Baroque 1600-1700

Baroque means irregularly shaped or Odd, a negative word derived in the eighteenth

century to describe the Baroques deviation from the Renaissance

Key Ideas

• The Counter-Reformation which symbolized the Catholic resurgence, finds an artistic parallel in Baroque art of Italy, Flanders, Spain, and France

• Baroque also flourishes in Protestant Holland, which counters Catholic art

• Two schools of thought; the classicists, central Italian artists as Raphael; and naturalists, Venetian painters as Titian.

Key Ideas

• Baroque artists use genre paintings, landscapes, and still lives, and bring them to the same artistic level as traditional subjects

• Baroque architecture is associated with the grand and majestic royal courts of Europe

Historical Background

• In 1600 the artistic center of Europe was Rome, the court of the popes.By 1650 the French kings became so powerful in Paris then Versailles that the art world shifted to France.France, unchallenged until the beginning of WWII, became the center for innovation and modern art.

• The Thirty Years’ War (ended in 1648) succeeded in devastating central Europe so badly that artistic production ground to a halt for the balance of the 17th century.

• The Counter-Reformation movement reaffirmed all the things the Protestant Reformation was against

• Protestants: largely iconoclasts, breaking painted and sculpted images in churches, derided saints, played down miracles.

Historical Background

• Catholics; endorsed the placement of images in their churches, reaffirmed the communion of saints creating new ones and glorifying their images, made miracles visible as in the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa

Historical Background

Patronage and Artistic Life

• Catholic Church was the greatest source of artistic commissions in the 17th century, followed by royalty and their autocratic governments.

• Huge churches and massive palaces needed large paintings commanding high prices

• Many Baroque artists such as Rubens and Bernini were very religious , who were acting out of a firm commitment to their faith as well as to their art

Patronage and Artistic Life

• Patrons need to be given credit who allowed artists to flourish, Pope Urban VIII, who sponsored some of Bernini’s best work

Holland

• The Baroque style flourished in mercantile Holland

• Individuals and groups commissioned artists to paint landscapes, portraits, genre paintings; religious ecstasies, great myths, and historical subjects were avoided.

• Small houses with limited wall space, painters designed works to hang in intimate settings

Holland

• Merchants were becoming rich and successful but they did not want industry portrayed in their art.

• A featureless flat Dutch landscape was animated by powerful and evocative skies.

• Dutch painting had things in common with Europe; many layers of symbolism, still life caused one to ponder the passing and fleetness of life. Stark church interiors symbolized the triumph of Protestantism of Catholicism.

Innovations in Baroque Architecture

• Landscape architecture became expressive starting with Versailles and continuing throughout 18th century.

• Long views were important. Key windows were viewing stations where gardens spread out in an orchestrated display that suggested man’s control over his enviornment

• Lawns were embraced by bordering trees, usually terminating in a statue or fountain.

Characteristic of Baroque Architecture

• Relies on movement• Facades undulate, creating symmetrical cavities of

shadow and projecting pilasters that capture the sun.• Emphasis on the center of the façade , wave like

forms for accent• Entrances are topped by pediments or tympana• Interplay of concave and convex shapes marks most

experimental buildings by Borromini and Guarini.

Characteristic of Baroque Architecture

• Interiors combined all the arts; painting, sculpture help the architectural members I a choreographed ensemble. A dramatically unified effect

• Architecture is large; seeks to impress with size and elaborate ornamentation.

• Realizes the imperial or papal achievements of its patrons[ claiming their power and wealth

Characteristic of Baroque Architecture

• Buildings are erected on high points reached by elaborately carved staircases, spill out toward the spectator and change direction and view as they rise.

CARLO MADERNO, facade of Santa Susanna, Rome, Italy, 1597–1603

Carlo Maderno, façade of Saint Peter’s 160-1612, Rome

•Façade and nave added to Michelanglo’s design of Saint Peter’s making it a latin cross plan•Wide and low façade; originally concieved with flanking bell towers that were never completed above the façade level

•Emphasis on the center of the façade with pediment highlighting the main door.•Pilasters on each end gradually become engaged collumns around the central door

Gianlorenzo Bernini, Colonnade of Saint Peter’s, 1656-1657, Rome

Gianlorenzo Bernini, Colonnade of Saint Peter’s, 1656-1657, Rome

Francesco Borromini, Saint Charles of the Four Fountains, 1638-1641, Rome

Francesco Borromini, Saint Charles of the Four Fountains, 1638-1641, Rome

Guarino Guarini, Chapel of the Holy Shroud, 1667-1694, Turin, Italy

Major Work of French Baroque Architecture

Jules Hardouin-Mansart among others, Versailles; begun 1669, Versailles, France

•Reorganization and remodeling of a hunting lodge into an elaborate palace•Center of the building was Louis XITV’s bedroom, or audience hall, from which all aspects of the design radiate like rays from the sun (hence Louis’s sobriquet “The Sun King”)

