Baroque art 1600-1750

The word “baroque” derives from the Portuguese and Spanish words for a large, irregularly-shaped pearl (“barroco” and “barrueco,” respectively). Eighteenth century critics were the first to apply the term to the art of the 17th century. It was not a term of praise. To the eyes of these critics, who favored the restraint and order of Neoclassicism, the works of Baroque artist seem bizarre, absurd, even diseased—in other words, misshapen, like an imperfect pearl. Baroque works of art are dramatic, emotional and include real people as the main subject. If you saw a Baroque painting today, you couldn’t help but notice the fact that those portrayed in the work look rather as you would expect people to look. Poor people look poor and the wealthy look wealthy. It was during this time that art was created to appeal to the average people and their sense of emotion. Colors were exaggerated making brighter than bright, dark was darker than dark and light was lighter than light. This helped create a dramatic mood and even with all the realistic imagery, the more dramatic the better.

Facts about the Baroque period: Baroque refers to a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and 18th centuries that followed mannerism and is characterized by ornate detail. Baroque art took place after the Renaissance through the 17th and 18th century as a Catholic counter-reformation to draw people back into the church. Above all else, Baroque art reflected the religious tensions of the age - notably the desire of the Catholic Church in Rome to reassert itself in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. New technique of tenebrism was developed to enhance atmosphere. Brushwork is creamy and broad, often resulting in thick impasto. Key elements of Baroque art were: drama, vivid color, restless motion, and the contrast between light and dark. In architecture the period is exemplified by the palace of Versailles and by the work of Bernini in Italy. Major composers include Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel.

Key Vocabulary

Foreshortening is the visual effect or optical illusion that causes an object or distance to appear shorter than it actually is because it is angled toward the viewer. Additionally, an object is often not scaled evenly: a circle often appears as an ellipse and a square can appear as a trapezoid. Naturalism is a philosophical viewpoint according to which everything arises from natural properties and causes, and supernatural or spiritual explanations are excluded or discounted. Chiaroscuro is an effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something. Tenebrism is from the Italian, tenebroso (murky), also called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image. Trompe l'oeil is a visual illusion in art, especially as used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a three-dimensional object. French for “Deceive the eye” Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface very thickly, usually thickly enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas.

View of Toledo1598–99 El Greco (1541-1614), Oil on canvas 47 3/4 x 42 3/4 in.

Along with this monumental, high-minded approach, painters typically portrayed a strong sense of movement, using swirling spirals and upward diagonals, and strong sumptuous color schemes, in order to

dazzle and surprise.

The Art of Persuasion: to Instruct, to Delight, to Move While the Protestants harshly criticized the cult of images, the Catholic Church ardently embraced the religious power of art. The visual arts, the Church argued, played a key role in guiding the faithful. They were certainly as important as the written and spoken word, and perhaps even more important, since they were accessible to the learned and the unlearned alike. In order to be effective in its pastoral role, religious art had to be clear, persuasive, and powerful. Not only did it have to instruct, it had to inspire. It had to move the faithful to feel the reality of Christ’s sacrifice, the suffering of the martyrs, the visions of the saints. The Church’s emphasis on art’s pastoral role prompted artists to experiment with new and more direct means of engaging the viewer. Artists like Caravaggio turned to a powerful and dramatic realism, accentuated by bold contrasts of light and dark, and tightly-cropped compositions that enhance the physical and emotional immediacy of the depicted narrative.

The Catholic Monarchs and their Territories The monarchs of Spain, Portugal, and France also embraced the more ornate elements of seventeenth century art to celebrate Catholicism. In Spain and its colonies, rulers invested vast resources on elaborate church facades, stunning, gold-covered chapels and tabernacles, and strikingly-realistic polychrome sculpture. In the Spanish Netherlands, where sacred art had suffered terribly as a result of the Protestant iconoclasm (the destruction of art), civic and religious leaders prioritized the adornment of churches as the region reclaimed its Catholic identity. Refurnishing the altars of Antwerp’s churches kept Peter Paul Rubens’ workshop busy for many years. Europe’s monarchs also adopted this artistic vocabulary to proclaim their own power and status. Louis XIV, for example, commissioned the splendid buildings and gardens of Versailles as a visual expression of his divine right to rule.

Elevation of the Cross (1610) Peter Paul Rubens oil on wood 15 feet 1-7/8 inches x 11 feet 1-1/2 inches (originally for Saint Walpurgis, Antwerp (destroyed), now in Antwerp Cathedral)

The Protestant North In the Protestant countries, and especially in the newly-independent Dutch Republic (modern-day Holland), the artistic climate changed radically in the aftermath of the Reformation. Two of the wealthiest sources of patronage—the monarchy and the Church—were now gone. In their stead arose an increasingly prosperous middle class eager to express its status, and its new sense of national pride, through the purchase of art. By the middle of the 17th century a new market had emerged to meet the artistic tastes of this class. The demand was now for smaller scale paintings suitable for display in private homes. These paintings included religious subjects for private contemplation, as seen in Rembrandt’s poignant paintings and prints of biblical narratives, as well as portraits documenting individual likenesses. But, the greatest change in the market was the dramatic increase in the popularity of landscapes, still-lifes, and scenes of everyday life (known as genre painting). Indeed, the proliferation of these subjects as independent artistic genres was one of the 17th century’s most significant contributions to the history of Western art. In all of these genres, artists revealed a keen interest in replicating observed reality—whether it be the light on the Dutch landscape, the momentary expression on a face, or the varied textures and materials of the objects the Dutch collected as they reaped the benefits of their expanding mercantile empire. These works demonstrated as much artistic virtuosity and physical immediacy as the grand decorations of the palaces and churches of Catholic Europe.

