Ok! This next video introduces art of the Baroque period, focusing specifically on
Italy, but first we'll introduce a few key concepts with the Baroque.
So first off, the term Baroque is a French term based on "barroco," which is a
Portuguese terms for
misshapen pearl. So, it is kind of a long track
of different names going on there. But the idea here is that it's something more
usual -- we're moving away from the harmony and simplistic
or simple forms of the High Renaissance.
S,o here just giving you some misshapen pearls [or Baroque pearls], which were really common for
jewelry during the late Renaissance and Baroque periods.
So giving you that just as a frame of reference. So key ideas associated with the Baroque:
First of all, drama! The idea of drama is really important in the Baroque.
Grand scale! That is, building on a grand scale, or using large size. We see that in a
number
of cases. And then it also tends to be visually rich.
So, the Baroque style is a little bit harder to pin down, however, than
the High Renaissance style. It has a lot of
variety to it, which reflects its complexity. So, these are some different types of
Baroque style. So first, there's what we call dynamic or ecstatic
Baroque. So, dynamic or ecstatic Baroque means that there's a lot of drama in
the piece,
that there's a lot of visual interest, that there's a lot of detail.
There's also Baroque classicism, which incorporates some of these dynamic qualities, but
focuses primarily on
classical iconography, classical imagery, or classical
stylistic features. There's also Baroque realism.
We'll associate Baroque realism with artists like Caravaggio, where we're moving
beyond the idealism
the High Renaissance and into more nitty-gritty realism with
dark shadows and figures that appear dirty and --
it's very exciting! And then finding will look at examples of the Ultra Baroque in
Mexico.
And I always like to say that these are examples of the Baroque
on steroids. Where you take the Baroque style -- this dynamic, ecstatic style --
and you cover every bit of the wall, and you cover everything
on the façade, and make it extremely ornate and extremely rich.
In the case of Mexico, we'll talk about how it can have some
carryover, or how it could be a case of hybridity
with some of the art that was already being produced in Mexico before the arrival of
the Spanish.
Just a brief historical background: Europe in the 17th century -- it was
a very as a tumultuous period.
You had the Thirty Years War. You had the Wars of Religion. These wars developed due
to tensions between Catholics and Protestants, but then also between
primary ruling families, such as the Habsburgs
and the Bourbons. These families that were dominating
large areas Europe. To start off in Italy, there is this feeling
generally around 1600 of "Catholic Triumph" -- this feeling that
Rome and the Vatican have survived the Reformation -- that they're still around.
People are
are returning to the church. People who had left the church -- been disenchanted
with the church --
are coming back. And just the fact that the church still survives -- that's something
that they're excited about.
So let's see some of the works that they commissioned at the Vatican. So first off,
Bernini in the mid - late 17th century
is commission with his workshop to create this Piazza of Saint Peter's
Basilica,
which are basically these arms -- most people refer to them as
arms -- that reach out and create a form
to this piazza space in front of the church, So before,
there had just been this open space, where people to gather,
but what Bernini does, is through this design he creates a much more defined space,
and what's nice about it is it really looks like arms bringing people into the
church -- drawing people towards the church.
So, it fits the Counter Reformation mood. It fits the idea that they want people to return to the
church.
But also this idea that once you enter into it, it becomes this
enclosed space and an extension of the church. And it's a transition space between
the secular into the sacred space. So similar to an atrium that you might see in an
early Christian Basilica, but here it's done in a Baroque style with grand scale,
lots of sculpture decorating the top, and also with
shapes that we associate with the Baroque style, so rather than a perfect circle.
which we would see in the High Renaissance,
we see an oval, and we see more unusual forms. Instead of a square, we see a
trapezoid shape. This is something we would refer to a Baroque
classicism, so in those categories I just gave. So,
just give you a sense of the scale -- the grand scale -- you have
almost three hundred columns,
the columns are extremely tall -- almost was 40 feet tall, 96 marble sculptures,
so clearly this was a huge project and reflected this feeling
of triumph. Bernini also was commissioned to create
a Baldacchino, or a canopy that would mark the spot where St. Peter's tomb was
believed to
been. And then also if you go downstairs, you can see there are papal tombs,
then farther down, there's this metal box that's believed to hold the relics [bodily remains] of St.
Peter.
And so you have here a layering of the first
pope [St. Peter], and then additional popes on top of that. But this creates a
permanent canopy that looks to be cloth in certain parts --
so you see these hanging bits. It gives you this illusion of
a temporary canopy that might be carried over martyr's tomb.
