Hip-hop meets high art in a fabulous visit to Florence
The opening minutes of A Fresh Guide to Florence with Fab 5 Freddy (BBC Two, Saturday) didn’t fill me with confidence. Especially when, with typical American modesty, host Fred Brathwaite (aka hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy) began by comparing his own achievements, and those of hip-hop generally, to the greats of Renaissance Italy.
“I know what it feels like to be at the centre of a creative revolution,” said Brathwaite, mounting a horse, dubbing himself “Fab, the Harlem Cowboy” and crossing the Piazza del Duomo to consider the glory of Renaissance art.
He described the Basilica di Santa Croce as a “hall of fame”, redefined Machiavelli as “Tupac’s man, the master political manipulator” and Michelangelo as “the Michael Jackson of the Renaissance”. Then, just as I was reaching for the remote, he came to Giotto’s 1320 fresco Trial by Fire, and switched into art historian mode, breathing pure, fresh life into the image by focusing on its significance as one of the earliest naturalistic representations of black Africans in European art.
What followed proved to be an entertaining journey through a previously unsuspected “ethnically
diverse, racially mixed Italy” of the 15th and 16th centuries. Mounting up again, Brathwaite moved on to the Baptistry and Ghiberti’s bronze doors – pointing out the tiny head of a “brother” – possibly the Renaissance’s first sculpture of a black man.
Mantegna’s Scenes from the Life of Christ yielded further treasure, an image of an African as “not just an extra on set” but one of the Three Kings, in what was to become an artistic trope for centuries. Michelangelo, Vasari and Titian (in a side-excursion to Venice) also came under consideration, as did questions of racism and slavery in a world where, according to one contributor, there was “no concept of biological racism”, and mankind was as yet unsullied by the African slave trade.
One of the more intriguing stories was that of Alessandro de Medici, the mixed race son of Lorenzo de Medici, who ruled Florence for seven years before being lured to his death by a “booty call”. That’s not a phrase you often hear in a Renaissance context but had a resonance here. Brathwaite’s guide to Florence may not have been the deepest of art history documentaries but it was engaging and nobody could say it didn’t bring fresh eyes to a subject too often approached from a position of airless reverence.
Aflurry of derring-do was the highlight of Poldark (BBC One, Sunday) when Cap’n Ross (Aidan Turner) briefly returned to swoonsome-hero mode for a nail-biting mine rescue with his old comrade Ned Despard (Vincent Regan). An act of selfless courage that saved the lives of 14 miners – or “a brand of reckless heroism more akin to madness” in the opinion of dreary Dr Enys (Luke Norris) who seems set on sinking ever-deeper into Eeyore-dom.
He was at it again while we were enjoying – a mite vengefully, admittedly – the sight of nasty George Warleggan (Jack Farthing) being brutalised by a quack psychiatrist. Already, the good doctor had deprived us all of a rousing cheer by saving George from chucking himself off a Cornish clifftop. Then he intervened to prevent George being further, as his Uncle Cary (Pip Torrens) put it, “frozen, burnt, blistered, drowned and shackled”, insisting that what grieving, psychotic George needed most was loving kindness, not shock treatment.
“The only lunatic in this room, is there!” cried Dr Enys, pointing an accusing finger at the quack. He might be a saintly, progressive medic, but Dr Enys is a bit of a pompous spoilsport.
Otherwise, this was a slightly lacklustre episode, though it raced along at a gallop despite cartloads of worthy stuff about not employing 12-year-olds down mines, and the need for literacy if poor folk is ever goin’ better 'emselves. Kitty Despard’s (Kerri Maclean) shock revelation that villainous Ralph Hanson (Peter Sullivan) debauched her at the age of 12 was a #Metoo moment that, it seems, will have to wait for resolution – although Ross did give Hanson a punch in the gut for good measure.
The only storylines that seemed to move forward significantly were Geoffrey Charles’s (Freddie Wise) wooing of Cecily Hanson (Lily Dodsworth-evans); and the bringing of Ross’s love-child Valentine into the bosom of the Poldark household. We doubt whether George will respond to developments with loving kindness when he finally regains his senses.
A Fresh Guide to Florence with Fab 5 Freddy ★★★
Poldark ★★★