This video is about the Baroque style in France. This will be our last video about the
Baroque style.
We'll move on to Rococo and Neoclassical next. So, starting off, France is an absolute
monarchy. A lot of the power is consolidated with the single ruler, the
French king.
France becomes the dominant artistic force in Europe and in Western culture at
this time, replacing Italy.
So, as we move on, we'll see most of the important
artistic styles really beginning and flourishing in France, rather than in Italy.
Although Italy will remain an important place where artists will want to visit
and to see the old masters and to see the High Renaissance works of art like the
Sistine Chapel.
France develops a strict artistic training system
with their art academy, and that's where those different categories come in --
things like history painting, portrait painting, still life, genre painting,
things of that nature. The dominant painter of the seventeenth-century
is Poussin, and he tends to favor a strict
application of form and line --
really, really defined edges.
His work is dominated by this idea of form and
line -- very different than Rubens, which tends to have color and dynamic energy.
So, you have two different groups that are arise, those that favor
Poussin's style, known as the "Poussinistes" and Rubens --
those that favor Rubens' style, the "Rubenistes", so two different schools of thought
at this time. Louis XIV is the most important patron at the end of the 17th
century in France.
He has a very, very long reign -- one of the longest in history,
and one of his most important commissions will be Versailles, so we'll
be looking at that in just
a second. Just for some background, there are, of course, a number of
wars going on. Wars continue to be a problem in the late 16th and into the
17th century,
mostly due to tensions between Catholics and Protestants
and also due to tensions between rulers in Europe at this time.
Our first French painter we will focus on is Georges de La Tour. He is a painter
that's
fallen in and out of favor for those
that study art. He was the ordinary painter to the king for a
short time.
He clearly was deeply influenced by Caravaggio. Caravaggio
did a series of paintings where he was interested in those being cheated
on streets or in taverns and often you have a figure that represents
the duke or the [rich] person, who is going to have their money taken from them.
So, what you see here is probably a courtesan, a woman offering her a drink,
a man or scoundrel, who's taking advantage of this
clearly very wealthy young man -- or young boy. He has the most money in front of
him,
and what seems to be happening is he
has the cards behind him. She's letting him know which cards she needs, but
she's doing it in the way that
she's saying, "Oh, I'm just asking for a drink," or she's being
given her drink. So, what's fun is that we're all in on it.
We know what's going on. We can see him retrieving the cards
behind his back. But, of course, this young man who is made to look so over the top
with his
frilly sleeves, and his ribbons, and his ostrich feather.
Clearly, he doesn't know what's going on. So it's a funny painting,
but also speaks to some of the realities of gaming and taverns,
and definitely speaks to the influence of Caravaggio's style coming into
France at this time. Georges de La Tour also did a series of
penitent Magdalenes.
So, here we see an image of the Magdalene contemplating her previous
sinful life -- so this legend of the Magdalene as this
sinful prostitute develops, and so we see the Magdalene
looking at a very luxurious mirror -- a mirror at this time was very expensive --
so it speaks to ideas of vanity and wealth. She's gazing into it
as a reminder of her previously life, but she's holding onto a skull, which is
a reminder of
mortality, desire for salvation, and the light
of course can symbolize the divine. It can symbolize light of
Christianity shining onto her. But it's a very quiet, contemplative
image that would allow you to pray, and would allow you to reflect
and Georges de La Tour is really showing his ability with light. He tends to cover
up
the light source, so we can -- we can just see the top of the flicker of the
flame,
but it's mostly covered up, allowing those light effects to really show off
that deep shadowy effect, similar to Caravaggio TENEBRISM.
So, here's our first example by Poussin.
So, clearly Poussin is a history painter. He's dealing primarily with
grand narratives from ancient Greece, ancient
Rome, and also the Old Testament. Stories that you can draw
important morals from, and also stories that are somewhat unusual,
which makes it kind of fun. So what we see here is the story of the "Burial of Phocion,"
and he set it in a grand landscape with the intention that this
is ancient Greece, and the story goes that Phocion was accused of being a
traitor.
He was executed and then only after he was executed did they
realize -- did the mob realize -- that they'd made a mistake,
and so the story here is really to indicate the dangers of a mob mentality;
the dangers of being swept up in the moment.