•Building was centered in a vast garden and town complex radiating from it

Subdued exterior decoration on façade; undulation of projecting members is understated

Hall of Mirrors; 240 feet long; barrel vaulted painted ceiling; light comes from one side and ricochets off the largest panes of glass that could be made at the time; flickering use of light in an architectural setting

Major Works of English Baroque Architecture

Inigo Jones, Banqueting House, 1619-1622. London, England

Two stories of windows disguise one large room on the interior

Ballestraded roof

Christopher Wren, Saint Paul’s, 1675-1710, London, England

Saint Paul’s Dome

Bramante’s Tempietto

Innovations of Baroque Painting and Sculpture

• Religious and historical paintings were considered the highest art form, great painters like Rembrandt and Rubens painted landscapes, Carracci painted genre scenes. Still lives were specialty of Dutch school

• Still lives contained a vanitas theme, stressed the brevity of life and folly of human vanity.

• Landscapes featured small figures acting out a Biblical or mythological passage.

Innovations of Baroque Painting and Sculpture

• Genre paintings had an allegorical commentary on a contemporary or historical issue

• Landscapes were composed in a studio from sketched done in the field.

• Artists selected items from one venue and put them with items from another

• Carracci and Claude felt they had to make an artistic statement rather than reproduce the real world

• Painters were fascinated by Caravaggio’s use of tenebrism. Handling of light and shadow became a trademark of Baroque for painters , sculptors and architects.

• Impasto brushwork and various textures on sculptures were a way of manipulating light and shadow.

Characteristics of Baroque painting

• Two trends: Naturalism and classicism• Naturalists: Caravaggio and Gentileschi, painted with

expressive movement, figures dramatically rendered, light effects key, figures in strong dark light contrast called tenebroso. Inspiration for the Naturalist school was from the Venetian Renaissance, passed through Caravaggio and onto Rubens and his followers called Rubenistes. Rejected contortions and artificiality of the Mannerists.

Characteristics of Baroque painting

• Classicists painters, influenced by Carracci and Reni, subdued the emotions and colors of the naturalists, inspired by classical painters like Raphael. Expressed fully by artists Poussin and the Poussinistes. This painting dominated French art through the Baroque.

Characteristics of Baroque Scuplture

• Figures caught in mid motion, mouths open, flesh of one figure yeilding to touch of another.

• Stressed movement• Large works were meant to be seen in the round

(Bernini)• Open negative spaces where view can contemplate

many angles• Marble treated as a tactile surface, human skin high

polish, animal skin coarser feel, angel wings feathery• Inspired by Hellenistic Greek period.

Gianlorenzo Bernini, David,1623, marble, Borghese Gallery, Rome

•In mid-action, swinging the slingshot, a shepherd’s weapon, at Goliath

•Harp at David’s feet symbolizes his roll as psalmist

•Bernini’s idealized self-portrait in the face of David, intensive gaze

•Meant to be seen from multiple views

•Use of negative space animates the area around in which the figure is seen

Gianlorenzo Bernini, Baldacchino, 1624-1633, Bronze, Saint Peter’s, Rome

•Acts as a shrine canopy over the grave of Saint Peter, buried under the basilica

•Bees and suns appear prominently on top corners; symbols of the patrons, The Barberini family

•Directs the viewer’s vision down the nave of Saint Peter’s

•Symbol of the Counter-Reformation spirit in Rome

•Over the main altar of Saint Peter’s, four twisting corkscrew columns that spiral upward

•Feat of bronze casting

Gianlorenzo Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Theresa,1645-1652, marble, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome

•A sculptural interpretaion of Saint Theresa’s diary in which she tells of her visions of God, many involving an angel descending with an arrow and plunging it into her.

•Stagelike setting with the patrons, members of the Cornaro family, sitting in theatre boxes looking on and commenting

•Natural light redirected onto the sculpture from a window hidden above the work

•Marble handled in a tactile way to reveal textures; skin is high gloss; feathers of angel are rougher, drapery is animated and fluid, clouds are roughly cut

•Figures seem to float in their space, with the rays of God’s light symbolically illuminating the scene from behind

•Saint Theresa’s pose suggests sexual exhaustion, a feeling that is consistent with her description of spiritual ecstasy described in her diary entries

Caravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew,1597-1601, oil on canvas, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

•Light comes in from two sources on right, creating a tenebroso effect on figures

•Diagonal shaft of light points directly toSaint Matthew, who points to himself as if unsure that Christ would select him.

