Museum Secrets (2011–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Inside the Met - full transcript
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] New York, the world
capital of power and style.
And at its heart, a museum
with secrets dark and strange.
A nude statue linked to murder.
(gunshot echoes)
The mysterious power
of an Egyptian temple.
The suit of armor that sheds new light
on the blood lust of Henry VIII.
Secrets hidden in plain sight
inside the Metropolitan Museum.
(suspenseful music)
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(enchanting music)
New York's Metropolitan Museum
draws five million visitors every year.
For a century and a half,
the Met has been the hub
for famous, priceless art
from all over the world
in a city that defines American culture.
At the center of this sky lit
sculpture court stands Diana.
Many statues depict a naked human form,
but in this case, nudity matters.
Diana's nudity is linked to America's
first tabloid murder sensation.
(gun bangs)
A drug addicted billionaire playboy
(pages crinkle)
and a lascivious, upper crust architect
were both entangled in a love triangle
with America's most famous beauty.
And all had a fateful connection
to the bronze statue of Diana,
ancient goddess of the hunt.
In 1892, Diana was the tallest object
on the Manhattan skyline.
In Victorian America, this
was as risque as it got.
Commissioned by architect Stanford White,
she was created by American
sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
- Diana is bathing by a woodland pool,
and she senses that she's being spied on,
and she stands up nude,
shoots her arrow at the
young prince Actaeon,
who is then transformed into the stag,
so because she had to
be nude in this story,
sculptors liked this idea
of having a veiled reason
for creating a nude figure.
- [Narrator] White placed
Diana at the pinnacle
of what was then Madison Square Garden.
Not the sports arena we know today,
but an earlier building
surmounted by an ornate tower.
Illuminated by a powerful spotlight,
Diana could be seen by every New Yorker.
- There were newspaper
reports that nannies
had to rush their charges
through Madison Square Park,
and you might walk into some old gentleman
with his spy glasses who
had them preened up on Diana
so he could get a close
look at this nude figure.
(contemplative music)
- [Narrator] Diana was a
figure from Roman mythology,
but spoke to an America where modesty
was on its way out and overt
display was on its way in.
A real woman who embodied this spirit
was an artist's model named Evelyn Nesbit.
Many New Yorkers came to
believe her face and figure
were the inspiration for Diana.
Like a supermodel of today,
Evelyn was first famous for her looks,
and then famous for being famous.
Her life became a source
of gossip and speculation
in the pages of a new kind of newspaper,
one New York City helped invent.
The celebrity tabloid.
Barry Levine is the executive editor
of the National Enquirer.
- Evelyn was a Marilyn Monroe,
she was a, on the scale
of today's actresses,
she would be up there with Angelina Jolie,
a woman that was just the personification
of every man's fantasy at the time.
- [Narrator] Stanford
White shared this fantasy.
The famous architect was
also an infamous womanizer.
He was rumored to have
a secret love life nest
in the penthouse of Madison Square Garden,
where he seduced many young
women, like Evelyn Nesbit.
Wonderly White is Standford
White's great granddaughter.
- [Wonderly] He met her when
she was merely 14 years old,
but she was an absolutely
breathtaking beauty.
He saw that in her, and decided
to take her under his wing.
At the turn of the century,
the thing to remember is
even though a woman was 14 years old,
that was considered nearly the right age
to get married at and have children.
It was a different society
than the one we live in now.
So, even though she was so young,
becoming his mistress wasn't
like we would see it today
as practically a case of pedophilia.
- [Narrator] Evelyn Nesbit
biographer, Paula Uruburu,
takes a less charitable view
of White's sexual preference
and method of seduction.
- [Paula] So Stanford White had this,
he used to call them snuggeries,
he had these apartments
apparently, in various
places around the city,
and he would invite these young girls in,
and Evelyn in a faithful night
he invites her to this apartment.
(mysterious music)
He's giving her champagne,
and in one end of the apartment,
there's this red velvet swing
hanging from the ceiling.
She gets on the red velvet
swing that's hanging
from the rafters in the
ceiling in one corner
of the apartment and
pushing her on the swing,
and telling her to kick her foot
through this Japanese parasol,
this paper parasol that's
hung from the ceiling.
And the higher he pushes her,
the closer she comes to
piercing the parasol.
Of course, she's already been plied
with a great deal of champagne.
The way Evelyn described it
in her own memoir, she said,
"when I went into that
room I was a virgin,
"when I came out I was not."
When she becomes conscious,
White is next to her
and he's naked and she's almost naked,
and he says "Now you belong to me."
- [Narrator] Evelyn kept the
liaison secret from everyone,
including a new man who entered her life,
millionaire playboy Harry Thaw.
- [Paula] Harry Thaw was born
into this wealthy family,
the 1890s we're talking about
there's no income tax or anything,
but the minute that he's 18, his mother,
she ups his allowance to $80,000 a month,
which is an insane amount of money.
Harry was probably a cocaine fiend,
that was the term that
they used at the time.
He always had this, sort of,
manic glazed look in his
eyes and almost every picture
you see of him, I mean, he looks crazy.
Harry was clearly indulging
in everything there
was possible to indulge in.
- [Narrator] Stanford White
used his considerable influence
in New York society to shut Thaw out.
The two men hated each other.
(paper tears)
- [Wonderly] Thaw had a
tremendous cocaine problem
and would go into cocaine rages
and throw around 15th century furniture
that my great grandparents
had brought back from Europe.
Stanford White had blackballed him
from joining any of the clubs.
Thaw took a tremendous affront to this,
and in response married
Stanford White's mistress.
- [Narrator] On their wedding
night, Evelyn revealed
that White had taken her virginity.
(sinister music)
Thaw flew into a violent rage
and over time came to assault
his bride with a dog whip.
- When Thaw realized that Stanford White
wasn't heartbroken or crushed
or infuriated by this,
it made him even more incensed.
And he started on the
notion that Stanford White
had ruined his wife, and not only that,
had used her as the model
for a statue that was
at the top of the original
Madison Square Garden.
- [Narrator] Thaw's anger,
fueled by righteous indignation
and cocaine, coalesced
into a plan of action.
He decided White must pay with his life.
(dramatic music)
June 25th 1906, in an open air theater
beneath the statue of Diana, Harry Thaw
and Evelyn Nesbit attend
a musical performance.
Seeing Stanford White,
Thaw takes out a pistol,
approaches to point blank range,
and shoots him in the face.
(gun bangs)
(crowd screaming)
- White fell to the ground,
people started screaming,
people started rushing away from this man
who was holding up the gun.
Harry was holding up the gun,
saying, "I did it because
he ruined my wife!"
(stressed orchestral music)
- [Narrator] Beneath
the statue that helped
trigger Thaw's rage, Stanford
White dies in a pool of blood.
The arrest and trial that follow
ignite a media frenzy
in New York and beyond.
- [Barry] This was the granddaddy
of all tabloid stories.
The trial that we kids consider the trial
of the century was O.J. Simpson.
This, at the time, probably was bigger.
It had all the elements.
It had a love triangle, it
had violence, it had betrayal.
I think this is the type of story, if this
had occurred today, this
would wipe Brad and Angelina,
and the Tom Cruise type
stories off the map.
And this would be the story that would
be talked about day in and day out.
- [Narrator] The trial
results in a hung jury.
At Thaw's second trial,
Evelyn Nesbit takes the stand
as the prosecution's star witness.
All of America hangs on
her tale of seduction
at the hands of Stanford White.
Many felt her husband
was within his rights
to defend her honor with a gun.