Of course, St. Peter was thought to be a martyr -- an early Christian martyr.
And it makes it permanent. And then also because it is so tall,
it helps span this massive space from floor to ceiling.
So, very, very tall structure -- seventy feet tall. And then, in addition to that,
you have chair of St. Peter -- the Cathedra Petri
back here. This is very dynamic/ecstatic Baroque --
the swirling columns, the large scale, the gilding.
All of the different forms -- the exploding cloud back here.
It's very, very visually rich. Just as a side note, those swirling columns
are derived from forms that were taken from the Temple of Solomon.
So, it was believed to be a form that originally appeared in the Temple of
Solomon.
Let's just look more closely at the chair of St. Peter -- a chair that
has been encased in bronze as a relic, and then
there are parts of it being held by the four doctors at the church,
and then they're using a light that's entering into the window -- rather than making it
a stained glass of a more Gothic type,
it becomes golden. And so you have this golden light of the Holy Spirit with
the dove incorporated. And it seems to be bursting or like a window that seems to be exploding
there. Also, St. Peter's you have St. Longinus.
So they received a relic around this time and wanted to commemorated it
with this statue, and Bernini created this
sculpture in honored of St. Longinus. And clearly we're seeing how things are
changing in the Baroque
period. Whereas in the High Renaissance, with at Michelangelo's David, we see a fairly
static figure, he looks very natural with his contrapposto pose,
but here we see Bernini really pushing the limits at marble,
really making the figures much more dynamic,
having that fabric have a much more agitated look to it.
So this was to commemorate more relics that were coming into the church.
That was obviously something very important to the Catholic faith, and they're
emphasizing that here. So what we see in this church at this point
is that they're not shying away from
representations of holy figures, and they're not shying away from ornate
decoration. They're clearly charting a different path than
the Protestants are in the North. So they're creating a clear difference,
and we'll look at an example of a Protestant church in the lecture on the
Dutch Republic.
So, let's see what Bernini was up to -- Bernini being the
preeminent sculptor during the Baroque period in Italy.
Let's see what he was to for more private collectors. So, Cardinal Scipione
Borghese,
who was one at that preeminent collectors in this
period, collected a series of mythological stories.
He also collected a David sculpture, but let's look at two scenes of abduction.
One is particularly violent. We see here a story of
Pluto and Proserpina [or Hades and Persephone in Greek] and, if we could zoom in a little closer,
you would see that his fingers look to be pressing into her thigh.
So, Bernini's really is really taking advantage or really showing off
his skill in the carving of marble by showing how
he can really turn marble into this
fleshy looking substance. So what we see here at Pluto,
god of the underworld, who's wearing his crown, who's grabbing on Proserpina,
who he abducts. She's the daughter of Ceres [Demeter in Greek], who is the goddess of the harvest.
The story relates to how the seasons were developed -- Proserpina
in
the half year that she would spend with Pluto -- those were the months when
things were dead and
earth was sad -- so fall and winter. And then spring and summer are
the six months that she's able to come up and be with her mother.
So it's kind of an early story of dividing custody there.
Anyway, it's in a very Baroque setting as well. You can see all the
marble and granite that decorates this room. And just the fact that the marble
isn't static -- it appears to move,
and it's a very exciting sculpture. Another
sculpture that appears to turn marble into something else is this work of Apollo
and Daphne. Another story of
a man chasing a woman -- this time unsuccessfully.
Apollo chases after Daphne, who a
nymph, who he's fallen in love with. She's the daughter of a river god. And so he's
chasing after her -- chasing, chasing --
and she calls out to her father to save her.
At the last minute, he does [save her from Apollo], but she turns into a tree.
This is a very famous story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, which was a very famous
ancient poem that the Cardinal was familiar with.
And what we see her is that moment when Apollo catches her, and her body is
transforming.
Her body is turning into a tree trunk, and her fingers
are turning into branches, so very exciting
ecstatic Baroque characteristics. Bernini wasn't always in the good graces
of the papacy, so in times when he wasn't getting along with the papacy,
he would do commissions such as this. This is commissioned by
Cardinal Federico Cornaro. This is called "the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" and
highlights
the intensity of religious belief around this time.
So what we have here is a mystic, St. Teresa of Ávila,
who was a relatively recent Spanish mystic.
