Italian Baroque Post

The Baroque in Italy

Baroque
Meant as derogatory, exaggerated, excessive, perverse
Advanced techniques of Renaissance married to the intense emotions of Mannerism
Courts and palaces designed to impress visitors
Theatrical – emphasis on emotion over rationality

Catholic Protestant
Spain
Portugal
France
Italy
Provinces (Belgium)
Austria
Poland
Rhineland
Holy Roman Empire
England
Scotland
Scandinavia
Swiss Confederation
Holland
North Germany

Catholic Protestant
Caravaggio - Italian
Bernini – Italian
Poussin – French
Versailles and Louis XIV – French
Rubens – Flemish
Velazquez – Spain
The Counter Reformation & Absolutism
Rembrandt – Dutch
Vermeer – Dutch
Capitalist markets for Art
The Age of Science

Caravaggio (1573 – 1610)
Rebelled against convention
Started in Rome, but fled after murder and worked in many cities
Used drowned corpse as a model for Death of a Virgin – refused by patron but purchased by Duke of mantua on advice of Rubens
Used prostitutes, drunks and street people for models
New Powerful Naturalism
Died at 37 (unknown cause but lots of speculation)
Intense Light/Dark contrasts
Dramatic chiarioscuro revolutionizes European art as well as the use of common people
Varicose veins, dirty fingernails, and other attributes of “truth” in painting
Often worked straight onto canvas without preliminary drawings
High Psychological content

In 1565 the French Monsignor Matteo Contarelli acquired a chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, but when he died twenty years later it had not yet been decorated. The executor of his will, Virgilio Crescenzi, and later his son, Giacomo, undertook the task. The decorative scheme called for a statue of St Matthew and the Angel, commissioned first to Gerolamo Muziano, and then to the Flemish sculptor Cobaert, for the high altar; and for a fresco cycle for the walls and ceiling by Cavalier d'Arpino. The latter decorated the vault in 1591-93, but the walls were left bare. On 13 June 1599 a contract was stipulated before a notary by which Caravaggio undertook to execute two paintings for the lateral walls (The Calling of Saint Matthew and The Martyrdom of St Matthew), for which he was paid the following year (1600), after the paintings had been set in place. Later, on 7 February 1602, after Cobaert's statue had been judged unsatisfactory, an altarpiece was entrusted to Caravaggio in a separate contract that called for delivery of the work by 32 May, the Feast of the Pentecost. This painting was rejected, the artist made another one (which was accepted) in a surprisingly brief time, receiving payment for this second work on 22 September.

Caravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew
Tenebroso
Light comes from two sources on the right; top source illuminates Saint Matthew
Ordinary figures
Some dressed as 17th Century dandies, fashionably coiffed
Influence of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam in the hand of Christ: God’s hand but Adam’s reversed position

Caravaggio, Conversion of Saint Paul
Unknown source of light
Common figures
Little to suggest a spiritual event
Dark tenebroso effect; limited color palette
Figures are very closely spaced
Awkwardness in the man holding the horse with his very long arms and legs that don’t line up with his head
Awkwardness of the foreshortened horse
Little depth; very shallow stage, figures pushed forward
Positioning of horse guides viewer “into” painting seen to the right

Judith and Holofernes (Judith 13,1-10)
"Judith was left alone in the tent, with Holofernes stretched out on the bed, for he was overcome with wine (Judith 13,2)... She went up to the post at the end of the bed, above Holofernes' head, and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to the bed and took hold of the hair of his head, and said: "Give me strength this day, O Lord God of Israel!". And she struck his neck twice with all her might, and severed his head from his body (Judith 13,6-8)... After a moment she went out and gave Holofernes' head to her maid (Judith 13, 9)".
The Old Testament narrates the episode of Judith who saved her city of Bethulia from the siege of Holofernes, general of the Assyrian king Nabucodonosor, by killing him after a banquet at which he had been made drink, beheading him and bringing his head to his fellow citizens (Judith ch. 10-13).

Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes
Painted six versions of the story
Gentileschi raped when young: is there a relationship of this event to the painting?
Artist identified with Judith, Gentileschi’s self-portrait as the heroine
Not idealized but realistic figures
Gory moment of decapitation, blood squirting out: shock value
Holofernes defenseless
Tenebroso
Dramatic light effect from the left

Baroque Ceiling Painters
Influenced by Mantegna, Corregio and Michelangelo
Use of flying figures common
High achievement in perspective, foreshortening and issues of overlapping space, color and value in compositions.

