Baroque and Rococo Art

1. Baroque and Rococo Art The questioning and political upheavals put in motion by the Renaissance and the Reformation intensified in the 17th century. Religious wars continued, gradually the Protestant forces gained control in the north where Spain acknowledged the independence of the Dutch Republic in 1648.

2. The Catholic Church remained strong in southern Europe, the Holy Empire, and France. The economic strength of the secular rulers slipped away, and the king of Spain had to declare bankruptcy by the end of the century. Other rulers were not much better off. Phillip IV of Spain 1605-1665

3. Artists continued to find patrons in the church and the secular state and in the newly prosperous and confident prosperous urban middle class. Many Baroque artists used naturalism, the true-to-life depiction of the world that led to the popularity of portraiture, genre painting (scenes from everyday life), still life (paintings of food, fruit or flowers), and religious paintings featuring ordinary people and settings.

4. Baroque art intends to create an intense emotional response from the viewer. Often dramatic and theatrical… often made of mixed media… often showing a spectacular technical artistic ability.

5. Late in the century (the 1600’s) a refined Baroque style known as the Rococo evolved. Rococo and Baroque remained popular until the rise of Neoclassicism about 1775.

6. The patronage of the church and its allies supported the Counter-Reformation art as propaganda. Churches with their painting, statues, and magnificent architecture helped convince the faithful of the power of traditional religion. The young Bernini was hired by the pope to design an enormous baldachin (canopy) to cover the main altar of Saint Peter’s.

7. The resulting Baldacchino, which stands about 100 feet high, is a true Baroque grandiose display. Winding bronze grapevines decorate columns modeled after columns in the Temple of Solomon. Because Protestants questioned the belief in the authority of the pope coming from Saint Peter, the Counter-Reformation art emphasized this idea.

8. During this time of embellishments and changes to Saint Peter’s, the last change was the addition, by Bernini, of the colonnade. The space he had to work with was irregular and already had an obelisk and a fountain in it.

9. Bernini spoke of the colonnade as being the “motherly arms of the church” reaching out to the world. The original plans would have closed in the open side so that people walking into the space would feel enclosed within the “arms”.

10. Bernini began his career as a sculptor, and he continued to work in that medium throughout his career for both the papacy and private clients. His sculpture of David, made for the nephew of the pope, introduced a new kind of three-dimensional composition that intrudes forcefully into the viewers space. Bent at the waist and twisting far to one side, he is ready to launch the fatal rock at Goliath.

11. This mature David, with his lean sinewy body, is all tension and determination His clinched mouth and straining muscles echo his frame of mind.

12. Self-Portrait of Bernini and the face of his David.

13. Even after Bernini’s appointment as Vatican architect, his large workshop enabled him to accept outside commissions. One of these outside commissions was a chapel where he covered the walls with marble and created the sculptural group of Saint Teresa of Ávila in Ecstasy for a niche above the altar.

14. Although today viewers find this sculpture of Saint Teresa charged with sexuality, the church approved of depictions of such supernatural mystical visions. In fact, to help worshipers achieve the emotional state of religious ecstasy, religious art of the time frequently depicted ecstatic states, enhanced by light and miraculous masses of swirling clouds.

15. Not all Roman Baroque was intended to overwhelm the viewer with sheer spectacle. Caravaggio introduces an intense new realism and a dramatic use of light and gesture to Italian Baroque art. Most of his commissions after 1600 were for religious art and the reactions were mixed. His powerful, brutal naturalism was rejected by some patrons as unsuitable to the subjects dignity.

16. However, his realism was closely tied to Counter-Reformation ideas of spirituality, and the effort to make Christian history and doctrine meaningful to common people.

17. One of Caravaggio’s earliest religious paintings, The Callingof Saint Matthew, tells the story recorded in the Gospels of Jesus calling Levi the tax collector to be one of his apostles.

18. Nearly hidden behind Saint Peter, Jesus dramatically points toward Levi-who will become Saint Matthew. The future Saint Matthew responds by pointing to himself in surprise, the gesture emphasized by the light streaming in from an unseen source at the right Caravaggio invented this dramatic lighting style called tenebrism.

