Baroque ArtThe Ornate Age

Baroque art lasted from 1600-1750 Baroque was a marriage between the advanced techniques and

grand scale of the Renaissance to the emotion, intensity and drama of Mannerism

Baroque art expanded the role of art into everyday life Like explorers did, artists also built upon past discoveries The most common element: a sensitivity to and absolute mastery

of light to achieve maximum emotional impact Flow of Baroque: Rome (1600: Cathedrals to display family

triumphs to attract new worshipers to Catholicism) France (divine-right monarchs spending like pharaohs on palaces—think my palace at Versailles)

Paintings tended to be still lifes, portraits, landscapes, and scenes from daily life

Religious art flourished in Catholic countries Religious art was forbidden in Protestant lands like England and

Holland

What is Art? Are we Art? Is Art Art?

Artists could represent the human body from any angle portray the most complex perspective Realistically reproduce almost any appearance

The change from the Renaissance to Baroque was through the emphasis on emotion and dynamism rather than rationality and stasis

Three artists: Caravaggio, Bernini, and Borromini

Italian Baroque

He took realism to new lengths, painting bodies in a thoroughly “down and dirty” style as opposed to pale, Mannerist phantoms

He secularized religious art, making saints and miracles seem like ordinary people and everyday events

Advocated “direct painting” from nature – often from the steamy slums Many said he was the first artist intentionally seeking to shock and

offend…and if he tried to, he certainly succeeded Contemporaries called him an “evil genius” and the “anti-Christ of

painting” Caravaggio was also a rebel, arrested multiple times and hung around

the dregs of society… And I apologize to the guys for saying this but… …he once stabbed a man in the groin over a tennis wager Ouch. Anyway, let’s take a look at some of his paintings, which showed his

opposition to tradition

Caravaggio

Caravaggio: “The Calling of St. Michael”

Carvaggio: “Supper at Emmaus”

Caravaggio: “The Conversion of St. Paul”

“The Calling of St. Michael” is a vision of Matthew, the apostle-to-be, sitting in a dark pub, surrounding by dandies (not the Yankee Doodle kind) counting money, when Christ orders him “Follow me.”

“Supper at Emmaus” showed the moment the apostles realized their table companion was the resurrected Christ as an encounter in a wine shop

“The Conversion of St. Paul” demonstrates Caravaggio’s ability to see a traditional subject in a unique, unusual way through hard focus and blinding spotlight and the use of St. Paul being flat on his back with a horse (rear-end first) over him

Usually St. Paul’s story of conversion is seen through Saul being converted by a voice from heaven with Christ on the heavenly throne surrounded by throngs of angels

Caravaggio

Caravaggio uses perspective to bring the viewer into the action and chiaroscuro engages the emotions while intensifying the scene’s impact through dramatic light and dark contrasts

Because he favored shadowy backgrounds, his style was called “il tenebroso” (which stands for in a “dark manner”)

To Poussin (known for his peaceful scenes), he was a betrayer of the art of painting

To the police, he was a fugitive wanted for murder However, to major artists like Rubens, Velazquez, and

Rembrandt, he was a daring innovator who taught them how to make religious paintings seem both hyper-real and overwhelmingly immediate

Caravaggio

Gianlorenzo Bernini was an architect, painter, playwright, composer, and theater designer…

…oh, and he may have been the sculptor of the era

Bernini created his version of “David” at age 25

Bernini (1598-1680)

“David” by Bernini

Bernini captured the moment of maximum torque, as he wound up to hurl the stone

David bit his lips from the strain, conveying the power about to be unleashed, causing observers in front of the sculpture to almost want to duck

This is an example of Baroque art involving the viewer in its motion and emotion by threatening to burst its physical confines

Bernini’s best known work though was likely “The Ecstasy of St. Theresa”

“David” by Bernini

“The Ecstasy of St. Theresa” by Bernini

This was Bernini’s masterpiece and the culmination of the Baroque style and St. Peter’s Cathedral was an entire chapel designed as a stage set to show it off, including painted balconies on the walls filled with “spectators” sculpted in relief

St. Theresa reportedly saw visions and heard voices, believing herself to have been pierced by an angel’s dart infusing her with divine love

“The pain was so great that I screamed aloud; but at the same time I felt such infinite sweetness that I wished the pain to last forever.”

Afraid to say anything… The marble itself is the saint swooning on a cloud, an expression of

ecstasy and exhaustion on her face Bernini’s goal was to relive Christ’s passion through the sculpture to give

worshippers an intense religious experience The saint and angel appear to be floating on swirling clouds, which golden

rays of light pour down from a vault of heaven painted on the ceiling Textures made the white marble “flesh” seem to quiver with life The feathery wings and frothy clouds are equally convincing “The whole altarpiece throbs with emotion, drama, and passion.” (I couldn’t leave that quote out)

“The Ecstasy of St. Theresa” by Bernini

Van Dyck was the court painter of Charles I He was handsome, vain, and fabulously gifted Van Dyck dressed flamboyantly, carried a sword, and adopted the

sunflower as his personal symbol His portraits established an intimate and psychologically

penetrating style that influenced 3 generations of portrait painters

He was able to turn royalty into real human beings Van Dyck posed aristocrats and royals in settings of Classical

columns and shimmering curtains to convey their refinement and status

Still, his ease of composition and sense of arrested movement (making it look as if the subjects were pausing rather than posing) lent humanity to an otherwise stilted scene

Subjects loved van Dyck because he was able to flatter his subjects, making them look like slim models of perfection rather than the plain look many of them had By making the ratio of head to body 1 to 7 (instead of the common 1

to 6) he was able to elongate and slenderize his subject’s figure

Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641)

“Charles I at the Hunt”

This is a significant difference from earlier slides because this is Protestant country

Religious art was forbidden in the democratic country’s severe, whitewashed churches and the usual sources of patronage (the church, royal court, and nobility) were gone

The result was a democratizing of art in subject matter and ownership

Still Life Extraordinary realism in portraying domestic objects Considered inferior in other parts of the world

Landscape Treated nature realistically, often set against towering clouds

“Big Sky” paintings Done by Ruisdael, he emphasized great open stretches of sky, water,

and fields and used dramatic contrasts of light and shadow and threatening clouds to infuse his work

A Fleeting Expression Frans Hals was the “Master of the Moment”, etching a moment in time

and bringing the subject to life through laughing or some other emotion

Dutch Baroque

“Still Life” by Heda

“Windmill at Wijk-bij-Duurstede” by Ruisdael

“The Jolly Toper” by Hals