•Christ’s hand gesture similar to Adam’s on theSistine Chapel ceiling

•Foppishly dressed figures are cutting- edge Baroque fashion

•Narrow stage for figures to sit and stand on

•Only slight suggestion of halo indicates sanctity of the scene

•Sensual figures, everyday characteristics

•Naturalist approach to the Baroque

Caravaggio, Entombment, 1603, oil on canvas, Vatican Museum, Rome

•Christ’s body placed in a grave; painting placed over an altar so Christ symbolically being placed on the altar

•A visualization of transubstantiation, that is, the effect of turning the Eucharistic meal into the body and blood of Jesus- a Counter-Reformation idea denied by Protestants.

•Figures pushed forward toward the picture plane

•Stone slab seems to com forward In the painting into our space

•Nicodemus, the figure looking at us, is said to resemble Caravaggio himself; a very common figure drawn without an aura of holiness

Annibale Caracci, Loves of the Gods,1597-1601,Fresco, Farnese Palace ceiling, Rome

•Barrel vaulted ceiling combines quadro riportato with di sotto in su’ painting

•Idealized bodies in a variety of posese

•Vigorous movement

•Rich color

•Figures overlap the painted and stucco frames, sitting on them, putting their hands over them.

•Loves of the gods played out in bacchanalian abandon on the ceiling

•Rich colors inspired by the Venetians

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, 1614-1620, oil on canvas, Uffizi, Florence

•Influence of Caravaggio in the tenebrism

•Dramatic lighting, emotional pathos

•Face of Judith a self portrait, as she identified with old Testament heroines; Gentileschi was raped by a male patron- an event that went to trial

•Gentileschi specialized in painted images of women triumphing over men

Judith and her Maidservant (1613-14) Oil on canvas Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Roman Ceiling Paintings

Guido Reni, Aurora, 1613-1614, Fresco, Casino Rospigliosi, Rome

Pietro de Cortona, Triumph of the Barberini,1633-39, fresco, Palazzo Barbarini, Rome

•Ceiling paintings in RomeReni;•Classical trend in painting•Quadro riportato•Influenced by Raphael•Aurora leads Apollo’s chariot, Cupid and the Seasons dance about the heavenly car•Soft modeling, sweet airy vision

Di Cortona;

•Naturalist trend in painting

•Di sotto in su’

•Symbols of the Barberini family include the bees and laurel wreaths

Figures move easily in an open space unified by extensive use of light and color

Major Works of Spanish BaroqueDiego Velazquez, The Water Carrier of Seville, 1619, oil on canvas, Wellington Museum, London

•Early work of Velazquez shows intense interest in Caravaggio tenebrism

•Deceptively simple genre scene has a sacred quality about the expressions, the handing over of the glass, the clarity of the water

•Rounded volumes of the foreground figures, the water jug

•Water is sweetened by a fresh fig placed for flavor

Diego Velazquez, The Surrender of Breda, 1634-1635,oil on canvas, Prado, Madrid

•Depicts the 1625 episode in which the Dutch were forced to yield the town of Breda to the Spanish

•Stresses the graciousness of the Spanish victors, militarily dignified, uniform fighting force, magnanimous in victory.

•Spanish weapons arrayed to symbolize military might of victors, Dutch weapons appear scattered and inconsequential

•Imaginary landscape of Breda tenderly rendered in the background; a cross is formed in a distant lake- symbolic of Catholic donimination over Protestant forces

•Soldiers mutual respect in honoring the valor of the other side

•Open space in center of painting emphasizes the keys and the symbolism of a city resigned•Velazquez never met the Dutch, nor had he been to Breda

Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas, 1656, oil on canvas, Prado, Madrid

•Group portrait of the artist in his studio at work; he steps back from the canvas and looks at us.

•Velazquez wears the cross of the Royal Order of Santiago, elevating him to knighthood.

•Central is the Infanta Margharita of Spain with her meninas, or attendants, a dog, a dwarf, and a midget. Behind are two chaperones in half shadow.

•In the doorway is perhaps Jose’ Nieto, who was head of the queen’s Tapestry works ( why his hand is on a curtain)

•King and queen appear in a mirror. But what is the mirror reflecting; Velazquez’s canvas? The king and queen standing in our space (is why people have turned around?), or is it reflecting a painting of the king and queen on the wall of the room?

