Baroque

1600 - 1700

The Baroque: Art, Politics & Religion in 17th-century Europehttp://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/1600-1700-the-Baroque.html

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Baroque in ItalyCaravaggio, Calling of Saint

Matthew

• Tenebroso

• Light comes from two sources on the right; top source illuminates Saint Matthew

• Ordinary figures

• Some dressed as 17th Century dandies, fashionably coiffed

• Influence of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam in the hand of Christ: God’s hand but Adam’s reversed position

• http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/caravaggio-matthew.html

Caravaggio, Conversion of Saint Paul

• Unknown source of light

• Common figures

• Little to suggest a spiritual event

• Dark tenebroso effect; limited color palette

• Figures are very closely spaced

• Awkwardness in the man holding the horse with his very long arms and legs that don’t line up with his head

• Awkwardness of the foreshortened horse

• Little depth; very shallow stage, figures pushed forward

• Positioning of horse guides viewer “into” painting seen to the right

Baroque in Italy

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Baroque in Italy

Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes

• Painted six versions of the story

• Gentileschi raped when young: is there a relationship of this event to the painting?

• Artist identified with Judith, Gentileschi’s self-portrait as the heroine

• Not idealized but realistic figures

• Gory moment of decapitation, blood squirting out: shock value

• Holofernes defenseless

• Tenebroso

• Dramatic light effect from the left

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Carracci, Flight into Egypt

•Composed landscape: modeled on a combination of different places

•Trees on left and right frame composition

•Foreground shadowy, light background

•Central open axis

•Scene seems to unfold in layers receding deeper into work

•Eyes drawn diagonally back

•Man and nature have a harmonious existence

•Baroque landscape always shows a trace of human activity, often a Biblical or mythological significance

Baroque in Italy

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Baroque Ceiling Painters

Carracci, Loves of the Gods

• Gallery intended to exhibit antique sculpture

• Di sotto in sù and quadro riportato painting intermingled

• Figures flow harmoniously

• Each figure is studied from life

• Figures overlap frames of paintings

• Painted herms bordering main scenes, inspired by Sistine Chapel ignudi

• Herms seem sculptural, seen from below• Golden frames seem three-dimensional but figures overlap them • Venetian color• Robust, healthy, muscular figures, defined contours: idealized

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/carracci-farnese-ceiling.html

Reni, Aurora• Quadro riportato• Glowing dramatic colors• Aurora leads Apollo’s chariot, Hours guide the chariot• Soft modeling• Idealized, sweetly lyrical females• Wavy compositional lines

Baroque Ceiling Painters

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/renis-aurora.html

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Baroque Ceiling Painters

Pozzo, Glorification of Saint Ignatius• Walls of church are foreshortened into painted architecture• Di sotto in sù• Ceiling of church painted as if it were removed and figures are hovering above us• Four continents of the known world are represented between the windows: Europe, America, Africa and

Asia• St. Ignatius floats above, his deeds and good works span to the four continents• Rays spring from his head to the four continents

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/pozzos-glorification-of-saint-ignatius.html

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Italian Baroque Sculpture

Bernini, David• David is energetically swinging the slingshot• Chose not to wear his armor to fight Goliath, it is at his feet and acts as a physical support for the statue• Harp at his feet suggests David as a poet and singer• Said to have Bernini’s likeness: intensity of expression• Must be seen in the round, though may have been originally set against a wall• Recalls Hellenistic Greek art• Baroque art: figures caught in the middle of action

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Bernini-David.html

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Italian Baroque Sculpture

Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Theresa• Stage-like setting• Carved a vision by Saint

Theresa of Avila• Members of the patron family,

the Cornaro, look on from theatre boxes, in conversation or are reading about the event itself

• Baroque as theatrical• Natural light from a hidden

window shines on rays and figures

• Combination of painting, sculpture and architecture

• Directed view• Angel as sexless, Teresa in

physical ecstasy, drained of all emotion

• Carved marble differently depending on the texture of the surface: clouds are rough, wings are downy, drapery is smooth, and skin has a high shine http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/bernini-

ecstasy-of-st.-theresa.html

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Italian Baroque Sculpture

Bernini, Baldacchino

• Over main altar of Saint Peter’s

• 100 feet high, made of bronze

• Twisting columns inspired by Early Christian designs, corkscrew motif

• Lively ornate concept

• Symbol of the patron, the Barberini family, in the sun and bees motif on entablature

• Baroque concept of directed view: focuses your eyes down the main aisle of Saint Peter’s and acts as a frame for the Cathedra Petri, which though later in date, was likely planned already

• Bronze taken from the Pantheon: paganism transformed into Christianity

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/berninis-cathedra-petri.html

