Ch. 15: The Baroque Worldpp. 371-79, 384-85 (Palace of Versailles), 395-406

Terms• Baroque• Piazza• Façade• Chiaroscuro• Aria, oratorio,

overture, sonata, fugue, cantata, and “orchestral movement”

• Cogito, ergo sum• Tabula rasa• Metaphysical poets

Featured Works

Bernini’s piazza at St. Peter’sCarravaggio’s The Calling of St.

MatthewHandel’s Overture to FireworksBach’s Toccata and Fugue in D

minorRembrandt’s The Anatomy

Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes TulpJohn Donne’s “The Flea”

Other Important WorksPalace at VersaillesBorromini’s church of San Carlo (in Rome)Bernini’s DavidGentileschi’s Judith and HolofernesScientist GalileoPhilosophers Descartes, Hobbes, and Locke

Meaning of BaroqueThe Baroque period (17th c.) was largely an

extension of Renaissance Humanism accompanied by continued religious controversy (Catholicism vs. Protestantism).

The Baroque period is characterized by the increased emphasis on the individual. As your book says, “baroque artists were united in their commitment to strong emotional statements, psychological exploration, and the invention of new and daring techniques” that highlighted individual talents (373). Keep these general statements in mind as you focus on a few key people and developments.

Architecture and Sculpture

Bernini: Sometimes the emotional/psychological emphasis of the period was expressed through grandeur, scope, and awe. His completion of St. Peter’s Basilica and of the creation of the piazza in front of it is one of the most famous examples of the Baroque spirit in architecture. (See next two slides.)

A similar example is the Palace at Versailles, built for the French king Louis XIV. What was the political function of this grandeur? (See also figures 15.18 and 15.19 in book.)

Borromini’s church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, in Rome, exemplifies the interest in new techniques and in a more elaborate, emotional architecture. Note the many visual elements crowded into a relatively small space.

Compare Bernini’s David to Donnatello’s and Michelangelo’s. How does Bernini’s rendering exhibit Baroque characteristics?

PaintingFor each of the paintings below, be

able to identify its Humanist and its Baroque characteristics:

• Caravaggio’s The Calling of Saint Matthew. (Define chiaroscuro.)

• Gentileschi’s Judith and Holofernes.• Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lecture

of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632, next slide).

Music: Instrumental and Vocal• What, broadly speaking, is significant about

the Baroque period for the history of music? (p. 395)

• Define music terms on second slide. (Remember that there is a glossary in the back of your book. You may wish to use other sources that provide more information.)

• For both Handel and Bach, record some key details about their musical careers and abilities.

Science, Philosophy, and Literature

Identify each man’s cultural significance; primary work and key ideas, explaining relevant terms from list in slide 1; and nationality.

• Galileo Galilei• Rene Descartes

• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan• John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human

Understanding • John Donne, a Metaphysical Poet, and

“The Flea.” (Read poem on next two slides. Interpretation hint: The speaker wants to make love to the woman to whom he is speaking, and his comments on a flea that has jumped on her are his way of persuading her.)

John Donne’s “The Flea”

Marke but this flea, and marke in this, How little that which thou deny'st me is; Me it suck'd first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled bee; Confesse it, this cannot be said A sinne, or shame, or losse of maidenhead,

Yet this enjoyes before it wooe, And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than wee would doe.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare, When we almost, nay more than maryed are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is; Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met, And cloysterd in these living walls of Jet. (cont.)

Though use make thee apt to kill me, Let not to this, selfe murder added bee, And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three.

Cruell and sodaine, has thou since Purpled thy naile, in blood of innocence? In what could this flea guilty bee, Except in that drop which it suckt from thee? Yet thou triumph'st, and saist that thou Find'st not thyself, nor mee the weaker now;

'Tis true, then learne how false, feares bee; Just so much honor, when thou yeeld'st to mee, Will wast, as this flea's death tooke life from thee.