think a lot of people would be
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    fooled yeah a lot of people would fools
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    [Music]
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    gold elkington's Fool's
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    Gold have the Victorian public Enchanted
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    they peered into elkington's glittering
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    showrooms from
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    Newcastle to London's fashionable region
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    [Music]
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    street but the public didn't just look
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    they could now own a little bit of gold
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    for the very first
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    time this was the most revolutionary
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    technology and what it did was
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    democratized gold it brought gold into
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    ordinary people's
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    homes and elkington's ingenious new
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    technology allowed him to make perfect
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    copies of the most priceless and
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    exquisite Treasures ever to have been
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    found and these are based on really
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    extraordinary original an object
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    discovered in Afghanistan and elkington
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    made numerous numerous reproductions of
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    them now what's amazing is this probably
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    served some incredibly important
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    religious function thousands of years
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    ago but now it was simply for display
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    perhaps you could even use it as a
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    toothbrush
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    [Music]
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    holder as his electr plating Empire
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    expanded one city was hooked on
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    elkington's Golden Wares
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    the dawn of the 20th century was
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    Vienna's Gilded
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    Age even as the Austrian Empire crumbled
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    their Lust For Gold
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    remained but here there lived an artist
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    who was determined to make gold sacred
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    once again
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    Gustav climp produced a series of
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    glittering
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    paintings but one of them shines
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    brighter than all the
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    rest the
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    kiss known as the last word on
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    love but I think it tells us just as
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    much about
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    gold Clint has thrown almost every
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    single kind of golden substance he can
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    find onto this one canvas in fact there
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    are eight different kinds of gold leaf
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    alone on this picture and there many
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    more different kinds of gold paint and
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    every single thing has been applied in a
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    different way so he has put some gold
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    leaf down flat other times he's put gold
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    on top of bits of plaster and shellac to
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    create these wonderful Jewel likee
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    textures so the whole thing becomes
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    incredibly opulent it's almost like
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    you're opening a bag of jewels and
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    you're looking inside to see all these
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    fantastic Treasures
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    within he's looked back to the great
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    Egyptian sun
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    Gods the great Byzantine mosaics he had
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    been to Reena he' seen those fantastic
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    mosaics he's drawing on decorative gold
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    workk of the Renaissance like
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    [Music]
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    Chini so why is climp doing it why so
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    much gold in so many ways with so many
  • 00:11:04
    references and meanings well I think
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    it's part of his desperate attempt to
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    bring back gold from the brink because
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    he has lived through a period when gold
  • 00:11:13
    has become debased it has become cheap
  • 00:11:15
    it's become tacky and he's trying to say
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    no gold is the most precious thing we
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    have it's the most numinous spiritual
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    otherworldly thing we have and therefore
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    we have to devote it to the most
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    important things in the world and for
  • 00:11:28
    Clint the most important thing was
  • 00:11:37
    love it was a beautiful idea but today
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    Clint's Grand ambition has been undone
  • 00:11:44
    by the popularity of his
  • 00:11:46
    work endlessly reproduced the kiss has
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    become just another golden idol of our
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    consumer
  • 00:11:55
    Century now most of us can have a little
  • 00:11:57
    bit of gold in our lives
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    and our obsession with it remains
  • 00:12:06
    undimmed you know I think the reason
  • 00:12:09
    that we're so obsessed with gold is that
  • 00:12:12
    gold reflects the things that every
  • 00:12:14
    society holds most sacred so for the
  • 00:12:17
    ancient Egyptians it was the sun and the
  • 00:12:20
    afterlife for the Christians it was the
  • 00:12:22
    light of
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    God and for the Renaissance Kings it was
  • 00:12:26
    power and status and for Gustav climp it
  • 00:12:28
    was love love and sex but this gold here
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    underneath the bank of England suggests
  • 00:12:35
    that for us perhaps the most sacred
  • 00:12:38
    thing is
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    money and you know when this beautiful
  • 00:12:44
    substance is locked away seen only as a
  • 00:12:47
    number as a price as a statistic on a
  • 00:12:50
    spreadsheet I can't help feeling that
  • 00:12:52
    maybe something is
  • 00:12:54
    lost and maybe somehow gold has lost its
  • 00:12:58
    shine
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    [Music]
  • 00:13:10
    in the next
  • 00:13:11
    episode a color from across the
  • 00:13:15
    seas from Joto's Heavenly Visions to
  • 00:13:19
    tian's sensual Delights this is an utter
  • 00:13:24
    Barn
  • 00:13:25
    stor from Picasso's Melancholy yearning
  • 00:13:29
    to Eve Klein's dreams of
  • 00:13:32
    Escape it's the color of the great
  • 00:13:36
    beyond of the forever unattainable we
  • 00:13:39
    were going to show those dirty commies
  • 00:13:41
    that we were better it's the story of
  • 00:13:52
    Blue putting a grand Scottish home to
  • 00:13:54
    wrs here on BBC HD tonight at halfast 10
  • 00:13:58
    and that's after the culture show next
  • 00:14:03
    [Music]
  • 00:14:06
    [Laughter]
  • 00:14:09
    [Music]
  • 00:14:10
    [Applause]
Tags
  • gold
  • Augustus
  • electroplating
  • George Elkington
  • Prince Albert
  • Gustav Klimt
  • Klimt's The Kiss
  • industrial revolution
  • democratization of gold
  • cultural value