Thaw was found not guilty
by reason of insanity.
(sinister music)
Evelyn Nesbit, America's first supermodel,
faded into obscurity,
dying alone after a long
struggle with drugs and alcohol.
And as it turns out, the
statue that sparked a murder
wasn't really Evelyn after all.
When Diana was created, Evelyn
was just seven years old.
But as they say in the tabloids,
never let the truth get in
the way of a good story.
(gentle music)
Diana may be made of bronze,
but as tabloid stories
go, she's solid gold.
(noble music)
Next, a suit of armor sheds new light
on the blood lust of Henry VIII.
(dramatic orchestral music)
(noble music)
The Metropolitan Museum in New York
has over 15,000 pieces in its
arms and armor collection.
(horses snorting)
(horses whinnying)
One piece in particular has
been at the center of mystery.
For many years this suit
of armor was thought
to belong to a minor 16th
century French nobleman.
(calm music)
But recently discovered
documents and forensic evidence
have led to a startling revelation.
This is actually the last battle armor
of a king of England, Henry VIII.
Armed with this knowledge we hope
to reveal an elusive secret.
Why did a monarch who was
once athletic and popular
end his reign as an obese tyrant?
Met curator, Stuart Pyhrr,
helped discover the armor's true owner.
- In 1547, Henry VIII died.
A complete inventory of
his collection was made,
including every chair,
every piece of bed linen,
all the armors, and there
was an armor called Italian,
and described in such a
way, it sounded very similar
to the one in our collection.
- [Narrator] The armor sounded similar
but Pyhrr couldn't be sure.
He couldn't even be certain Henry's armor
had survived to the present day.
But he had a clue.
The will of the Earl of Pembroke.
It mentions armor given to him
by his benefactor, Henry VIII.
- [Stuart] The documentation
seemed overwhelming.
So we had to look at the
armor with fresh eyes.
- [Narrator] A fresh look
revealed something no one
had seen before.
- [Stuart] It was only
on dismantling the armor
and looking at every detail,
began to realize there
were changes in the armor.
That some plates were
of a different color.
The etching was slightly
different, the gilding brighter.
- [Narrator] Then Pyhrr
noticed something one
would only expect to find on an armor
belonging to Henry VIII.
New studs were added, and
those studs have Tudor roses.
- [Narrator] The Tudor
rose was Henry's symbol,
his favorite decorative design.
- [Stuart] An emblem that was completely
overlooked for the last 400 years.
- [Narrator] The clincher
was the armors enormous size.
(ambient music)
It was constructed to
accommodate a 51 inch waist.
Clearly, the man who wore this suit
of armor was morbidly obese.
Henry's biographer, Suzannah Lipscomb,
is not surprised the king got so fat.
- The thing about Henry
VIII's eating habits
is that he mostly ate meat.
In those days, you ate meat
if you could afford it,
so it's probably a very vitamin free diet,
without any fresh vegetables,
none of his five a day
that we're recommended to eat.
So he would obviously
put on a lot of weight,
taking in all that protein,
and without anything to work it off.
- [Narrator] In his youth
Henry, was athletic and slim.
(harpsichord music)
Lipscomb believes that
one specific incident
may be the cause of
Henry's late onset obesity.
And perhaps a negative personality change.
(crowd chanting)
On January 24th 1536,
during a jousting match
Henry suffered a serious accident.
(hoof steps pounding)
(metal scrapes)
(horse whinnies)
Head trauma rendered him
unconscious for two hours.
From that day forward, he
became more erratic and violent.
(metal scrapes)
(blood splats)
Within months, he ordered
Anne Boleyn beheaded.
During the remainder of his
reign, he ordered the execution
of more than 50,000 of his subjects.
(dreary music)
Could head trauma have
altered Henry's personality?
- [Suzannah] Maybe he
bruised his cerebral cortex
and in the papers over the last few years,
there've been all these references to
American footballers and
others who had head accidents
and then have seen a real change
in their character and personality.
And we think maybe that's
what happened to Henry.
(harpsichord music)
- [Narrator] If a jousting accident
changed Henry's personality,
why did it change it
for the worse?
Doctor Naftali Berrill is a
New York neuropsychologist.
He sees cases like this all the time.
- Sometime you hear stories like,
gee, before the head trauma,
they were fairly calm.
After the accident, a
personality change occurred.
And you hear reports of family and people
that know the individual that they behave
in a way that suggests
a level of dyscontrol,
they become irritable,
violent, unpredictable,
assaultive, obnoxious, and sometimes,
they commit crimes as a consequence.
(distant chatter)
(soft sinister music)
- [Narrator] It's a textbook description
of Henry VIII's condition.
And this armor, acquired when he
was nearly too fat to walk,
let alone go into battle,
suggests that Henry's ambitions
were also out of control.
- Later in life, there's one more attempt
to regain his lost glory.
So in the 1540s, he thinks,
well, I'll invade France again.
(noble music)
- [Narrator] To lead the invasion,
Henry required his armor to be supersized.
(metal scrapes)
- It turns out, in fact, it
was modified for Henry's body
after it was given by
the Italian milliner.
It was cut,
(iron clangs)
plates were added at the
sides of the arm holes
to perhaps give it more flexibility
and comfort for the king.
The breast and the back were shortened.
(metal clangs)
A plate was taken out in the front,
at least two in the back,
which truncated the upper body.
The helmet was modified.
Add two plates to the back
to give it more flexibility,
something that only the
king would have wanted.
It wasn't necessary otherwise.
- [Narrator] Against the
advice of his councilors,
Henry dawned his armor and led
the English army into France.
The invasion was a complete,
unmitigated disaster.
(dramatic orchestral music)
Soon after, Henry died,
a huge man and a huge failure.
His legacy was a needless
war and a depleted treasury.
This tragic comic suit of armor
protected his beloved body,
but could not save England
from his bloated ambition.
(intimidating music)
Next, an Egyptian temple that
offers the spiritual power
of the pharaohs to the people of New York.
(triumphant music)
(intimidating music)
Within the walls of
the Metropolitan Museum
is a massive temple of ancient Egypt.
The temple of Dendur can be seen
from outside the museum,
through a wall of glass.
Twenty-five meters
across, eight meters tall,
the temple's gallery is the
size of a football field.
It is one of the Met's
most popular attractions.
(ancient music)
But visitors are not permitted
to enter the secret chamber at its heart.
This is an exclusive look
beyond the forbidden threshold.
- So you move through a temple
and it goes from light to dark
and it goes uphill so that
the central part of the temple
the most sacred area, which is the shrine,
sanctuary, which would be here,
is the darkest and the
highest point of the temple.
There is behind this
wall an empty chamber.
It's a hidden chamber, you can't see it.
- [Narrator] The purpose
of this hidden chamber
is a museum secret.
When we scanned the
temple walls for clues,
we find nothing about the chamber.
But we do see something else.
Images that have no business
in an Egyptian temple.
Images of a Roman Emperor.
Caesar Augustus.
(dramatic music)
Augustus conquered Egypt in 30 B.C.,
famously prompting Queen Cleopatra
and her lover Mark
Anthony to commit suicide.
Unlike other empire
builders, Augustus did not
force his beliefs on conquered nations.
His genius lay in embracing local customs
for his own benefit.
- [Diana] The Romans built the
temple in the Egyptian style
because it was much easier to control
the population that way.
The Romans wanted cooperation from Egypt
because they saw Egypt as an agricultural,
rich country which they needed
to exploit for the Roman world.
