Baroque Art: The Ornate Age
(Source: Strickland, The Annotated Mona Lisa, 1992)
Baroque art (1600 – 1750) falls into the period of Counter-Reformation led by the Catholic church against the Protestants. It succeeded in marrying the advance techniques and grand scale of the Renaissance to the emotion, intensity, and drama of Mannerism, thus making the Baroque era the most sumptuous and ornate in the history of art. While the term “baroque” is often used negatively to mean overwrought and ostentatious, the seventeenth century not only produced such exceptional artistic geniuses as Rembrandt and Velazquez but expanded the role of art in everyday life
Artists now termed as Baroque came to Rome from all of Europe to study the masterpieces of Classical antiquity and the High Renaissance then returned to their homes to give what they learned their own particular cultural spin. Just as seventeenth-century colonist followed the sixteenth-century explorers, so too did these artists build upon past discoveries. While styles ranged from Italian realism to French flamboyance, the most common element throughout was a sensitivity to and absolute master of light to achieve maximum emotional impact.
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The Baroque era began in Rome around 1600 with Catholic popes financing magnificent cathedrals and grand works to display their faith’s triumph after the Counter Reformation and to attract new worshipers by overwhelming them theatrical, “must-see” architecture. It spread from there to France, where absolute monarchs ruled by divine right and spent sums comparable to the pharaohs to glorify themselves. Palaces became enchanted environments designed to impress visitors with the power and grandeur of the king. Wealth flowing in from the colonies funded the elaborate furnishings, gardens, and art of showplaces like Louis XIV’s Versailles. Though just as opulent as religious art, French paintings from Greek and Roman models, such as Poussin’s calm landscapes populated the pagan deities.
In Catholic countries like Flanders, religious art flourished, while in the Protestant lands of northern Europe, such as England and Holland, religious imagery was forbidden. As a result, paintings tended to be still lifes, portraits, landscapes, and scenes from daily life. Patrons of art were not only prosperous merchants eager to show off their affluence but middleclass burghers buying pictures from their homes as well. From Rembrandt’s “Nightwatch,” characteristic of Northern Baroque art to Rubens’s sensuous, highly colored panoramas typical of Catholic Baroque, art of the period had a theatrical, stage-lit exuberance and drama.
Baroque Characteristics
In Catholic countries like Flanders, religious art flourished, while in the Protestant lands of northern Europe, such as England and Holland, religious imagery was forbidden. As a result, paintings tended to be still lifes, portraits, landscapes, and scenes from daily life. Patrons of art were not only prosperous merchants eager to show off their affluence but middleclass burghers buying pictures from their homes as well. From Rembrandt’s “Nightwatch,” characteristic of Northern Baroque art to Rubens’s sensuous, highly colored panoramas typical of Catholic Baroque, art of the period had a theatrical, stage-lit exuberance and drama.
Baroque Characteristics
- strong perspective effects
- dramatic color
- dramatic light and dark (chiaroscuro and tenebrism)
- movement of figures (especially upwards)
- broken and agitated draperies
- loose brushstrokes
- dense and detailed compositions (for emotional impact on viewer)