Art 102 Fall 2011 Review Session
Bernini Lecture
Term is a 19th c term that comes from portugese baroque—imperfectly or
irregularly shaped pearl. Very beautiful, strange, startling images with immediate
impact. Theatricality, drama, intensity.
Bernini is an artist of the as counterreformation
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.
Columns reflect on ancient history of church—there had originally been an ancient
Baldacchino over the same spot in the church. This evocation of the past reinforces
the timeless power of the Catholic church, showing it to be an ancient and
immovable force that cannot be extinguished by new philosophies and teachings,
particularly those of Protestantism. The columns also provide a frame through
which worshippers can admire the sculpture representing the throne of St. Peter’s,
which is located directly to the rear of the Baldacchino.
The overall structure gives the eye an upward lead. Does efficient job of
naturalizing job of church. 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 pre-christian 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.
In the Donatello David, we had even less of a sense of narrative. That sculpture
seems to empty out time—the action has been completed, and the tension has
dissolved. Instead, we get that perception of languidness and lethargy. We know
David has defeated the giant because his foot rests on the giants head, but there is
no hint otherwise of the action that took place.
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.
Bernini Ecstasy of St. Theresa.
Done for a cardinal’s private chapel, the Cornaro Chapel, within the larger church in
Rome called santa Maria della Vittoria. 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. Gold rays of light
streak in above Theresa in combination with the invisible window admitting natural
light to join with sculptural light.
Caravaggio Lecture
An artist who, as one cardinal put it, crosses “between the sacred and the profane.”
He is definitely Baroque in that paints in such a way as to make art immediate and
dramatic, with instant accessibility. He incorporates high drama, intensity, and
direct appeal to the emotions.
But unlike Bernini’s perfected, classical figures, Caravaggio makes paintings about
people we might know, showing scenes of everyday life. He believed in working
from nature, and would employ live models who he would arrange in tableaux that
recreated scenes from the new testament and from the lives and deaths of early
Christian martyrs. He never tried to make his subjects look like biblical or
mythological figures; instead, we are constantly reminded that we are looking at
theatrically lit and posed models. He in some sense makes a mockery of viewers by
showing a seedy underworld.
Fortune Teller c. 1594-5:
This painting puts Caravaggio’s nasty sense of humor to work. So what we see is an
exchange of glances beneath which different levels of commercial exchange are also
occurring. Paying for fortune, paying to be titillated, paying by being robbed.
Bacchus 1595-6:
The figure himself is slightly odd. He has pudgy hands and is a little soft around the
middle. This is a body that is slightly run to seed. He has a demeanor of, and an extra
layer from, excessive lounging. Both his hands and his face are reddened compared
to the skin on the rest of the body—he has a suntan. So, this is not a perfected
indoor body, but someone who has been out on the streets. It is the body of a
laborer. He has dirty fingernails, and overall a patina of dirt. So this “God” is actually
just a dressed up young boy from the streets.
Bacchus is paired with a still-life basket. Bacchus is also the god of vegetation and
fruits Caravaggio is originally a still life painter. Still life is coming into being as an
independent genre, mostly in the north. Still lives give you the passage of time
through states of decay. This is not just an imaginary basket, but a real one, with
imperfections. Still life and Bacchus are placed in relation to one another.
Also, we can read this as Bacchus making an offering to the viewer, of the fruit in the
basket and the goblet of wine. This is an invitation to the viewer.
Conversion of St. Paul 1600-01
Supposedly Caravaggio painted two first paintings for the chapel that were rejected
because the patron did not like them. The second painting is far more simplified in
detail and contains no divine personification, unlike the earlier, more elaborate and
crowded image in which Christ and an angel explode onto the scene from the upper
right hand corner, acting as physical agents of conversion. In the Cerasi painting,
there is an immediate confrontation between the viewer and the figures in the
painting—there is nothing to “push back” the painted figures from the front of the
picture plane. As a result, the figures seem to be pushed out of the frames toward us,
establishing an extremely close connection between viewer and subject. The
psychologism of this painting expresses Caravaggio’s own psychology—he often
exhibits a longing for an overwhelming, undeserved grace, which makes subjects
like this (Saul was a sinner, like Caravaggio) more appropriate for Caravaggio than
the more thoroughly Christilike St. Francis.
