ITALIAN BAROQUE

ITALIAN BAROQUE

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

Patrons and their influence on artHow did royal patrons of the arts choose to have themselves portrayed in the art of the seventeenth century? Comparing the art of painters such as Riguard, Van Dyck, Rubens, and Velazquez will help students to visualize the changes that had occurred since the Renaissance. Regional differences should also be noted.

Naturalism/verisimilitudeThe desire of seventeenth-century painters to achieve naturalism in their works marks a shift away from Classical ideals. The willingness of patrons to be portrayed, "warts and all" (p. 752), is a startling shift from the trends first seen in the art of the ancient Near East. Caravaggio takes this notion to an extreme, and was famously persecuted because of it.

New patronsThe emergence of a middle-class art-buying public in Holland during this period is an extraordinary development. The Calvinistic mores of that culture need to be closely scrutinized to understand the laces in their portraits and the oysters in the still lifes of the period (p. 799).

Shifting stylesThis chapter includes the Baroque and the Rococo art styles. The reasons, not fully understood, for this shift in taste and what it means visually, are of major importance. Unlike Mannerism, the Rococo style is mostly uniform, and quickly identified. Nonetheless, the chapter provides opportunities for students to practice connoisseurship—for example, in a comparison of Watteau and Boucher.

Concepts to know…

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

ITALIAN

FRENCH

SPANISH

FLEMISH

DUTCH

Bernini, Borromini, Caravaggio,Gentileschi

Louis XIV, Poussin, Lorrain

Philip IV, Velazquez

Rubens, Van Dyck, Charles I

Hals, Ruisdael, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Claesz

People to know…

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

Goals of Art during the COUNTER-REFORMATION(The “Empire Strikes Back”)

To deliberately evoke intense emotional responsefrom the viewer

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

Goals of Art during the COUNTER-REFORMATION(The “Empire Strikes Back”)

To deliberately evoke intense emotional responsefrom the viewer

To create dramatically lit, often theatrical compositions

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

Goals of Art during the COUNTER-REFORMATION(The “Empire Strikes Back”)

To deliberately evoke intense emotional responsefrom the viewer

To create dramatically lit, often theatrical compositions

To use diverse media such as bronze and marble within a single artwork

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

Goals of Art during the COUNTER-REFORMATION(The “Empire Strikes Back”)

To deliberately evoke intense emotional responsefrom the viewer

To create dramatically lit, often theatrical compositions

To use diverse media such as bronze and marble within a single artwork

To create work with spectacular technical virtuosity

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

Gianlorenzo BERNINIHis works include:

▪ The colonnade of St. Peter’s Piazza

▪ The baldacchino on the St. Peter’s altar

▪ Vibrant marble sculpture of David

▪ Ecstasy of St. Theresa sculpture

Bernini

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque Gianlorenzo Bernini, Baldacchino, St. Peter’s, Rome. 1623-1634.

Long before the planning of the Piazza, Bernini had been at work decorating the interior of Saint Peter’s. His first commission, completed in 1624

and 1633, called for the design and erection of the gigantic bronze baldacchino ( a canopy made of

cloth or stone erected over an altar, shrine, or throne in a Christian church) above the main altar

under the great dome. The canopy-like structure marks the tomb of Saint Peter. At almost one

hundred feet high it serves as a focus of the church’s splendor.

At the top of the columns four colossal angels stand guard at the upper corners of the canopy. Forming the canopy’s apex are four serpentine

brackets that elevate the orb and the cross, symbols of the Church’s triumph since the time of Constantine. All over the baldacchino are letter B’

s representing the Barberini family (Pope that commissioned the work).

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Italian Baroque Gianlorenzo Bernini, Baldacchino, St. Peter’s, Rome. 1623-1634.

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque Gianlorenzo Bernini, Baldacchino, St. Peter’s, Rome. 1623-1634.

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Italian Baroque

Giovanni Panini, Interior of St. Peter’s, Rome, 1731.

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

Gianlorenzo Bernini, “David”,Galleria Borghese, Rome, 1623.

Bernini’s sculpture is expansive and dramatic, and the element of time usually plays an important role in it. This marble statue aims at catching the figure’s split-second action and differs markedly from the restful figures of David portrayed by Donatello and Michelangelo.

The figures legs are widely and firmly planted, beginning the violent, pivoting motion that will launch the stone from his sling. If the action had been a moment before, his body would have been in a completely different position. Bernini selected the most dramatic of an implied sequence of poses, so observers have to think simultaneously of the continuum and of this tiny fraction of it.

This is not the kind of sculpture that can be inscribed in a cylinder or confined in a niche; its indicated action demands space around it.

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Italian Baroque

Donatello(Early Italian Renaissance)

Michelangelo(High Italian Renaissance)

Bernini(Italian Baroque)

Comparing Davids….