(Egyptian music)
- [Narrator] To win
Egyptian hearts and minds,
Augustus allowed the temple
to be dedicated to two local boys.
They are Pediese and Pihor,
young sons of a local chieftain,
who was an important ally of Augustus.
- [Diana] They occur
several times in the temple.
Pediese is always the fist one,
so he is believed to be more important.
We don't know why they are
treated as Gods in this temple.
(water sloshing)
One understanding is that
they both drowned in the Nile,
and when humans drown in the Nile,
they were deified immediately.
We just know that they
were revered enough,
possibly local saints in some way,
to be given a place in this temple.
- [Narrator] The Egyptians
who used the temple would soon
discover that Augustus'
love was strictly temporary.
A few years after the temple was finished,
his army invaded in force.
Egypt fell under Rome's
boot, never to rise again.
(tense music)
The temple, however, remained
standing until the 1960s,
when it became one of
many ancient structures
threatened by the
construction of the Aswan Dam.
A UN mission largely funded
by the United States,
helped save many important monuments.
To thank their benefactors,
Egypt offered America
the Temple of Dendur.
The gift had one condition.
The temple must be available
to everyone at all times.
The Met responded by providing
a gallery with a wall
of glass, so the temple
can remain in view 24/7.
For believers in the gods of the pharaohs,
a temple available to everyone
retains its spiritual power.
What is this power?
And what of the chamber deep
inside the temple walls?
To construct a temple with
such a symmetrical plan,
and then dig through the
walls to add a hidden chamber,
the builders must've had some
important purpose in mind.
- There are two hypotheses.
One is that it was a
burial chamber for one
or both of the brothers who
were worshiped in this temple.
And the other possibility is that it
was a chamber for oracles.
In other words, someone
would stand in there,
a supplicate would come in,
or a priest would come in
and ask a question, and the
answer would be given to him
from an unknown place, all
they would hear is a voice.
(tranquil string music)
This was something that
was common in Egypt,
oracles existed, but we just don't know
if that's what it was.
We have no hard answers.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Today, the temple
of Dendur offers a glimpse
of ancient Egypt in
the heart of Manhattan.
In its own time, it was
a monument to the end
of the most enduring civilization
the world has ever known.
(anxious piano music)
Next, we explore the
relics of Christendom,
to reveal a talisman of hope,
and a harbinger of doom.
(dramatic orchestral music)
(tranquil music)
According to the New Testament,
at the last supper, Jesus
raised a cup of wine
to his disciples and
said, "This is my blood."
Today, in the Metropolitan
Museum in New York,
there is an artifact that looks very much
like a cup form Biblical times.
The ancient name for cup is grail.
In years past, several
scholars of early Christianity
argued that this is the cup Christ
drank from at the last supper.
The chalice known as the Holy Grail.
- There are many people trying to prove
that both Christ and old testament figure
like Moses were or were
not real human beings.
Were they historical figures
or were they epic heroes like Achilles?
And so this is a huge
theological debate there,
and this chalice and what the images on it
represent play into that larger debate.
(tranquil music)
- [Narrator] The artifact was
discovered in the early 1900s
in Antioch, hidden in a well
with several other
precious religious relics.
Shortly after the crucifixion,
Antioch became a center for Christianity.
Both Peter and Paul preached here.
Is it possible they brought
Christ's chalice with them?
Careful examination
reveals that the artifact
is comprised of two very different layers.
The outer shell is highly crafted,
decorated with images of
Christ and his disciples.
But inside is a simple unadorned cup.
Just the sort of crude drinking vessel
that might have been owned by
a poor carpenter like Jesus.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I,
the relic was transported
to New York for safekeeping.
A respected expert examined it
and declared it to be the cup of Christ.
(holy music)
- [Helen] And what to be more important
than to find the Holy Grail?
The beginning of the Eucharist,
the Mass of the Christian Church?
- [Narrator] In the 1920s
and 30s, the artifact
was exhibited throughout
America as the true Holy Grail.
(peaceful piano music)
Armed guards were hired to protect it.
Thousands of Christians lined
up to catch a fleeting look.
But when the artifact was
gifted to the Met in 1950,
museum experts gave it another hard look.
They saw clear indications it was
made 500 years after Christ.
And though it looks like a cup,
it looks much more like the oil lamps
found in early churches.
(choir music)
While experts felt they
had closed the case,
many believers sought a different verdict
from a higher power, the Catholic Church.
- [Helen] When the chalice
came to the Met in 1950,
there had been a huge
effort to get the Vatican
to declare that this was the Holy Grail.
There'd been huge efforts
to get the Vatican over time
to declare many things
to be the sacred object.
- [Narrator] The Vatican declined.
And in the years since
then, as interest faded,
the artifact was consigned
to a quiet corridor.
But even though this
is not the Holy Grail,
it still carries the hopes
of those who want to believe.
- People want to touch things
that are important to them.
You get autographs because
you admire this figure,
you want to have Derek Jeter's signature
because you're a Yankee fan
and he's the captain of the team.
(gentle harp music)
And that's what a relic is,
it's something that gives you access
to the holy by being able to touch it.
(anxious music)
- [Narrator] From Christian hope, we turn
to Christian visions of doom.
This is the manuscript of the apocalypse.
A 14th century volume containing dramatic,
frightening illustrations
of the end of days.
The manuscript is displayed
in the Met's satellite museum
known as The Cloisters.
And if it looks like something
from the Middle Ages,
that's because it was constructed
of elements taken from
medieval structures.
Doorways, windows, and walls purchased
in Europe and transported to New York.
The building on view today
has a tranquil beauty
that is more than the sum
of its medieval parts.
Few artifacts capture the dark
and brooding qualities of the era
quite like the manuscript
of the apocalypse.
Is is a book of power and secrets.
- All great works of art are reluctant
to give up all their
secrets at once. (laughs)
and this is no exception.
It must've been in England, and
then it came back to France.
This piece was confiscated by the Nazis,
we don't know where it was exactly
during the second World War.
So it's extraordinary with all
of this difficult past that it's had
that it survived in such
remarkable condition.
(page crinkling)
- [Narrator] The manuscript
predicts that the world
as we know it is doomed to end.
Christ will return to judge
the living and the dead.
And as written in the book of John,
the end will be heralded by
four horsemen of the apocalypse,
bringers of pestilence,
war, famine, and death.
Bernard McGinn is a retired
professor of divinity
from the University of Chicago.
- The literal interpretation
of the Book of Revelation
is alive and well at the
beginning of the 21st century,
and according to certain
polls, a very large proportion,
if not a majority of
the American believers,
think that Jesus will come
back in their own lifetime.
(crowd shouting)
- [Narrator] For some believers, the signs
of the apocalypse are already here.
- [Bernard] Apocalyptic
literature is in part a response
to crisis, and the crisis
that in some way hopes
for a denouement in the
final age of history.
But sometimes that denouement,
that end of scene is far, far away.
Other times it's remarkably
close, even predictably close.
(intense music)
(horse whinnies)
Medieval Christians had reason
to believe that John the
Apostle's end times were at hand.
Famine, war and the
pestilence of the Black Death
were part of everyday life.
- And at various points through history,
people are sort of
anxiously awaiting the idea
that time is about to come to an end.
The good news is if you
play your cards right
and you do what you're supposed to do,
you end up in a very happy
place at the end of time.
So even if the story has some
frightening scenes, you can
anticipate that that's
not going to involve you,
because you're gonna be on
the right side of things.
- [Narrator] Not everyone
sees a bright side
to the frightening violence of our age.
