Baroque art

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Curtis Short
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1 Baroque art

2 The word baroque derives from the Portuguese and Spanish words for a large, irregularly-shaped pearl ( barroco and barrueco, respectively). Eighteenth century critics were the first to apply the term to the art of the 17th century. It was not a term of praise. To the eyes of these critics, who favored the restraint and order of Neoclassicism, the works of Baroque artist seem bizarre, absurd, even diseased in other words, misshapen, like an imperfect pearl. Baroque works of art are dramatic, emotional and include real people as the main subject. If you saw a Baroque painting today, you couldn t help but notice the fact that those portrayed in the work look rather as you would expect people to look. Poor people look poor and the wealthy look wealthy. It was during this time that art was created to appeal to the average people and their sense of emotion. Colors were exaggerated making brighter than bright, dark was darker than dark and light was lighter than light. This helped create a dramatic mood and even with all the realistic imagery, the more dramatic the better.

3 Facts about the Baroque period: Baroque refers to a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and 18th centuries that followed mannerism and is characterized by ornate detail. Baroque art took place after the Renaissance through the 17th and 18th century as a Catholic counter-reformation to draw people back into the church. Above all else, Baroque art reflected the religious tensions of the age - notably the desire of the Catholic Church in Rome to reassert itself in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. New technique of tenebrism was developed to enhance atmosphere. Brushwork is creamy and broad, often resulting in thick impasto. Key elements of Baroque art were: drama, vivid color, restless motion, and the contrast between light and dark. In architecture the period is exemplified by the palace of Versailles and by the work of Bernini in Italy. Major composers include Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel.

4 Key Vocabulary Foreshortening is the visual effect or optical illusion that causes an object or distance to appear shorter than it actually is because it is angled toward the viewer. Additionally, an object is often not scaled evenly: a circle often appears as an ellipse and a square can appear as a trapezoid. Naturalism is a philosophical viewpoint according to which everything arises from natural properties and causes, and supernatural or spiritual explanations are excluded or discounted. Chiaroscuro is an effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something. Tenebrism is from the Italian, tenebroso (murky), also called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image. Trompe l'oeil is a visual illusion in art, especially as used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a three-dimensional object. French for Deceive the eye Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface very thickly, usually thickly enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas.

The Art of Persuasion: to Instruct, to Delight, to Move While the Protestants harshly criticized the cult of images, the Catholic Church ardently embraced the religious power of art.

5 The Art of Persuasion: to Instruct, to Delight, to Move While the Protestants harshly criticized the cult of images, the Catholic Church ardently embraced the religious power of art. The visual arts, the Church argued, played a key role in guiding the faithful. They were certainly as important as the written and spoken word, and perhaps even more important, since they were accessible to the learned and the unlearned alike. In order to be effective in its pastoral role, religious art had to be clear, persuasive, and powerful. Not only did it have to instruct, it had to inspire. It had to move the faithful to feel the reality of Christ s sacrifice, the suffering of the martyrs, the visions of the saints. The Church s emphasis on art s pastoral role prompted artists to experiment with new and more direct means of engaging the viewer. Artists like Caravaggio turned to a powerful and dramatic realism, accentuated by bold contrasts of light and dark, and tightlycropped compositions that enhance the physical and emotional immediacy of the depicted narrative.

The Catholic Monarchs and their Territories The monarchs of Spain, Portugal, and France also embraced the more ornate elements of seventeenth century art to celebrate Catholicism.

6 The Catholic Monarchs and their Territories The monarchs of Spain, Portugal, and France also embraced the more ornate elements of seventeenth century art to celebrate Catholicism. In Spain and its colonies, rulers invested vast resources on elaborate church facades, stunning, gold-covered chapels and tabernacles, and strikingly-realistic polychrome sculpture. In the Spanish Netherlands, where sacred art had suffered terribly as a result of the Protestant iconoclasm (the destruction of art), civic and religious leaders prioritized the adornment of churches as the region reclaimed its Catholic identity. Refurnishing the altars of Antwerp s churches kept Peter Paul Rubens workshop busy for many years. Europe s monarchs also adopted this artistic vocabulary to proclaim their own power and status. Louis XIV, for example, commissioned the splendid buildings and gardens of Versailles as a visual expression of his divine right to rule. Elevation of the Cross (1610) Peter Paul Rubens oil on wood 15 feet 1-7/8 inches x 11 feet 1-1/2 inches (originally for Saint Walpurgis, Antwerp (destroyed), now in Antwerp Cathedral)

