Baroque Art

By Hanna Anderson

Location Artists Architecture Vocabulary

Seventeenth Century, Baroque in France, Spain & The Netherlands Caravage, Van Dyck, Rubens, Velasquez, Rembrant & Vermeer Vocabulary

Definition
The word Baroque, comes from the word baroco. This being a complicated logical deduction. Thus a mixture of irregularity and dark complexity . This is the denition used to dene Baroque today, though it was not always like this. In 1740, the Dictionary of French Royal Academy dened it as, expression gure all that is irregular, extravagant, uneven.. This having a negative tone towards the art. And nally later in 1797, Francesco Milizia dened baroque by saying Baroque is the height of extravagence and an excess of ridiculousness., the negativity towards

Location
Spread around Europe

The Spread Into Europe

The spread of Baroque art was quick and successful. Rome was the main founder of Baroque art, though this being because of the Catholic inuence; therefore Spain, Austria, and Holland all them being inuenced rapidly. France managed to avoid it a bit more, due to its emotionalism Holland middle class, Protestant art, especially painting. Germany followed the early 18th century style, known as Rocco. England, Portugal, Spain, the Americas inuenced by foreign developments.

There are many discussions of when the dates of when the Baroque period exactly took place. This being because there was so much other stu! going on such as Rocco at the same time.

Artists
Caravaggio, Van Dyck, Rubens, Velasquez, Rembrant and Vermeer

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

1573 - 1610
Named Michelangelo Merisi at birth of September 28, 1573; in the Lombardy hill town of Caravaggio, as the son of a ducal architect. As working as an artist, an trying to become known he moved around from place to place (ex. Milan to Rome) while working for big time art managers. At the time, huge new churches and palazzi were being built in Rome and paintings were needed to fill them. Therefore, The Counter-Reformation Church searched for authentic religious art though they did not want the same art that they had always had, therefore they resorted to Caravaggio. Caravaggio's novelty was a radical naturalism which combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, approach to chiaroscuro, the use of light and shadow, which almost in all of Caravaggios religious subjects emphasize sadness, suffering, and death. This making him the popular choice of artist for this job. He was very successful in Rome until 1606 when he had to flee due to his issues with the police, that he usually always in. Caravaggio was very much known during his time, though once his death came along he was almost entirely forgotten. That was until the 20th century, when Western art was rediscovered. Even though his influence on the common style which eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism, the new Baroque, was profound. Andre Berne-Joffroy, Paul Valry's secretary, said of him: "What begins in the work of Caravaggio is, quite simply, modern painting." If it wasnt for Caravaggio a large part of European art would not have moved away from the ideal viewpoint of the Renaissance to the concept that simple reality was of primary importance. He was one of the first to paint people the way they actually are in reality.

The Conversion of St. Paul 1600 Oil on Cypress Wood

Rosenkranzmadonna 1606-1607 Oil on Canvas

1599 - 1641

Sir Anthony Van Dyck

Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish painter. Van Dyck was born in Antwerp. His talent was obvious even as a child, he was studying painting with Hendrick van Balen. He became an independent painter around 1615, setting up a workshop with his even younger friend Jan Brueghel the Younger. By the age of fifteen he was already a highly accomplished artist. He spent two years working with Peter Paul Rubens as his pupil. The two years he spent with Rubens were decisive and Rubens's influence upon his painting is unmistakable, although van Dyck's style was always less energetic. Van Dyck went to England, though it was only when he was in Italy in 1621, where he traveled, and toned down the Flemish robustness of his early pictures to create the refined and elegant style which remained characteristic of his work for the rest of his life. He later went back to England though, where he was an immediate success, rapidly painting a large number of portraits. During these years he was occupied almost entirely with portraits. He painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next 150 years. He also painted biblical and mythological subjects, displayed outstanding facility as a draftsman, and was an important innovator in watercolor and etching. Van Dyck later dyeing while in England.

Simson und Dalila 1700 Oil on Canvas

1577 - 1640

Peter Paul Rubbens

Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish painter, born in 1577, in Siegen, Westphalia, to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. Rubens was most well-known for his Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, hunt scenes and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. And for his drawings, they were mostly extremely forceful but not detailed. Not just that he was running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, but he was also a classically-educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat. Rubens was a Catholic, therefore influencing him to base his artwork around Catholicism. It was at the age of fourteen that he began his artistic apprenticeship. He studied under two of the city's leading painters of the time, Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen. In 1610, Rubens built up a studio with numerous students and assistants. His most famous pupil was the young Anthony van Dyck. In 1630, four years after the death of his first wife, the 53-year-old painter married 16-year-old Hlne Fourment. Hlne inspired the voluptuous figures in many of his paintings from the 1630s, including "The Feast of Venus", "The Three Graces" and" The Judgment of Paris". Rubens died at age 63 of gout. Between his two marriages the artist had eight children, three with Isabella and five with Hlne; his youngest child was born eight months after his death.