Aremtisia Ghentilleschi:
An artist who closely followed the painting of Caravaggio—one of a group of artists
called the Carrivagistes. Gentileschi is the most famous woman painter in the first
half of the 17th century. In general, her oeuvre contains many paintings of women.
She imitates Caravaggio—using his raking light and tenebrism. Key term for
Baroque painting, and particularly Caravaggio: Tenebrism—a style of art that uses
pronounced light and dark, an extreme version of chiaroscuro. Darkness becomes
the dominating feature of the painting.
She had to use herself as live model because there was little to no opportunity to
paint anyone but herself.
Susanna and the Elders (1610)—This subject is rife with gender implications.
Representation of scene of violence to women. How woman would handle this diff
from men. we have a distinct sense of shame and repulsion. Susanna is rendered as
having a horrified reaction—shrinking and hiding. In Gentileschi’s own life, Tassi,
her teacher of perspective, ends up raping her. But this is not perceived as abuse
because she is her fathers’ property.
This event influenced the way Gentileschi thought about male visual and physical
assault on women.
Northern and Spanish Baroque
Diego Velasquez (1599-1660):
Was part of the Hapsburg dynasty. Was the court painter of Philip IV, and was the
only painter with the privilege of painting him.
Las Meninas: One of the most famous paintings of all time. Seems to be a snapshot
in time of a particular moment. But there are many complications to this painting
that make it difficult to interpret. The painting has three possible “centers” that
could inform our reading—the infanta as the center of the foreground, the vanishing
point in the perspectival construction, and the mirror, as the compositional center of
the painting. Whichever one we focus on will lead to our interpretation of where we
as viewers are located vis a vis the painting. The painting is also seen as an attempt
to elevate himself and the profession of painting. Painting was traditionally seen as
“craft”, and by interjecting himself into a scene in which he is interacting “face to
face” with his sovereign, he is showing his practice to be a noble activity, in which
the nobility would take great interest.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).
Rubens is a famous Flemish master of painting. He is from Antwerp, but between
1600 and 1608 leaves the Netherlands for Italy. Is always deeply committed to
Italian art. Copies the forms of Italian High Renaissance and Baroque heavily. He
integrates the traditions of disegno (from Michelangelo) and Colorito (from Titian).
He is even more open than Titian. Uses high texture and quavering lines, a “fury of
the brush”. He has an aristocratic education and bearing, and becomes painter for
several members of Spanish, French and English royalty. He was also entrusted with
diplomatic missions, which reflected in his painting.
Raising of the cross (1610):
This is an altarpiece for the church of St. Walburga in Antwerp, which exhibits the
counter-reformation style of painting.
This painting revelas his interest in Italian painting, especially Michelangelo and
Caravaggio. This is a painting containing the force and torsion that we observed in
both painters. This is a crucifxion scene with immediacy and drama as we would
expect—the body of Christ coming into the light, writhing forms, etc. The light
effects here would be an imitation of Caravaggio, though he does not exhibit the
same Tenebrism, combined with an imitation of michelangelo’s forms). In this
painting, we can truly see and feel a sense of force. This painting functions like a
study in anatomy and foreshortening, much as Michelangelo’s painting did as well.
The body of Christ is placed on a diagonal, cutting across the picture plane at the
same time that it falls back into it in the way that Pontormo’s did as well. The subject
of Ruben’s painting is, like Michelangelo, very much the human body, though his
style later becomes much looser, and more coloristic. He believed in the Italian
Renaissance tradition of studying from artworks, whether classical sculptures like
the Laocoon or Michelangelo’s own painting.
Hierarchy of Genres
There are seven categories of painting, arranged in a hierarchy
History: the apex of the hierarchy. Mythological Scenes Nudes Portraiture
Landscape Still Life Genre
Genre painting is the representation of scenes from daily life. It privileges things in
the world, and because it is not seen as moral in character it occupies a lower tier in
the hierarchy of painting, beneath history painting.
Genre painting is said to appeal to women, where history painting appeals to the
moral senses, and thus to men. Women are tied to earth by their love of worldly
things.
The Southern perception of Northern paintings is that they have no sense of
harmony—just exactness, done without reason or art. This is not just the fact that
they are of unheroic subjects, but also about the way that the paintings are done.
They are considered too exact, considered to show too much. Paintings should
sacrifice description in service of proportion, symmetry, and so forth. Showing too
much is feminine—overwrought and irrational.
