Tom Holland

Who's it by?

What's going on?

Very confusing.

A certain idea of France that is quite a controversial idea by the mid 19th century.

And it's a man and a woman, isn't it?

Yeah, so it's, I mean, basically it's about Gabriel bringing the news that Mary is to bear Christ.

There are three introductions and then you go into the Hail Mary.

So it's an expression of Catholic faith, Catholic devotion.

And we are half a century away.

and more after the French Revolution.

And the French Revolution, of course, was very anti-clerical.

And so the issue of the relationship of the idea of France to Catholicism and what the role should be for the church relative to the secular has been a massively live political issue in France since the revolution.

So it's not a neutral painting, is it?

Thank you for listening.

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So that was Christopher Plummer playing Atahualpa, Emperor of the Incas, in Peter Schaffer's play The Royal Hunt of the Sun, which we've been hearing a lot of in this series.

And Atahualpa, in that scene...