Study Guide
Baroque Sculpture: Bernini
Baroque
Term is a 19th c term that comes from portugese—imperfectly or irregularly shaped
pearl. Very beautiful, strange, startling images with immediate impact.
Theatricality, drama, intensity. What we see here is a movement into a different
mode of representation that we haven’t seen before: the theatrical. Mannerism was
all about erudition and sophistication. It was impressive, but delicate and rather
cold. The Baroque does something very different—it creates structures that have a
sense of temporality, a sense of confrontation with a particular place in a particular
time. The Baroque gives you a sense that what you are seeing is a discrete event. It
seeks to startle the viewer, giving sense of momentary vision. Instantaneity.
Problem before counter-reformation is that art is too obscure—think back to
Mannerism and its purposely difficult or obscure meaning. So counterreformation
art makes an attempt to be immediately understandable. Take away symbolic
difficulty that most people can’t understand. Very popular appeal.
Counter-Reformation
In Italy, church responds to the Protestant Reformation with Counter-Reformation.
Heads of church meet at council of trent from 1545-63 where they come up with list
of rules. They reaffirm importance of sacraments, eucharist, sale of indulgences, and
role of saints as intercessors. Also the importance of mass, of participlating in
church, and role of images in constructing peoples behavior. Images need to take on
new value—of persuading people of the power of the church. Partly because there
is now competition. Need to “sell” catholocism.
Bernini
Artist of the Counter-Reformation—works frequently for the church and in service
of Catholic ideology.
Piazza of St. Peter’s
St. peter’s—central church of Catholicism. St. Peter’s is the seat of the pope, and the
symbolic center of the Catholic church. Bernini designs a colonnade, and sculpture
inside the church. Colonnade is entryway to church. Didn’t originally have
ceremonial entry that we would like. Emphasis on getting people into the church—
getting them to come to mass—the colonnade reaches out to and encircles the
people like a giant set of arms, draws them in. Symbolically shows the way the
Catholic church embraces its members. Many people would not have taken
communion prior to this period. Average people didn’t go to church. People not
allowed to see anything good. Now have to advertise, to get people to participate.
Scala Regia
The Royal Stairway which connects the papal apartments to St. Peter’s cathedral.
Built to replace the original staircase, which is narrow and dark. The staircase was
used ceremonially, for papal processions including cornonations. Bernini created an
illusion that the entire staircase is of the same width when one stands at the
entrance despite the fact that it narrows as one reaches the top. He thus regularizes
an irregular space.
Baldacchino
Baldacin comes from baldacco: refers to silk cloth from Baghdad. Baldacchino was
canopy, temporary structure used in ceremonies or processions over an important
person or place. Sort of temporary church. Bernini’s is made of bronze. Laurels
climb around column. Insignia of barbarini family, which is the family of Pope
Urban the 8th. Also bumblebees are insignias of the family. Laurels also prechristian triumph symbol. The four corners of the canopy are guarded by angels,
and at the top is located the orb and cross, which is a symbol of the power of the
church. There is a coffered vault and the Volutes at top very airy and light—deny
heaviness of bronze, which is the primary material out of which the structure is
made.
Bernini David.
This work clearly makes an allusion to older works—he would have been aware of
the sculptures of David by Donatello and Michelangelo that we have already looked
at. But this sculpture is very different than those of his predecessors. Here in
Bernini’s sculpture we have a precise, climactic moment—he is not choosing to
represent the moment before or after the event, but in true Baroque fashion, he is
representing the a moment in the dramatic episode itself. The potential energy that
is contained in the Michelangelo example is let out here. There is marked excitement
and intensity, a representation of a briefly suspended instant that will pass as David
completes the turn of his body. David is about to unleash the stone from his sling,
releasing one of the blows that will ultimately kill the giant. The fact that this is
simply one instant in a much longer event is emphasized by the bag of stones by his
feet, which shows us that this is a drawn out, arduous battle.
Bernini Ecstasy of St. Theresa.
Done for a cardinal’s private chapel, the Cornaro Chapel. Here, we have an
illusionistic opening in wall done in marble—this is like a stage setting that Bernini
uses for a great theatrical performance of St. Theresa in mid-swoon, all rendered in
marble. We can see the way that Bernini incorporates its surrounding environment
in the way that he uses gold spears of light to link the space of the sculpture to the
natural light emitting from overhead light. There is a heavenly opening over the
chapel which allows the sensation of the radiation of divine light spilling onto the
marble figures. The theatrical setting is emphasized by the presence of box seats on
either side of the chapel. Makes the setting of the sculpture take place as if
happening if front of the curtain, in a shallow proscenium. Members of the Cornaro
family act like commentators on the scene. They are perspectivally rendered to give
a sense of a deeper space than actually exists. Visitation by god as sensual
experience is perfect for this moment—this physical state is something everyone
can relate to. Remember that Baroque art is all about accessibility, about providing
experiences that can be directly transmitted to viewers, and that will bowl them
over
Apollo and Daphne
This sculpture, like his others, is strongly psychological. There is a distinct feeling of
emotional and physical conflict here—Daphne is clearly stricken by horror as she
feels the hand of her pursuer on her back, but she is not yet aware of her bodily
transformation. Apollo, however, sees what is happening to her and reacts with
amazement. Although there is a classicizing impulse in the rendering of the bodies,
this psychological subtlety would never have occurred in classical sculpture.