But for some believers, the violence
that heralds Christ's
return is actually good news
that should be shared.
The book's illustrated form presented a
powerful message then, and it's one
that still resonates today.
(hoof steps pound)
- Well, I think the notion of
Revelation as a graphic novel
is extremely powerful
notion, and one that fits it
in terms of our cultural
milieu, very, very exactly.
The book seems to lend itself
to the pictorial imagination
of the particular era within which it is.
So that no book of the Bible
had been more illustrated
and had a more powerful effect on art
and literature than the
book of the apocalypse.
(sinister orchestral music)
- [Narrator] And there's another mystery
surrounding the book.
There are pages missing.
There is evidence the
manuscript is incomplete.
- [Barbara] There's some missing pictures,
and that probably happened
at quite a recent date.
If I turn this page, I think you'll see.
Oh this page there's a great illumination,
on this page there's a great illumination,
here's just half a page, you see.
And its been cut out.
- [Narrator] There's no
way to know when the pages
were removed or by whom.
But the book was in
the hands of the Nazis,
and Hitler was obsessed
with the supernatural.
Did he or his followers
believe the manuscript
of the Apocalypse had some special power?
- And it's odd in particular
with an Apocalypse
because the text itself says
that one must be very careful
that the words are in correctly.
What I mean is that you'll end up
in the mouth of hell if
you don't get this right.
- [Bernard] This book
is the key to the past
and the revelation of the future,
it's a power that's not dead today.
The book can be a dangerous book
when it's read only in a
strictly literal sense.
- [Narrator] But no one can control
how books like these are read.
There will be those who
interpret the apocalyptic vision
as metaphor or warning,
and there will always be those
who say it's coming, bring it on.
(dramatic music)
(electronic trilling)
Next, medieval technology
meets modern combat,
as the Met does its bit to help America
fight two world wars.
(water sloshes)
(dramatic music)
(intimidating music)
In medieval times,
European armorers worked to
provide maximum protection
for elite soldiers.
(dramatic music)
By the 20th century, war
had become a bloody struggle
between unarmored forces.
Armor making was by then a lost art.
But when America entered
World War I in 1917,
the military concerned
about potential casualties
turned to the Metropolitan Museum.
Deep below the public galleries
is a room that few ever see,
a room that played a crucial
role in saving the lives
of countless soldiers.
Stuart Pyhrr is the curator
in charge of arms and armor.
- One of the least well known aspects
of the Metropolitan
Museum is its contribution
to the war efforts in World
War I and World War II.
In 1917, the war department
contacted the museum's curator
of arms and armor, Bashford Dean,
and asked him to apply
his historical knowledge
of ancient armor to the
development of modern helmets
and body armor for the current conflict.
(easygoing music)
- [Narrator] Bashford Dean
had a double challenge,
to design a helmet that
would provide protection
and be something soldiers
would agree to wear.
- [Stuart] Getting the
modern soldier to accept
a steel helmet was an uphill battle.
It couldn't be too heavy,
it couldn't be out sized,
one that got in the way.
- [Narrator] For
inspiration, Bashford Dean
studied the Met's
medieval armor collection.
He found many examples of helmets that
struck a balance between
form and function.
He conceived and built
several promising prototypes.
But the war ended before
his work was complete.
And the prototypes were shelved.
(footsteps pounding)
In retrospect, this may
have been short sighted.
(Hitler yells in German)
Bashford Dean died before
the start of World War II,
but his protege carried on his work.
- [Stuart] The museum's armorer
came up with this design,
very much based on the M1 helmet,
but more compact, with the idea being
a smaller head and more compact helmet
would be more efficient
in the battlefield.
- [Narrator] After the helmet,
the Met moved on to body armor.
This 15th century armor,
too fragile to display
in the public galleries,
was an inspiration.
(gentle foreboding music)
- [Stuart] The textile
is is on the outside,
the plates on the inside,
and they would've been
covered by another coat of textile.
And then wrapping
around, this is the back,
it was wrapped around jacket
like, sleeveless jacket,
and tied in the front.
It provided a flexible, armored defense.
(anxious piano music)
This is the Met's revolutionary design.
Medieval technology,
updated for the 20th century battlefield.
(weapons fire)
Once again, the brutal war came to an end
before the Met's design could be tested.
Today's helmets look remarkably
like Bashford Dean's original design.
He saw the future by
looking into the past.
(electronic trilling)
The Met's body armor
proved even more prophetic.
Some modern soldiers wear armor made
from independent plates held
together by flexible material.
(gun bangs)
Such armor can withstand high caliber,
high velocity rifle fire.
This is the body armor
of the 21st century,
but the underlying technology was invented
by medieval craftsmen, and updated
by the curators of the
Metropolitan Museum.
Unfortunately, no one
can know how many lives
might've been spared,
had the Met's prototypes
gone into production a century ago.
(energetic music)
(upbeat pop music)
Next, modern science
unlocks ancient mysteries
and uncovers new facts.
(dramatic music)
(upbeat music)
Two million square feet,
over two million works of art,
five million visitors per year.
At New York's Metropolitan Museum,
there's a new marvel around every corner.
But there are more marvels
the public can't see,
just below their feet.
In the Met's department
of scientific research,
scientists use state of the art technology
to solve ancient mysteries.
- The laboratory is essentially
a fully equipped modern
analytical chemistry lab.
We're dealing, if you
think about our collection,
with 5,000 years of history
from five continents
so every possible material
that has been used
by humankind in artistic
production is represented here.
We have glass, wood, stone,
organic material, textiles.
We have natural materials
and synthetic materials.
- [Narrator] Recently the
lad acquired a new tool.
Used by NASA to study
Martian soil samples,
only a handful of the
world's museums have one.
This is a Raman Spectrometer.
For important and fragile artifacts,
the Raman Spectrometer
offers a non invasive way
to reveal a unique molecular fingerprint.
Here's how it works.
First, a microscopic sample
is taken from an artwork,
using an ultra sharp Tungsten needle.
The sample is smaller than
the width of a human hair.
Next, it's placed in a solution
containing tiny particles of silver.
Placed under a laser, the shiny silver
amplifies the sample's
chemical properties.
The laser scans the sample,
seeking its molecular fingerprint.
The result is a graphic signature
of the chemical elements.
- And the result is incredible,
we go from not seeing
anything to almost magic,
seeing a very distinct
signal that corresponds
to the molecule present in the color
- [Narrator] Using the spectrometer,
Leona made a discovery about world's trade
during the time of the crusades.
The paint on this French
Madonna came from Asia.
- So you have to imagine
this huge trade chain
that went from India all
the way to Southern France
in the Middle Ages, in the 1100s
and if you think about
it, to me it's fascinating
'cause we're talking about
a global trade connection
at a time where Europe
and the Muslim world,
which would've been the
intermediary for this type
of commerce, were at war at
the time of the crusades.
- [Narrator] The spectrometer provides
a new way to explore the past.
- [Marco] The term that
I use is, we're trying
to build a material history of art.
So essentially doing
artistry through science.
- [Narrator] This new material history
is changing Leona's view
of how artists work.
- [Marco] We're seeing that artists,
instead of being completely
disconnected from this art,
supremely aware of that and
exploit to their advantage
the properties of materials,
and that's really also the
definition of a scientist,
someone who can take a
material, knowing the properties
and bring it to some kind of use.
(inspirational music)
- [Narrator] For every
mystery science reveals,
far more remain unspoken.
Secrets of the past and of the human heart
hidden in plain sight at
the Metropolitan Museum.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- [Narrator] New York, the world
capital of power and style.
