The Baroque In France, Flanders And Spain

The Baroque in France, Flanders and Spain

France
Effects of the Thirty Year War were tremendous
Baroque style slightly more tempered than Italy
Paris under Louis XIV (the Sun King) becomes the cultural center of Europe
72 year reign of Louis XIV

LeNain

Louis LeNain (1588-1677)
Devoted to scenes of daily life (genre paintings)
Dignity in subjects vs. Brueghel
Treated reverently

Nicolas Poussin (1593-1665)
Worked almost exclusively in Rome
Embodies the classical spirit of antiquity
Infleunced by Raphael and Titian
Aware in his paintings of specific times and seasons
Not about sensualtiy (like Titian or Rubens) but foreshadows later neo-classicism
Painter of Allegories
Poses derived from classical sculpture
Avoided base, or low subjects – antithesis of Caracaggio

Claude Lorrain (1600-1682)
Worked almost exclusively from Rome
Little interest in narrative
Often commissioned others to paint in figures (used to establish scale, unlike Giorgione where emphasis is on mood)
Landscapes – idealized
Many studies from nature

Louis XIV
Influenced by Fronde Parliament in 1648
Ascended throne at age 13 (1651)
Superintendent of Finance – Nicolas Fouquet who builds Vaux le Vicomte in 1657 (Le Vau, Le Notre, and LeBrun)
1661 Begins serious building at Versailles

RIGAUD, Hyacinthe
1694

Bernini, 1665
Emphasizing Louis grandeur and superiority

Mansart, Chateau of Blois

Vaux le Vicomte, Fouquet arch. – Louis Le Vau, Gardens – Andre Le Notre, Interior Charles LeBrun

The Party in 1661
"On 17 August, at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France: at two in the morning he was nobody.“ - Voltaire

Versailles
Louis XIV moves court to Versailles (note influence of the Fronde
Envisions an ideal architecture and landscape
Includes a small city to house the nobility
Central axis of the landscape design is the East West path of the sun
Not noted for frescoes, but high acievement in furniture (sold to pay for armies)
architect LeVau and landscape architect Le Notre

La Fronde
La Fronde (1648–1653) was a civil war in France, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The word fronde means sling, with which the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin were broken with stones by Paris mobs. The Fronde was divided into two campaigns, the Fronde of the parlements and the Fronde of the nobles. The timing of the outbreak of the Fronde des parlements, directly after the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years War was significant.

Fountain of Latona

From Ovid’s Metamorphosis
Latona, mother of Diana and Apollo, is fleeing Juno’s wrath with her children.
Stops at a lake to drink, but is prevented from doing so by the peasants there whom she turns into frogs.
Story chosen specifically by Louis.

Fountain of Apollo

Signing of the Treaty of Versailles, 1919

Antoine Coysevox

Conditions for the Baroque
Continuing Influence of Michelangelo
Catholic need to demonstrate Glory and Beauty
Council of Trent (1545-63) strongly advocates pictorial clarity and narrative relevance in religious art
Need for Royalty to utilize excess for their own desires: secular uses for what begins as religious propoganda

Flemish Baroque Art
Separation of the Netherlands into Belgium and Holland
Rubens from Southern Provinces (Catholic)
Note Spanish wars against the Netherlands (William of Orange)

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Scholar, diplomat, painter
Spoke and wrote in 6 languages
Synchronized styles of North and South (southern classicism with Northern detail)
Abundant physical energy and splendid color
Spiraling compositions with figures often in motion
Ample women – full bodied and sensual
Incredibly wealthy

Studied in Venice and worked for several years at the Court of Mantua in Italy
Worked in Spain and got to know Velazquez
Great series of paintings for Marie de-Medici in France (24 huge canvases)

Rubens married Helena Fourment on December 6, 1630, when he was fifty-three and she was sixteen. Helena became the model and the inspiration for many paintings by Rubens dating from the 1630s, particularly those dealing with themes of ideal beauty or love.
Rubens and his first wife
And his second

Rubens, , 1601

The Deposition
1612- 14

The Visitation The Deposition Simeon and the Bris
1612- 14

1612- 14

Belvedere Torso, Plaster cast after an original attributed to Apollonius (1st century B.C.) Since the Renaissance, this Hellenistic torso has had a major influence on artists working in the classical tradition, most notably Michelangelo. Sketching the torso, or a cast of it, was regarded as essential in the training of an Academic artist. Sir Joshua Reynolds said 'A MIND elevated to the contemplation of excellence perceives in this defaced and shattered fragment, ... the traces of superlative genius, the reliques of a work on which succeeding ages can only gaze with inadequate admiration.'

