The Baroque Period
1600s
Drama
Movement
Chiaroscuro (light and dark)
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
1598 – 1689
Baroque Sculptor and
Architect
Two Davids – Renaissance and
Baroque
• A comparison of Michelangelo’s David with
Bernini’s David demonstrates the
differences between the High
Renaissance period that we studied
earlier, and the Baroque period of art.
• Michelangelo’s
Renaissance
sculpture of David
exemplifies the
classical values of
balance, harmony,
composure,
moderation,
proportion, stability,
and beauty.
• His David is a youth, in the most beautiful
flowering of his strength and good looks.
He is modelled after the statues of the
Greek gods and athletes of classical
sculpture.
• Bernini’s David, from
the Baroque period, is
quite different.
• Where Michelangelo’s
David was at rest,
Bernini’s David is
twisting with the effort
of launching the stone
from his slingshot .
• This David is older, a
man in his prime.
(Bernini modelled the
face after his own)
• Where the expression
on David’s face in the
earlier sculpture is
relatively composed,
and elegant,
• … Bernini’s David
bears an expression
of intense effort. His
lips are compressed,
his eyebrows drawn
down in a scowl, his
jaw clenched.
• While Michelangelo’s sculpture is
designed to be viewed from one ideal
angle, Bernini’s forces you to walk around
the work, to view it from every angle in
order to appreciate it fully.
• Bernini’s David is characteristic of the Baroque period
because:
It is Dramatic – the story of David killing Goliath with
a stone from his slingshot is unfolding before our eyes.
It is full of movement – The twisting body creates a
feeling of tremendous energy being coiled up, about to
be released.
Diagonals create energy and dynamism in the
composition.
• Bernini was the foremost sculptor of the
Baroque period, easily eclipsing his rivals
in the medium.
• He worked in marble to create superbly
realistic and fluid figures, convincingly
recreating, for example, the “dimpling” on
Prosperpina’s flesh where the hand of
Pluto grasps her leg in The Rape of
Prospersina.
Bernini
• The sculpture is based on the
Greek myth about Pluto, the
god of the underworld who
kidnapped Proserpina
(Persephone) and took her
down to the underworld to be
his bride.
• Note the three headed dog,
Cerberus, who was said to
guard the entrance to the
underworld.
•
Bernini
•
•
•
Pluto and
Persephone
1621-22
• Bernini is renowned too, for the manner in
which he integrated architectural and
artistic content (gesantkunstwerk – “all
together art”)
• His Ecstasy of St. Theresa, in the Cornaro
Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria
Church is an example of this integration.
The Cornaro Chapel - Bernini
• St. Theresa experienced visions and wrote
about one of these, in which an angel
drove the fiery point of a golden lance
repeatedly through her heart, causing an
ecstatic spiritual-bodily pain.
• It is this moment that Bernini depicts in his
famous sculpture.
• In keeping with the dramatic character of
Baroque art, Bernini’s composition here
has a theatrical effect. The Cornaro family,
to whom this chapel is dedicated, are
depicted observing St Theresa and the
angel from their boxes, on either side of
the altar.
• Bernini illustrates a moment where divinity
intersects with the physical world.
– The Cornaro family
seems to be viewing
Theresa’s experience
from boxes on either
side of the altar .
• The art historian Rudolf Wittkower has written,
‘… Bernini differentiated between various
degrees of reality; the members of the Cornaro
Chapel seem to be alive like ourselves. They
belong to our space and our world. The
supernatural event of Teresa’s vision is raised to
a sphere of its own, removed from that of the
beholder mainly by virtue of the isolating canopy
and the heavenly light.’
Note the many different colours of
marble used in the work (20).
Bernini – The Ecstasy of St.
Theresa
• Light shines down
from an opening in
the cupola positioned
above the sculpture,
so that the golden
beams suggest an
outpouring of divine
grace.
The angel holds a golden arrow.
Bernini – Daphne and Apollo
• Apollo, the god of light, scolded Eros, the
god of love, for playing with adult
weapons.
• In retribution, Eros wounded Apollo with a
golden arrow that caused him to fall madly
in love with Daphne, a water nymph sworn
to perpetual virginity.