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Italian Baroque Sculpture

Bernini, Colonnade of Saint Peter’s, Rome

• Plaza holds half million people, 284 columns, 4 rows, 140 statues

• Church in a congested area of Rome, Bernini wanted an open area to overwhelm visitors entering it through the four-deep colonnade with light and space

• Tuscan Doric columns with classical temple front

• Curving Baroque shape of colonnade

• Forms the shape of two arms bringing people into the Church

• Also the shape of a skeleton keyhole, symbolic of Saint Peter who holds the keys to the kingdom

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/berninis-saint-peters-square.html

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Italian Baroque Architecture

Borromini, St. Charles of the Four Fountains, Rome

• Very small site

• Complex ground plan

• Alternating convex and concave patterns

Exterior:

• Façade higher than the rest of the building

• Walls treated sculpturally

• Emphasis on central portal with kiosk and formerly frescoed medallion above

• Union of three major arts

Interior:

• Chapels merge into the main room

• Oval coffered dome

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/san-carlo-alle-quattro-fontane.html

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Italian Baroque Architecture

Borromini, Chapel of Saint Ivo, Rome

Exterior:• Intricate and complex

lantern• Heavy stringcourses give a

horizontal sweep, but strong pilasters make overall effect vertical

• Walls have an undulating pattern

Interior:• Star hexagonal shape, end

points turn into niches• Hexagon accepted symbol

of wisdom: appropriate for the law school of Rome

• Dome not decorated with painting, architectural forms dominate

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Italian Baroque Architecture

Guarini, Chapel of the Holy Shroud, Turin

• Masonry crosshatching

• Mathematical geometric shapes

• Not meant for painted decoration

• An illusion of endless distance

• 12 pointed star

• Hexagonal ribs make high, airy dome

• Stone is dressed in unpolished grey marble

• Houses the Shroud of Turin

• Dove of the Holy Spirit hovers in center

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English Baroque ArchitectureWren, Saint Paul’s, LondonExterior: • Drum of dome resembles Saint

Peter’s• Influence of the Tempietto• Three domes: hidden central

element is a brick cone that holds the dome up, outside dome gives a rounded shape, the hemispherical dome is of wood and is painted

Façade:• Two storied façade is classicizing• Frontispiece is an equilateral triangle• Coupled columns• Juxtaposition of concave and convex

designs in the towers recalls Borromini

• Contrasts of dark and light in the porch

Interior:• Octagonal crossing is the dominant

central space in nave

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Baroque in Flanders

Rubens, Allegory on the Outbreak of War• Mars has left the Temple of Janus open, normally closed

during times of peace• Venus and Cupids try to restrain Mars• Fury Alecto, torch in hand, pulls him forward • Below woman with a broken lute: harmony is destroyed• Mother and child indicate fertility cannot bloom• Fallen architect symbolizes the fall of civilization• Mars literally tramples on literature

Crying woman in black is EuropeStrong diagonals and masterful use of colorPainterly brushstrokeBaroque dynamics and compositionDeveloped musculature

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Baroque in Flanders

Rubens, Arrival of Marie de’Medici at Marseilles

• Part of the Marie de’Medici cycle of 21 paintings in the Louvre

• Real people exist side-by-side with nymphs, sea monsters, naiads, genii

• Neptune and the three sirens, a sea god and a triton escort the boat in the harbor

• France in blue cape with gold fleur-de-lis falls to his knees before Marie

• Fame salutes her with two trumpets• Arms of the Medici over the arch of

the boat• Commander of ship wears a cross of

the Knights of Malta, is a sharp counterpoint to the other figures in the painting

• Dynamic movement• Rich vivid color• Heavily muscled men; ample females• Union of Northern and Italian painting

that started with Dürer

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/arrival-of-marie-de-medici-at-marseilles-medici-cycle.html

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Baroque in Flanders

Van Dyck, Charles I Dismounted• Unstressed royal authority• A king and a cavalier• Venetian landscape with the

Thames behind• Charles has dismounted and his

horse is being held for him • He glances sharply at us from

the side• Haughty pose• Van Dyck established the

tradition of the graceful monarch, regal yet at ease

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/van-dycks-charles-i-at-the-hunt.html

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Baroque in Spain

Velazquez, Surrender of Breda

• Battle in 1625, Dutch forced to yield Breda

to the Spanish

• Magnanimity, humanity and valor of the

victors is stressed

• Dutch on left seen as youthful,

disorganized

• Spanish on right are dignified, with lances

indicating their military precision

• Key to the city is emphasized in the center

• Emotional tone of generosity and mutual

respect

• Effect of the battle seen in the smoky

background

• Topography is accurate: artist interviewed

participants in the battle and consulted

other renderings of the area

• Light and color are compositional devices

that unify the elementshttp://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/velazquezs-the-surrender-of-breda.html

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Baroque in Spain

Velazquez, Las Meninas• Velázquez working on a huge

canvas that could not fit through the door of the room. He pauses and takes a step back to study us.

