1. THE BAROQUE

2. • THE Baroque Period
• 1600-1750 (150 years)
• Origin: Counter-Reformation Italy

3. • Baroque:
• term used in 1750 by Johann Joachim Wincklemann
• barocco (Portuguese)
• barrueco (Spanish) – pearl or tooth of unequal size,
oddly-shaped pearl

4. • Baroque: derogatory term
• Used to describe the allegedly excessive art of the
preceding era
• Implies : “imbalance and ugliness”
• Also, “elaborate” or “highly detailed”
Wall bracket, unknown maker, 1695-1710

5. • It gained respect in 19th century through the writings
of German art historians.
• Art that is distinct and vital from that of the hallowed
Renaissance
Heinrich Wólfflin
Renaissance und Barock
Baroque – as a stylistic category
and a serious area of study

6. Factors on the spread of Baroque:
1) post-Counter Reformation Italy:
that the arts should communicate religious themes in direct
and emotional involvement (clerical abuses, especially
nepotism, simony, usury, pluralism and the sale of
indulgences)
2) the aristocracy: its dramatic style is a means to impress
visitors and express triumph, power and control
Council of Trent
1545-63

7. Essentially, Baroque is…
• Catholic Art
• also art for monarchy
• that started in: Italy
• and spread to: Spain,
Spanish Netherlands,
southern Germany
Grinling Gibbons
The Stoning of St Stephen
Woodcarving
Grinling Gibbons
About 1680-1710
Carved limewood and lancewood relief,
with later paint

8. Baroque extends to:
• Painting
• Sculpture
• Music
• Architecture
• Fashion
• Literature
• Dance Johann Pachelbel
Baroque composer
http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=y_XiDPXM24I

9. Masters of Baroque:
• Caravaggio (precursor, painting, Italian)
• Peter Paul Rubens (painting, French)
• Rembrandt (painting, Dutch)
• Gian Lorenzo Bernini (architecture, Italian)
• Diego Velasquez (painting, Spanish)
• Johann Sebastian Bach (music, German)
• George Handel (music, German)
• Antonio Vivaldi (music, Italian)
• Pietro da Cortona (architecture, Italian)
• Francesco Borromini (architecture, Italian)
George Handel
Music is lively, tuneful
and expresses order

10. Features of Baroque Art: (painting)
• Exaggerated lighting
• Intense emotions
• Highly detailed
• Release from restraint
• Drama
• Exuberance
• Grandeur
• Artistic sensationalism
• Technique: chiaroscuro
• Iconography: direct, obvious, dramatic

11. Caravaggio
The Calling of Saint Matthew
Oil on canvas
1599-1600

12. Caravaggio
The Entombment of Christ
1602-1603

13. Caravaggio
Conversion on the Way
To Damascus
Oil on canvas
1600-1601

14. Peter Paul Rubens
Massacre of the Innocents
oil on panel
1611-12

15. Peter Paul Rubens
The Disembarkation at Marseilles
Oil on canvas
1622-25
Marie de Medici
Wife of France’s Henry XIV
Series of 24 paintings

16. Peter Paul Rubens
Venus at a Mirror
Painting
1613-1614

17. Rembrandt
The Polish Rider
Oil on canvas
1655

18. Rembrandt
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Oil on canvas
1633

19. Diego Velasquez
Las Meninas
Oil on canvas
1565

20. Diego Velasquez
Old Woman Frying Eggs
1618

21. Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Ecstacy of Saint Therese
Marble
1645-52

22. Baroque Architecture:
• Emphasis on bold spaces
• Domes
• Bold massing
• Collonades
• Light-and-shade (chiaroscuro)
• Curved wall
• Sculpted surfaces
• Concentration of rich elements

23. Gian Lorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s Baldachino
Bronze canopy over the tomb of St. Peter

24. Francesco Borromini
San Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane
Rome
1638-1646

25. Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Saint Peter’s Square

26. Jules Hardouin Mansart
Versailles Palace

27. Nicola Salvi
Trevi Fountain
Carara marble
1732

28. Decorative arts
• Use of foliage motifs
• Marquetry
• Putti (‘boys’, chubby infants)
• Crests and initials
• Lambrequin motif
Melville bed

29. Key
Bickford family
About 1700
Steel, pierced, chiselled and
engraved

30. Marquetry: laying of veneers
of different-coloured woods
onto the surface of furniture.
This novel form of decoration
was learned from French and
Dutch cabinet-makers.
John Byfield
About 1700
Marquetry of walnut, burr
walnut, sycamore, other woods
and ivory, with some staining,
on a pine and oak carcase, with
brass fittings

31. Key Terms
• Baroque
• Counter-Reformation
• chiaroscuro
• collonades
• marquetry
• putty
• lambrequin