How Would You Describe Baroque Art to Someone?read More

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, View to Cathedra Petri (or Chair of St. Peter), 1647-53, gold bronze, gold, wood, stained glass (Alcove of Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican city, Rome) (photograph: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Rome: From the "Whore of Babylon" to the resplendent bride of Christ

When Martin Luther tacked his 95 theses to the doors of Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517 protesting the Catholic Church's corruption, he initiated a movement that would transform the religious, political, and artistic landscape of Europe. For the next century, Europe would be in turmoil as new political and religious boundaries were determined, oft through bloody military conflicts. Only in 1648, with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia, did the conflicts betwixt Protestants and Catholics subside in continental Europe.

Martin Luther focused his critique on what he saw as the Church building'due south greed and abuse of power. He chosen Rome, the seat of papal power, "the whore of Babylon" decked out in finery of expensive art, grand architecture, and sumptuous banquets. The Church responded to the crisis in two ways: by internally addressing issues of abuse and by defending the doctrines rejected past the Protestants. Thus, while the first two decades of the 16th century were a catamenia of lavish spending for the Papacy, the heart decades were a menstruation of austerity. Equally ane visitor to Rome noted in the 1560s, the entire urban center had become a convent. Piety and asceticism ruled the day.

View of the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome with Annibale Carracci'due south altarpiece, The Supposition of the Virgin, 1600-01, oil on sail, 96 × 61″, and paintings by Caravaggio on the side walls (The Crucifixion of St. Peter on the left, and The Conversion of Paul on the right)

By the end of the 16th century, the Catholic Church was once more feeling optimistic, even triumphant. It had emerged from the crunch with renewed vigor and clarity of purpose. Shepherding the true-blue—instructing them on Catholic doctrines and inspiring virtuous beliefs—took center stage. Swell to rebuild Rome's reputation as a holy city, the Papacy embarked on extensive edifice and decoration campaigns aimed at highlighting its ancient origins, its behavior, and its divinely-sanctioned authority. In the eyes of faithful Catholics, Rome was not an unfaithful whore, but a pure bride, beautifully adorned for her union with her divine spouse.

The fine art of persuasion: To instruct, to delight, to motion

While the Protestants harshly criticized the cult of images, the Cosmic Church ardently embraced the religious power of fine art. The visual arts, the Church argued, played a key role in guiding the faithful. They were certainly equally of import equally the written and spoken give-and-take, and perchance even more than important, since they were attainable to the learned and the unlearned akin. In order to be constructive in its pastoral part, religious fine art had to exist clear, persuasive, and powerful. Not only did information technology have to instruct, it had to inspire. It had to move the faithful to experience the reality of Christ's cede, the suffering of the martyrs, the visions of the saints.

Caravaggio, The Crowning with Thorns, 1602-04, oil on canvas, 165.5 x 127 cm (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

The Church'southward accent on art's pastoral office prompted artists to experiment with new and more directly means of engaging the viewer. Artists like Caravaggio turned to a powerful and dramatic realism, accentuated past assuming contrasts of calorie-free and dark, and tightly-cropped compositions that heighten the physical and emotional immediacy of the depicted narrative.

Other artists, similar Annibale Carracci (who likewise experimented with realism), ultimately settled on a more classical visual language, inspired by the vibrant palette, idealized forms, and balanced compositions of the High Renaissance (see image higher up). Still others, similar Giovanni Battista Gaulli, turned to daring feats of illusionism that blurred non simply the boundaries betwixt painting, sculpture, and architecture, merely as well those between the real and depicted worlds. In so doing, the divine was made physically nowadays and palpable. Whether through shocking realism, dynamic movement, or exuberant decoration, seventeenth-century art is meant to print. Information technology aims to convince the viewer of the truth of its message by impacting the senses, awakening the emotions, and activating, even sharing the viewer's space.

Giovanni Battista Gaulli, also known equally il Baciccio, The Triumph of the Proper name of Jesus, 1672-1685, Il Gesù ceiling fresco (Rome, Italy)

The Catholic monarchs and their territories

The monarchs of Spain, Portugal, and French republic likewise embraced the more ornate elements of seventeenth century art to celebrate Catholicism. In Spain and its colonies, rulers invested vast resource on elaborate church building facades, stunning, gold-covered chapels and tabernacles, and strikingly-realistic polychrome sculpture.

In the Castilian Netherlands, where sacred art had suffered terribly as a result of the Protestant iconoclasm (the devastation of fine art), civic and religious leaders prioritized the adornment of churches as the region reclaimed its Cosmic 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.

Peter Paul Rubens, Tiptop of the Cross, 1610, oil on wood, 15′ 1-7/viii″ 10 xi′ 1-1/ii″ (originally for Saint Walpurgis, Antwerp (destroyed), now in Antwerp Cathedral)

The Protestant Northward

In the Protestant countries, and specially in the newly-contained Dutch Democracy (modernistic-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 building—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.

Past the middle of the 17th century a new market had emerged to run across the artistic tastes of this grade. The demand was at present for smaller scale paintings suitable for brandish 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 every bit portraits documenting individual likenesses.

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

But, the greatest alter 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 every bit independent artistic genres was 1 of the 17th century'due south most significant contributions to the history of Western fine art.

In all of these genres, artists revealed a keen interest in replicating observed reality—whether it exist the light on the Dutch landscape, the momentary expression on a face, or the varied textures and materials of the objects the Dutch nerveless as they reaped the benefits of their expanding mercantile empire. These works demonstrated as much creative virtuosity and concrete immediacy equally the 1000 decorations of the palaces and churches of Catholic Europe.

In the context of European history, the period from c. 1585 to c. 1700/1730 is often chosen the Baroque era. 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 showtime to apply the term to the fine art of the 17th century. It was non a term of praise. To the eyes of these critics, who favored the restraint and order of Neoclassicism, the works of Bernini, Borromini, and Pietro da Cortona appeared bizarre, absurd, even diseased—in other words, misshapen, like an imperfect pearl.

Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis of Assisi According to Pope Nicholas Five's Vision, c. 1640, oil on canvas, 110.v x 180.5 cm (Museum Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Espana)

"Baroque" – the word, the mode, the period

By the centre of the 19th century, the give-and-take had lost its pejorative implications and was used to depict the ornate and complex qualities present in many examples of 17th-century fine art, music and literature. Somewhen, the term came to designate the historical menstruation as a whole.

In the context of the painting, for case, the stark realism of Zurbaran's altarpieces, the quiet intimacy of Vermeer's domestic interiors, and restrained classicism of Poussin'due south landscapes are all "Bizarre" (now with a capital "B" to indicate the historical period), regardless of the absence of the stylistic traits originally associated with the term.

Scholars go along to debate the validity of this characterization, admitting the usefulness of having a label for this singled-out historical catamenia, while too acknowledging its limitations in characterizing the variety of artistic styles present in the 17th century.

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Additional resource:

Baroque Rome on The Metropolitan Museum of Art'due south Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Annibale Carracci on The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Timeline of Fine art History

For instructors: related lesson plan on Art History Teaching Resources

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Source: https://smarthistory.org/a-beginners-guide-to-baroque-art/

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