AH 2 Ch. 22 (2011)
Baroque Art
Historical/cultural context of the Baroque
(1590s-1700 roughly) period:
 Religious upheaval
 Political turbulence
 Explosion of scientific knowledge
 Broad based commercialism
 The Age of Opera
 The Age of Shakespeare
Protestantism is firm in Northern Europe.
Art & architecture are major components
of the Counter-Reformation program of
keeping and re-attracting Catholics.
Baroque Art:
 Open compositions
 Free technique
 Rich colors
 Dramatic light
Let's make an acronym!
S
- Space
M
- Motion
T
- Time
L
- Light
All of these elements are used in a
new, dynamic way for all Baroque art
and architecture.
There is a growing interest in natural
sciences.
Baroque Science:
 Bacon (England) and Descartes
(France) established a scientific
method based on objectivity and
reason What is the ``scientific
method''?
 The scientific method is the best
way yet discovered for winnowing
the truth from lies and delusion.
The simple version looks
something like this:

1. Observe some aspect of the
universe.

2. Invent a tentative description,
called a hypothesis, that is
consistent with what you have
observed.

3. Use the hypothesis to make
predictions.

4. Test those predictions by
experiments or further
observations and modify the
hypothesis in the light of your
results.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until there
are no discrepancies between
theory and experiment and/or
observation.
 Copernicus (Poland) theorized
that the sun was the center of
earth’s orbit – to the Church’s
chagrin!
1600’s: Galileo – first telescope (1609,
Italy); Leeuwenhoek (Vermeer’s
friend) first microscope! (c. 1668
Holland). Leeuwenhoek and
Vermeer shared an interest in
optics and lens-grinding.
Light changes from an abstract to
naturalist form and subject in its own
right.
 Curiosity with light
 Scientific Light
Viewers become "involved" in Baroque
artworks.
Pope Sixtus V: builds new avenues in
Rome, renovates the Vatican,
completes the dome of St. Peter's,
builds palaces, reopens an ancient
aqueduct (1585-90). Rome again
becomes the "city of fountains."
22- 2 St. Peter's Basilica and Piazza,
Vatican, Rome
 Carlo Moderno, façade 1607-26
 Gianlorenzo Bernini, piazza
design c. 1656-57
 A great example of counterreformation building
 An extension of the classics and of
the Renaissance
22- 4 Gianlorenzo Bernini, David, 1623,
marble, 5'7" high
 We are "involved."
 Bernini was to Baroque sculpture
what Michelangelo was to high
Renaissance sculpture.
SMTL Baroque traits:
22- 7 Francesco Borromini, plan of the
Church of San Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane, Rome 1638-41 (4 fountains)
 "Curvaceous" new, unprecedented
 (asymmetry)
 Located at the intersection of 2
major new avenues under the new
counter-reformation city plan.
P. 722 a&b Caravaggio, Calling of St.
Matthew, 1599-1600, o/c, 11'1" high
 Bluntly naturalistic, tenebrism,
"raking" light mimics the calling
Christ
 Commissioned for a private chapel
in a church, emotional!
 Matthew, a Roman tax collector,
counts gold coins.
 Art Historians cannot agree on
which figure is Matthew. (the
looker or the head-downer?)
 The gaunt Jesus points.
 We are "there”.
 Located in the Contarelli Chapel of
San Luigi dei Francesi in its
original, intact, installation
program.
 One of many important
commissions for religious
paintings in chapels of Roman
churches.
Addl. Caravaggio, The Crucifixion of St.
Peter, 1600-01, 305 cm high, Santa
Maria del Popolo, Rome
22- 12 Caravaggio, The Conversion of
St. Paul, 1601, 320 cm high, Santa
Maria del Popolo, Rome, 7’6” high
22- 55 Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with
St. John on Patmos, 1640, o/c, 40" high
Classical landscape with St. John
writing "Revelation"
Classical ruins
obelisk (Egyptian)
The round building in the distance
is Hadrian's tomb (an ancient
Roman emperor).
St. John with his symbol: the eagle
Nature overtakes religion
(pictorially)
Addl. Diagram of the Portal of the
Hospicio de San Fernando, Madrid,
Spain, 1722, Pedro de Ribera
Fervent religiosity!
"Ultra-baroque or late Baroque,"
profusely sculpted architecture in
Spain
Derived from Moorish, Gothic and
Churrigeresque (a family of
architects and sculptors) styles
Moors = Islamic influence in Spain
Classical elements are
"Baroquized" with elaboration,
foliage and drapery
This style was spread to the
Americas by the conquistadors,
mainly in Mexico and Peru. See
the Alamo for an example from
San Antonio.
20-316 Vignola and della Porta, Façade
elevation of the Church of Il Gesù,
Rome, c. 1575-84 (note the time
flashback)
 High Renaissance and/or
Mannerist architecture example
the classical forms are only
beginning to change. Note the
foreshadowing curved volutes
(seminal!).
 Ignatius of Loyola founded the
Jesuits and this is their home
church (headquarters). He did not
live to see it finished.
 Jesuits: a counter-reformation
spawned segment of Catholicism,
aggressive missionaries (no force
though!)
 Seminal verticality and centrality,
colossal order (sort of)
22- 20 Francisco de Zurbarán, St.
Serapion, 1628, o/c, 47½" high