Elevation of the Cross (1610) Peter Paul Rubens (1577

7 Elevation of the Cross (1610) Peter Paul Rubens ( ) oil on wood 15 feet 1-7/8 inches x 11 feet 1-1/2 inches

8 The Protestant North In the Protestant countries, and especially in the newly-independent Dutch Republic (modern-day Holland), the artistic climate changed radically in the aftermath of the Reformation. Two of the wealthiest sources of patronage the monarchy and the Church were now gone. In their stead arose an increasingly prosperous middle class eager to express its status, and its new sense of national pride, through the purchase of art. By the middle of the 17th century a new market had emerged to meet the artistic tastes of this class. The demand was now for smaller scale paintings suitable for display in private homes. These paintings included religious subjects for private contemplation, as seen in Rembrandt s poignant paintings and prints of biblical narratives, as well as portraits documenting individual likenesses. But, the greatest change in the market was the dramatic increase in the popularity of landscapes, still-lifes, and scenes of everyday life (known as genre painting). Indeed, the proliferation of these subjects as independent artistic genres was one of the 17th century s most significant contributions to the history of Western art. In all of these genres, artists revealed a keen interest in replicating observed reality whether it be the light on the Dutch landscape, the momentary expression on a face, or the varied textures and materials of the objects the Dutch collected as they reaped the benefits of their expanding mercantile empire. These works demonstrated as much artistic virtuosity and physical immediacy as the grand decorations of the palaces and churches of Catholic Europe.

9 Self-Portrait c.1630 Judith Leyster oil on canvas 651 x 746 cm (National Gallery of Art, Washington)

Michelangelo de Caravaggio 1571-1610 Michelangelo da Caravaggio was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily. Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano.

10 Michelangelo de Caravaggio Michelangelo da Caravaggio was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily. Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano. In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious art that was tasked to counter the threat of Protestantism. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism. Chalk portrait of Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni, circa 1621.

11 Supper at Emmaus 1601 Caravaggio ( ) Medium oil on canvas 141 x 196,2 cm

12 Catholic-inspired Baroque art tended to be large-scale works of public art, such as monumental wall-paintings and huge frescoes for the ceilings and vaults of palaces and churches. Descent from the Cross Peter Paul Rubens ( ) oil on canvas in-78.7 in

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) Rembrandt van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher.

13 Rembrandt van Rijn ( ) Rembrandt van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave rise to important new genres in painting. Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt's later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters. Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity. In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization." Self-Portrait 1659 Rembrandt van Rijn oil on canvas 33 1/4 in x 26 in

14 The Stoning of Saint Stephen, 1625, The first painting by Rembrandt, painted at the age of 19

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, David, 1623-24, marble, 170 cm Baroque art wants us to be able to relate to the image in our bodies, not just in our minds.

17 Gian Lorenzo Bernini, David, , marble, 170 cm Baroque art wants us to be able to relate to the image in our bodies, not just in our minds. Bernini's David uses the space around it reaching out into the space of the viewer (our space!). Bernini's David is not content the way Michelangelo's David is to remain separate from us. When looking at Bernini's David, we immediately start to feel what David is feeling. This sympathy is very important to Baroque art.

18 Baroque architecture is the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late 16th-century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and the absolutist state. It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow, and dramatic intensity. Whereas the Renaissance drew on the wealth and power of the Italian courts and was a blend of secular and religious forces, the Baroque was, initially at least, directly linked to the Counter- Reformation, a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself in response to the Protestant Reformation Baroque architecture and its embellishments were on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and on the other hand, a visible statement of the wealth and power of the Church.

19 Buildings in the Baroque style have many of these features: Complicated shapes Large curved forms Twisted columns Grand stairways High domes Trompe l'oeil paintings

20 Italian Baroque: Catholic Popes in Italy wanted architecture to express holy splendor. They commissioned churches with enormous domes, swirling forms, huge spiraled columns, multicolored marble, and lavish murals The Church of Saint Andrea al Quirinale, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

21 Trompe l'oeil is a visual illusion in art, especially as used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a threedimensional object. French for Deceive the eye Fresco with trompe l'œil dome painted on low vaulting, Jesuit Church, Vienna, by Andrea Pozzo, 1703

The Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles was executed in the French Baroque style by architect Louis Le Vau, a French Classical architect who

22 The Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles was executed in the French Baroque style by architect Louis Le Vau, a French Classical architect who worked for King Louis XIV. French Baroque architectural style is characterized by its large curved forms, twisted columns, high domes, and complicated shapes.

23 View of Rome from the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica Beautifying the city: Bernini and Pope Alexander VII On his accession to the Chair of St Peter Pope Alexander VII ( ) immediately commissioned large-scale architectural changes in Rome, connecting new and existing buildings by opening up streets and piazzas. It is no coincidence that Bernini's career showed a greater focus on designing buildings during this pontificate, as there were far greater opportunities.

24 Rococo Rococo a style of art, especially architecture and decorative art, that originated in France in the early 18th century and is marked by elaborate ornaments, as with a profusion of scrolls, foliage, and animal forms.

