The Baroque World 1560 - 1774

1. The Baroque World1560 - 1774

3. The Counter-Reformation Spirit • Council of Trent (1545-1563) • Redefined doctrines, reaffirmed dogmas • Assertion of discipline, education • New artistic demands, purpose • Society of Jesus, Jesuits • Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) • Missionaries, educational improvement

4. Seventeenth-Century Baroque • Commitment to strong emotional statements • Sense of psychological exploration • Technical virtuosity • Rich, ornate, elaborate, fanciful • Strong emotionalism • Invention of new and daring techniques

5. Galileo Galilei • founder of modern physics and astronomy • used the new technology of the telescope to prove Copernicus correct, as well as to observe the inconstancy of the heavens (craters of the moon, sunspots, phases of venus, moons of Jupiter) • convicted by the Church Inquisition for heresy and forced to recant his scientifically accurate conclusions because the Church believed the heavens to be unalterable and perfect, and the Earth to be the center of the universe. The Church was wrong and the scientist was right—and Pope John Paul II finally exonerated Galileo in 1980.

6. Rene Descartes, founder of modern philosophy Cogito ergo sum! In books such as his Discourse on Method (1637) and Meditations (1641), he rejects received truths of Aristotle Begins philosophical analysis of the condition of being by basing all claims on logical observations, not received truths. After all, our perceptions may be misleading, and thus must also be subjected to rigorous analysis and fact checking.

7. John Donne, a “metaphysical” English Baroque poet. In his very clever and technical poems such as “The Flea” and “The Valediction” he sought to give new intellectual expression to emotional states, often using naturalistic and scientific imagery.

8. John Donne’s “The Flea”A baroque “metaphysical” poemNote the poet’s use of elaborate naturalistic and scientific metaphors. Mark but this flea, and mark in this,How little that which thou deniest me is ;It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.Thou know'st that this cannot be saidA sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;    Yet this enjoys before it woo,    And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two;    And this, alas ! is more than we would do.O stay, three lives in one flea spare,Where we almost, yea, more than married are.This flea is you and I, and thisOur marriage bed, and marriage temple is.Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.    Though use make you apt to kill me,    Let not to that self-murder added be,    And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.Cruel and sudden, hast thou sincePurpled thy nail in blood of innocence?Wherein could this flea guilty be,Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thouFind'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

9. John Milton in Paradise Lost he combined a reformation sensibility with a Baroque interest in psychological states

10. Visual Arts in the Baroque PeriodPainting in Rome Caravaggio (1573-1610) • Dramatic naturalism, realism • Brutal, pessimistic • Emotional, psychological • Chiaroscuro • The Calling of St. Matthew (1597-1601) • The Martyrdom of St. Matthew (c. 1602)

11. As a point of contrast, here is Byzantine and Medieval Art: it is flat, iconic, not realistic, religiously symbolic. Contrast this with Caravaggio’s religious paintings in the following slides…

12. Caravaggio The Calling of St. Matthew (1597-1601)

13. Carravagio, The Martyrdom of St. Matthew (c. 1602) (you can see why Matthew wasn’t so eager to be called!)

14. Visual Arts in the Baroque PeriodRoman Baroque Sculpture and Architecture Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) • Chief architect of Counter-Reformation • Built fountains, palaces, churches for Vatican • Religious-themed sculptures • David (1623) • Saint Teresa in Ecstasy (1645-1652)

16. Bernini • David (1623)

17. Contrast with Donatello and Michelangelo

18. Bernini Saint Teresa in Ecstasy (1645-1652)

19. Baroque Art in France • The Palace of Versailles • Louis XIV = the Sun King • Grandiose symbolism of the palace • Baroque extremes matched with Classical simplicity

20. Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743) • Portrait of Louis XIV (1701)

23. Baroque Art in Spain Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) • Vitality of scene • Lives of ordinary people • Las Meninas (1656) • Color • Space • Reality of detail

24. Las Meninas (1656)

25. Baroque Art in Northern Europe Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) • Hélène Fourment and Her Children • Intimate, tender • Personalized emotionality • The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus • Restless energy, sense of action • Female nudity, ample proportions

28. Baroque Art in Northern Europe • Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) • Inner contemplation, repose • Light, stillness

30. Baroque Art in Northern Europe Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) • Spiritual matters, problems of existence • The Night Watch (1642) • Self-understanding through self-portraits • Psychologically reflective • Tragic nature of human destiny • Emotionality through virtuosity

32. 1626

33. 1627

34. 1629

35. 1633

36. 1640

37. 1658

38. 1661

39. 1668

40. 1669

41. End of slide show