In Northern compositions, there is no symmetry built up around a central heroic
human form. Instead, every part of the picture is given clear surface detail.
Still Life: Defined as the representation of inanimate forms in painting. Dutch
independence gives rise to a system that is effectively capitalism. Wealth is broadly
dispersed, instead of simply being concentrated among royalty and high society. Still
life paintings gain in popularity because they represent a means of depicting and
celebrating the accumulation of goods. Still life imagery is particularly appropriate
for the Northern tradition in its scientific accuracy—it revels in the textures and the
surfaces of things, as opposed to telling a narrative.
Landscape:
Dutch society is very urban, and cities are its controlling force. However, they also
have a long history of living off the land, and a deep investment in the landscape.
After achieving independence from Spain, the Dutch begin a massive project to
reclaim the land, which is mostly swampland. They build dikes, canals and drainage
systems to make the land usable for farming. Landscape paintings commemorate
rural existence, and their own family farms from the past. I
Genre Scenes:
By Vermeer and de Hooch. Interior domestic scenes as a subject for art spring up in
the 17th century as part of the new trend toward middle-class art buyers who select
non-religious scenes to decorate their homes. The most prominent painter of Dutch
interior scenes is Jan Vermeer.
In Vermeer, creating spaces is a central element in his creation of the world. There is
close attention in these works to how light impacts and gives solidity to the scene.
Where light hits objects they almost seem to dissolve. He applies dots of paint
thickly so that they themselves refract the light. These dots are called pointilles. The
small dots of impasto give the impression of light actively dissolving form. Vermeer
would use the camera obscura to arrange the geometry of his compositions, which
he would then rework.
With a camera obscura, the edges of the image are fuzzy, so there is a glow around
the object that is called halation.. Vermeer takes great pleasure in these distortions
and works them into his canvases. He preserves the distortions in his “exact”
replication of what he sees.
Rembrandt Lecture
A generation after Franz Hals and Rubens, and 7 years younger than Velazquez. Left
a record of his life in self-portraits, rather than in extensive writings, as Leonardo
and Durer had done. So we have a kind of visual autobiography, an intimate picture
of the painter. Rembrandt is , in the Northern tradition, a Protestant. His paintings
show a Protestant sensibility in that they are never theatrical.
But Rembrandt’s work develops in resistance or opposition to his “native
tradition”—if Dutch art, as we have seen, is all about the art of describing the
surface qualities of things, Rembrandt’s art goes beneath the surface, to the depths
of the soul. His artwork is highly idiosyncratic for its place and time.
But his work, at the same time, is not “Italian” in the way that Rubens’ was.
Rembrandt does not cling wholesale to narrative, in the Italian manner. His teacher,
Lastman, had learned the Italianate tradition, adopting lessons of the classical
tradition. But he had also learned Caravaggio’s realism and his treatment of light,
which he passed down to Rembrandt. Rembrandt used light as an expressive tool,
not merely one that would give sculptural relief to objects. He used light to show the
character of his sitters.
In the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp 1632
This is a group portrait painted in about 1632. H was commissioned by the Guild of
Surgeons to paint this portrait, the principle member at the time being Dr. Nicolas
Tulp. The group portrait is a typically Dutch for of pictorial record, and the group
portrait was an established form by Rembrandt’s time. The city guilds generally
commissioned the best artists to paint them, and the theme of the anatomy lesson
had been covered before. The composition of the painting is arranged in a pyramid,
a strategy we have seen before. In contrast with Franz Hals’ group portraits, which
distributed the sitters evenly across the composition, Rembrandt arranges the
sitters in a tightly clustered group to the left of the canvas. This makes the space
more dynamic, and gives a sense of depth to the picture.
Night Watch 1642 is a later assay at a group portrait, painted 10 years after the
anatomy Lesson. The fact that this painting is generally called Night Watch is
actually a misreading of the painting that comes from the darkening of the varnish
used by Rembrandt. There is dramatic lighting in this painting, but it would not have
been as pronounced as it appears here under its original conditions. In addition, the
painting has been cropped on all sides, which occurred when the painting was
moved from its original location to the Amsterdam town hall in 1715. The painting
is of a group of guards, and was commissioned by two officers with accompanying
contributions from 16 other members of the guard. It was one of six paintings done
for the Musketeer’s Hall, an assembly and banquet venue in the city of Amsterdam.