19. Emotional power combines with a solemn, classical monumentality in Caravaggio’s painting, Entombment. Being almost 10 feet by 7 feet, the size and immediacy of this painting strikes the viewer with almost physical force. The figures form a large, off-center triangle, with the young John the Apostle at the apex. The Virgin and Mary Magdalene barely intrude due to the careful placing of the light on the body of Christ.

20. Caravaggio’s violent temper kept him in trouble. He was frequently arrested, generally for minor offences. By 1606, he had to flee from Rome…from then on he was on the run, supporting himself by painting. He died of a fever in 1610, just short of his 39th birthday. He inspired a generation of artists with his tenebrist technique and his intense realism.

21. One of Caravaggio's most successful Italian followers was Artemisia Gentileschi, whose international reputation helped spread the Caravaggesque style beyond Rome. Born in Rome, she studied under her artist father, also a follower of Caravaggio. In 1616, she moved to Florence where she was elected to the Florentine Academy of Design.

22. In one of several versions of Judith triumphant over the Assyrian General Holofernes, Artemisia brilliantly uses Baroque naturalism and tenebrism. Judith still holds the bloody sword as her maid stuffs the generals head into a sack. Throughout her life, Artemisia painted images of heroic and abused women.

23. Artemisia or Caravaggio??

24. Leaders of the Church lived like princes, but they were not the only patrons of art. The growth of nation-states and absolute monarchies realized that impressive buildings and splendid portraits could enhance their status with an aura of power. The fortunes of Spain dramatically declined, but you couldn’t tell it from the art that was produced there. Spanish artists and writers created a “Golden Age” which included a brilliant artist named Velázquez. He entered the painters guild in 1617. At the beginning of his career he was profoundly influenced by Caravaggio.

25. Working “from life”, Velázquez painted scenes of ordinary people amid still lifes of various foods and kitchen utensils. The model for Water Carrierof Seville was a well known character in that city. The objects and figures gave the artist the chance to show his skill at representing volumes and textures such as glass, pottery, skin, and fabrics.

26. In 1623, the young artist moved to Madrid and became the court painter for the young Hapsburg ruler, Phillip IV. Velázquez kept this position until his death in 1660. Two visits to Italy, where he studied complex figurative composition, influenced the evolution of the artist’s style.

27. Velázquez most striking work is the multiple portrait known as Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), painted near the end of the artists life. The viewer seems to be standing in the space occupied by the Queen and King, reflected in the mirror on the back wall of the room.

28. The center of attention is the five year old Princess Margarita surrounded by her attendants, all recognizable portraits. The mature style of Velázquez fascinated the later Impressionists. He would build up layers of loosely applied paint to build forms, finishing with highlights of white, lemon, and pale orange. This technique captured the effect of light on surfaces…while, up close, forms dissolve into a complex maze of individual brush strokes.

29. Murillo, one of the most popular painters of his day, was known for his rich colors and skillful technique. His paintings of Mary followed the Counter-Reformation “rules” for representing her…dressed in blue and white, hands folded, standing on a crescent moon as she was carried upward by angels, surrounded by an unearthly light.

30. Murillo’s home, Seville was the center of trade with the Spanish colonies, and the church exported many paintings to the new world. When the natives started to visualize the Christian story, paintings such as Murillo’s provided the imagery. By 1519, Cortez had taken over the Aztec capitol (now Mexico City) and established Mexico as a colony of Spain. Local beliefs and practices were suppressed, and Roman Catholic beliefs were imposed throughout Spanish America.

31. Mexico gained its own patron saint when the Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian, Juan Diego, in 1531. Mary is said to have asked that a church be built on a hill where the goddess Coatlicue had once been worshiped. As proof of this vision, Juan Diego brought the archbishop flowers that the Virgin had caused to bloom. When he opened the cloak he had carried the flowers in, there was an image of a dark skinned Mary on the cloak.

32. The painter Sebastian Salcedo depicted Mary and the story of Juan Diego in the 18th century. The sight of the vision was named Guadalupe after Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spain. In 1754, the pope declared the Virgin of Guadalupe to be the patron saint of the Americas. New Spain (Mexico) pope

33. The Spanish held Flanders during most of the Baroque period, often under direct and oppressive rule. In spite of this, the arts flourished. Antwerp was a major arts center where the Spanish were enthusiastic patrons of the arts. Peter Paul Rubens was accepted into the Antwerp painters Guild at the age of 21…he soon left for Italy and worked for the Duke of Mantua where he was paid to copy famous paintings all over Italy, gaining a fine education at the same time!

