| Key to Art History |
|
|
1. The term Baroque refers generally to developments in art and music during the 17th century(1600’s.) 2. Baroque art generally tends to be more dramatic and sometimes excessive to the modern eye. Some art historians believe that the Baroque period represents a synthesis of Renaissance grandeur and Mannerist movement and emotion. The term might have derived from a Portuguese term for a deformed pearl. 3. To see this change from the Renaissance to the Baroque, compare Michelangelo’s High Renaissance David with the Bernini’s Baroque David. Michelangelo's David stands waiting for Goliath. He is experiencing the "butterflies" of an athlete before an important game. His game means life or death for himself and his people. Bernini's David is caught in the moment of action. It is purely physical and energetic, while Michelangelo's David, an allegory of courage, was intended to symbolize the "little" city of Florence defeating it's more powerful enemies. 4. Like Michelangelo and Bernini, Caravaggio also treated the subject of David from the old testament. What makes this portrayal of David unique is that he is not a "heroic type." Rather he could be, and may have been, a common boy off the streets. 5. During the Baroque period there was a proliferation of art throughout the new European middle classes. 6. The Baroque style, which found it’s first expression in Italy, can be characterized by the dramatic painting of Michelangelo Caravaggio, who painted his noble subjects (saints and mythological characters) as non-idealized common people in the clothes worn by the middle class at the time. Caravaggio lived. During the Renaissance, they would have worn the clothes of an ancient Greek or Roman. During the Mannerist period, a saint would have had the dress and style of an aristocrat. 7. During the Baroque period, the lives of ordinary people became subject matter for "art." The most prominent artists to portray the poor and the middle classes were Rembrandt van Rijn in Amsterdam, Franz Hals in Antwerp and Jan Vermeer in Delft. 8. Some artists of the Baroque period looked back to the stylized painting of the Renaissance and Mannerist periods for inspiration. Peter Paul Ruebens of Antwerp serves as an example. 9. Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, artists were dependent to a great extent on the Church and the aristocracy for commissions. Consequently, their subject matter was dictated by their patrons. Artists of the Baroque period, especially in the North, worked in many cases for the new middle class, and were able to portray middle class life. In addition, the development of the printing press and techniques of reproduction (intaglio printmaking), brought inexpensive pictures to a much wider audience. Rembrandt was the first great proponent of this art. Artists of the Baroque period were not tied to a single aristocratic patron in the way that Michelangelo was tied to the Medici family or Pope Julius II. Consequently, they were more free to experiment with style and content. 10. In Spain, two artists emerged as significant during the Baroque period: Diego Velazquez and Bartolome Murillo. 11. For some historians, Rococo art is a development from the Baroque style. For others, it is the opposite of the style of Rembrandt and Caravagio. Certainly Rococo painters owe more to artists such as Ruebens than to the more democratic Dutch painters. 12. Rococo is the style of the early years of the 18th century. 13. Rococo artists chose a more "refined" approach. They worked for the aristocracy, the rich and powerful, and their work reflected the values of the upper classes in all their decadence, superficiality and frivolity. 14. Rococo painting is best characterized by three artists: Fragonard, Watteau and Boucher.
[
Baroque & Rococo
Overview
]
|
|
|
