Chapter 20
The Catholic Reformation
and the Baroque Style
The Age of the Baroque
• 1600-1750
The Age of the Baroque
• Main features:
dramatic expression
theatrical spectacle
spatial grandeur
(Fiero 503)
Macao's Ruins of St Paul, whose correct name is the
Church of Madre de Deus, is the only example of
Baroque art and architecture in China.
The Catholic
Baroque
Italy and
elsewhere
The aristocratic France
Baroque
The Protestant
Baroque
Northern
Europe
•The Catholic
Reformation
The Counter-Reformation
1534-90 Counter-Reformation popes
1530s Loyola founded the Jesuits
1545-63 Council of Trent
Ignatius Loyola
- 1491- 1556
- Founded the
Society of Jesus,
or the Jesuits
- Spiritual
Exercises
“We should always be
disposed to believe that
that which appears white
is really black, if the
hierarchy of the Church
so decides.”
(Ignatius Loyola)
The Jesuits
1) Took an oath of strict obedience
to the pope
2) Espoused a life of active service
in the world
3) Committed to education and
missionary work
Matteo Ricci
•1552-1610
Council of Trent
1545-63
1) to reform the church:
Unified church doctrine
Abolished corruption
Confirmed papal authority
Council of Trent
2) to confront the Protestant challenge:
Insisted on the integration of both
faith and good works in the process
of salvation.
Emphasized spiritual renewal
through faith, prayer, and religious
ceremony.
Sterner Means of Control
• The Inquisition:
the church court dealing with heretics
• Censorship:
Index Expurgatorius
(Index of Prohibited Books)
Cristiano Ban, 1857, Galileo in front of the Roman Inquisition
Catholic Mysticism
• Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises
• Teresa of Avila’s
autobiographical writings
• Poetry of Richard Crashaw
Catholic Mysticism
• Emphasize the immediacy of
religious experience
•Development of
the Baroque Style
Mannerism
-A pejorative term in the beginning,
referring to artists who were felt to imitate
the manner, esp. of Michelangelo, without
catching anything of the spirit.
-Now applied to Italian painting and
sculpture of the period between the climax
of High Renaissance (1520) and the
beginning of Baroque (1600).
Mannerism
-figural distortions
-irrational space,
-bizarre colors,
-general disregard of Renaissance
“rules” (symmetry & geometric clarity)
figura serpentinata
• Serpentine figure
• The figure and all its parts should resemble
the letter S. All the figures are characterized
by athletic twists and turns.
Michelangelo,
Victory, c.1530
Giambologna,
Hercules and
the Centaur,
1594-1600
Giambologna,
Mercury, c.
1564
Michelangelo,
The Last
Judgment
Parmigianino,
“The Madonna of
the Long Neck, c.
1535
Mannerism
• El Greco
(1541-1614)
Da Vinci
The Immaculate
conception
View of
Toledo
The Baroque
•
•
•
•
•
Italy: Caravaggio, Carracci, Bernini
France: Poussin
Spain: Velazquez
Flemish: Rubens
Dutch: Vermeer, Rembrandt
Caravaggio
•1573-1610
The Supper at Emmaus
Caravaggio,
The
Conversion
on the Way
to
Damascus
1600
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/index.html
Caravaggio,
The
Crucifixion of
Saint Peter
1600
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/index.html
Caravaggio,
The Sacrifice
of Isaac
1601-02
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/index.html
Caravaggio,
David, 1606-7
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/index.html
Caravaggio, The
Calling of Saint
Matthew
1599-1600
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/index.html
foreshortening
• To shorten (as a design) by
proportionately contracting
in the direction of depth so
that an illusion of projection
or extension in space is
obtained.
Trompe l’oeil
•To “fool the eye”
•An illusionistic style
Bernini
•1598-1680
Artemisia Gentileschi
•1593-1653
Caravaggio,
Judith Beheading
Holofernes
c. 1598
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/index.html
•Baroque Architecture
• Saint Peter’s Basilic: by Bernini
– piazza in front of Saint Peter’s Basilic
– the colonnade of the courtyard
– the bronze canopy over the high altar
of the basilica
• Il Gesù: by Giacomo della Porta
• San Carlo (alle Quattro Fontane): by
Francesco Borromini
•The End