Gemldezyklus fr Maria de' Medici 1622-1625 Oil on Canvas

The Elevation of the Cross 1610 1611 Oil on Canvas

1599 - 1660

Diego Velasquez
Diego Rodrguez de Silva y Velzquez, commonly referred to as Diego Velzquez, was a Spanish painter. He was an individualistic artist of the Baroque period, important as a portrait artist. Velzquez was born in 1599 in Seville. Velzquez have started his apprenticeship with Francisco de Herrera the Elder, but a short while later his father put him with Francisco Pacheco, who was a tolerant teacher and a man of society. At this time, Velazquez became familiar with the school of Caravaggio. The paintings executed by Velzquez in Seville before 1622 (married and had a family) include bodegones, popular genre of kitchen scenes, in which food and drink plays the main part and his first portraits and religious compositions (ex. "Old Woman Frying Eggs", "Three Men at Table", "The Waterseller in Seville", "Mother Jernima de la Fuente" and "The Adoration of the Magi"). During Velzquez first journey to Italy in 1629-1630, he visited Genoa, Venice where he saw the work of Titian, who affected him more strongly than any other artist, Florence, and Rome, where he stayed for almost a year. He copied old masters. In 1636, the king appointed his court painter "Assistant to the Wardrobe". In the next few years Velzquez' art approached its peak in such pictures as "Venus at her Mirror" and "The Fable of Arachne". During his second visit to Rome, Velzquez painted the famous portrait of Pope Innocent X, which the pope himself declared to be 'too truthful'. Velasquez's career ended with his most significant work "Las Meninas". The painting is a multiple portrait of the royal family and court. The principal figure with all the power of her mischievous charm, is the little Infant Margarita, who has burst into Velasquez's studio, followed by her ladies, dwarfs and dogs, in a flurry of skirts, cloaks and ribbons, while he was intent on painting the king and queen, whose only images are visible, reflected in the mirror hanging on the wall in the background, where two large mythological paintings, one by Rubens, the other by Jordaens, are also hanging. (This painting being shown in the next slide) Velzquez later died in Madrid, 1660.

The Maids on Honor 1656-1657 Oil on Canvas

1606 - 1669

Rembrant Van Rijn

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born 1606 in Leiden, the Netherlands. He was the fourth of 6 surviving children out of 10. Rembrandt was a Dutch painter and etcher during the Baroque Era; this to historians being called the Dutch Golden Age. He was an artist who favored an uncompromising realism that would lead some critics to claim that he preferred ugliness to beauty. He is famous for his dramatic and lively presentation of subjects, and deeply felt compassion for mankind, irrespective of wealth and age. One of the greatest storytellers in the history of art he portrayed people in their various moods and dramatic guises. He is prominent painter of light and shade with his use of 'chiaroscuro', the theatrical employment of light and shadow derived from Caravaggio, but adapted for very personal means. After a brief but important apprenticeship with the famous painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden. In 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students. By 1631, Rembrandt had established such a good reputation that he received several assignments for portraits from Amsterdam. As a result, he moved to that city and soon married Saskia van Uylenburg. In 1639, Rembrandt and Saskia moved to a prominent house in the Jodenbreestraat, which later became the Rembrandt House Museum. Only their third child, Titus, born in 1641, survived into adulthood. Saskia died in 1642 soon

During Rembrandt's Leiden period (1625-1631) Lastman's inuence was most prominent. Paintings were rather small, but rich in details. Themes were mostly religious and allegorical. Later, in Amsterdam (1632-1636), Rembrandt began to paint dramatic biblical and mythological scenes in high contrast and of large format. He also began accepting portrait commissions. In the late 1630s, he produced a few paintings and many etchings of landscapes. Often these landscapes highlighted natural drama, featuring uprooted trees and ominous skies. From 1640 his work became less exuberant and more sober in tone, reecting personal tragedy. Biblical scenes were now derived more often from the New Testament than the Old Testament, as had been the case before. Paintings became smaller again. An exception of this being the huge "The Night Watch", his largest work, as worldly and spirited as any previous painting. Landscapes were more often etched than painted. In the 1650s, Rembrandt's style changed again. Paintings increased in size. Colors became richer, brush strokes more pronounced. With these changes, Rembrandt distanced himself from earlier work and current fashion, which increasingly inclined toward ne, detailed works. Over the years, biblical themes were still depicted often, but emphasis shifted from dramatic group scenes to intimate portrait-like gures. In his last years, Rembrandt painted his most deeply reective portraits. Rembrandt died soon after his son's Titus death, on October 4, 1669 in Amsterdam,

