Chapter 11
Baroque and Rococo
A Quick Look
Rome re-emerged as the center of the art world around 1600. The church remained all-powerful, continuing to patronize art and commission artists from all over Italy. From this pool of talent, the exuberant, emotional Baroque style was born.
From the magnificent palace at Versailles to the world-famous canvases of Rembrandt and Rubens, Europe experienced a century of intense of widespread activity.
In the 1700’s, Rococo made its first appearance in France. Its charm and lightheartedness was not popular in all of Europe, and the English (and their American colonies) preferred the Baroque and extended its influence into the later 1700’s.
With the late 1700’s came great changes, with revolutions brewing, ushering in the modern era.
11.1 The Baroque in Italy and Germany
The end of the 16th century saw a shift from Mannerism to Baroque, which gradually spread throughout Europe. Artists by this period were highly competent at drawing and painting the human figure from every possible angle. Complicated perspective and color value contrasts were achieved with ease.
The result is a dynamism and opulence that contrasts with the Renaissance. Artists showed incredible versatility in their works through theatrical and extravagant works.
In Germany, the south looked to Italy as its model. The leading figures of the time were architects, and the interiors of German Baroque churches show a lavish exuberance and airiness.
Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)
Bernini was a Renaissance man - sculptor, painter, architect, stage designer, dramatist and composer. His imprint is most evident at St. Peter’s in Rome, where he directed 39 artists in sculptural plans inside and outside of the basilica, including the piazza and colonnade.
Left: The Ecstasy of St. Theresa - depicts a mystical event in which she is stabbed by an angel with a flame-tipped arrow
Right: David - at the moment before he releases the stone out of his sling
Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio after his hometown, was the first giant of the Baroque. He was considered a rebel against conventional society and met an early death at 37 while running from the law.
Caravaggio focused solely in painting, and he often tried to shock his audience by placing religious figures in very common, earthly settings. He used gritty reality and everyday citizens and common people as his models. And sometimes his work was rejected by his church patrons.
Work features extreme naturalism, intense value contrasts and a hard-edged painting style to create intense drama on large canvases.
Deposition of Christ (right) &
Artemisia Gentileschi
One of Caravaggio's followers, she used his dramatic staging against a dark background in her painting Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (1625).
Well-known in Florence, Gentileschi depicts the escape of the Old Testament figures after they have found and beheaded the Babylonian general. She uses a candle as the single source of light.
Carlo Maderno & Francesco Borromini
Baroque Ceilings in Rome
During the middle of the 17th century, several artists created illusionary paintings on the ceilings of some Baroque churches in Rome.
The paintings are filled with floating figures, soaring into infinity, and the viewer is directed to spot on the floor where the perspective can be best viewed. Some include stucco figures, the relief adding three dimensional reality to the paintings.
The ceilings of Il Gesu in Rome were painted by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, sculpted by Antonio Raggi, and directed by Bernini. Il Gesu is the burial place of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order.
Germany and Austria
Because of war, Austria and Germany were not able to begin building projects of any great size until the 18th century.
Jacob Prandtauer’s Benedictine Abbey in Melk, Austria is dominated by an ornate dome and two magnificent bell towers. The interior is filled with gilded surfaces, and light streams in through windows in the dome.
Dominikus Zimmerman created one of the finest spatial designs of the German Baroque--the Bavarian pilgrimage church called Die Wies. The exterior is plain, influenced by contemporary Italian buildings, but the interior is “a sudden burst of heavenly energy.”
11.2 The Baroque in France
In the second half of the 17th century, France became the most powerful nation in Europe, and the world capital for the arts shifted from Rome to Paris, where it would remain until World War II.
Their golden age corresponds to the 72-year reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King.” During this time, French art, fashion and etiquette were held as the standard, and French became the language of diplomacy.
Art and architecture began to serve the king as they had once served the church. Although influenced by the Italians, they preferred a more rational and balanced Classicism, regulated by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
George de La Tour
Only 40 of La Tour’s paintings are known to exist, yet he is known as one of the most important figures in French painting. Often using a candle as the only source of light, he was a master of tenebrism.
His Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (1630-35) is one of four paintings he did on the subject. It presents her as a figure who personifies a life of contemplation and mortification, devoted to the love of God.
Nicolas Poussin
The most important painter in the late 17th century, Poussin spent most of his productive years in Rome. He used the colored glazes of Titian, but employed the simple sculptural quality of Raphael.
He put emphasis on balance vs. extraneous details, but his paintings are sometimes filled with swirling activity and strong brushwork. He often used wax figures in composing his pieces, and his subject matter was grand, heroic or divine.
Claude Lorrain
Like Poussin, Lorrain went to Rome; however, he remained there, spending much of his time in the Italian countryside making hundreds of ink and wash sketches that he later used as subjects for studio landscape paintings.
His landscapes became so famous that the compositional arrangements he used are named after him: Claudian.
Architecture
The ultimate expression of the French Baroque (or, the Classic style) was the palace of Versailles, but that was preceded by several major developments:
Versailles
Louis XIV built Versailles, Europe’s greatest palace. Louis Le Vau began work on the building, but Mansart gave it its present appearance. He designed the Hall of Mirrors, the Chapel and the North and South Wings.
More than 30,000 men and 6,000 horses were needed for its construction, and cost $10 billion in today’s dollars. First a residence and later the seat of government, it was built to hold 20,000 people. Residents called it “ce pays-ci” - this country of ours.
The Hall of Mirrors has 17 large windows overlooking the park, which is reflected by 17 tall mirrors on the opposite wall. The palace is surrounded by formal gardens spread over 250 acres, including a mile-long canal and 600 fountains. Two small palaces and Le Hameau - Marie Antoinette’s model farm - are also on the grounds.
11.3 The Baroque in Flanders and Holland
Flanders remained Catholic and was ruled by the Hapsburgs, and although there was little architecture from the period, painting - and especially Peter Paul Rubens - dominated.
Holland to the north became Calvinist Protestant, and as such, the usual art patrons were absent. The church forbade the use of art in churches, and so artists worked in the open market, and the large middle class wanted paintings for their homes.
The demand for landscapes, cityscapes, ideal country scenes, parties, still lifes and portraits kept artists (and art dealers) in business.
Judith Leyster (1609-1660)
The best-known female artist of the 17th century, Dutch artist Judith Leyster made her reputation as a genre painter.
Leyster’s self-portrait reveals the self-confidence and joy in her work, and her Boy with Flute depicts a well-balanced composition of a boy practicing while looking out of the window.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Rubens was prolific, producing over 2000 paintings, flooding Flanders and the rest of Europe with his work.
He hired a staff of skilled painters to help with his commissions, starting them with sketches and adding the final brushstrokes (his price was in proportion with how much of the work he did himself).
He took influence from his travels, studying the Italians and meeting Velazquez in Spain, but he developed a personal style - one of swirling physical movement, marvelous color and energetic brushwork.
Anthony van Dyck
One of the painters in Rubens’s Antwerp workshop, van Dyck was already an established painter at seventeen.
Influenced by Rubens, but also by Titian and Tintoretto, he excelled at portraiture and worked as an official court painter for Charles I of England.
Although Flemish, he did most of his work in England and was even buried in London.
Jacob van Ruisdael
In Holland, van Ruisdael was a master of portraying the Dutch landscape. He places the horizon low in the painting because Holland is so flat, and so the emphasis is on the huge sky.
In The Mill at Wijk by Durstede (1670), the mill is emphasized against the turbulent sky, while the water remains serene.
Jan Steen
Steen shows another side of the normally ordered Dutch homes: chaos, clutter and humor. He enjoyed the unexpected, cramming his canvases full with children, animals, drunken folk and upset baskets.
In The Feast of St. Nicholas (1660-65), he weaves a narrative of a children’s festival, focusing on the relationships within a family.