And at its heart, a museum
with secrets dark and strange.
A nude statue linked to murder.
(gunshot echoes)
The mysterious power
of an Egyptian temple.
The suit of armor that sheds new light
on the blood lust of Henry VIII.
Secrets hidden in plain sight
inside the Metropolitan Museum.
(suspenseful music)
Download MyTotal.TV to watch your favorite TV
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(enchanting music)
New York's Metropolitan Museum
draws five million visitors every year.
For a century and a half,
the Met has been the hub
for famous, priceless art
from all over the world
in a city that defines American culture.
At the center of this sky lit
sculpture court stands Diana.
Many statues depict a naked human form,
but in this case, nudity matters.
Diana's nudity is linked to America's
first tabloid murder sensation.
(gun bangs)
A drug addicted billionaire playboy
(pages crinkle)
and a lascivious, upper crust architect
were both entangled in a love triangle
with America's most famous beauty.
And all had a fateful connection
to the bronze statue of Diana,
ancient goddess of the hunt.
In 1892, Diana was the tallest object
on the Manhattan skyline.
In Victorian America, this
was as risque as it got.
Commissioned by architect Stanford White,
she was created by American
sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
- Diana is bathing by a woodland pool,
and she senses that she's being spied on,
and she stands up nude,
shoots her arrow at the
young prince Actaeon,
who is then transformed into the stag,
so because she had to
be nude in this story,
sculptors liked this idea
of having a veiled reason
for creating a nude figure.
- [Narrator] White placed
Diana at the pinnacle
of what was then Madison Square Garden.
Not the sports arena we know today,
but an earlier building
surmounted by an ornate tower.
Illuminated by a powerful spotlight,
Diana could be seen by every New Yorker.
- There were newspaper
reports that nannies
had to rush their charges
through Madison Square Park,
and you might walk into some old gentleman
with his spy glasses who
had them preened up on Diana
so he could get a close
look at this nude figure.
(contemplative music)
- [Narrator] Diana was a
figure from Roman mythology,
but spoke to an America where modesty
was on its way out and overt
display was on its way in.
A real woman who embodied this spirit
was an artist's model named Evelyn Nesbit.
Many New Yorkers came to
believe her face and figure
were the inspiration for Diana.
Like a supermodel of today,
Evelyn was first famous for her looks,
and then famous for being famous.
Her life became a source
of gossip and speculation
in the pages of a new kind of newspaper,
one New York City helped invent.
The celebrity tabloid.
Barry Levine is the executive editor
of the National Enquirer.
- Evelyn was a Marilyn Monroe,
she was a, on the scale
of today's actresses,
she would be up there with Angelina Jolie,
a woman that was just the personification
of every man's fantasy at the time.
- [Narrator] Stanford
White shared this fantasy.
The famous architect was
also an infamous womanizer.
He was rumored to have
a secret love life nest
in the penthouse of Madison Square Garden,
where he seduced many young
women, like Evelyn Nesbit.
Wonderly White is Standford
White's great granddaughter.
- [Wonderly] He met her when
she was merely 14 years old,
but she was an absolutely
breathtaking beauty.
He saw that in her, and decided
to take her under his wing.
At the turn of the century,
the thing to remember is
even though a woman was 14 years old,
that was considered nearly the right age
to get married at and have children.
It was a different society
than the one we live in now.
So, even though she was so young,
becoming his mistress wasn't
like we would see it today
as practically a case of pedophilia.
- [Narrator] Evelyn Nesbit
biographer, Paula Uruburu,
takes a less charitable view
of White's sexual preference
and method of seduction.
- [Paula] So Stanford White had this,
he used to call them snuggeries,
he had these apartments
apparently, in various
places around the city,
and he would invite these young girls in,
and Evelyn in a faithful night
he invites her to this apartment.
(mysterious music)
He's giving her champagne,
and in one end of the apartment,
there's this red velvet swing
hanging from the ceiling.
She gets on the red velvet
swing that's hanging
from the rafters in the
ceiling in one corner
of the apartment and
pushing her on the swing,
and telling her to kick her foot
through this Japanese parasol,
this paper parasol that's
hung from the ceiling.
And the higher he pushes her,
the closer she comes to
piercing the parasol.
Of course, she's already been plied
with a great deal of champagne.
The way Evelyn described it
in her own memoir, she said,
"when I went into that
room I was a virgin,
"when I came out I was not."
When she becomes conscious,
White is next to her
and he's naked and she's almost naked,
and he says "Now you belong to me."
- [Narrator] Evelyn kept the
liaison secret from everyone,
including a new man who entered her life,
millionaire playboy Harry Thaw.
- [Paula] Harry Thaw was born
into this wealthy family,
the 1890s we're talking about
there's no income tax or anything,
but the minute that he's 18, his mother,
she ups his allowance to $80,000 a month,
which is an insane amount of money.
Harry was probably a cocaine fiend,
that was the term that
they used at the time.
He always had this, sort of,
manic glazed look in his
eyes and almost every picture
you see of him, I mean, he looks crazy.
Harry was clearly indulging
in everything there
was possible to indulge in.
- [Narrator] Stanford White
used his considerable influence
in New York society to shut Thaw out.
The two men hated each other.
(paper tears)
- [Wonderly] Thaw had a
tremendous cocaine problem
and would go into cocaine rages
and throw around 15th century furniture
that my great grandparents
had brought back from Europe.
Stanford White had blackballed him
from joining any of the clubs.
Thaw took a tremendous affront to this,
and in response married
Stanford White's mistress.
- [Narrator] On their wedding
night, Evelyn revealed
that White had taken her virginity.
(sinister music)
Thaw flew into a violent rage
and over time came to assault
his bride with a dog whip.
- When Thaw realized that Stanford White
wasn't heartbroken or crushed
or infuriated by this,
it made him even more incensed.
And he started on the
notion that Stanford White
had ruined his wife, and not only that,
had used her as the model
for a statue that was
at the top of the original
Madison Square Garden.
- [Narrator] Thaw's anger,
fueled by righteous indignation
and cocaine, coalesced
into a plan of action.
He decided White must pay with his life.
(dramatic music)
June 25th 1906, in an open air theater
beneath the statue of Diana, Harry Thaw
and Evelyn Nesbit attend
a musical performance.
Seeing Stanford White,
Thaw takes out a pistol,
approaches to point blank range,
and shoots him in the face.
(gun bangs)
(crowd screaming)
- White fell to the ground,
people started screaming,
people started rushing away from this man
who was holding up the gun.
Harry was holding up the gun,
saying, "I did it because
he ruined my wife!"
(stressed orchestral music)
- [Narrator] Beneath
the statue that helped
trigger Thaw's rage, Stanford
White dies in a pool of blood.
The arrest and trial that follow
ignite a media frenzy
in New York and beyond.
- [Barry] This was the granddaddy
of all tabloid stories.
The trial that we kids consider the trial
of the century was O.J. Simpson.
This, at the time, probably was bigger.
It had all the elements.
It had a love triangle, it
had violence, it had betrayal.
I think this is the type of story, if this
had occurred today, this
would wipe Brad and Angelina,
and the Tom Cruise type
stories off the map.
And this would be the story that would
be talked about day in and day out.
- [Narrator] The trial
results in a hung jury.
At Thaw's second trial,
Evelyn Nesbit takes the stand
as the prosecution's star witness.
All of America hangs on
her tale of seduction
at the hands of Stanford White.
Many felt her husband
was within his rights
to defend her honor with a gun.