Like the Anatomy Lesson, this is a painting of a highly active scene—the sitters are
not arranged in a line across the canvas, but in dynamic groupings which convey a
sense of busyness, a sense that an event is about to occur or that we are in the midst
of the guard bustling around getting ready for something to happen. He also shows
the sequential stages of getting a musket ready to fire.
Poussin Lecture
In the mid-1630’s, he began to turn his attention to landscape painting, which
became his main preoccupation in his later years. Painted landscapes, but often with
references to classical stories and architecture built in. He invented a style known as
the “grand manner,” which consists of grand subject-matter, including “battles,
heroic actions, and divine things”, and a carefully structured and measured
composition.
The themes of Poussin’s early paintings were entirely new to painting. No one had,
for example, ever treated the Plague at Ashdod before. This new approach to
pictorial subject-matter is characteristic of his art and his life, and is one of the most
primary contributing factors to his importance as a painter. Before he alit on a style
that was entirely his own, Poussin was an experimenter, adopting other styles and
working with other sources.
His Death of Germanicus for example is inspired by ancient relief sculpture.
The Death of Germanicus 1626-8
The artist Henry Fuseli wrote of this painting in 1798 that “none of the designs of
Poussin has been more universally admired than that of Germanicus and if he had
never painted another picture he would have gained immortal honour by that
alone.” It was a painting commissioned by Cardinal Barberini, and is the highest
achievement of Poussin’s early years in Rome. It is both epic and classical, and also
introduces a new theme into Western painting—the theme of the hero on his
deathbed. This painting becomes one of the talismans of the Neo-classical
movement of the 18th century, the primary proponent of which is Jacques-Louis
David. This theme had never been painted before.
The Inspiration of the Lyric Poet c. 1628-9
This is one of a series of early works by Poussin on the subject of poetic inspiration.
The main character is an anonymous lyric poet, shown kneeling and drinking from
the cup of Apollo.
Inspiration of the Epic Poet c. 1630
Poussin is fond throughout his career of representing the same subject twice—he
does this also in his early years in the example of the Triumph of David. This is not
exactly a repetition, but a complement to the Inspiration of the Lyric Poet. This is
another allegory celebrating the divine nature of creative inspiration. We have
Apollo, again, sitting at the center and resting his arm on his instrument. We have,
also again, an anonymous epic poet who is receiving inspiration from Apollo. It is
clear that in a comparison with the earlier Lyric Poet that Poussin uses these
paintings to evoke the spirit of two different modes of poetry. The earlier painting is
more informally arranged and the poet drinks his inspiration. Here, there is a
greater sense of symmetry and the poet seems to be divinely inspired. The theme is
nobler overall, and the muse does not wear the same décolletage as the lyric muse in
the earlier painting. So Poussin’s approach to painting varies with the theme, an
impulse which we also see in the two versions of the Triumph of David.
Burial of Phocion 1648
Subject matter taken from Plutarchs Life of Phocion, the Athenian general who was
unjustly put to death for treason. He was condemned to death by his enemies and
forced to take Hemlock. His body was forbidden from being buried on Athenian soil,
which led to a procession to remove the body to the outskirts of the city, where it
was cremated. His widow secretly gathered the ashes and brought them back to
Athens, where they were given an honorable burial once the political situation had
changed. This theme had never been treated in painting before, and reflects his
creative independence.
The Ashes of Phocion Collected by His Widow c. 1648
Is the second of the two paintings. It differs somewhat in type from its complement.
In the first painting, Poussin contrasts the slaves bearing Phocion’s body with the
disgraceful ignorance of the public who has let the tragedy happen. This painting
focuses instead on private devotion of the widow and the maidservant as they
gather his ashes.
Claude Lorrain
We discussed a painting by Lorrain as a counterpoint to Dutch landscape. Lorrain
and Poussin are creators of “ideal landscape” as opposed to the descriptive realism
of the Dutch artists—Poussin and Lorrain are compatriots, and their fame rivals one
another’s. Lorrain’s painting is softer than the highly disciplined, rational style of
Poussin. Whereas Poussin’s landscapes are there to frame a human story, Claude’s
landscapes are not narrative in character. They do not have a particular moral and
do not set out to praise the life or death of a hero, as we see in the Phocion paintings.