•Alternating darks and lights draw us deeper into the canvas; the mirror simultaneously reflects out into our space

•Dappled effect of light on shimmering surfaces

•Painting originally hung in Philip IV’s study

Flemish Baroque Art

Peter Paul Rubens, Raising of the Cross, 1610-1611, oil on canvas, Cathedral, Antwerp

•Triptych acts as one continuous space across the three panels.

•Strong diagonals direct viewer’s attention to Christ

•Heroic musculature of figures

•Spontaneity of expression

•Dramatic use of lighting

•Intensely religious, yet possessing exuberance and passion

Peter Paul Rubens, Marie de’ Medici Cycle, 1622-1625, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris

•Heroic gestures, demonstrative spiraling figures

•Mellow intensity of color, inspired by Titian and Caravaggio

•Sumptuous full-fleshed women

•Twenty-one huge historical paintings allegorically retelling the life of Marie de’ Medici, Queen of France, wife of Henry IV

•Splendid costumes suggest opulent theatrical production

•Allegories assist in telling the story and mix freely with historical people.

Anthony Van Dyck, Charles I Dismounted, 1635, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris

•Charles I of England walking before his bowing horse

•Image of royalty at ease in a natural setting

•Engages the viewer with a direct look, haughty pose

•Hat offsets the head and frames it

•Charles’s shortness minimized by his relationship to the figures around him

•Venetian landscape

Dutch Baroque Art

Frans Hals, Officers of the Haarlem Militia Company of Saint Adrian, 1627, oil on canvas, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

•Specialist in single portraits, marriage portraits, and group portraits

•Achieved fame by painting complex groupings of Dutch fraternal organizations

•Although ostensibly military, the groupings reveal the relative social positions of the people in the works

•Creative arrangement of figures; some standing. Some seated according to their position in society

Frans Hals

•Impasto Technique

•Lively, quick, and amiable expressions on the figures

•Uniformity of dress not a deterrent to a lively composition, dramatic colors

•1627 painting: sharp use of compositional diagonals form a focus at the center of the painting; two distinct groups; lively exchange of conversation, food and drink, animated faces, some engaging us, others turned to one another

Frans Hals, Archers of the Saint Hadrian, 1633, oil on canvas, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

•Two distinct groups showing a split in the political and social structure of the company; group on right more relaxed; group on left surrounds Colonel Loo, who is authoritarian and commanding; shows Hals’s ability to assess personalities and characters.

Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait, 1633, oil on canvas, National Gallery, Washington DC

•Self portrait shows a self-consciously secure artist at work at her craft

•Turns affably around to chat, while engaged in her work

•Painting a fiddler who also turns and smiles at us.

•Impasto brushwork reminiscent of Hals, whom Leyster knew and was inspired by

•Image of the successful capable artist

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait, 1659-1660, Kenwood House, London

•Rembrandt did many self- portraits revealing great psychological tension

•They capture his various states of mind; suffering, dignified, weariness, satisfaction

•Penetrating gazes

•Soft chiaroscuro lighting

Rembrandt van Rijn, Night Watch, 1642, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

•Eighteen men portrayed in the commission, represented according to how much each paid; individual sitters knew beforehand whether they would be partially or fully represented.

•Militia marching out on patrol, or on parade

Captain Cocq holds a baton and wears a red sash; speaking as he comes forward, perhaps ordering Lt. Ruytenburgh to make the men march.

Emphasis on the glove, a challenge or a victory, highlighted by the gold background

•Lt. Ruytenburgh holds a partisan, is dressed in yellow, and accompanies the captain

•Central group comes forward, subordinate lateral groups move behind

•Allegorical figure of girl in gold carrying a large white chicken dangling from her waist; uncertain meaning

•Painted for an assembly hall as part of a group of paintings of various militias

•Painting later cut down on all sides when it was moved from its original position

•Misnamed painting; thought to have been a nocturnal scene because of the grime accumulated over the years.

Jacob van Ruisdael, Jewish Cemetary, 1655-1670, oil on canvas, Detroit Institute of the Arts

•Wild ruined scene of an old cemetery dominated by ruins

•Symbolic association of the fallen trees and ruined buildings with the brevity of life and the vanitas theme.

•Mysterious clouded sky

•Rainbow brings hope

•Melancholy overtones; even the manmade tombs are doomed to decay

Jan Vermeer, The Letter, 1666, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

•Small number of Vermeer works in existence

•Except for two landscapes, Vermeer’s works portray intimate scenes in the interior of of Dutch homes

•Viewer looks into a private world in which seemingly small gestures take on a significance greater than what first appears

•Figures seem unaware of our presence

•Light enters from the left illuminating the figures, but leaving the foreground in darkness; a love letter is delivered, transitional expressions on the faces of the figures.