Thaw was found not guilty
by reason of insanity.
(sinister music)
Evelyn Nesbit, America's first supermodel,
faded into obscurity,
dying alone after a long
struggle with drugs and alcohol.
And as it turns out, the
statue that sparked a murder
wasn't really Evelyn after all.
When Diana was created, Evelyn
was just seven years old.
But as they say in the tabloids,
never let the truth get in
the way of a good story.
(gentle music)
Diana may be made of bronze,
but as tabloid stories
go, she's solid gold.
(noble music)
Next, a suit of armor sheds new light
on the blood lust of Henry VIII.
(dramatic orchestral music)
(noble music)
The Metropolitan Museum in New York
has over 15,000 pieces in its
arms and armor collection.
(horses snorting)
(horses whinnying)
One piece in particular has
been at the center of mystery.
For many years this suit
of armor was thought
to belong to a minor 16th
century French nobleman.
(calm music)
But recently discovered
documents and forensic evidence
have led to a startling revelation.
This is actually the last battle armor
of a king of England, Henry VIII.
Armed with this knowledge we hope
to reveal an elusive secret.
Why did a monarch who was
once athletic and popular
end his reign as an obese tyrant?
Met curator, Stuart Pyhrr,
helped discover the armor's true owner.
- In 1547, Henry VIII died.
A complete inventory of
his collection was made,
including every chair,
every piece of bed linen,
all the armors, and there
was an armor called Italian,
and described in such a
way, it sounded very similar
to the one in our collection.
- [Narrator] The armor sounded similar
but Pyhrr couldn't be sure.
He couldn't even be certain Henry's armor
had survived to the present day.
But he had a clue.
The will of the Earl of Pembroke.
It mentions armor given to him
by his benefactor, Henry VIII.
- [Stuart] The documentation
seemed overwhelming.
So we had to look at the
armor with fresh eyes.
- [Narrator] A fresh look
revealed something no one
had seen before.
- [Stuart] It was only
on dismantling the armor
and looking at every detail,
began to realize there
were changes in the armor.
That some plates were
of a different color.
The etching was slightly
different, the gilding brighter.
- [Narrator] Then Pyhrr
noticed something one
would only expect to find on an armor
belonging to Henry VIII.
New studs were added, and
those studs have Tudor roses.
- [Narrator] The Tudor
rose was Henry's symbol,
his favorite decorative design.
- [Stuart] An emblem that was completely
overlooked for the last 400 years.
- [Narrator] The clincher
was the armors enormous size.
(ambient music)
It was constructed to
accommodate a 51 inch waist.
Clearly, the man who wore this suit
of armor was morbidly obese.
Henry's biographer, Suzannah Lipscomb,
is not surprised the king got so fat.
- The thing about Henry
VIII's eating habits
is that he mostly ate meat.
In those days, you ate meat
if you could afford it,
so it's probably a very vitamin free diet,
without any fresh vegetables,
none of his five a day
that we're recommended to eat.
So he would obviously
put on a lot of weight,
taking in all that protein,
and without anything to work it off.
- [Narrator] In his youth
Henry, was athletic and slim.
(harpsichord music)
Lipscomb believes that
one specific incident
may be the cause of
Henry's late onset obesity.
And perhaps a negative personality change.
(crowd chanting)
On January 24th 1536,
during a jousting match
Henry suffered a serious accident.
(hoof steps pounding)
(metal scrapes)
(horse whinnies)
Head trauma rendered him
unconscious for two hours.
From that day forward, he
became more erratic and violent.
(metal scrapes)
(blood splats)
Within months, he ordered
Anne Boleyn beheaded.
During the remainder of his
reign, he ordered the execution
of more than 50,000 of his subjects.
(dreary music)
Could head trauma have
altered Henry's personality?
- [Suzannah] Maybe he
bruised his cerebral cortex
and in the papers over the last few years,
there've been all these references to
American footballers and
others who had head accidents
and then have seen a real change
in their character and personality.
And we think maybe that's
what happened to Henry.
(harpsichord music)
- [Narrator] If a jousting accident
changed Henry's personality,
why did it change it
for the worse?
Doctor Naftali Berrill is a
New York neuropsychologist.
He sees cases like this all the time.
- Sometime you hear stories like,
gee, before the head trauma,
they were fairly calm.
After the accident, a
personality change occurred.
And you hear reports of family and people
that know the individual that they behave
in a way that suggests
a level of dyscontrol,
they become irritable,
violent, unpredictable,
assaultive, obnoxious, and sometimes,
they commit crimes as a consequence.
(distant chatter)
(soft sinister music)
- [Narrator] It's a textbook description
of Henry VIII's condition.
And this armor, acquired when he
was nearly too fat to walk,
let alone go into battle,
suggests that Henry's ambitions
were also out of control.
- Later in life, there's one more attempt
to regain his lost glory.
So in the 1540s, he thinks,
well, I'll invade France again.
(noble music)
- [Narrator] To lead the invasion,
Henry required his armor to be supersized.
(metal scrapes)
- It turns out, in fact, it
was modified for Henry's body
after it was given by
the Italian milliner.
It was cut,
(iron clangs)
plates were added at the
sides of the arm holes
to perhaps give it more flexibility
and comfort for the king.
The breast and the back were shortened.
(metal clangs)
A plate was taken out in the front,
at least two in the back,
which truncated the upper body.
The helmet was modified.
Add two plates to the back
to give it more flexibility,
something that only the
king would have wanted.
It wasn't necessary otherwise.
- [Narrator] Against the
advice of his councilors,
Henry dawned his armor and led
the English army into France.
The invasion was a complete,
unmitigated disaster.
(dramatic orchestral music)
Soon after, Henry died,
a huge man and a huge failure.
His legacy was a needless
war and a depleted treasury.
This tragic comic suit of armor
protected his beloved body,
but could not save England
from his bloated ambition.
(intimidating music)
Next, an Egyptian temple that
offers the spiritual power
of the pharaohs to the people of New York.
(triumphant music)
(intimidating music)
Within the walls of
the Metropolitan Museum
is a massive temple of ancient Egypt.
The temple of Dendur can be seen
from outside the museum,
through a wall of glass.
Twenty-five meters
across, eight meters tall,
the temple's gallery is the
size of a football field.
It is one of the Met's
most popular attractions.
(ancient music)
But visitors are not permitted
to enter the secret chamber at its heart.
This is an exclusive look
beyond the forbidden threshold.
- So you move through a temple
and it goes from light to dark
and it goes uphill so that
the central part of the temple
the most sacred area, which is the shrine,
sanctuary, which would be here,
is the darkest and the
highest point of the temple.
There is behind this
wall an empty chamber.
It's a hidden chamber, you can't see it.
- [Narrator] The purpose
of this hidden chamber
is a museum secret.
When we scanned the
temple walls for clues,
we find nothing about the chamber.
But we do see something else.
Images that have no business
in an Egyptian temple.
Images of a Roman Emperor.
Caesar Augustus.
(dramatic music)
Augustus conquered Egypt in 30 B.C.,
famously prompting Queen Cleopatra
and her lover Mark
Anthony to commit suicide.
Unlike other empire
builders, Augustus did not
force his beliefs on conquered nations.
His genius lay in embracing local customs
for his own benefit.
- [Diana] The Romans built the
temple in the Egyptian style
because it was much easier to control
the population that way.
The Romans wanted cooperation from Egypt
because they saw Egypt as an agricultural,
rich country which they needed
to exploit for the Roman world.