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Italian Baroque Church of the Santa Maria della Vittoria (Cornaro Chapel)

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Italian Baroque

Gianlorenzo Bernini“Ecstasy of Saint Theresa”,

Bernini Cornaro Chapel, Rome Italy, 1645-1652

Saint Theresa was a nun of the Spanish Counter-Reformation. Her conversion

occurred after the death of her father, when she fell into a series of trances, saw visions, and heard voices. Feeling a persistent pain,

she attributed to “the fire tipped arrow of Divine love” that an angel had thrust repeatedly into

her heart.

In her writings, Saint Theresa described this experience as making her swoon in delightful

anguish. The whole chapel became a theater for the production of this mystical drama.

Bernini depicted the saint in ecstasy, unmistakably a mingling of spiritual and

physical passion, swooning back on a cloud while the smiling angel aims his arrow.

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Italian Baroque Bernini, “Ecstasy of Saint Theresa”, Cornaro Chapel, 1645-1652

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Italian Baroque

Aerial view of St. Peter’s in Rome

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Italian Baroque

View of the Square from St. Peter’s Dome

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Italian Baroque

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Italian Baroque Carlo Maderno, “Santa Susanna” Rome, Italy 1597-1603.

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Italian Baroque

BAROQUE Santa Susanna MANNERISM il Gesu

Comparing buildings…

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Italian Baroque Restoring Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy

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Italian Baroque

Francesco Borromini, facade of “San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane”,Rome, Italy, 1665-1676.

The church was designed by the architect Francesco Borromini and it was his first independent commission. Designed as part of a small monastery for a community of Spanish monks, it is an iconic masterpiece of Baroque architecture. Built to fit in a cramped and difficult site, the church has an unusual and somewhat irregular floor plan in the shape of a Greek cross defined by convex curves. The facade is similarly undulating in plan, and this effect was subsequently adopted by other Baroque architects in their church designs. The unifying design feature in the interior is the use of the triangle, a motif for the Trinity.

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Italian Baroque

The interior of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane is not only an ingenious response to an awkward site but also a provocative variation on the theme of the centrally planned church.

In the plan, San Carlo looks like a hybrid of a greek cross and an oval, with a long axis between entrance and apse. The side walls move in an undulating flow that reverses the façade’s motion.

Vigorously projecting columns define space into which they protrude just as much as they do the walls attached to them. This molded interior space is capped by a deeply coffered oval dome that seems to float on the light entering through windows hidden in its base.

Francesco Borromini, facade of “San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane”,Rome, Italy, 1665-1676.

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

Francesco Borromini, interior of “San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane”, 1665-1676.

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Italian Baroque

Michelangelo Merisi (Caravaggio), Conversion of Saint Paul , 1601.

Caravaggio painted Conversion of Saint Paul for the Cerasi Chapel in the Roman church of

Santa Maria del Popolo. It illustrates the conversion of the Pharisee Saul to Christianity,

when he became the disciple Paul.

The saint-to-be appears amid his conversion, flat on his back with his arms thrown up. In the background, an old hostler seems preoccupied

with caring for the horse. At first inspection, little here suggests the momentous significance of

the spiritual event taking place.

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Italian Baroque

CaravaggioConversion of Saint Paul, 1601

On display at the Santa Maria del Popolo (Rome, Italy)

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Italian Baroque

Caravaggio,“Calling of Saint Matthew” c1597-1601

The painting depicts the story from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 9:9): "Jesus saw a man named Matthew at his seat in the custom house, and said to him, "Follow me", and Matthew rose and followed Him." Caravaggio depicts Matthew the tax collector sitting at a table with four other men. Jesus Christ and Saint Peter have entered the room, and Jesus is pointing at Matthew. A beam of light illuminates the faces of the men at the table who are looking at Christ.

In this work Caravaggio draws inspiration from his own world, placing the biblical scene in modern reality.

ITALIAN BAROQUE

Italian Baroque

Caravaggio,“Calling of Saint Matthew” c1597-1601

In this work Caravaggio draws inspiration from his own world, placing the biblical scene in modern reality. This work is evidence of Caravaggio's artistic confidence. He was not comfortable with the traditions of contemporary idealizing history painting and so he regressed to the subjects of his youth which had previously earned his success.

Additionally, in this work, there is a likeness between the gesture of Jesus as pointing towards Matthew and that of God as he awakens Adam in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.

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Italian Baroque

Caravaggio,“Calling of Saint Matthew” c1597-1601

The Calling of Saint Matthew can be divided into two parts. The figures on the right form a vertical rectangle while those on the left create a horizontal block. The two sides are further distinguished by their clothing and symbolically, by Christ's hand.

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Italian Baroque Caravaggio, “Calling of Saint Matthew” c1597-1601

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Italian Baroque

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Italian Baroque

Caravaggo, Crucifixion of St. Peter, c1600. Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria

del Popolo, Rome.

