ITALY AND SPAIN,1600-1700GARDNER CHAPTER 24-1

PP. 649-657

BAROQUE

Baroque art is a blanket term that encompasses a broad range of developments, both historic and artistic

During the 17th century, dramatic theatricality, grandiose scale, and elaborate ornateness, all used to spectacular effect, characterized Italian Baroque art and architecture

Italian 17th century art and architecture visualized the renewed energy of the Catholic Counter-Reformation & communicated it to the populace

Gianlorenzo Bernini, an architect, a painter, and a sculptor, was the most important & imaginative artist of the Italian Baroque era

SANTA SUSANNA

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

MADERNO AND SAINT PETER’S

CARLO MADERNO, facade of Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1606–1612

Façade and nave added to Michelangelo’s design

Wide and low façade

Emphasis on center of façade -> pediment highlighting main door

Pilasters on each end; rounded engaged columns around the central door

BERNINI –> COLONNADE OFSAINT PETERS 1656-1657

CARLO MADERNO, plan of Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, with adjoining piazza designed by GIANLORENZO BERNINI

Huge plaza that can hold half a million people

Bernini wanted a surprising transition between the crowded streets of Rome and giant vista of Saint Peters

Colonnade -> embracing arms/skeleton keyhole -> Saint Peter holds the keys to the kingdom

Aerial view of Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1506–1666. --Bernini designed this huge oval piazza around existing buildings as well as an obelisk from Egypt and Maderno's fountain. The oval is formed by colonnades which connect with straight colonnades joined to the ends of the facade. Bernini compared the design to the maternal embracing arms of the church

BALDACCHINO, SAINT PETER’S

GIANLORENZO BERNINI, baldacchino, Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1624–1633. Gilded bronze, approx. 100’ high

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

Acts as a shrine and 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

Symbol of Counter-Reformation spirit in Rome

Feat of bronze casting

SCALA REGIA

GIANLORENZO BERNINI, Scala Regia, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1663–1666

The monumental Scala Regia built by Bernini connects the papal apartments to the portico and narthex of Saint Peter's. The design illusionistically conceals the increasing narrowness of the passageway as the stairway ascends

BERNINI - DAVID

GIANLORENZO BERNINI, David, 1623. Marble, approx. 5’ 7” high

In mid-action -> swing the slingshot

Harp at his feet symbolizes his role as a psalmist

Bernini’s idealized self-portrait in the face of David

Intensive gaze

Meant to be seen from multiple angles

Use of negative space animates sculpture and surroundings

THE DAVIDS

ECSTASY OF SAINT TERESA

GIANLORENZO BERNINI, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy, 1645–1652. Marble, height of group 11’ 6”

Sculptural interpretation of Saint Teresa’s diary in which she tells of her visions of God -> many involving and angel descending with an arrow and plunging it into her

Stagelike setting with the patrons, the Cornaro family, sitting in theatre box looking on

ECSTASYOF SAINTTERESA

Figures seem to float in space -> the rays of God’s light symbolically illuminating the scene from behind

Mysticism

What is she experiencing?

The white marble group of swooning saint and smiling angel appears to float as a vision might in the cleverly illuminated central niche

SAN CARLO ALLE QUATRO FONTANE

FRANCESCO BORROMINI, facade of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome, Italy, 1665–1676

Unusually small site

Alternating convex and concave patterns and undulating façade

Façade higher than rest of building

Interior dome oval shaped and coffered

Borromini worked in in shades of white

CHAPEL OF SAINT IVO

FRANCESCO BORROMINI, Chapel of Saint Ivo, College of the Sapienza, Rome, Italy, begun 1642

Borromini employed concave and convex forms in the design of the façade of the Chapel of Saint Ivo. The dome, which is supported by a convex, drumlike structure, is topped by an ornate, spiralling lantern. The star shape of the centralized plan rises through the interior elevation from the floor into the dome to create a single, dynamic, unified, and cohesive space

Chapel of Saint Ivo (view into dome), College of the Sapienza, Rome, Italy, begun 1642.