(Egyptian music)
- [Narrator] To win
Egyptian hearts and minds,
Augustus allowed the temple
to be dedicated to two local boys.
They are Pediese and Pihor,
young sons of a local chieftain,
who was an important ally of Augustus.
- [Diana] They occur
several times in the temple.
Pediese is always the fist one,
so he is believed to be more important.
We don't know why they are
treated as Gods in this temple.
(water sloshing)
One understanding is that
they both drowned in the Nile,
and when humans drown in the Nile,
they were deified immediately.
We just know that they
were revered enough,
possibly local saints in some way,
to be given a place in this temple.
- [Narrator] The Egyptians
who used the temple would soon
discover that Augustus'
love was strictly temporary.
A few years after the temple was finished,
his army invaded in force.
Egypt fell under Rome's
boot, never to rise again.
(tense music)
The temple, however, remained
standing until the 1960s,
when it became one of
many ancient structures
threatened by the
construction of the Aswan Dam.
A UN mission largely funded
by the United States,
helped save many important monuments.
To thank their benefactors,
Egypt offered America
the Temple of Dendur.
The gift had one condition.
The temple must be available
to everyone at all times.
The Met responded by providing
a gallery with a wall
of glass, so the temple
can remain in view 24/7.
For believers in the gods of the pharaohs,
a temple available to everyone
retains its spiritual power.
What is this power?
And what of the chamber deep
inside the temple walls?
To construct a temple with
such a symmetrical plan,
and then dig through the
walls to add a hidden chamber,
the builders must've had some
important purpose in mind.
- There are two hypotheses.
One is that it was a
burial chamber for one
or both of the brothers who
were worshiped in this temple.
And the other possibility is that it
was a chamber for oracles.
In other words, someone
would stand in there,
a supplicate would come in,
or a priest would come in
and ask a question, and the
answer would be given to him
from an unknown place, all
they would hear is a voice.
(tranquil string music)
This was something that
was common in Egypt,
oracles existed, but we just don't know
if that's what it was.
We have no hard answers.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Today, the temple
of Dendur offers a glimpse
of ancient Egypt in
the heart of Manhattan.
In its own time, it was
a monument to the end
of the most enduring civilization
the world has ever known.
(anxious piano music)
Next, we explore the
relics of Christendom,
to reveal a talisman of hope,
and a harbinger of doom.
(dramatic orchestral music)
(tranquil music)
According to the New Testament,
at the last supper, Jesus
raised a cup of wine
to his disciples and
said, "This is my blood."
Today, in the Metropolitan
Museum in New York,
there is an artifact that looks very much
like a cup form Biblical times.
The ancient name for cup is grail.
In years past, several
scholars of early Christianity
argued that this is the cup Christ
drank from at the last supper.
The chalice known as the Holy Grail.
- There are many people trying to prove
that both Christ and old testament figure
like Moses were or were
not real human beings.
Were they historical figures
or were they epic heroes like Achilles?
And so this is a huge
theological debate there,
and this chalice and what the images on it
represent play into that larger debate.
(tranquil music)
- [Narrator] The artifact was
discovered in the early 1900s
in Antioch, hidden in a well
with several other
precious religious relics.
Shortly after the crucifixion,
Antioch became a center for Christianity.
Both Peter and Paul preached here.
Is it possible they brought
Christ's chalice with them?
Careful examination
reveals that the artifact
is comprised of two very different layers.
The outer shell is highly crafted,
decorated with images of
Christ and his disciples.
But inside is a simple unadorned cup.
Just the sort of crude drinking vessel
that might have been owned by
a poor carpenter like Jesus.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I,
the relic was transported
to New York for safekeeping.
A respected expert examined it
and declared it to be the cup of Christ.
(holy music)
- [Helen] And what to be more important
than to find the Holy Grail?
The beginning of the Eucharist,
the Mass of the Christian Church?
- [Narrator] In the 1920s
and 30s, the artifact
was exhibited throughout
America as the true Holy Grail.
(peaceful piano music)
Armed guards were hired to protect it.
Thousands of Christians lined
up to catch a fleeting look.
But when the artifact was
gifted to the Met in 1950,
museum experts gave it another hard look.
They saw clear indications it was
made 500 years after Christ.
And though it looks like a cup,
it looks much more like the oil lamps
found in early churches.
(choir music)
While experts felt they
had closed the case,
many believers sought a different verdict
from a higher power, the Catholic Church.
- [Helen] When the chalice
came to the Met in 1950,
there had been a huge
effort to get the Vatican
to declare that this was the Holy Grail.
There'd been huge efforts
to get the Vatican over time
to declare many things
to be the sacred object.
- [Narrator] The Vatican declined.
And in the years since
then, as interest faded,
the artifact was consigned
to a quiet corridor.
But even though this
is not the Holy Grail,
it still carries the hopes
of those who want to believe.
- People want to touch things
that are important to them.
You get autographs because
you admire this figure,
you want to have Derek Jeter's signature
because you're a Yankee fan
and he's the captain of the team.
(gentle harp music)
And that's what a relic is,
it's something that gives you access
to the holy by being able to touch it.
(anxious music)
- [Narrator] From Christian hope, we turn
to Christian visions of doom.
This is the manuscript of the apocalypse.
A 14th century volume containing dramatic,
frightening illustrations
of the end of days.
The manuscript is displayed
in the Met's satellite museum
known as The Cloisters.
And if it looks like something
from the Middle Ages,
that's because it was constructed
of elements taken from
medieval structures.
Doorways, windows, and walls purchased
in Europe and transported to New York.
The building on view today
has a tranquil beauty
that is more than the sum
of its medieval parts.
Few artifacts capture the dark
and brooding qualities of the era
quite like the manuscript
of the apocalypse.
Is is a book of power and secrets.
- All great works of art are reluctant
to give up all their
secrets at once. (laughs)
and this is no exception.
It must've been in England, and
then it came back to France.
This piece was confiscated by the Nazis,
we don't know where it was exactly
during the second World War.
So it's extraordinary with all
of this difficult past that it's had
that it survived in such
remarkable condition.
(page crinkling)
- [Narrator] The manuscript
predicts that the world
as we know it is doomed to end.
Christ will return to judge
the living and the dead.
And as written in the book of John,
the end will be heralded by
four horsemen of the apocalypse,
bringers of pestilence,
war, famine, and death.
Bernard McGinn is a retired
professor of divinity
from the University of Chicago.
- The literal interpretation
of the Book of Revelation
is alive and well at the
beginning of the 21st century,
and according to certain
polls, a very large proportion,
if not a majority of
the American believers,
think that Jesus will come
back in their own lifetime.
(crowd shouting)
- [Narrator] For some believers, the signs
of the apocalypse are already here.
- [Bernard] Apocalyptic
literature is in part a response
to crisis, and the crisis
that in some way hopes
for a denouement in the
final age of history.
But sometimes that denouement,
that end of scene is far, far away.
Other times it's remarkably
close, even predictably close.
(intense music)
(horse whinnies)
Medieval Christians had reason
to believe that John the
Apostle's end times were at hand.
Famine, war and the
pestilence of the Black Death
were part of everyday life.
- And at various points through history,
people are sort of
anxiously awaiting the idea
that time is about to come to an end.
The good news is if you
play your cards right
and you do what you're supposed to do,
you end up in a very happy
place at the end of time.
So even if the story has some
frightening scenes, you can
anticipate that that's
not going to involve you,
because you're gonna be on
the right side of things.
- [Narrator] Not everyone
sees a bright side
to the frightening violence of our age.