25 About Rococo The Rococo movement was an art movement that emerged in France and spread throughout the world in the late 17th and early 18th century. The word is a derivative of the French term rocaille, which means rock and shell garden ornamentation. It began in 1699 after the French King, Louis XIV, demanded more youthful art to be produced under his reign. It is also referred to as Late Baroque because it developed as Baroque artists moved away from symmetry to more fluid designs. The Rococo movement addressed the most important controversy of the time color versus drawing and combined the two to create beautiful pieces. Artists of this period focused more on attention to detail, ornamentation and use of bright colors. Rococo furniture and architecture was defined by a move away from the austere religious symmetrical designs of the Baroque. Instead, they focused on secular, more light-hearted, asymmetrical design, while continuing the Baroque penchant for decorative flair. In art, light colors, curvaceous forms and graceful lines became characteristic of the Rococo movement. Canvases were adorned with cherubs and myths of love, while keeping with the jocular trend of the period, portraiture was also popular. The Rococo artists moved away from the intense dramatics of the Baroque period and became more playful in their works.

26 Rococo is sometimes considered a final phase of the Baroque period, and can be referred to late Baroque. The Rococo painting style started in France and was a very relaxed, and playful style of art. It placed emphasis on portraying the carefree life of the aristocracy rather than on grand heroes or pious martyrs. Love and romance were considered to be better subjects for art than historical or religious subjects. Showing brightness was very important as were curves, colors and other tiny details. Rococo artists were particularly concerned with properly depicting things like slippers, ribbons, and patterns in clothing. They also created landscapes that looked like they were straight out of fairy tales. This style was full of fun. The style was characterized by a free, graceful movement; a playful use of line; and delicate colors.

27 Rococo's origins and characteristics- Rococo appeared in France in about 1700, primarily as a style of interior design. The French Rococo exterior was most often simple, or even plain, but Rococo exuberance took over the interior. The Palace of Queluz in Portugal

28 Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapastrys complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings. A Rococo interior in Gatchina

29 Describe the ways in which the interior on the following images is a visual "definition" of the Rococo lifestyle Hall of Mirrors in the Amalienburg Pavilion at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich designed by Francois de Cuvilliés the Elder in the 1730s.

30 Basilica at Ottobeuren (Bavaria) ( )

The Rococo rooms-with their alternating gilded molding, vivacious relief sculptures, luxurious furniture, and daintily colored ornamentation of flowers and garlands- must have

31 The Rococo rooms-with their alternating gilded molding, vivacious relief sculptures, luxurious furniture, and daintily colored ornamentation of flowers and garlands- must have harmonized with the chamber music played in them, with the elaborate costumes of satin and brocade, and with the equally elegant etiquette and sparkling wit of the people who graced them.

32 Painting Though Rococo originated in the purely decorative arts, the style showed clearly in painting. These painters used delicate colors and curving forms, decorating their canvases with cherubs and myths of love. Portraiture was also popular among Rococo painters. Some works depict a sort of naughtiness or impurity in the behavior of their subjects, indicating a departure from the Baroque's church/state orientation. Landscapes were pastoral and often depicted the leisurely outings of aristocratic couples.

(ex: Le Dejeuner, or The Breakfast, by Francois Boucher) 2.

33 How to identify Rococo art? 1. Light-hearted depiction of domestic life in the upper class home (ex: Le Dejeuner, or The Breakfast, by Francois Boucher) 2. Elegantly dressed aristocrats at play, usually in pastoral landscapes (ex: The Lesson of Love by Jean-Antoine Watteau)

34 3. Look for courting, beauty, flirting, fun, playfulness and romantic symbols (ex: The Stolen Kiss by Jean-Honore Fragonard) 4. Mythological themes (ex: Diana after the Hunt by François Boucher)

35 5. Pastel colours, i.e. soft and light shades, are characteristic of the period (ex: A Lady in a Garden taking Coffee with some Children by Nicolas Lancret) 6. Look for cherubs hovering around the painting chubby, nude male babies with wings (ex: The Toilette of Venus by François Boucher)

36 What about this painting makes it fall in to the Rococo style? Jean Honore Fragonard The Swing - is an 18thcentury oil painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard in the Wallace Collection in London. It is considered as one of the masterpieces of the rococo era, and is Fragonard's best known work.

37 The Blind man's bluff game, 1751 The Love Letter, 1770

38 The Secret Meeting, 1771 The Lover Crowned,

Jean Honore Fragonard s The Swing Create a new artwork in the Rococo style using the original setting and changing the characters Use key Rococo elements such as:

39 Jean Honore Fragonard s The Swing Create a new artwork in the Rococo style using the original setting and changing the characters Use key Rococo elements such as: Pastel colors Movement Playful/silly subjects Beautiful people in a beautiful place doing beautiful things waring beautiful clothing School appropriate naughtiness

Rococo. The Century of Louis XV

Rococo. The Century of Louis XV Rococo The Century of Louis XV 1700-1800 1 The Marquise de Pompadour became the mistress of Louis XV, king of France, in 1745. François Boucher painted this portrait, which hangs in the Louvre museum in