• The sculpture depicts the moment when
Apollo finally captures Daphne. Knowing
she cannot escape, she begs her father,
the river god, to destroy her beauty and
repel Apollo's advances by transforming
her into a laurel tree. (Wikipedia)
• Daphne’s hands and
hair sprout leaves and
her toes begin to
grow down into roots.
• Once again Bernini
has captured the
moment of most
intense drama and
action in the story.
• Bernini was not only a sculptor, but also one of
the foremost architects of his time. He designed
the colonnades and the square outside St.
Peter’s Basilica, in Rome.
• The design, viewed from above, suggests a key
hole. Keys are a motif traditionally associated
with St. Peter, as he is considered to possess
the keys to the kingdom of God. In folklore, we
speak of Peter at the gates of heaven with his
keys.
Baroque Painting
• Dramatic storytelling
• Movement
• Extreme contrasts of light and shadow
(chiaroscuro)
Caravaggio 1563 - 1610
• Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born in
Milan, and only moved to Caravaggio in 1576,
when the artist was 5 years old, because a
plague was ravaging Milan. He was orphaned at
the age of 13.
• When he arrived in Rome, at age 20, he painted
the still life corners of works by established
masters. His virtuosic talent developed rapidly.
• However, Caravaggio was quite the bad
boy of the late-16th, early-17th century art
world. He was well-known for his brawls,
which resulted in several pages of police
records and transcripts of trial
proceedings. In 1606, he killed Ranuccio
Tomassoni and was outlawed from Rome;
he fled to Naples.
• He later received patronage and protection
from the Knights of Malta, but it was shortlived. Apparently, he was in a fight in 1608
that resulted in a battered door and a
seriously wounded knight.
• On another occasion, he was attacked and
was left with a disfigured face.
• He died in 1610, of a fever.
• Caravaggio is said to have “worshipped at
the altar of Nature.” In other words, he
painted in a highly realistic style, showing
people without stylizing or idealizing them.
He sometimes ran into trouble for making
biblical figures look too human – with dirty
bare feet, for instance.
Caravaggio – Bacchus - 1596
• This is an early work by Caravaggio (he
was 25 when he painted it) and perhaps
reflects Caravaggio’s dissipated lifestyle at
the time.
• Bacchus was the Roman god of wine.
Caravaggio depicts him here as a
decadent, spoiled youth, a little flabby.
• There is an air of decay about this figure.
• In another painting of
Bacchus, Caravaggio
depicts him almost
green with a
hangover. This one is
known as The Sick
Bacchus.
• This one is more
cheerful. The
boy,Cupid, is shown
here with his wings
and arrows, trampling
objects that represent
the accomplishments
of humankind. The
title, Amor Vincit
Omni, means “love
conquers all.”
• Caravaggio was drawn to dramatic subject
matter, and found inspiration in the biblical
story of Judith, who, with her maid, cut off
the head of her enemy, Holofernes, after
getting him drunk.
Caravaggio – Judith beheading
Holofernes
• Caravaggio, as was typical of him, chose
to show the most dramatic moment of the
story – the decapitation.
• The faces of the three characters
demonstrate his psychological insight and
mastery of emotion, Judith in particular
showing in her face a mix of determination
and revulsion.
Caravaggio
• The dramatic lighting
from the left highlights
Judith’s face and
bodice.
• The face of the maid,
standing by to “bag”
the head, is in relative
darkness.
• In another violent
beheading scene,
Caravaggio shows us
David, with the head of
Goliath.
• The interesting thing
about this painting is that
Caravaggio used his own
features in the depiction
of Goliath, perhaps
anticipating judgment for
his crimes.
Caravaggio – The Conversion of
St. Paul
• The Conversion of St. Paul is considered
one of Caravaggio’s masterpieces.
• He shows us the Roman soldier, Saul,
thrown from his horse at the moment of his
calling by God.
• Saul spent the first part of his life
persecuting the early Christians, until the
day he experienced a vision, in which he
heard God calling to him.
• “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” the voice asked.
Saul spent three days in blindness, looking inward, and
recognized God’s call to spread the news of Jesus’ death
and resurrection.
When he recovered, he took the name Paul, and became
the first evangelist of the early church, travelling
tirelessly through the Mediterranean world, establishing
the earliest Christian communities.
His letters to these communities, encouraging and
instructing them, form much of the New Testament of the
bible.