But for some believers, the violence
that heralds Christ's
return is actually good news
that should be shared.
The book's illustrated form presented a
powerful message then, and it's one
that still resonates today.
(hoof steps pound)
- Well, I think the notion of
Revelation as a graphic novel
is extremely powerful
notion, and one that fits it
in terms of our cultural
milieu, very, very exactly.
The book seems to lend itself
to the pictorial imagination
of the particular era within which it is.
So that no book of the Bible
had been more illustrated
and had a more powerful effect on art
and literature than the
book of the apocalypse.
(sinister orchestral music)
- [Narrator] And there's another mystery
surrounding the book.
There are pages missing.
There is evidence the
manuscript is incomplete.
- [Barbara] There's some missing pictures,
and that probably happened
at quite a recent date.
If I turn this page, I think you'll see.
Oh this page there's a great illumination,
on this page there's a great illumination,
here's just half a page, you see.
And its been cut out.
- [Narrator] There's no
way to know when the pages
were removed or by whom.
But the book was in
the hands of the Nazis,
and Hitler was obsessed
with the supernatural.
Did he or his followers
believe the manuscript
of the Apocalypse had some special power?
- And it's odd in particular
with an Apocalypse
because the text itself says
that one must be very careful
that the words are in correctly.
What I mean is that you'll end up
in the mouth of hell if
you don't get this right.
- [Bernard] This book
is the key to the past
and the revelation of the future,
it's a power that's not dead today.
The book can be a dangerous book
when it's read only in a
strictly literal sense.
- [Narrator] But no one can control
how books like these are read.
There will be those who
interpret the apocalyptic vision
as metaphor or warning,
and there will always be those
who say it's coming, bring it on.
(dramatic music)
(electronic trilling)
Next, medieval technology
meets modern combat,
as the Met does its bit to help America
fight two world wars.
(water sloshes)
(dramatic music)
(intimidating music)
In medieval times,
European armorers worked to
provide maximum protection
for elite soldiers.
(dramatic music)
By the 20th century, war
had become a bloody struggle
between unarmored forces.
Armor making was by then a lost art.
But when America entered
World War I in 1917,
the military concerned
about potential casualties
turned to the Metropolitan Museum.
Deep below the public galleries
is a room that few ever see,
a room that played a crucial
role in saving the lives
of countless soldiers.
Stuart Pyhrr is the curator
in charge of arms and armor.
- One of the least well known aspects
of the Metropolitan
Museum is its contribution
to the war efforts in World
War I and World War II.
In 1917, the war department
contacted the museum's curator
of arms and armor, Bashford Dean,
and asked him to apply
his historical knowledge
of ancient armor to the
development of modern helmets
and body armor for the current conflict.
(easygoing music)
- [Narrator] Bashford Dean
had a double challenge,
to design a helmet that
would provide protection
and be something soldiers
would agree to wear.
- [Stuart] Getting the
modern soldier to accept
a steel helmet was an uphill battle.
It couldn't be too heavy,
it couldn't be out sized,
one that got in the way.
- [Narrator] For
inspiration, Bashford Dean
studied the Met's
medieval armor collection.
He found many examples of helmets that
struck a balance between
form and function.
He conceived and built
several promising prototypes.
But the war ended before
his work was complete.
And the prototypes were shelved.
(footsteps pounding)
In retrospect, this may
have been short sighted.
(Hitler yells in German)
Bashford Dean died before
the start of World War II,
but his protege carried on his work.
- [Stuart] The museum's armorer
came up with this design,
very much based on the M1 helmet,
but more compact, with the idea being
a smaller head and more compact helmet
would be more efficient
in the battlefield.
- [Narrator] After the helmet,
the Met moved on to body armor.
This 15th century armor,
too fragile to display
in the public galleries,
was an inspiration.
(gentle foreboding music)
- [Stuart] The textile
is is on the outside,
the plates on the inside,
and they would've been
covered by another coat of textile.
And then wrapping
around, this is the back,
it was wrapped around jacket
like, sleeveless jacket,
and tied in the front.
It provided a flexible, armored defense.
(anxious piano music)
This is the Met's revolutionary design.
Medieval technology,
updated for the 20th century battlefield.
(weapons fire)
Once again, the brutal war came to an end
before the Met's design could be tested.
Today's helmets look remarkably
like Bashford Dean's original design.
He saw the future by
looking into the past.
(electronic trilling)
The Met's body armor
proved even more prophetic.
Some modern soldiers wear armor made
from independent plates held
together by flexible material.
(gun bangs)
Such armor can withstand high caliber,
high velocity rifle fire.
This is the body armor
of the 21st century,
but the underlying technology was invented
by medieval craftsmen, and updated
by the curators of the
Metropolitan Museum.
Unfortunately, no one
can know how many lives
might've been spared,
had the Met's prototypes
gone into production a century ago.
(energetic music)
(upbeat pop music)
Next, modern science
unlocks ancient mysteries
and uncovers new facts.
(dramatic music)
(upbeat music)
Two million square feet,
over two million works of art,
five million visitors per year.
At New York's Metropolitan Museum,
there's a new marvel around every corner.
But there are more marvels
the public can't see,
just below their feet.
In the Met's department
of scientific research,
scientists use state of the art technology
to solve ancient mysteries.
- The laboratory is essentially
a fully equipped modern
analytical chemistry lab.
We're dealing, if you
think about our collection,
with 5,000 years of history
from five continents
so every possible material
that has been used
by humankind in artistic
production is represented here.
We have glass, wood, stone,
organic material, textiles.
We have natural materials
and synthetic materials.
- [Narrator] Recently the
lad acquired a new tool.
Used by NASA to study
Martian soil samples,
only a handful of the
world's museums have one.
This is a Raman Spectrometer.
For important and fragile artifacts,
the Raman Spectrometer
offers a non invasive way
to reveal a unique molecular fingerprint.
Here's how it works.
First, a microscopic sample
is taken from an artwork,
using an ultra sharp Tungsten needle.
The sample is smaller than
the width of a human hair.
Next, it's placed in a solution
containing tiny particles of silver.
Placed under a laser, the shiny silver
amplifies the sample's
chemical properties.
The laser scans the sample,
seeking its molecular fingerprint.
The result is a graphic signature
of the chemical elements.
- And the result is incredible,
we go from not seeing
anything to almost magic,
seeing a very distinct
signal that corresponds
to the molecule present in the color
- [Narrator] Using the spectrometer,
Leona made a discovery about world's trade
during the time of the crusades.
The paint on this French
Madonna came from Asia.
- So you have to imagine
this huge trade chain
that went from India all
the way to Southern France
in the Middle Ages, in the 1100s
and if you think about
it, to me it's fascinating
'cause we're talking about
a global trade connection
at a time where Europe
and the Muslim world,
which would've been the
intermediary for this type
of commerce, were at war at
the time of the crusades.
- [Narrator] The spectrometer provides
a new way to explore the past.
- [Marco] The term that
I use is, we're trying
to build a material history of art.
So essentially doing
artistry through science.
- [Narrator] This new material history
is changing Leona's view
of how artists work.
- [Marco] We're seeing that artists,
instead of being completely
disconnected from this art,
supremely aware of that and
exploit to their advantage
the properties of materials,
and that's really also the
definition of a scientist,
someone who can take a
material, knowing the properties
and bring it to some kind of use.
(inspirational music)
- [Narrator] For every
mystery science reveals,
far more remain unspoken.
Secrets of the past and of the human heart
hidden in plain sight at
the Metropolitan Museum.
(dramatic orchestral music)