So you have here a good man, who was Phocion, whose body is being carried out
very sadly out of the city. Poussin had never been to Greece -- this is not what Greece
looks like --
so clearly it's a composite scene of Italy and France,
and some temple fronts, as he might imagine ancient Greece,
but it's very much invented. And we clearly can see the important of
the landscape coming into play, but here is an important painter
painting a historical scene into it.
Poussin also represented a scene
called the "Madonna of the Stairs" -- this work is now in the US -- it's in
the National Gallery in Washington D.C.. The Virgin was often associated with a
stairway to heaven -- this idea that she was someone who would help you gain
salvation.
Clearly, from the last two paintings, you've seen Poussin's clearly dealing in
Baroque Classicism -- he's really interested in classical architecture;
he's interested in subject matter, and so here he's take
the Holy Family, and he's placed them in that kind of setting.
And so we see here the Virgin Mary with her traditional blue and red garb.
She's holding on to the Christ Child. We see John the Baptist and St. Elizabeth here
looking older.
And then Joseph, who is deeply in shadow, so some people associate him with the Old
Testament.
This idea that they're moving beyond the Old Testament. Some people see him,
you know, as not that the father of Christ -- as less important, so he's kid of
tucked over there in shadow. So an interesting piece.
It clearly shows those crisp edges -- the importance of form and drawing
with Poussin. Another example of a grand,
moral story is "The Judgment of Solomon," a very famous
artwork, a very famous painting, and a very famous story.
What we have here are two women: one here and one here.
Both of whom have recently had a child, but
one of the children has died. So you see the woman holding on to this
kind of green child, and clearly this is
the evil woman. She has this greenish complexion.
And the story goes that both of them had claimed that this child -- the living child --
to be their own,
that they both said "oh no" the dead child is yours. The living child is mine.
So they go to King Solomon to figure out what to do. Again, set in a very classical-type
setting:
elaborate columns, some color that reminiscent of Baroque interiors,
a relief sculpture down at the bottom. And you see here this moment where
Solomon has said "Okay, we'll you both think this child with your own. We're gonna cut it
in half.
So you have this man, who is holding the baby by his foot and is about to slice
the child
in half. And the woman here, who is the true mother,
says "Oh, no, no, no, stop. I would rather she have the child
than the child to die." And so clearly this woman is the true mother. Solomon
gives the child to her, whereas the other woman says "yeah, cut him in half,
no problem." And what's great is that Poussin has incorporated a lot of emotion and a
lot of drama into
the postures and into the gestures. So a lot of people think of Baroque
painting as heavily derived from theater -- the importance of gesture communicating emotion,
so we see a figure here, who
looks horrified. A figure here -- the evil mother -- who's like
"yeah, cut him in half," and then the figure here that's saying "no, stop," and then through
Solomon's gestures, we clearly can see that she is the one
who's going to be selected, she's the one who's going to be the true
mother. So very interesting in that sense. And we'll see the importance of gesture
carried on with David, when we get to Neoclassical style.
Another worker by Poussin -- one of his most famous -- is called "Et in Arcadia Ego"
"Even I in Arcadia" or "I, too, lived in Arcadia" -- those are two
possible translations. But the idea here is probably a 'memento mori' [reminder of death].
Again. it's set in a grand landscape, similar to the "Burial of Phocion."
And we see three men -- three shepherds -- who seem be just coming across
a tomb, and and the idea here is
that it is reminding them that
that this person has died, this person has passed away,
and it's reminding them of their own mortality. So there running their
fingers across the inscription.
And you see a woman here, who looks almost like a
Greek sculpture. She has this elaborate drapery, this
headscarf. She has very idealized skin --
very perfect skin, and the idea here is that she is comforting
them
in this moment where they realize what's going on --
where they're all at different stages of contemplating it,
and this woman -- or this goddess -- is comforting
this one shepherd on the back. So functions similar to for example
Masaccio's "Holy Trinity," where you have that skeleton at the bottom as a reminder
mortality. The same idea is apparent here, but set in a very classicizing
type of setting -- very classical type of representation.
Clearly building on some of the traditions and clearly creating a
Baroque style [especially Baroque classicism]. For Poussin, the artist Raphael was especially important.