The painting depicts the martyrdom of St. Peter by crucifixion. Peter asked that his cross be inverted so as not to imitate his God, Jesus Christ, hence he is depicted

upside-down. The large canvas shows Romans on Nero’s behalf, their faces

shielded, struggling to erect the cross of the elderly but muscular apostle. Peter is

heavier than his aged body would suggest, and his lifting requires the efforts

of three men, as if the crime they perpetrate already weighs on them. dark,

impenetrable background draws the spectator's gaze back again to the sharply

illuminated figures, yet the faces of Romans are hidden – perhaps in shame.

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Italian Baroque

Michelangelo, Crucifixion of St. Peter Caravaggio, Crucifixion of St. Peter, c1600.

Contrast the two Crucifixions

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Italian Baroque Caravaggio, Flagellation of Christ. c.1606-1607. Oil on canvas.

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Italian Baroque Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ, 1602.

"The one I shall kiss is the man; seize him and lead him away safely" (Mark 14:44).

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Italian Baroque Caravaggio, “Supper at Emmaus” National Gallery, London 1601.

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Italian Baroque Caravaggio, “The Incredulity of St. Thomas”, 1602.

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Italian Baroque

Caravaggio, “Entombment” 1602-1603.

Beyond its ability to move its audience, this composition also had theological

implications. To viewers in the chapel, it appeared as though the men were laying Christ’s body onto the altar, which was in

front of the painting This served to visualize the doctrine of transubstantiation (the

transformation of the Eucharist and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ) -- a

doctrine central to Catholicism but rejected by Protestants. By depicting Christ’s body

as though it were physically present during the Mass, Caravaggio visually articulated

an abstract theological precept. Unfortunately, viewers no longer can

experience this effect.

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Italian Baroque

Artemisia Gentileschi“Judith Slaying Holofernes”

ca. 1614-1620

Gentileschi used what might be called the “dark” subject matter Caravaggio

that favored. Significantly, Gentileschi chose a narrative involving a heroic female, and favorite theme of hers.

The story, from the Book of Judith, relates the delivery of Israel from its

enemy, Holofernes. Having succumbed to Judith’s charms, the

Assyrian general Holofernes invited her to his tent for the night. When he fell asleep, Judith cut off his head. In this version of the scene, Judith and

her maidservant are beheading Holofernes.

You go, girl!

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Italian Baroque

Artemisia Gentileschi“Judith and Maidservant With Head of Holofernes”ca. 1612-1613

Judith Beheads Holofernes In Other Works, Too!

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Italian Baroque

Artemisia Gentileschi“Judith and Maidservant Beheading Holofernes”ca. 1625.

Judith Beheads Holofernes In Other Works, Too!

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Italian Baroque

Caravaggio, “Judith Slaying Holofernes”, ca. 1599.

Judith Beheads Holofernes In Other Works, Too!

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Italian Baroque

Lucas Cranach“Judith With Head of Holofernes”, 1530.

Judith Beheads Holofernes In Other Works, Too!

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Italian Baroque

Michelangelo. Judith and Holofernes. 1508-1512. Fresco. Sistine Chapel.

Judith Beheads Holofernes In Other Works, Too!

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Italian Baroque

Andrea Mantegna,Judith and Holofernes. c. 1495EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Judith Beheads Holofernes In Other Works, Too!

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Italian Baroque

BotticelliDiscovery of the Body of Holofernes.c.1469-1470.

Tempera on panel. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

Judith Beheads Holofernes In Other Works, Too!

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Italian Baroque

Donatello,Judith and Holofernes, 1455-60.EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Judith Beheads Holofernes In Other Works, Too!

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Italian Baroque

Annibale CarracciLoves of the Gods, 1597-1601.

Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, a wealthy descendant of Pope Paul III, commissioned this ceiling fresco to celebrate the wedding

of the cardinal’s brother.

The title interprets the variety of earthly and divine love in classical mythology.

Carracci arranged the scenes in a format resembling framed easel paintings on a

wall, but here he painted them on the surfaces of a shallow curved vault.

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, of course, comes in mind, although it is not an exact

source. This type of simulation of easel painting for ceiling designed is called quadro riportato (transferred framed

painting).

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Italian Baroque

Giovanni Battista Gaulli, “Triumph in the Name of Jesus”, Church of Il Gesu, Rome, Italy, 1676-1679 ITALIAN BAROQUE

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Italian Baroque

Giovanni Battista Gaulli “Triumph in the Name of Jesus”,

Church of Il Gesu, Rome, Italy1676-1679 ITALIAN BAROQUE

As the mother church of the Jesuit order, Il Gesu played a particularly prominent role in the Counter-

Reformation. Gaulli’s compostion focuses on the joyful rise of spirits to Christ’s aura. In contrast,

figures of the damned seem to plummet through the ceiling to the nave floor. Gaulli successfully

combined architecture, painting and sculpture to create a dramatic work that celebrates the glory of

Christ and His Church.