Baroque Period

Baroque Painting• encompasses a great

range of styles, as most important and major painting during the period beginning around 1600 and continuing throughout the 17th century, and into the early 18th century is identified today as Baroque painting.

• characterized by great drama, rich, deep colour, and intense light and dark shadows

Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized during the Renaissance.

Michelangelo, working in the High Renaissance, shows his David composed and still before he battles Goliath

Bernini's Baroque David is caught in the act of hurling the stone at the giant.

Among the greatest painters of the Baroque period are:Caravaggio

Rembrandt,

Rubens,

Velázquez

Poussin

Michelangelo Merisi / Amerighi da Caravaggio (September 29, 1571 – July 18 1610)

•an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1592 and 1610

• His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque school of painting.

Caravaggio's Artwork

Amor Vincit Omnia. 1601–1602. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Caravaggio shows Cupid prevailing over all human endeavors: war, music, science, government.

Caravaggio's Artwork

•The Musicians, 1595–1596, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

• thought to have been his first painting done expressly for the cardinal.

Caravaggio's Artwork

Caravaggio's approach was, typically, to choose the moment of greatest dramatic impact, the moment of the decapitation itself. The figures are set out in a shallow stage, theatrically lit from the side, isolated against the inky, black background. Judith and her maid Abra stand to the right, partially over Holofernes, who is vulnerable on his back. X-rays have revealed that Caravaggio adjusted the placement of Holofernes' head as he proceeded, separating it slightly from the torso and moving it slightly to the right. The faces of the three characters demonstrate his mastery of emotion, Judith in particular showing in her face a mix of determination and repulsion.

Judith Beheading Holofernes 1598–1599. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15 1606– October4 1669)

•Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history.

• His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative.

Rembrandt's Artwork

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633. The painting is still missing after the robbery from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.

Rembrandt's Artwork

The Night Watch or The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq, 1642. Oil on canvas; on display at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

It is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as the best known painting in its collection. The Night Watch is one of the most famous paintings in the world.

Rembrandt's Artwork

The Abduction of Europa, 1632. Oil on panel. The work has been described as "...a shining example of the 'golden age' of Baroque painting."

Peter Paul Rubens (June 28 1577 – May 30 1640)

a Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasised movement, colour, and sensuality.

well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.

Rubens' Artwork

The Fall of Man or Adam and Eve 1628–29. Prado, Madrid

•Once attributed to the minor Dutch artist Karel van Mander, it is now recognised as a work by Rubens.

•reflects Raphael's influence on Titian and Jan Brueghel the Elder's influence on Rubens, who adds a parrot and changes Adam's posture, musculature, age and expression.

Rubens' Artwork

Venus at the Mirror, 1615

Peter Paul Rubens presented his Venus in Front of the Mirror as the ultimate symbol of beauty.

Rubens' Artwork

The Three Graces, 1635, Prado

The painting was held in the personal collection of the artist until his death, then in 1666 it went to the Royal Alcazar of Madrid, before hanging in the Museo del Prado.

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez( June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660)

• a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV and one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age.

• Velázquez's artwork was a model for the realist and impressionist painters,

Velázquez's Artwork

Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) 1656

The work's complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted. Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting.

Velázquez's Artwork

The triumph of Bacchus/Los Borrachos 1629 (The Drinkers/The Drunks)

The painting shows Bacchus surrounded by drunks.

Velázquez's Artwork

Vieja friendo huevos (1618, English: Old Woman Frying Eggs). National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.

shows the influence of chiaroscuro, with a strong light source coming in from the left illuminating the woman, her utensils and the poaching eggs, while throwing the background and the boy standing to her right into deep shadow.

Nicolas Poussin(June 15 1594 – November 19 1665)

the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome.

His work is characterized by clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color.

Poussin's ArtworkThe composition is built in a series of opposing diagonals, highlighting Venus’s shapely limbs and soft belly and casting the lovers into shadow, foreboding Adonis’s imminent doom.

Venus and Adonis French (1594–1665) Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.

Poussin's Artwork

Cephalus and Aurora - Nicolas Poussin - 1627 - National Gallery, London.

Poussin shows the cause of Cephalus' rejection of Aurora through the putto holding up Procris' portrait

Poussin's Artwork

Poussin's painting shows Endymion awake, kneeling to welcome the arrival of the moon goddess, while her brother the sun-god is just beginning his journey across the heavens in his golden chariot.

Selene and Endymion 1630s - The Detroit Institute of Arts.

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