If there are people in Claude’s landscapes, they seem to be secondary to the qualities
of the landscape itself—they are vehicles for the landscape rather than the
landscape being a vehicle for human activity, as it seems to be in Poussin.
Landscape with Cattle and Peasants 1629
The figures on the right are balanced with the cattle to the left, a framing device
which is further balanced by the ambling cattle in the middle ground. Like Poussin,
there is an orderly arrangement of fore, middle and background which all ultimately
gives way to a fine, luminous mist in the distance. This is a combination of linear and
atmospheric perspective, which unite to create a sense of infinite recession. As is
typical with Claude, this is an ideal, classicized landscape. It does not seek to record
or describe the world as it is, but to invent a world that is composed according to
perfect geometric harmony. Like Poussin, Claude formalizes nature, making nature
into a series of highly artificed, artificial relationships. Groups and planes of masses
work together to create a harmonious pattern.
Rococo Lecture
Rococo Lecture
French rocaille, meaning stone, and coquilles, meaning shell, due to reliance on these
objects as motifs of decoration.
The Rococo is associated with gaiety, with lushness and frivolity. IT has sometimes
been decried as being too frivolous. It is in some sense part of a late Baroque
because it takes priniciples of the Baroque—theatricality, transformation, awe and
sensory overload, to the max. But while the Baroque has a certain heaviness to it,
the Rococo is smaller, lighter, less massive and overwhelming. Often the “late” part
of a period is associated with decadence—with the decay of a set of stylistic or
artistic principles after they have been repeated, perfected, and then lose their
urgency and sense of importance.
Salon de la Princesse
The decentralizing of social and intellectual life from the palace to private homes
and domestic interiors results in the creation of the “salon”, or smaller, more
intimate meeting rooms where people could gather to exchange witticisms, listen to
chamber music, and eat and drink. The Salon de la Princesse is typical of such
spaces.
The Rococo is characterized by a distinctly organic look—the hard lines that we saw
in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles become sinuous and curved. Rooms were
ornamented with garlands, flowers, birds and other living things. In the Salon de la
Princesse, we can see how the walls and the vault lack a distinct transition, so that
one almost seems to melt into the other with the aid of the intricate gilded
decoration. The painted sections of the room are symmetrical, but are made of
irregular shapes. Like the Baroque, painting architecture and decoration all work
together, creating a “total” work of art, but here, the predominant forms are taken
from nature, so we have tendrils and foliage seeming to “grow” out of the walls and
over the vault of the room (the ceiling).
An age dominated by artifice, but a more delicate artifice than anything that had
come before. Lighter and frothier.
In the Rococo we are introduced to the distinction between Poussinistes and
Rubenistes—a difference in doctrine that brings back distinction in a different form
between design and coloristic style. Remember that Poussin is the inventor of the
“grand manner,” which consists of grand subject-matter, including “battles, heroic
actions, and divine things”, and a carefully structured and measured composition,
whereas Rubens is all about exuberance of forms which spill out of their boundaries.
Rubens paints with abandon, while Poussin paints rigorously, with a high degree of
rationalism and restraint. So Poussinisme follows the teaching of Poussin that form
is the primary aspect of painting, where colors are merely “allurements for
persuading the eyes”. Color here is secondary, more of a decorative element than an
essential one to the overall composition of the painting. Rubenistes held that color is
the most important part of the painting, that color should guide the hand and the
eye of the painter in the composition of a painting.
Pilgrimage to Cythera 1717
Watteau was a Rubeniste—and his popularity was so great that he actually helped
achieve the supremacy of the Rubenistes in the contemporary taste of the day.
In the Pilgrimage, Watteau portrays an array of lovers in luxurious costume who
have pilgrimaged to cythera, Aphrodite’s island of love and eternal youth. The
figures are arranged in the now familiar undulating style of the rococo. The whole
scene is much more fanciful scenario than anything we would see in Poussin. The
painting is all about poise and refinement, in a much smaller, more delicate guise
than we would see in the Baroque. Watteau in general tried to use his painting,
which was preceded by numerous drawings, to capture slow movements, placing
his figures in highly difficult and unusual poses. This was part of his quest for
ultimate refinement and nuance, which was also reflected in his choice of colors,
which tend to be much more delicate and almost iridescent in tone.