So we see a lot of the same types of colors, same sweet faces,
a lot of similarities stylistically:
the representation of the human body and in color palette.
The main competition probably for Poussin was Claude Lorrain,
who also enjoyed setting these narratives into grand landscapes.
What we see here is the voyage or "The Embarkation of
the Queen of Sheba" who's who's traveling to go see King Solomon
in Israel. There's some possible symbolism associated with this:
that Solomon prefigures Christ, and that the Queen of Sheba
represents the soul, and that these two are being united as
she's going off into the sun. And
really Claude Lorrain is most impressive in his representation
of the sun here. This idea that the sun is just rising.
You have the Queen of Sheba getting onto this boat, and she'll be brought out to her
ship, and then they will go off to Israel to see King Solomon.
And the light effects here are quite extraordinary and could be read as
having possible divine implications.
Ok, so the remainder of the lecture will focus on
Louis XIV and his palace at Versailles. So here we'll look at a portrait
by Rigaud,
towards the end of his reign. He started when he was only four years old
in 1643,
so by this point he had really consolidated power and become really a master
of self-presentation, and who was he trying to impress?
The nobles -- the high status individuals in his country --
those from foreign courts, and then he also wanted to be remembered, of
course. So we see Louis here with his legs on full display --
people often associate this with that fact that he found this to be an
attractive part of his body -- and he also performed
in ballet performances earlier in his life. And so we see here that
he still looks youthful and strong -- even as he's reaching the end of his
reign, and there's a lot of visual effects to make him look bigger and grander.
So, you have the legs on display, but then you also have this grand cloak
kind of pouring down this stairs. You can
see that it's very expensive: you have ermine fur
in the interior; you have a velvety
satin or velvet on the outside. And then you have his crown; you have his
throne;
you have a dramatic cloth being put back. You can see that he's in some type of grand hall
It was very common to have drapes along the corners of
portraits, but clearly he's a large figure, he's pointing out his power
by wearing his sword.
But clearly this is a more ornamental sword. It's encrusted with gems,
speaking to his wealth, so he's overwhelming us with
grandeur, luxury, size, expense.
So all this is playing into the visual richness
that would be part of the art of Louis XIV.
So, Louis XIV took a hunting lodge Versailles,
just outside of Paris and transformed it into this massive
palace, which we see here. It was expanded and added onto by later rulers Louis XV and
Louis XVI.
It had grand gardens and additional structures built out in the gardens.
This is all modern -- here and here.
And what we see here are some of the gardens. There were
facades that were created in the Baroque style, where, because it is a large
you have to punctuate the facades with different columns, with
what seem to be like temple-fronts in different areas. You have to make it go in and out, so
that it doesn't become too boring and flat,
adding sculptures to the top similar to Piazza
at St. Peter's, where you had those sculptures punctuating the different columns.
The gardens themselves demonstrate the idea of nature under control
in certain areas -- man-made canals and bushes that have been
sculpted, and hedges that had been sculpted to great perfection.
As we zoom in on the facade, this is where you would have seen the Hall of
Mirrors, but first of all, let's look at Louis XIV's bedroom. So Louis associated himself
or he liked to think of himself as the Sun King -- at the center of
things. His bedroom was right at the center of the palace, and this would be a place
where he was constantly on display.
You can see the rich reds and golds playing into this idea,
and the idea that all of Versailles was really a performance.
Part of this performance was also the Hall of Mirrors, where gatherings could be
held
and receptions could be held, where they could impress foreign visitors.
So, of course, there are a number years here which are extremely expensive,
chandeliers, there would have been gold and silver furnishing that
didn't survive the Revolution, unfortunately.
But what we see here is a space that's really supposed to overwhelm you in size --
the mirrors make it seem even wider than it actually is, the different colored
stones and
woods, and paintings all play into the visual richness that's very common in
the dynamic or ecstatic
Baroque style, and Versailles was a place where all the nobles were expected to be.
This was a place where Louis could keep an eye on them. So it was a grand space,
but probably not it's beautiful or at easy as we would imagine it [there were very few bathrooms and a lot drama in the court!],
but definitely gives us a sense of the Baroque style in France.