Download - Baroque In Italy

Transcript
Page 1: Baroque In Italy

Baroque

• Meant as derogatory, exaggerated, excessive, perverse

• Advanced techniques of Renaissance married to the intense emotions of Mannerism

• Courts and palaces designed to impress visitors• Theatrical – emphasis on emotion over

rationality

Page 2: Baroque In Italy

Catholic Protestant

• Spain• Portugal• France• Italy• Provinces (Belgium)• Austria• Poland• Rhineland• Holy Roman Empire

• England• Scotland• Scandinavia• Swiss Confederation• Holland• North Germany

Page 3: Baroque In Italy

Caravaggio (1573 – 1610)• Rebelled against convention• Started in Rome, but fled after

murder and worked in many cities

• Used drowned corpse as a model for Death of a Virgin – refused by patron but purchased by Duke of mantua on advice of Rubens

• Used prostitutes, drunks and street people for models

• Died at 37 (unknown cause but lots of speculation)

• Intense Light/Dark contrasts• Dramatic chiarioscuro

revolutionizes European art as well as the use of common people

• Varicose veins, dirty fingernails, and other attributes of “truth” in painting

• Often worked straight onto canvas without preliminary drawings

• High Psychological content

Page 4: Baroque In Italy

Caravaggio, 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

Page 5: Baroque In Italy

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

Page 6: Baroque In Italy
Page 7: Baroque In Italy

Judith and Holofernes (Judith 13,1-10)

"Judith was left alone in the tent, with Holofernes stretched out on the bed, for he was overcome with wine (Judith 13,2)... She went up to the post at the end of the bed, above Holofernes' head, and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to the bed and took hold of the hair of his head, and said: "Give me strength this day, O Lord God of Israel!". And she struck his neck twice with all her might, and severed his head from his body (Judith 13,6-8)... After a moment she went out and gave Holofernes' head to her maid (Judith 13, 9)".

The Old Testament narrates the episode of Judith who saved her city of Bethulia from the siege of Holofernes, general of the Assyrian king Nabucodonosor, by killing him after a banquet at which he had been made drink, beheading him and bringing his head to his fellow citizens (Judith ch. 10-13).

Page 8: 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

Page 9: Baroque In Italy
Page 10: Baroque In Italy

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

Page 11: Baroque In Italy

Bernini (1598 – 1680)

• One of the most influential Baroque artists

• Architect and sculptor• Devotion to physical and

psychological reality• Exquisite sense of

textures

• Patron Cardinal Barberini becomes Pope Urban VII and grants many commisions (especially for St. Peter’s)

• Mixture of many media in certain pieces

• When called to France by Louis XIV – sculpture not used – portrait changed rto roman figure and placed in remote part of garden

Page 12: Baroque In Italy

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

Page 13: Baroque In Italy

Nile (covered head for unknown source)

Danube

Ganges

Rio della Plata

Americas (note coins on the ledge representing the riches)1648-50 (Pope

Innocent X)

Page 14: Baroque In Italy

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

Page 15: Baroque In Italy

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

Page 16: Baroque In Italy

Italian Baroque Architecture

Borromini, St. Charles of the Four Fountains, Rome

• Very small site• Complex ground plan• Alternating convex and concave

patternsExterior:• 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 artsInterior:• Chapels merge into the main room• Oval coffered dome

Page 17: Baroque In Italy

Baroque Ceiling Painters

• Influenced by Mantegna, Corregio and Michelangelo

• Use of flying figures common

• High achievement in perspective, foreshortening and issues of overlapping space, color and value in compositions.

Page 18: Baroque In Italy

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

Page 19: Baroque In Italy

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

Page 20: Baroque In Italy

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

Page 21: Baroque In Italy

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