Baroque Art Summary
1600 - 1700
Baroque Summary
(1600s)
• Religious and political conflict around
Europe (Thirty Years’ War); Catholic Church
responding to growth of Protestantism with
Counter – Reformation.
• Catholic Church hiring best artists and
architects to create “must-see attractions”
that will inspire the faithful
• Italy, Spain, and Flanders (aka Spanish
Netherlands) remained Catholic.
• Dutch Netherlands won its independence
from Spain and was formally recognized by
the Peace of Westphalia 1648 as the United
Provinces of the Netherlands. The Dutch
were Calvinists ( a type of Protestantism)
Baroque Differences
• Catholic (Italy,
Spain, Flanders,
France)
• Scenes of saints and
famous events from
the Bible and
Apocrypha (Judith
Beheading
Holofernes)
• Portraits of kings,
nobles, and popes
• Spectacular
architecture with
amazing ceiling
frescoes of religious
• Protestant (Dutch
Netherlands)
• GENRE SCENES of
everyday life (middleclass), VANITAS STILLLIFES – religious
meaning, landscapes of
Netherlands
• Portraits of middleclass
• Art is meant for the
Dutch home or public
buildings
• Plain churches – art
should not be in
Great Baroque Artists –
Catholic Countries
• Caravaggio (big influence on
Velazquez, Rubens in Flanders,
Rembrandt in Holland), Gentileschi,
Bernini, Borromini, Caracci, Fra Andrea
Pozzo – Italy
• Velazquez, Zubaran, Ribera – Spain,
portraits of royal court and very
religious paintings (saints, martyrs)
• Peter Paul Rubens and Sir Anthony Van
Dyck – Flanders – Rubens (everything –
portraits, mythology, religious), Van
Dyck – royal portraits for King of
England
Dutch Baroque
• Rembrandt (portraits, group
portraits, self-portraits, biblical
scenes, etching)
• Vermeer (quiet domestic scenes of
young women)
• Frans Hals and Judith Leyster
(portraits, group portraits)
• Steen (genre paintings)
• Van Ruisdael (landscapes)
• Steenwyck, Heda (vanitas still-life)
The Death of
the Virgin
Caravaggio
Judith
Beheading
Holofernes
(1611-12)
Artemesia
Gentileschi
Self-portrait
Artemesia
Gentileschi
Apollo and
Daphne
Bernini
David
Bernini
The
Ecstasy
of Saint
Teresa
Throne of St. Peter (Cathedra
Petri)
Borromini, San Carlo Alle
Quattro Fontane
Dome of San Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane (This is not a distortion.)
Fra Andrea Pozzo’s Glorification of
Saint Ignatius
Loves of the Gods – Annibale Caracci
The
Waterseller
of Seville
Velazquez
His First
painting of
Philip IV
Surrender of Breda (Las
Lances)
Juan de
Pareja
Harmen Steenwyck
The Vanities of Human Life
View of
Haarle
m with
Bleachi
ng
Ground
s
Regentesses of the Old Men’s
Almshouse
Self-portrait Leaning on
a Sill, 1640
Self-portrait Leaning on a
Stone Sill, 1639
The
Milkmaid