Self-Portrait c.1630 Judith Leyster oil on canvas 651 x 746 cm (National Gallery of Art, Washington)

Michelangelo de Caravaggio 1571-1610

Michelangelo da Caravaggio was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily.

Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano.

In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious art that was tasked to counter the threat of Protestantism.

Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism.

Chalk portrait of Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni, circa 1621.

Supper at Emmaus 1601 Caravaggio (1571–1610) Medium oil on canvas 141 x 196,2 cm

The Crowning with Thorn1602-1604 Caravaggio (1573-1610) oil on canvas 50 in x 65.16 in

Baroque painting illustrated key elements of Catholic dogma, either directly in Biblical works or indirectly in mythological or allegorical compositions.

Descent from the Cross 1617-1618 Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) oil on canvas 116.9 in-78.7 in

In order to fulfill its propagandist role, Catholic-inspired Baroque art tended to be large-scale works of public art, such as monumental wall-paintings and huge frescoes for the ceilings and vaults of palaces and churches.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 - 1669) Rembrandt van Rijn was a 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,

and gave rise to important new genres in painting.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter,

Rembrandt's later years were marked by personal tragedy and

financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular

throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high,

and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters.

Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified

especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits

and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. His self-portraits form

a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed

himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of

classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements

of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene

was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his

assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of

Amsterdam's Jewish population. Because of his empathy for the

human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets

of civilization."

Self-Portrait 1659 Rembrandt van Rijn oil on canvas 33 1/4 in x 26 in

The Stoning of Saint Stephen, 1625, The first painting by Rembrandt, painted at the age of 19

1628 1629 1630 1634

1640 1652 1655 1660

1669. 1628

Baroque art wants us to be

able to relate to the image in

our bodies, not just in our

minds. Bernini's David uses

the space around it—reaching

out into the space of the viewer

(our space!). Bernini's David is

not content—the way

Michelangelo's David is—to

remain separate from us. When

looking at Bernini's David, we

immediately start to feel what

David is feeling. This sympathy

is very important to Baroque

art.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, David, 1623-24, marble, 170 cm

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Baroque architecture is the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late 16th-century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and the absolutist state. It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow, and dramatic intensity. Whereas the Renaissance drew on the wealth and power of the Italian courts and was a blend of secular and religious forces, the Baroque was, initially at least, directly linked to the Counter-Reformation, a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself in response to the Protestant Reformation Baroque architecture and its embellishments were on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and on the other hand, a visible statement of the wealth and power of the Church.

Buildings in the Baroque style have many of these features:

Complicated shapes

Large curved forms

Twisted columns

Grand stairways

High domes

Trompe l'oeil paintings

Italian Baroque: Catholic Popes in Italy wanted architecture to express holy splendor.

They commissioned churches with enormous

domes, swirling forms, huge spiraled columns,

multicolored marble, and lavish murals

The Church of Saint Andrea al Quirinale, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Fresco with trompe l'œil dome painted on low vaulting, Jesuit Church, Vienna, by Andrea Pozzo, 1703

Trompe l'oeil is a visual illusion in art, especially as used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a three-dimensional object. French for “Deceive the eye”

Santa Susanna in Rome, Italy

St. Peter and St. Paul's Church interior in Vilnius, Lithuania

The altar of the pompous St. John's Co-Cathedral

Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia

The Palace of Versailles The principal architect was Louis Le Vau with the help of many other designers including Andre Le Notre (landscape architect) and Charles Lebrun. It was originally a hunting lodge, built in 1624, by Louis XIII

View of Rome from the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica

Beautifying the city: Bernini and Pope Alexander VII

On his accession to the Chair of St Peter Pope Alexander VII (1655–67) immediately commissioned large-scale architectural changes in Rome, connecting new and existing buildings by opening up streets and piazzas. It is no coincidence that Bernini's career showed a greater focus on designing buildings during this pontificate, as there were far greater opportunities.

Music The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality- the character of a piece of

music as determined by the key in which it is played or the relations between the notes of a scale or key

During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques.

Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera, cantata, oratorio, concerto, and sonata as musical genres.

Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today.

Major composers include

Antonio Vivaldi 4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741

Johann Sebastian Bach 31 March1685 – 28 July 1750

George Frideric 23 February 1685 – 14 March 1759

Baroque instruments including hurdy gurdy, harpsichord, bass viol, lute, violin,

and guitar