The Baroque

1. The Baroque

2. The Baroque in Spain • Original from Portuguese: perla barroca misshapen pearl • Spain: Catholic Counter-Reformation( art of mystical spirituality) and absolutist monarchy(monarchs patronized projects and artists) • Repercussions in American colonies

3. El Greco and Catholic Mysticism • Mysticism: connection to God through senses and feelings • Index: list of forbidden books; reforms in Catholic education and revival of faith • El Greco: intensely religious; trained in Venice, settled in Toledo • Burial of Count Orgaz influenced by Raphael. Individual baroque style

4. Spanish Baroque Architecture • Few commissions from Phillip II. Phillip used Italian artists for his El Escorial palace • Palace, mausoleum, monastery to St. Lawrence • Influenced by Michelangelo’s St. Peter’s • Gold and silver from the New World • La Compania in Cuzco Peru and Cathedral of Mexico: Triumph of Christianity over native faiths.

5. Velazquez • Diego Velazquez, court painter to Philip IV • Realist; bold color and brushwork • Did not attain Rubens’ social status • Las Meninas: genre painting • King and Queen and painter in painting • Red cross: nobility awarded to him by King

6. Cervantes and Don Quixote • Idealistic knight confuses real world with chivalric fantasy • Draws people and changes them • Cervantes: Greatest literary work of 17 century • Sancho represents reality who brings Don Quixote back from his fantasy

7. Don Quixote • Contrast between reality and fantasy, truth and falsehood, issues of life and death • Spanish Inquisition executed heretics on flimsy evidence like Don Quixote’s fantasies • Masterpiece about the chief intellectual problems of his age

8. The Baroque in Italy • More exuberant baroque style in Italy • New buildings and artistic patronage exceeding Renaissance • Ornamentation, dramatic and theatrical, monumental scale of works

9. The Baroque Master Bernini • Pope Urban VIII hired Gianlorenzo Bernini to beautify Rome • Surpassed Renaissance architects in ambition and scope • Baldacchino, Piazza to St Peter’s, Colonnade: arms of the Church to welcome worshippers

10. Sculpture: dynamic, energetic • David: ready to cast his stone, coiled to release in baroque diagonal. Face self-portrait of Bernini • Cornaro Chapel: Ecstasy of St. Teresa: Saint’s union with God • Teresa consumed with love for God • Sculpted figures of Cornaro family in balconies witness vision • Baroque religious emotionalism

11. Italian Baroque Painting • Caravaggio: Dramatic chiaroscuro to depict biblical scenes. Italian peasants for models • The Calling of St. Matthew: anachronistic shows deep belief in salvation of sinners • Artemisa Gentileschi: pupil of Caravaggio. Judith Slaying Holofernes foreground light propels action forward: dramatic

12. The Birth of Opera • By 17th century Italy losing ground in the arts except in opera • Opera: musical theater, sung, with orchestra and staged with costumes and sets • Florentine Camerata • Claudio Monteverdi: Orfeo: Orpheus descends to Hell to rescue Euridice • Expanded recitatives

13. Solos convey intense feelings • Chordal dissonances create discomfort that anticipates a resolution • Interest in human emotion evidenced in Caravaggio’s and Bernini’s works • Aria: independent song revealing feelings of character. Showcased the virtuosity of singers • Opera seria and opera buffa

14. Vivaldi and Italian Baroque Music • Vivaldi: musical director of conservatory. • Virtuoso of the violin from Venice, Master of the baroque concerto, musical form with small group of instrument in contrasts with a larger orchestra. • The Four Seasons: Brilliant composition of four dramatic episodes connected by a recurring melody. Studied by Bach later.

15. Absolutism • Absolute monarchies: solution to maintain social order; control of every aspect of national life • Hobbes didn’t believe humans could rule themselves • Louis XIV: L’etat, c’est moi!

16. The Baroque in France • Reign of Louis XIV-- “Sun King” 1660 • Sponsored arts and theater--controlled them via the academies: Rules revived Greek and Roman forms: neoclassical style flourished alongside Italian baroque

17. Versailles • Balanced and lavish--compromise between neoclassical rules and baroque excess • Enlarged the hunting lodge; eventually moved his court there--50,000 p, 20,000 h • Le Vau, (a), Le Notre, (g d), Lebrun,( I d) • Mansart--Hall of Mirrors • Established French national style

18. The Performing Arts at Versailles • Academie Francaise: judged in matters of literary form and taste--rules for theater • 5 acts, unities of time and place provide a moral lesson • Moliere: attacked hypocrisy of French society: Tartuffe, The Would-Be Gentleman, The Imaginary Invalid his best plays. Wit and observation of society.

19. Lully collaborated with Moliere in comedy-ballets • Became the head of the Royal Academy of Music • He developed classical ballet with five basic foot positions. • Employed professional women dancers • Composed 20 operas--never achieved greatness of Italian operas

20. Rubens and Poussin: Painters of the Court • Rubens: (Flemish)master of baroque style • Dynamic compositions with lavish color: Marie de Medici’s 21 canvases • Themes of aristocracy: hunting, history, mythology, portraits • Rape of the Daughter of Leucippus, Henry IV Receiving the Portrait of Marie de Medici

21. Poussin • Baroque Neoclassicism: cool and defined figures as classical statues • Clarity of The Holy Family on the Steps • Pyramidal grouping from the Renaissance • Regularity of structure • Academic tastes

22. Music of the Protestant Baroque • No absolutist monarch to impose rules and tastes • Small German courts provided patrons

23. Johann Sebastian Bach • Excelled in both secular and sacred music. Was not known outside his area. • Two features of baroque music: counterpoint and basso continuo • Six Brandenberg Concertos • Appointed music director of St. Thomas church in Leipzig • Cantatas (over 300): choral work for Lutheran worship

24. The “Well-tempered Keyboard” • Musical exercises proved that any stringed keyboard instrument could be tuned to accommodate all 24 major and minor keys. • Prelude free form--shows off the keyboard player’s ability • Fugue--musical form developed in counterpoint • St. Matthew’s Passion

25. The Dutch Baroque • Vigorous commerce and political independence in the Netherlands • Churches bare, but public halls decorated with paintings • Demand for paintings eliminated need for patrons

26. Vermeer • Unknown in his day: now regarded as a master of light and color • Feel for the Dutch interior • The Allegory of Painting and The Milkmaid • Thirty canvases

27. Rembrandt • Dutch from Amsterdam--mastered all popular subjects of his age • Transcended his peers in visual and psychological richness • The Night Watch--group portraits commissioned by Dutch civic groups as complex as Velazquez and El Greco’s masterpieces

28. Lost patrons, his wife, his child. • Religious work: Christ Healing the Sick • Etching: lines scratched on a wax-covered metal plate. Plate treated with acid that etches the metal; prints then taken from the plate. • Self Portraits: more than 60 • Psychological insight

29. Christopher Wren’s London • St. Paul’s: Gothic, Renaissance and baroque styles • Influenced by Bernini and Mansart • After the fire of London he constructed the new St. Paul’s

30. Handel • German by birth, adopted by England. Leading composer of baroque period. • Trained in Italy, wrote operas • King George I was his patron • Oratorios: narrative choral work with operatic elements but without action, scenery or costumes: Messiah

31. Handel’s Messiah • Presented in Dublin Ireland 1742 • Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection • Hallelujah chorus: British king stood up and started a tradition