Baroque Art

1600-1700 / 17th Century

Europe in the 17th Century. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ended the religious wars. European trade and financial markets span the globe.

A great source of wealth for Europe was Latin America, the main destination of the millions of people enslaved and taken out of Africa between 1500 and 1850. The U.S.

received about 523,000 enslaved immigrants. Cuba alone got more than the U.S. Spanish America absorbed around 1.5 million and Brazil at least 3.5 million.

GIANLORENZO BERNINI (Italian, 1598-1680), David, 1623. Marble, approx. 5’ 7” high. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Bernini was influenced by Hellenistic sculpture like this one, The Dying Gaul, c. 200 BC. (Roman copy)

GIANLORENZO BERNINI, Self-Portrait, about 1625

GIANLORENZO BERNINI (Italian, 1598-1680), David, 1623. Marble, approx. 5’ 7” high. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Michelangelo,Bound Slave, c. 1513

MICHELANGELO, David, 1501–1504. Marble, 13’ 5” high.

DONATELLO, David, 1420s-1450s, bronze,

5’ 2” high. First freestanding nude since antiquity

BERNINI (Italian, 1598-1680), David, 1623. Marble, approx. 5’ 7” high. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

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

Detail: face of Teresa experiencing a transfiguring coma, the so-called “Sleep of God,” in which Heaven is briefly experienced. Mystics like Teresa would pray for days, often unfed, to achieve such visions.

Cornaro family busts in niches on sides, praying devoutly and acting as witnesses to the holy drama.

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

Francesco Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (view into dome), Rome, Italy, 1638-1641. Italian Baroque oval dome, deeply coffered.

Compare classical forms of High Renaissance dome of Sant’Eligio degli Orefici (view into dome), Rome, Italy, attributed to BRAMANTE and RAPHAEL, ca. 1509

GUARINO GUARINI, Palazzo Carignano, Turin, Italy, 1679–1692. Palace (private residence) of the Princess of Carignan

Details (exterior & interior) GUARINO GUARINI, Palazzo

Carignano, Turin, Italy, 1679–1692.Sweeping arabesques and

ornamentation in deep relief that typifies Baroque architecture.

CARAVAGGIO (Michelangelo Merisi, Italian, 1573-1610), Conversion of Saint Paul, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Italy, ca. 1601. Oil on canvas, approx. 7’ 6” x 5’ 9”

Use of perspective, low horizon line, and tenebrism brings the viewer into the experience.

Theatricality is a hallmark of the Baroque.

CARAVAGGIO, Calling of Saint Matthew, Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, Italy, ca. 1597–1601. Oil on canvas, 11’ 1” x 11’ 5”.

What role doeslight play in thispainting?

Detail from The Creationof Adam, Michelangelo,Sistine Chapel, c. 1511

Details (Matthew & Jesus) from Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Matthew, Italian Baroquec. 1597–1601

ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI (Italian, 1593-1653), Judith Slaying Holofernes, ca. 1614–1620. Oil on canvas, 6’ 6 1/3” x 5’ 4”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

“Caravaggista” theatricality,

tenebrism and drama

Poor restoration hasRemoved the furrows fromthe women's foreheads that indicated intense concentration and effort.

Compare (left) Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes (1614-29) and Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes 1598-1599.

PIETRO DA CORTONA (Italian, 1596-1669), Triumph of the Barberini, ceiling fresco in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy, 1633–1639. Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII of the Barberini family. What does the fresco tell us about the Counter-Reformation?

DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ (Spain, 1599-1660), Water Carrier of Seville, ca. 1619 (The artist was around 20 years old.), Oil on canvas, 3’ 5 1/2” x 2’ 7 1/2”. Wellington Museum, London. Shows influence of Caravaggio.

Know term: genre – thesubject of the artist is the daily life of people

DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), 1656. Oil on canvas, approx. 10’ 5” x 9’. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), 1656. Oil on canvas, approx. 10’ 5” x 9’. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

CARAVAGGIO, Calling of Saint Matthew, Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, Italy, ca. 1597–1601. Oil on canvas, 11’ 1” x 11’ 5”.

Compare the representation and role of light in Caravaggio and Velazquez.

Self-portrait of Diego Velázquez – a detail in Las Meninas. He is wearing the cross of the Order of Santiago that he was awarded in 1659. According to legend, the king himself painted the cross.

PETER PAUL RUBENS (Flemish, 1577-1640), Arrival of Marie de’ Medici at Marseilles, 1622–1625. Oil on canvas, approx. 5’ 1” x 3’ 9 1/2”. Louvre, Paris. One of 21 vast canvases for the queen’s new Luxembourg palace in Paris.

Ostentation and elaborate spectacle

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN (Dutch, 1606-1669), The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq (The Night Watch), 1642. Oil on canvas (cropped on left and top from original size), 11” x 14’ 4”. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Self-Portrait, ca. 1659–1660. Oil on canvas, approx. 3’ 8 3/4” x 3’ 1”. Kenwood House, London.

How is light used for psychological purposes?

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Christ with the Sick around Him, Receiving the Children (“Hundred Guilder Print”), ca. 1649. Etching, approx. 11” x 1’ 3 1/4”. Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Etching was perfectedin the early 17th century. How is it different fromengraving?

JAN VERMEER, Woman Holding a Balance, c. 1664; Oil on canvas, 40.3 x 35.6 cm; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Protestant piety and prosperity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oYgTP0MX2U

Vermeer’s probable use of the camera obscura First representation of a

Camera obscura, 1544

JAN VERMEER, Allegory of the Art of Painting, 1670–1675.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeRDRL57I_Q

HYACINTHE RIGAUD (French, 1659-1743) Louis XIV, 1701. Oil on canvas, approx. 9’ 2” x 6’ 3”. Louvre, Paris. French Baroque

Art in the service ofAbsolutism: “The Sun King”

Aerial view of palace at Versailles, France, begun 1669, and a portion of the gardens and surrounding area. French Baroque

JULES HARDOUIN-MANSART and CHARLES LE BRUN, Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), palace of Versailles, Versailles, France, ca. 1680.

Controlling nature – Gardens of Versailles

LOUIS LE NAIN (French Baroque era, ca. 1592-1635) , Family of Country People, ca. 1640. Oil on canvas, approx. 3’ 8” x 5’ 2”. Louvre, Paris. Genre scene depicting the dire poverty but also the passive resignation of the French peasants