And, I won't read this whole quote. You can pause it if you'd like,
but it goes into great detail of her intense encounters with God
or with an angel. And that's how Bernini is portraying it here -- using a
variety of materials,
using the light that enters in from a skylight. And you see this angel here that's
plunging the arrow into her heart and the agitated fabric
lends to this drama. And this all relates to
the intensity that we see in a number or areas of Catholicism including the Jesuits,
ideas of the Spiritual Exercises, where one was supposed to contemplate
the intense suffering of Christ.
We also have traits of Baroque architecture that we should identify:
complex ground plans, curved walls, sculpture and architecture fused
together,
and space that engages spectator -- you're involved in this space.
And we see this most clearly at San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane,
which is in Rome. It's a small church kind of squeezed into this
tight intersection. But you can see the facade curves out at you, and
as you enter in, it also curves in and out. So again, we moving away from those traditional
spaces to more
unusual spaces. You can also see from the floor plan
that you can get a sense of how occurs in curves in and out and engages you.
And then gazing up towards the dome would also get that same sense, where
you're not using traditional
circles -- you're using the oval shape, which is more common in the Baroque period.
New types of paintings in the Baroque period include still life,
genre [scenes of everyday life], and landscape, and we'll talk about those more as we move along.
One of the people who started off creating more genre scenes, but the then moves into a Baroque
classical style is Annibale Carracci. When he gets Rome, he's commissioned by
a cardinal
to create a painted room --
an elaborately painted room -- in honor at his brother's wedding.
So what we see here is what's called "quadro riportato," which are paintings that
appear to be lifted and pressed on to the ceiling.
So this is all an illusion. Clearly he is trying to outdo Michelangelo's Sistine
Chapel.
But, as we zoom in, we can these loving stories of
weddings, where we can see Bacchus and Ariadne getting married,
where we can see Jupiter and Juno together, Diana and Endymion.
So, again, Carracci is trying to outdo Michelangelo
in a Baroque, classical style. Ok!
We'll finish up thinking about Caravaggio,
and then one example of a Baroque ceiling. So Caravaggio's style is
very distinct. We'll look at examples from the Contarelli Chapel very quickly.
We see his use of TENEBRISM, which is a dramatic, shadowy style,
bright, spot-lit effects. And so as we move around this chapel, there are
three paintings: one is the calling of Saint Matthew --
all of the paintings refer to St. Matthew, who was the
name saint of the Cardinal who it was built for.
So first you see Matthew, who was a tax collector, surprised as Christ calls for him.
So, Christ is here with a gesture clearly referring to Adam's gesture
in at the Sistine Chapel. Peter is with him. You see this really gritty
tavern scenes, and this reflects the kind of environment
in Rome in the time that Caravaggio was living. The second scene is The
inspiration
of St. Matthew. And this was Caravaggio's first version. It was rejected.
This is his second version. It was accepted. What we see here
St. Matthew in a very simple room
being inspired by the angel here. The final scene
is the martyrdom of St. Matthew -- a very chaotic scene. Again, spotlit
with some dramatic shadows. You see St. Mathew about to be killed,
receiving the palm of a martyr, and then it's said to incorporate a
self-portrait of Caravaggio. Caravaggio lived a very
tumultuous life, which makes him extra famous today.
He was accused of murder. He had to leave
Rome in exile. So a lot of people associate the violence [in his paintings] with
the violence in his life. However Rome at this time
was a very, very violent place, so it could also just refer to
a larger context of violence in Rome. Ok another chapel
is the Cerasi chapel -- two more scenes to focus on.
So, we see here the conversion of Saint Paul. This is St.
Paul, who has fallen from his horse after
Christ has come to him in a vision. And this chapel highlights
the major themes or major subjects that are important in the Baroque
Counter Reformation period -- that is CONVERSION (so wanting to convert people back to
Catholicism), and then also MARTYRDOM, and so you have
that St. Paul image right across from the crucifixion of St. Peter,
where you really can zoom in on the flesh of Peter -- he looks so
real! So all of these Caravaggio images are considered Baroque
realism with those dramatic spotlit effects and dramatic shadows.
Caravaggio also created very violent representations of
the David, which we see here. This is thought to
be a self-portrait, so there could be some psychoanalytic readings.
And then our final example, is the "Triumph of the Barberini,"
where we see almost an exploding ceiling celebrating the Barberini family. Sorry I ran out of time!