34. In 1608, Rubens went back to Antwerp, and worked for the Spanish Hapsburgs. His first major commission was a large canvas triptych. Unlike most other triptychs of the time, the wings of the triptychs extended the story of the center panel across all three panels.

35. The cross is being raised in the center panel, with mourners to the right of Jesus, and indifferent soldiers to the left of Jesus.

36. Rubens became the first international superstar of the art world. He worked for Philip IV of Spain, Marie de’Medici of France and Charles I of England. Maria de’Medici asked him to do a series of paintings about her life. He did 21 paintings showing the life of Maria and Henry IV as one continuous triumph overseen by the Roman gods. In the painting of the royal engagement, Henry IV falls in love with Marie as he looks at her portrait presented to him by Cupid and the god of marriage, Hymen.

37. A personification of France is urging Henry to abandon war for love…putti are playing with his armor, and the smoke of battle is in the background. These kinds of huge paintings (this one 10 feet by 9 feet) were political propaganda of the highest sort. Rubens ran a workshop with many assistants to help him. Two of his assistants became important painters in their own right, Jan Bruegel and Anthony van Dyck.

38. In this painting of Charles I of England, van Dyck has managed to make the small king look even larger than his horse! He is in casual clothes for hunting, and stands on a bluff looking out to the water. Contrary to the appearance suggested by this portrait, Charles was not to rule his country successfully.

39. Elizabeth I died in 1603 and the crown of England went to James VI of Scotland who became James I of England and united those two countries. His son was Charles I. James I hired Indigo Jones as his architect. Jones’s style was based on the works of Palladio, and Jones introduced Renaissance classicism to England.

40. Jones designed a house for the queen in Greenwich and a banqueting house at the royal palace of Whitehall in London. In 1630, Charles I commissioned Rubens to decorate the ceiling. He loved the paintings so much that he moved the evening entertainment to another room to save the paintings from the smoke of candles.

41. The Queen’s House, London, England, designed by Indigo Jones The White House, Washington, DC, designed by James Hoban.

42. In 1648, Spain recognized the Dutch Republic. The Netherlands prospered, and Dutch artists found many patrons among the prosperous middle class of the larger cities of the Netherlands. Group portraiture became very popular, and Frans Hals developed a style influenced by realism of Caravaggio and the Velázquez treatment of light.

43. Hals could turn the group portrait into a lively social event with a strong underlying geometry.

44. The most important painter working in the Netherlands in the 17th century was Rembrandt van Rijn. After completing his formal study, he opened a busy studio in Amsterdam. His art included paintings and etchings of mythological subjects, religious scenes, and landscapes. But, like most Dutch artists, his primary source of income was portraiture.

45. In The Night Watch, the complex interactions of the figures and the vivid, individualized likenesses of the militiamen make this painting one of the greatest group portraits in European art.

46. Rembrandts etchings and drypoints (see page 404) were widely collected and brought high prices in his lifetime. In The Three Crosses, he tries to capture the moment that Jesus says “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”.

47. Rembrandt painted many self portraits that became more personal and internalized as he gotolder…something new in the history of art. Mercilessly analytical, the portrait depicts the furrowed brow, sagging flesh, and prematurely aged face (he was only 53) of one who has suffered deeply but retained his dignity.

48. Perhaps the greatest Dutch painter of contemporary life was Jan Vermeer. He produced few works, and most of them are enigmatic scenes of women in a domestic setting. There are objects in his paintings that carry underlying or hidden meanings.

49. When Vermeer, a Catholic in a Protestant country, painted Woman Holding a Balance, he placed every detail in the painting to achieve an overall balance. However, the painting on the wall behind the woman is a Last Judgment painting, suggesting that the balance in the woman's hand is more than a casual inclusion.

50. Louis XIV was an absolute monarch whose reign was the longest in European history. He became known as “the Sun King.” In art, he was often shown with some of the attributes of Apollo. Here he is shown framed in a billowing curtain, showing off his legs and the high heels he invented because he was so short. The directness of the kings gaze and the realism of his sagging face make him movingly human and testify to the artist’s genius for portraiture. (Hyacinthe Rigaud)