Rachel Ruysch
The daughter of an amateur painter, Ruysch became one of Holland’s foremost painters of still lifes with flowers.
She married portrait painter Juriaen Pool and raised ten children while still devoting time to her painting, earning a healthy commission for her works.
The Dutch were, and still are, avid horticulturalists, evidenced by the variety of flowers in Ruysch’s extremely detailed paintings.
Frans Hals
Hals was brilliantly adept at portraiture, capturing “a momentary smile and the twinkle of an eye” with slashing brushstrokes. The loose feeling of his paintings is a stark contrast from the tight and exact features of Leonardo, Holbein or Durer.
He enjoyed painting the common folk, especially his good friends, as in Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart. Although he made good money from his paintings, Hals died penniless in a poorhouse.
Jan Vermeer (1632-75)
Johannes Vermeer’s work was not fully appreciated until the 19th century, and to date only 38 paintings have been attributed to him. Three are outdoor works, and the rest are portraits or interior views.
He perceived light and color with such awareness and accuracy that it is thought he used a camera obscura to achieve absolute realism.
His paintings Woman Holding a Balance and Allegory of the Art of Painting both illustrate his brilliant use of color and light, as well as balance and symbolic meaning.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
The greatest of the Dutch painters, Rembrandt was the son of a miller, whose business was located on the Rijn (Rhine) in Holland. He moved to Amsterdam in 1632 and earned an excellent income as a portrait artist.
After the death of his wife, his painting became more personal and expressionistic, alienating him from the public, and although his business affairs were a disaster, his work became stronger and more powerful.
He left over 600 paintings (including dozens of self-portraits), 300 etchings, and over 2000 drawings for the world to enjoy.
Left: St. Jerome in an Italian Landscape (1653)
Below: The Mill (1650)
11.4 The Baroque in Spain
Because of Spain’s close contact with Italy and the Netherlands during the 16th century, Spanish painters were familiar with the main trends in Europe.
The “Golden Age” of Spanish art began shortly after 1600, led in part by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez - court painter to King Philip IV.
Working in Seville, Francisco de Zurbaran developed a style like that of Caravaggio and La Tour. The last great painter of Spain’s Golden Age was Bartolome Estaban Murillo of Seville.
Las Meninas (1656) - combines royal court painting with casual genre in his studio
11.5 The Early Eighteenth Century
The 18th century was a time of great changes in every phase of European society. Industrialism was beginning, and revolutions in France and America led to extended rights for common people. However, in the early part of the 18th, the European aristocracy still held much power and continued to commission works that reflected their wealth and position:
Antoine Watteau
He was associated above all other painters with the French Rococo. He created “shimmering surfaces that sparkle with life and gaiety and capture the essence of the fete galante (elegant entertainment).”
His technique involved underpainting the canvas with a pearly color that combined white, pale blue and rose. When this dried, he would rapidly brush in the trees and background with thin washes of color. Then, he would add the important figures in impastos of jewel-like colors.
Glazes would then be added over these to create a warm, atmospheric effect through which the earlier colors gleamed with sparkling richness. His technique faithfully captures the sheen of satin and silk, favorite materials of the French aristocracy.
The Gamut of Love (1717)
Francois Boucher & Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin
Boucher’s friends compared his colors to “rose petals floating in milk,” and his pink-fleshed nudes were in high demand. In general, he preferred to paint beautiful women, whether mythological or aristocratic.
Chardin, unlike his contemporaries, drew on his lower middle-class background for painting subjects. Everyday objects or household servants are treated with dignity, placed against a solid background - the exact opposite of the typical Rococo paintings. They instead symbolize the power in the common people who will shortly take control of the government.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
The finest 18th century painter in Venice was Tiepolo, who fulfilled commissions in northern Italy, Germany and Spain.
His greatest achievements were his enormous ceiling frescoes, including the hall ceiling in Residenz Palace in Germany (largest fresco in the world).