• Velázquez wears the Cross of the Order of Santiago, a symbol of nobility: painter enjoyed a court appointment and desired respect

• Princess Margarita with two maids-in-waiting is the central focus of the painting

• Dwarves on right; Philip IV had a large collection of dwarves, no abnormalities are glossed over by Velázquez

• Blurring of figures on right suggests painter’s understanding of peripheral vision

• Older woman is lady of honor, wears a nun’s outfit to indicate she is a widow

• Man in conversation with her is her escort http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Velazqu

ez-Las-Meninas.html

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Baroque in Spain

Velazquez, Las Meninas (continued)• Silhouetted man is José Nieto,

aposentador of the Queen, head of the Queen’s tapestry works, rests his hand on a tapestry as he goes out, but pauses

• Regular rhythm of the frames on the back wall anchors composition as opposed the irregular rhythm of the groups

• Paintings above are works that illustrate mortals who challenged the gods

• Perspective pulls you into the painting, but the mirror reflects out

• Extension laterally: canvas on easel, windows

• Alternating darks and lights reach into the painting

• King and Queen are in the mirror, but what is being reflected? The painting Velázquez is working on? The King and Queen themselves? A portrait of the King and Queen hanging on the opposite wall?

• What is Velázquez painting? This group? A painting of this painting? The King and Queen?

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Velazquez-Las-Meninas.html

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Dutch Painters of the BaroqueCharacteristics of Dutch Art:

• No church or aristocracy to commission paintings

• Art has a bourgeois character

• Paintings used to cover bare walls, give pleasure to the eye

• Cheerful subjects, unpleasant ones are given a humorous slant

• Artists worked on the open market, not for patrons: specialization according to subject matter

• Small paintings for small homes

• Subjects were easily understandable, some allegorical representations, no religious ecstasies and few pagan myths

Dutch Painters of the Baroque

Leyster, Self-Portrait

• Smile: she greets us casually, as does the fiddler

• Self-assured, charming, sociable

• Meets the viewer’s gaze, as if to speak to us

• Signed her paintings with her initials and a star, punning meaning of her name “leading star”

• Well-dressed while painting

• Quick sure brushstrokes

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/vermeers-the-art-of-painting.html

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Dutch Painters of the Baroque

Steen, The Feast of Saint Nicholas

• Genre painting

• Saint Nicholas has visited the children with various results

• A girl grabs her doll as her mother pleads to look at it, or perhaps asks her to share

• Boy at left is crying over his disappointed gift

• Chaos in search for gifts

• Man on right points out to small child how Saint Nicholas descended the chimney

• Ten figures in a complex arrangement

• Complicated series of diagonals unify figures that seem to bend this way and that in reflection of one another

• Adult meaning to this children’s scene

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Dutch Painters of the Baroque

Ruisdael, View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen

• Flat horizon of the Netherlands: sky takes up ¾ of painting

• Sullen clouds, dramatically painted

• Receding spaces through dark and light passages

• Bleaching linen manufactured in Holland

• Long strips of treated cloth were spread out to bleach in the fields

• Openness and height, very distant and elevated point-of-view

Hals, Archers of Saint Hadrian• Responsible citizen mentality

among the Dutch• No static arrangements; no

interaction• Strong horizontal emphasis with

vertical spears punctuating the composition

Dutch Painters of the Baroque

Left group around dominant figure of Col. Johan Claez. Loo, his cane indicates his authorityRight group is a separate unit: Lt. Hendrick Gerritsz. Pot holds a book (minutes of meeting?)Back to back groupsDistinct individuality of figuresDynamically grouped with strong diagonals of composition

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/hals-malle-babbe.html

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Dutch Painters of the BaroqueRembrandt, Anatomy Lesson of

Doctor Tulp• First great commission• Dutch law: open cadavers of

executed criminals only, allowed for entertainment purposes like this

• Specific anatomy lesson in January 1632

• Lessons took 4-5 days, Descartes may have attended this one

• Dr. Tulp is singled out seated in a chair of honor

• He wears a broad rimmed hat: academic badge of chairman

• His hands (alone) are prominently shown

• Cadaver’s body compared to the book at right

• Caravaggesque background• Figures stare out into space

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/rembrandts-the-anatomy-lesson-of-dr.-tulp.html

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Dutch Painters of the Baroque

Rembrandt, The Night Watch

• 18 men portrayed in the commission, represented according to how much they paid, but 29 figures in total, 2 figures cut off when the painting was cut down at left