Caravaggesque tenebrism and
naturalism
Martyr (captive exchange with the
Moors)
Emotional, involves us with
"religious fervor"
A tragic still life
19-23 Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas
(The Maids of Honor), 1656, o/c, 10'5"
high
enigmatic/puzzling, purpose?
The viewer is activated in this
Spanish Baroque masterpiece.
mirror, Margarita, Order of
Santiago, palace keys in his sash
testament to the increasing status
of painting, artists, and visual art
22- 29 Peter Paul Rubens, Henry IV
Receiving the Portrait of Marie de
Medici, 1621-25, o/c, 12’11” high
 Dutch/Flemish (artist)
 24 paintings in this commemorative
series, political propaganda
 “Market illusion,” divine approval,
French allegory
 Rubens was an international art star
– he knew and had copied all the
masters’ works.
 Marie de Medici patroned this series.
22- 31 Anthony Van Dyck, Charles I at
the Hunt, 1635, o/c, 8’11” high,
 Charles I (English king) is the tallest
 Dutch/Flemish from Antwerp (artist)
 Charles I patroned Van Dyck – he
provided a studio, a summer home,
$$$ and knighthood to him
 Even the tree bows!
Dutch Baroque Favorites:
(All with symbolic underlying meanings)
 Portraits
 Landscapes, cityscapes
 Genre
 Still life
 Vanitas Still Life
 History painting
22- 32 Clara Peters, Still Life with
Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit and
Pretzels, 1611, o/p, 19¾” high
 Dutch/Flemish (artist)
 A prodigy, her career began before
she was 14.
 Breakfast pieces: breakfast still life
on a table
 The reflection of the artist can be
seen in the pewter pitcher (vanitas).
19-40 Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait,
1659, o/c, 33¼”
 Alcoholism, financial and marital
problems later in life
 He died broke!
 He left a visual “diary” of self portraits
 He believed in the face as a
psychological document
 Virtuous and gradual chiaroscuro
P. 748 Etching and drypoint etching
22-38 Rembrandt van Rijn, Captain
Frans Banning Cocq Mustering His
Company (The Night Watch), 1642, o/c,
11’11” high
 Northern Dutch (artist)
 Amsterdam 17th Century MVP
 This college drop-out became a
painter.
 Portraiture earned him $$$, prolific
with the help of student/assistants
 Financial difficulties later in life
 Knew Renaissance works and those
of Rubens
 Also created prints
 Great use of color, light and
chiaroscuro
 A group portrait of a professional
civic guard unit on parade
Addl. Jacob van Ruisdael, The Jewish
Cemetery, 1655-60, o/c, 4-6” high
 Haarlem landscape specialist
 Moody, spiritual, allegory of
transience
 Nature is becoming a legitimate
subject in its own right
Sub for 22- 42 Johannes (Jan)Vermeer,
Young Woman with Water Jug, 1660,
18” high, oil on canvas
 Paintings are now getting smaller
 Light + color + chiaroscuro +
symbolic genre = a Dutch Master
architect and outlined his remit.
Unfortunately for the Churchills, nowhere
did this warrant mention Queen or Crown.
This error provided the escape clause for
the state when the costs and political
infighting escalated.
Addl. Sub. For 22-42
Johannes (Jan) Vermeer,
A Lady Standing at the Virginal,
1673-75
ENGLAND
Sub for 22- 59, 60 Christopher Wren,
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, designed
1673, built 1675-1710
 He dominates English architecture
after Inigo Jones retires/dies.
 He met Bernini in Paris.
 admired the French Classical
Baroque (Versailles)
 The columns surrounding the
drum exterior recall Bramante’s
Tempietto (18-19).
Addl. Blenheim Palace, Woodstock,
John Vanbrugh, Oxfordshire, England,
1705-12 and 1715-25
 Expresses wealth, power and
domination (ostentation)
 Influenced by Versailles
 Form does not follow here!
 Addl. Plan for Blenheim Palace
 Winston Churchill was born two
months premature in a bedroom
here in 1874.

The precise responsibility for the funding of
the new palace has always been a
debatable subject, unresolved to this day.
The palace as a reward was mooted within
months of the Battle of Blenheim, at a time
when Marlborough was still to gain many
further victories on behalf of the country.
That a grateful nation led by its Queen
wished and intended to give their national
hero a suitable home is beyond doubt, but
the exact size and nature of that house is
questionable. A warrant dated 1705, signed
by the parliamentary treasurer the Earl of
Godolphin, appointed Vanbrugh as

The Duke of Marlborough contributed
£60,000 to the initial cost when work
commenced in 1705, which, supplemented
by Parliament, should have built a
monumental house. Parliament voted funds
for the building of Blenheim, but no exact
sum was mentioned nor provision for
inflation or over-budget expenses. Almost
from the outset, funds were spasmodic.
Queen Anne paid some of them, but with
growing reluctance and lapses, following
her frequent altercations with the Duchess.
After their final argument in 1712, all state
money ceased and work came to a halt.
£220,000 had already been spent and
£45,000 was owing to workmen. The
Marlboroughs were forced into exile on the
continent, and did not return until after the
Queen's death in 1714.