Annibale Carracci, Loves of the Gods (Palazzo Farnese)
Gallery intended to exhibit antique sculpture
Di sotto in sù and quadroriportatopainting intermingled
Figures flow harmoniously
Each figure is studied from life
Figures overlap frames of paintings
Painted herms bordering main scenes, inspired by Sistine Chapel ignudi
Hermes seem sculptural, seen from below
Golden frames seem three-dimensional but figures overlap them
Venetian color
Robust, healthy, muscular figures, defined contours: idealized

Polyphemus attacking Galatea

Di Sotto In Su: Italian phrase that refers to the idea of looking up from below. A type of illusionism in painting, achieved by means of sharp foreshortening, in which the figures and architecture seem to be high above and receding from the spectator.
Mantegna, 15th century
PietrodaCortona, 17th Century

quadroriportato(Italian: ‘carried—or transferred—picture’). Term applied to a ceiling picture that is intended to look as if it is a framed easel picture placed overhead; there is no illusionistic foreshortening, figures appearing as if they were to be viewed at normal eye level.
Guido Reni, Aurora (1613)

Guido Reni, Aurora (1613)
Quadroriportato
Glowing dramatic colors
Aurora leads Apollo’s chariot, Hours guide the chariot
Soft modeling
Idealized, sweetly lyrical females
Wavy compositional lines

Pozzo, Glorification of Saint Ignatius
Walls of church are foreshortened into painted architecture
Di sotto in sù
Ceiling of church painted as if it were removed and figures are hovering above us
Four continents of the known world are represented between the windows: Europe, America, Africa and Asia
St. Ignatius floats above, his deeds and good works span to the four continents
Rays spring from his head to the four continents

Bernini, David
David is energetically swinging the slingshot
Chose not to wear his armor to fight Goliath, it is at his feet and acts as a physical support for the statue
Harp at his feet suggests David as a poet and singer
Said to have Bernini’s likeness: intensity of expression
Must be seen in the round, though may have been originally set against a wall
Recalls Hellenistic Greek art
Baroque art: figures caught in the middle of action

Bernini (1598 – 1680)
One of the most influential Baroque artists
Architect and sculptor
Devotion to physical and psychological reality
Exquisite sense of textures
Patron Cardinal Barberini becomes Pope Urban VII and grants many commisions (especially for St. Peter’s)
Mixture of many media in certain pieces
When called to France by Louis XIV – sculpture not used – portrait changed rto roman figure and placed in remote part of garden

Bernini, Pluto and Persephone, 1622

Rape of the Sabine Women (1574-82), by Giambologna

Cornaro Chapel

EXCERPT FROM THE LIFE OF ST. THERESA
...Beside me, on the left hand, appeared an angel in bodily form, such as I am not in the habit of seeing except rarely. Though I often have visions of angels, I do not see them...But it was the Lord's will that I should see this angel in the following way. He was not tall but short, and very beautiful; and his face was so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest ranks of angels, who seem to be all on fire. They must be of the kind called cherubim, but they do not tell me their names. I know very well that there is a great difference between some angels and others, and between these others still, but I could not possibly explain it. In his hands I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point on fire. This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he plunged it out, I felt that he took them with it, and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease, or is anyone's soul then content with anything but God. This is not physical, but a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it- even a considerable share. So gentle is this wooing which takes place between God and the soul that if anyone thinks I am lying, I pray God to grant him some experience of it

Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Theresa
Stage-like setting
Carved a vision by Saint Theresa of Avila
Members of the patron family, the Cornaro, look on from theatre boxes, in conversation or are reading about the event itself
Baroque as theatrical
Natural light from a hidden window shines on rays and figures
Combination of painting, sculpture and architecture
Directed view
Angel as sexless, Teresa in physical ecstasy, drained of all emotion
Carved marble differently depending on the texture of the surface: clouds are rough, wings are downy, drapery is smooth, and skin has a high shine

Four Rivers, Fountain, Rome (Ganges, Nile, Danube, Rio della Plata)

Ganges
Danube
Nile (covered head for unknown source)
Rio della Plata
Americas (note coins on the ledge representing the riches)
1648-50 (Pope Innocent X)

Italian Baroque Sculpture
Bernini, Baldacchino
Over main altar of Saint Peter’s
100 feet high, made of bronze
Twisting columns inspired by Early Christian designs, corkscrew motif
Lively ornate concept
Symbol of the patron, the Barberini family, in the sun and bees motif on entablature
Baroque concept of directed view: focuses your eyes down the main aisle of Saint Peter’s and acts as a frame for the Cathedra Petri, which though later in date, was likely planned already
Bronze taken from the Pantheon: paganism transformed into Christianity

Bernini, Colonnade of Saint Peter’s, Rome
Plaza holds half million people, 284 columns, 4 rows, 140 statues
Church in a congested area of Rome, Bernini wanted an open area to overwhelm visitors entering it through the four-deep colonnade with light and space
Tuscan Doric columns with classical temple front
Curving Baroque shape of colonnade
Forms the shape of two arms bringing people into the Church
Also the shape of a skeleton keyhole, symbolic of Saint Peter who holds the keys to the kingdom

Italian Baroque Architecture
Borromini, St. Charles of the Four Fountains, Rome
Very small site
Complex ground plan
Alternating convex and concave patterns
Exterior:
Façade higher than the rest of the building
Walls treated sculpturally
Emphasis on central portal with kiosk and formerly frescoed medallion above
Union of three major arts
Interior:
Chapels merge into the main room
Oval coffered dome

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Italian Baroque Post

by bassmanb on Feb 02, 2010

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Italian Baroque Post — Presentation Transcript