• Civic guard group getting ready for a march, makes for a lively composition

• Captain Frans Banning Cocqholds a baton in right hand and wears a red sash, wears a gorget of steel barely visible under his white collar

• Captain gestures as if to speak

• Orders given to his lieutenant to march forward

• (Continued on next slide…)

• Central figures come forward

• Use of musket shown: musketeer in red is charging his musket by transferring powder into the muzzle from one of the wooden cartridges attached to his bandolier

• Figure behind Cocq is firing musket

• Third figure behind lieutenant is clearing the pan by blowing off the powder that remained there after the shot

• Deep chiaroscuro

• Liveliness of figures, psychological penetration

Rembrandt, The Night Watch (continued)

Dutch Painters of the Baroque

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Dutch Painters of the Baroque

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait

• Probed states of human soul

• Changing lights and darks suggest changing of human mood

• Self-satisfied artist at the height of his career

• Perfect circles behind are drawn with one hand perhaps as a sign of ability http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/rembrandts-self-portrait-1659.html

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Dutch Painters of the Baroque

Common Motifs in Vermeer’s Paintings

• Checkerboard floor

• Horizontal beam ceiling

• Light from the left

• Heavy drapery and/or map

• Figures seen from the back or side

• Figures occupied in daily pursuit

• Sensitivity to light

• Back wall is always flat against picture plane

The Concert (c. 1664) is a painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/vermeers-the-art-of-painting.html

Vermeer, The Letter

• Light filtering from a unseen window at left

• We look in, they are unaware

• Figures framed by portal and a curtain

• Smile on servant, surprised look on the woman

• Woman is well-dressed, holding a lute

• A lute was a symbol of serenading, hence of love

• Is a love letter being brought?

• Sense of quiet expectation

Dutch Painters of the Baroque

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Dutch Painters of the BaroqueVermeer, Allegory on the Art of

Painting• Painter’s costume, chandelier

and maps out of date• Woman is Clio, Muse of

History• Laurel and garland, holds a

trumpet of fame in her right hand

• Map frames “history”• Nostalgia for bygone days of

Catholic rule over Holland and Catholic patronage of artists

• Artist in his studio (Vermeer?)• Looking in on figures who

seem unaware• Quiet and stillness• Touches of light flicker across

the map, revealing the pulled edges

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French Baroque Painting

Poussin, Et in Arcadia Ego

• Influenced by Raphael

• Three shepherds in idyllic landscape of Arcadia

• “And I am in Arcadia, also”phrase related to person buried in tomb

• Death is present, even in Arcadia

• Shadow of man’s arm is the sickle of Death

• Shepherd places his finger on the tip of the shadow• Tomb is ruined• Compact, balanced grouping• Elegiac mood• Woman: ambivalent, expression of joy and sadness.

Does she represent Death?• Trees turn from green on left to grey and barren on right

(life to death)• Grand Manner of Painting

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Poussin-Et-in-Arcadia-Ego.html

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French Baroque PaintingClaude, Landscape with Cattle and Peasants

• Shimmering, glowing color

• Sense of spatial depth

• Symmetry with framing trees in landscape

• Alternating patches of light and dark draw viewer into background

• Small figures in ideal settings

• Voids and solids balanced

Rigaud, Louis XIV

• Majestic, awesome

• Very richly designed

• Sumptuous display of garments, drapery, rugs

• Louis XIV felt he had good legs: they are exposed to view

• Long flowing wig

• Stately parade

• Essence of the Sun King in his glory

• Baroque ornateness

French Baroque Painting

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/baroque-france.html

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Baroque Palace Architecture

Hardouin-Mansart, Versailles, France

• Façade ¼ mile long with 25 bays

• Italian balustrade on top

• Units and subunits of three

• Emphasis on center of façade

• Restrained elegance

Hall of Mirrors:

• Light from outside reflected in mirrors, shimmering quality

• Long room meant for ceremonial functions

Gardens:

• East and west orientation of the gardens

• Regular and symmetrical French gardens

• Enormous quantities of earth moved to create geometric gardens

• Three avenues cut though Versailles

• Mastery of human intelligence over disorderliness of nature

• Enormous quantities of earth moved to create geometric gardens

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English Baroque ArchitectureVanbrugh, Blenheim

Palace, Oxfordshire

• For the Duke of

Marlborough,

victor at Blindheim

on August 1704,

the turning point in

War of Spanish

Succession

• Italian Baroque

complexity

• Projecting pavilions

• North front:

flamboyant,

unnerving pattern

of advance and

recession

• Massive columns and pilasters extend over two stories

• Gate towers are sculptural objects of the same rank as those of the

main house

• Allusions to Britannia’s might: British lion mauling a French cockerel

on top of the pillars