AH 131
Art & Architecture of the Italian Baroque
Prof. Philip Jacks
hours M, W 2–3 PM
office
Course outline
Whereas the term “Baroque” traditionally defined a style
antithetical to the principles of the Renaissance and classical
antiquity, the art of the 17th century is actually far more
diverse, both in its sources and artistic aims. The Italian
Baroque was born out of the religious fervor in Rome during the
aftermath of the Council of Trent and the Counter-Reform
movement within the Catholic church. Its leading exponents —
such as the Carracci and Caravaggio — while revolutionary in
their approach to painting, still owed much to the monumental
style of Raphael and Michelangelo. Cardinals and popes played a
critical role as patrons, not only as arbiters of taste, but
also in fostering artistic genius, most notably in the case of
Bernini, whose career spanned six pontificates, and his archrival, the temperamental architect Francesco Borromini.
Inasmuch as the unity of painting, sculpture and architecture,
known by the German word Gesamtkunstwerk, reached its most
supreme expression during the 17th century, this course will
give particular attention to how the media were designed to
interact within the aesthetic experience. Beginning in Rome,
where the Baroque germinated, we will consider how buildings
defined the urban space. We then travel to Naples (Gentileschi
and the Caravaggisti), Florence (Pietro da Cortona), Venice
(Longhena), and Turin (Guarini).
Course requirements
Three in-class quizzes, each 75 minutes, with slide
identification and analysis. There are no make-ups for quizzes
under any circumstances. Attendance is required: more than
three unexcused absences for the term may affect your final
grade. Check the departmental web-site for images shown in
class and sample exam questions.
Required texts (in Bookstore)
Howard Hibbard, Caravaggio (Harper Icon Ed.)
Howard Hibbard, Bernini (Penguin)
Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architcture in Italy 1600–1750
(Pelican History of Art), rev.
Joseph Connors and Jennifer
Montagu (Yale University Press), 3 vols.
Jennifer Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture (Yale University
Press)
Articles denoted with an asterisk* are required reading and
can be downloaded from attachments on website.
P r e l i m i n a r y
Sep 6
S y l l a b u s
Baroque: Origins of a Term
Wölfflin’s theory of Kunstwollen; definition of
Renaissance and Baroque as
stylistic periods.
Sep 11 Rome in the Counter-Reform
Council of Trent on religious images; founding of
the Jesuits and the Gesù;
Sixtus V, Domenico Fontana,
and stellar plan of Rome; Sistine Chapel in S.
Maria
Maggiore.
Reading: *Torgil Magnuson, Rome in the Age of
Bernini, vol. I: pp. 3-39.
Sep 13 The Completion of St. Peter’s
Greek-cross plan of Bramante, successive
projects by Raphael, Peruzzi and
Sangallo; dome and
tribunes of Michelangelo and Della Porta; nave, pronaos
and façade by Carlo Maderno.
Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. I,
pp. 1–18; pp. 75–84.
Sep 18 The Carracci and the Reform of Painting
Bolognese Academy (Accademia degli Incamminati) of
Ludovico and Annibale
Carracci; Camerino and Galleria of
Palazzo Farnese; Pieter Aertsen and genre
painting.
Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in
Italy, vol. I, pp. 27–40.
Sep 20 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio – Early Roman
Years
Origins in northern luminismo and first patrons in Rome
(Cardinal Francesco del
Monte, Vincenzo Giustiniani).
Reading: Hibbard, Caravaggio, Chs. 1–2: pp. 1–88.
Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy,
vol. I, pp. 19–26.
Sep 25 Caravaggio – The Light of Tenebrism
Contarelli and Cerasi Chapels, other altarpieces
before flight from Rome.
Reading: Hibbard, Caravaggio, Chs. 3–6: 91–163.
Sep 27 Caravaggio – Artistic Renegade
Late paintings in Naples, Syracuse, Messina, and
Malta.
Reading: Hibbard, Caravaggio, Chs. 7–9: 164–245.
Oct 2
YOM KIPPUR – NO CLASS
Oct 4
The Roman Art Market
Guido Reni, Domenichino, Guercino, Salvator Rosa, Pieter
van Laer and the Dutch Bamboccianti.
Reading: *Francis Haskell, Painters and Patrons: A
Study in the Relations between Italian Art and Society in
the Age of the Baroque (London, 1963), excerpt.