St. Christopher

Farnese Hercules

The Marie de Medici Cycle in the Louvre
24 paintings in 3 years
Story of Marie’s Life, Marriage to Henry IV, and her Reign as Queen

Education of Marie

The Arrival of Marie de’Medici 1622-26

Baroque in Flanders
Rubens, Arrival of Marie de’Medici at Marseilles
Part of the Marie de’Medici cycle of 21 paintings in the Louvre
Real people exist side-by-side with nymphs, sea monsters, naiads, genii
Neptune and the three sirens, a sea god and a triton escort the boat in the harbor
France in blue cape with gold fleur-de-lis falls to his knees before Marie
Fame salutes her with two trumpets
Arms of the Medici over the arch of the boat
Commander of ship wears a cross of the Knights of Malta, is a sharp counterpoint to the other figures in the painting
Dynamic movement
Rich vivid color
Heavily muscled men; ample females
Union of Northern and Italian painting that started with Dürer

Baroque in Flanders
Rubens, Allegory on the Outbreak of War
Mars has left the Temple of Janus open, normally closed during times of peace
Venus and Cupids try to restrain Mars
Fury Alecto, torch in hand, pulls him forward
Below woman with a broken lute: harmony is destroyed
Mother and child indicate fertility cannot bloom
Fallen architect symbolizes the fall of civilization
Mars literally tramples on literature
Crying woman in black is Europe
Strong diagonals and masterful use of color
Painterly brushstroke
Baroque dynamics and composition
Developed musculature

Baroque in Flanders
Van Dyck, Charles I Dismounted
Unstressed royal authority
A king and a cavalier
Venetian landscape with the Thames behind
Charles has dismounted and his horse is being held for him
He glances sharply at us from the side
Haughty pose
Van Dyck established the tradition of the graceful monarch, regal yet at ease

Tapestry Artist

Baroque in Spain
Velazquez, Las Meninas
Velázquez working on a huge canvas that could not fit through the door of the room. He pauses and takes a step back to study us.
Velázquez wears the Cross of the Order of Santiago, a symbol of nobility: painter enjoyed a court appointment and desired respect
Princess Margarita with two maids-in-waiting is the central focus of the painting
Dwarves on right; Philip IV had a large collection of dwarves, no abnormalities are glossed over by Velázquez
Blurring of figures on right suggests painter’s understanding of peripheral vision
Older woman is lady of honor, wears a nun’s outfit to indicate she is a widow
Man in conversation with her is her escort

Baroque in Spain
Velazquez, Las Meninas (continued)
Silhouetted man is José Nieto, aposentador of the Queen, head of the Queen’s tapestry works, rests his hand on a tapestry as he goes out, but pauses
Regular rhythm of the frames on the back wall anchors composition as opposed the irregular rhythm of the groups
Paintings above are works that illustrate mortals who challenged the gods
Perspective pulls you into the painting, but the mirror reflects out
Extension laterally: canvas on easel, windows
Alternating darks and lights reach into the painting
King and Queen are in the mirror, but what is being reflected? The painting Velázquez is working on? The King and Queen themselves? A portrait of the King and Queen hanging on the opposite wall?
What is Velázquez painting? This group? A painting of this painting? The King and Queen?

Baroque in Spain
Velazquez, Surrender of Breda, 1635
Battle in 1625, Dutch forced to yield Breda to the Spanish
Magnanimity, humanity and valor of the victors is stressed
Dutch on left seen as youthful, disorganized
Spanish on right are dignified, with lances indicating their military precision
Key to the city is emphasized in the center
Emotional tone of generosity and mutual respect
Effect of the battle seen in the smoky background
Topography is accurate: artist interviewed participants in the battle and consulted other renderings of the area
Light and color are compositional devices that unify the elements

Jusepe de Ribera, Lo storpio, 1642

Zurbaran
Saint Serapion1628

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The Baroque In France, Flanders And Spain

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The Baroque In France, Flanders And Spain — Presentation Transcript