Strom on the Sea of Galilee 1633

Titus as a Monk 1660 Oil on Canvas

1632 - 1675

Jan Vermeer
Jan Vermeer, also called Jan van der Meer van Delft, was born in Delft on October 31, 1632. Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque painter who excelled in portraying comfortable interior scenes that are composed with mathematical clarity and suffused with cool, silvery light. After 6-years of apprenticeship, he was finally admitted to the guild of Saint Luke of Delft as a master painter, in 1653. Vermeer made a modest living as an art dealer rather than as a painter. Only 35 of Vermeer's canvases have survived, and all of them not having been sold. There are not many works of Vermeer due to the fact that he lived a short life, and the disappearance of many of his paintings during the period of obscurity. With a few exceptions, including some landscapes, street scenes, and portraits, Vermeer painted sunlit domestic interiors in which one or two figures are shown engaged in reading, writing, or playing musical instruments. Vermeer was a master of composition and in the representation of space. Once Vermeer had died, he was quickly forgotten. Though it was not until the late 19th century when his reputation steadily increased. And is now considered one of the greatest Dutch painters

Girl with a Pearl Earring 1665 Oil on Canvas

Extraordinary Pieces of Art

Fall of the Damned PETER PAUL RUBENS 1620 Pinakothek, Munich

Ceiling Decoration in Church GIOVANNI BATTISTA and ANTONIO RAGGI 1676 to 1679 Il Gesu, Rome, Italy

The Baldacchino GIANLORENZ O BERNINI 1634 Saint Peters, Rome, Italy.

The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa GIANLORENZ O BERNINI 1645 to 1652 Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy.

Architecture

Goals:
1. The creation of utilitarian spaces. -or2. The creation of spaces that would facilitate meditation. The churches of this time serving both purposes.

Church Architecture
In the beginning, the churches continued to follow the architecture of the Renaissance period (two story structure with an accented central section topped by a pediment). Though in the 17th century this soon came to change. The faade was no longer built in a single plane. The central section was closer to the street than the side sections, making it so that they would spread into the urban areas. The faade was then decorated with deep niches, free standing columns, and many more elements. Giving the faade a sculptural appearance.

Architectures Aims

TOTAL SPATIAL INTEGRATION

A theatrical sense of space
Separate elements drawn together into a unified whole.

This is an image of the Dome of SantIvo della Spienza, located in Rome, Italy. Created by Francesco Borromini in 1642 to 1650. This is a good example of architecture that suggests the idea of continuous space. When looking at it, you start from the bottom and finish your eyes at the lantern of the dome. The lantern giving it a sense on infinite space and energy.

Vocabulary that was Inuential During the Baroque Period

Academic Classicism: the style of art that developed in France during the reign of Louis XIV and was quite formalized and technically correct. Annunciation: in Christian doctrine, the angels announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to the Christ Child. Bambocciate: small paintings produced by mostly northern European artists, which portray the lower classes as picturesque, somewhat violent, and/or ridiculous. Chiaroscuro: the strong contrast of light and shade in a pictorial work of art. Classicism: the style embodied in the art of ancient Greece and Rome, which stressed technical mastery, order, and an idealized treatment of mythological themes.

 Dillettanti: an artist who used the plastic arts to explore their own intellectual interests; amateur artist. High Baroque: a style of art, marked by extravagant forms and elaborate ornamentation, that stresses the emotion and drama of the entire composition. Horizon Line: the line of demarcation between the earth and the sky. Idolatry: worshipping a physical object as a god. Mannerism: the style of art that is characterized by spacial incongruity and the artificial elongation of human figures. Marquetry: decorative work in which elaborate designs are formed by pieces of wood, shell, or ivory inlaid in wood veneer. Naturalism: a style of are which stressed common, everyday subjects treated in an idealized manner.

 Plastic Arts: the visual arts, such as painting a sculpture, especially as distinguished from written arts, such as music and poetry. Quadratura: the illusionistic enhancement of architecture, which, by three-dimensional painting, makes a space seem larger than it actually is. Realism: the style of art which, like Naturalism, was true to accurate representation of everyday life, but which stressed detail to a greater degree. Rococo: the style of art that is characterized by fancifully curved forms and ornate ornamentation. Theatrum Sacrum: a stage on which to display painting and sculpture, literally a sacred theater.

Biliography
http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c17th-mid19th/ baroque.htm The Key to Baroque Art by Juan-Ramon Triado