In the cold months, he worked on canvases with his oils, as in the huge altarpiece Adoration of the Magi.
Antonio Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, popularized a new style of painting - view painting - which depicted city views with incredible accuracy. He sold dozens of views of Venice to wealthy travelers.
The perspective is so precise it is believed he used a camera obscura to project the correct lines and angles. He also painted realistic views of many of the capitals of Europe, giving us an exact picture of places as they appeared in the 18th century.
Christopher Wren (1632-1723)
Wren left his mark on London by being instrumental in the rebuilding of the city following the Great Fire of London in 1666. His spires and domes, including those of St. Paul’s Cathedral, help give London its characteristic look.
The beautiful dome of St. Paul’s is second in size only to St. Peter’s in Rome. Although his finished design is “a powerful Baroque statement,” its interior is not as elaborate as Italian Baroque churches, and is instead more in line with Anglican Protestantism.
William Hogarth (1697-1764)
The real founder of the British school of painting was William Hogarth, who painted many portraits and argued for English recognition, but who became famous for several series of narrative paintings (or “morality plays”) that display his satiric wit.
Hogarth readily admitted he relied on income from his paintings to support his family, and his paintings pointing out the vices and foolishness of London society appealed especially to critics of the richer classes, serving as satire while earning him a living.
Hogarth is satirizing French starvation in the painting, which features a side of beef being delivered out of the gate of Calais. The only well-fed Frenchman in the scene the priest - a barb at the Catholic church.
Hogarth himself is shown on the left sketching the scene. He was actually arrested while sketching there, and he painted the scene after returning to England after being imprisoned as a spy.
Sir Joshua Reynolds
While living in Rome, he absorbed Italian influences, and upon his return to England helped to establish the Royal Academy of Arts, based on the example of the French school.
He received numerous portrait commissions and hired assistants to stretch the huge canvases and start the background work. He often used Classical settings for his contemporary subjects, as in Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces (1765).
Thomas Gainsborough
Although he preferred landscapes, Gainsborough became one of England’s finest portrait artists. He often included large areas of open landscapes in his commissions, in fact, giving his patrons almost two paintings in one.
Marriage portraits were common before the advent of photography, and The Morning Walk is probably Gainsborough’s finest. Its feathery brushstrokes are typical of the style.
John Singleton Copley
Several fine artists, including Copley, began to emerge in the American colony in the 18th century. Copley lacked formal training, but he had considerable talent, developing his style after studying the paintings of contemporary Europeans.
His portrait of silversmith and patriot Paul Revere features a strong composition with a solid figure and hard edges. After Copley went to Europe to study under Reynolds and other European artists, he lost this fresh American approach.
Benjamin West
Born in Pennsylvania, West left America in 1759, lived and painted in Rome for three years, and finally settled in London. Adept at painting huge battle scenes, he became court painter to George III and became president of the Royal Academy of Arts after Reynolds died.
The Death of General Wolfe (1770) features an event from the French and Indian War, and it includes the British depicted in an “heroic” way - with Baroque light and pathos. The style - which he dubbed “epic representation” - subsequently became the model for American historical paintings in the 19th century.
Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)
The most inventive of early American painters was Gilbert Stuart. He arrived in London, 20 and penniless and studied with West for some time. Eventually, he became well-known for his portraits and earned a good living; however, he handled his money poorly and returned to America in debt.
He spent the remainder of his career painting the heroes of the new Republic, including the first president. He painted his subjects as he saw them, not idealized, and this appealed to his American audience. His innovations came through his use of color, especially in skin tones.
Joshua Johnson (1770-1825)
Little is known about Johnson, the first African-American artist to gain prominence as an artist in America. A self-taught artist, he lived most of his life in Baltimore, where he became a recognized portrait painter of wealthy members of slave-holding families.
Portrait of a Man is typical of the style of portraits painted in the U.S. at the time, and is also typical of the work done by limners - artists who would paint portraits without the faces during the winter months and completed with spring commissions.