Oct 9
Caravaggisti in Naples
Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Mattia Preti, G. B.
Caracciolo, Jusepe de
Ribera (lo Spagnoletto), and the
decoration of the Certosa di San Martino.
Reading: *Mary Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi
(Princeton, 1989),
“Judith,” pp. 278–336.
Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. I,
pp. 41–57.
Oct 11 QUIZ 1
Oct 16 Gianlorenzo Bernini: Formation of a Prodigy
Commissions from Paul V Borghese, Cardinal Scipione
Borghese, Gregory XIV
Ludovisi.
Reading: Hibbard, Bernini, pp. 23–67.
Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture,
pp. 1–19.
Oct 18 Bernini and Algardi: The Artifice of Sculpture
Baldacchino, crossing and Cathedra Petri in
Peter’s, S. Bibiana; Cornaro
St.
Chapel in S. Maria della
Vittoria.
Reading: Hibbard, Bernini, pp. 68–41.
Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture, pp. 21–47,
pp. 70–75.
Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy,
vol. II, 85–98.
Oct 23 The Sculptor-Impresario
Papal tombs of Urban VIII Barberini, Alexander VII
Chigi; Fountain of the Four
Rivers in Piazza Navona;
Chigi Chapel in S. Maria del Popolo.
Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture, pp.
99–125.
Reading: Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol.
II, pp. 5–19.
Oct 25 Collections and Restoration of Classical Statuary
Bernini, Algardi, Buzzi, Boselli and Baroque restoration of
ancient statuary.
Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture, Ch.
VII: 151–172.
Oct 30 Bernini the Architect
Piazza S. Pietro, Sant’ Andrea al Quirinale,
Ariccia, Castel Gandolfo.
Reading:
Hibbard, Bernini, pp. 142–84.
Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in
Italy, vol. II, pp. 23–38.
Nov 6
Bernini at the Court of Louis XIV and Late Oeuvre
East colonnade of the Louvre;
equestrian portrait of Louis XIV; Chapel of
Ludovica
Albertoni in S. Francesca a Ripa.
Reading: Hibbard, pp. 185–228.
Nov 8
QUIZ 2
Nov 13 Francesco Borromini
Origins in Lugano, Milanese influences; Palazzo
Barberini, S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, S. Ivo
alla Sapienza, Oratory of the Filippini.
Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in
Italy, vol. II, 39–62.
Nov 15
Borromini the Urbanist
Sant’Agnese in Agone, Collegio di Propaganda Fide,
Sant’Andrea delle Fratte,
Palazzo Carpegna, Palazzo Spada.
Reading: *Joseph Connors, “Borromini and Roman
Urbanism,” AA Files 2
(1982): 11-21.
Nov 20 Pietro da Cortona
S. Maria della Pace, SS. Luca e Martina, Villa
Doria-Pamfili; decoration of
Palazzo Pitti in
Florence.
Reading: Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in
Italy, vol. Ii, pp. 63–83.
Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture, Ch. 4:
77–98.
Nov 22 NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING
Nov 27 The City as Theater: Currents in Late-17th Century
Rome
Carlo Rainaldi, Carlo Fontana, Martino Longhi,
Giovanni Battista Soria.
Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in
Italy, vol. II, pp. 99–110.
Nov 29 Baroque Architecture in Florence, Milan and Venice
Francesco Maria Ricchini, Baldassare Longhena,
Matteo Nigetti.
Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in
Italy, vol. II, pp. 110–120.
Dec 4
Architectura obliqua: An Architecture of the Spirit
Guarino Guarini in Turin (Santa Sindone, San Lorenzo,
Palazzo Carignano).
Filippo Juvarra (Stupinigi) and
Bernardo Vittone (Turin).
Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in
Italy, vol. III, pp. 29–51.
Dec 6
Academicism and Historicism in 18th-Century Rome
Filippo Raguzzini (Sant’Ignazio), Francesco De
Sanctis (Spanish Steps),
Alessandro Galilei (San
Giovanni in Laterano), Ferdinando Fuga (S. Maria
Maggiore), Nicola Salvi (Fontana di Trevi).
Reading: Wittkower, Art and Architecture in
Italy, vol. III, pp. 5–17.
Dec 11 QUIZ 3