• The dramatic lighting in
this painting is
characteristic of
Caravaggio’s style, and
suggests Paul’s open
acceptance of God’s
grace.
• A man “unhorsed” was a
symbol widely understood
in Caravaggio’s time as a
symbol of pride brought
down.
Caravaggio – The Calling of St.
Mathew
• The Calling of St. Mathew depicts the
gospel story of Jesus inviting the tax
collector, Levi, to leave his job and money
behind and become one of his followers.
• Levi accepts, and becomes the disciple
Mathew.
• Caravaggio manipulates the lighting in this
painting to help tell the story.
• Jesus’ sudden and unexpected arrival, and
request, have dumbfounded Levi, who points to
himself, as if to ask, “who me?”
• The light spills in from the right, onto Levi, from
where Jesus stands, pointing to Levi (Mathew),
offering him the “light” of salvation.
• The two figures at left do not even look up. They
are left in the darkness of their material
obsession with money.
Artemisia Gentileschi
1593 - 1653
Artemisia Gentileschi – Self Portrait
as the allegory of Painting
• Artemisia Gentileschi is the first woman to
gain a prominent position in the Western
art tradition.
• She was the daughter of another painter,
Orazio Gentileschi, and both were highly
influenced by the work of Caravaggio.
• Gentileschi had a troubled adolescence. She
was raped by the man her father hired to tutor
her, and then tortured during the investigation
into this crime to extract “the truth” from her.
• Not surprisingly, she painted several versions of
biblical stories in which female protagonists
exact revenge on men who have abused them.
• Like Caravaggio, she painted the story of Judith
killing Holofernes, twice!
Artemisia Gentileschi – Judith
beheading Holofernes
• The first of these images is like Caravaggio’s, in
its portrayal of the moment of beheading.
• The second shows us the tense moments
following, when Judith and her maid listen for
danger. Gentileschi has used dramatic and
unusual chiaroscuro, especially in the shadow
Judith's hand casts on her face. The vigilant
expressions and postures, add urgency to the
scene.
• The story of Susannah and the Elders is another tale of
female oppression that Gentileschi depicted in a
painting.
• Susannah was blackmailed by two men who threatened
to report (falsely) that she had secretly met a lover in the
woods -unless she agreed to have sex with them.
• She was tried and sentenced for promiscuity until a man
named Daniel came to her defense and suggested that
the two men be questioned separately about the
supposed tryst of Susannah with a lover.
• The glaring differences in their separate testimonies
made it clear that Susannah was innocent and the men
were executed.
• The story had been depicted many times
before by other artists, but Susannah was
traditionally shown as coy, and an object
of desire. Artemisia Gentileschi was the
first to show the event as an act of
violence against Susannah.
• Artemisia Gentileschi
• Susannah and the
Elders
Peter Paul Rubens
Flemish Baroque
Painter
Peter Paul Rubens – Daniel in the
Lion’s Den
• This large painting (224 cm x 330 cm)
depicts the biblical story of Daniel, who
was thrown into a cage with lions by his
Babylonian captors for refusing to worship
their false gods.
• He was protected by God’s grace and
emerged from a night in the lion cage
unharmed. His captors were convinced by
this sign of the power of God.
Rubens – The Descent from the
Cross 1612-14
Rubens – Descent from the Cross
(detail)
• The Descent from the Cross is the
central panel of a triptych painted by
Rubens in 1612-1614. The painting is the
second of Rubens's great altarpieces for
The Cathedral of our Lady, in Antwerp,
Belgium.
• It is considered to be Rubens’
masterpiece.
• At the top of two ladders, workers are lowering
the body of Christ with the aid of a shroud, which
one of them holds in his teeth, the other in the
left hand.
• St. John, with one foot on the ladder and his
back arched, supports him most energetically.
One of Jesus’ feet comes to rest on the shoulder
of Mary Magdalene, grazing her golden hair.
• Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are placed
midway on ladders facing each other.
• The Virgin, standing at the foot of the sacrificial
tree, extends her arms towards her Son;
Salome, kneeling, gathers up her robe. On the
ground are seen the inscription that was posted
above Jesus on the cross, and a copper basin
where the crown of thorns and the nails of the
Crucifixion lie in the congealed blood. The sad,
dark sky is crossed by a light that illumines the
shoulders of the workmen at the top.