French Baroque Art

Claude Lorrain, The Mill, 1647, oil on canvas, Doria Pamphili, Rome

• Shimmering glowing color

• Sense of depth, strong perspective pulls viewer into the painting

• Lighting comes from center of painting, often backlit scenes

•Scenes are framed on left and right by trees or buildings

•Scenes always have human figures, but they are tiny; accent is more on the landscape.

•Landscapes composed of disparate elements sketched in the countryside

•Deep progression in space marked by alternating bands of dark and light

•Represents the classicizing trend in Baroque art

Nicholas Poussin, engraving after Et in Arcadia Ego, 1655, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris

•Poussin believed paintings should edify, show moral meanings, be didactic.

•Inscription on memorial: ”I too am in Arcadia”

•Ill-educated shepherds, who live in idyllic life, find it difficult to read the inscription on the tombstone

•Female figure of Arcadia gently places her hand on the back of one of the shepherds.

•Shepherd reading inscription has a shadow that forms the figure of the Grim Reaper

•Background suggests youthful trees, mature trees, and dead trunks

Hyacinth Rigaud, Louis XIV, 1701, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris

•Louis XIV is every inch the Baroque absolute ruler in a Baroque setting wearing Baroque costuming

•A slow, stately procession through Versailles

•Wigged, bedecked with elaborate velvet robes, scepter in hand, crown at his side, sword noticeably placed as a military weapon and a phallic symbol.

•Proud of his legs, Louis exposes them for us to admire

•Looks down on us

Vocabulary

• Baldacchino• Genre Painting• Impasto• Poussinistes and Rube’nistes• Quadro riportato and Di sotto in su’• Tenebroso/Tenebrism• Vanitas

Excercises

• 1. St Charles of the Four Fountains is an unusual Baroque building because of its

A. Rich decorative textures of various colorsB. Large staircase preceding the entranceC. Undulating formsD. Small size

• 2. Vanitas paintings deal withA. Human follyB. Corruption in high placesC. Ceiling paintingsD. Imitating sculpture

• 3. An artist known for his impasto technique is

A. Guido ReniB. Nicholas PoussinC. Claude LorrainD. Frans Hals

• 4. The direct influence of Caravaggio can be seen in works by other painters, especially

A. Velazquez’s Water Carrier of SevilleB. Van Dyck’s Charles I DismountedC. Ruisdael’s View of HaarlemD. Rigaud’s Louis XIV

• 5. Patronage in the Baroque period came principally from the aristocracy or the Church except in

A. FlandersB. SpainC. HollandD. France

• 6. Portrait painters such as Rembrandt were noted for their

A. Fidelity to the likenesses of their subjectsB. Psychological penetrationC. Equity in arranging individuals in groupsD. Reliance on classical subject matter

• 7. The difference between quadro riporato and disotto in su` paintings is that di sotto in su` paintings

A. Have figures that are paced as if they were over your head

B. Rely on viewing from a single angleC. Prefer the classicist trend in the Baroque over

the naturalistD. Have trees or buildings that frame the

composition

• 8. Saint Paul’s Cathedral by Christopher Wren was built

A. After the Thirty Years’ WarB. As a Counter-Reformation statementC. After the War of Spanish SuccessionD. After the Great Fire of London

• 9. An important development in the Baroque is interest in landscape architecture. Usually Baroque landscape architects

A. Try to dominate the building with landscapeB. Create long avenues for dramatic viewsC. Rely on the circle as the most perfect shapeD. Imitate great landscape paintings in their

works

• 10. Genre paintings are the specialty of

A. Frans HalsB. Hyacinth RigaudC. Nicholas PoussinD. Jan Vermeer

Essay• Biographer Giovanni Bellori said about Caravaggio in 1672: There is no question that Caravaggio advanced the art of

painting because he came upon the scene at a time when realismwas not much in fashion and when figures were made according to convention and manner and satisfied more the taste for gracefulness than for truth. Thus by avoiding all prettiness and vanity in his color, Caravaggio strengthened his tones and gave them flesh and blood.

- Bellori, The lives of Modern Painters, Sculptors, and ArchitectsChoose and identify a work by Caravaggio. Discuss the validity

of Bellori’s statement about Caravaggio’s work in view of art works that have preceded it. Use one side of a sheet of paper to write your esssay.