Of Popes, Peasants, Monarchs, and Merchants: Baroque Art 17 th and Early 18 th Centuries in the West

Europe in the 17 th Century, after the treaty of Westphalia in 1648 ended the 30-Year War. Europe’s power, trade, and financial markets are now world wide.

Latin America, a great source of wealth for Europe, especially Spain, was the main destination of the millions of people enslaved and taken out of Africa between 1500 and The U.S. received about 523,000 enslaved immigrants. Cuba alone got more. Spanish America absorbed around 1.5 million and Brazil at least 3.5 million.

GIANLORENZO BERNINI (Italian, ), David, Marble, approx. 5’ 7” high. Galleria Borghese, Rome. Bernini was influenced by Hellenistic sculpture like this one, The Dying Gaul, c. 200 BC. (Roman copy),

Bernini, Self-Portrait, about 1625

GIANLORENZO BERNINI (Italian, ), David, Marble, approx. 5’ 7” high. Galleria Borghese, Rome. Diskobolos, 5 th c. Roman copy of Greek original Michelangelo, Bound Slave, c. 1513

MICHELANGELO, David, 1501–1504. Marble, 13’ 5” high. DONATELLO, David, 1420s-1450s, bronze, 5’ 2” high. First freestanding nude since antiquity BERNINI (Italian, ), David, Marble, approx. 5’ 7” high. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

BERNINI, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy, 1645–1652. Marble, height of group 11’ 6”. Detail: face of Teresa

Cornaro family busts in niches on sides, praying devoutly and acting as witnesses to the holy drama. Teresa is experiencing a transfiguring coma, the so-called “Sleep of God,” described by mystics, in which a glimpse of Heaven’s glory is received. Mystics like Teresa would pray for days, often unfed, to achieve such visions.

FRANCESCO BORROMINI, Chapel of Saint Ivo, College of the Sapienza, Rome, Italy, begun Italian Baroque

GUARINO GUARINI, Palazzo Carignano, Turin, Italy, 1679–1692.

Compare Baroque architecture of Borromini and Guarini with Italian Renaissance design of MICHELANGELO, Museo Capitolino, Capitoline Hill, Rome, Italy, ca. 1537, not completed until the 17 th century.

Compare Baroque with Renaissance neo-classicism: ANDREA PALLADIO, Villa Rotonda (formerly Villa Capra), near Vicenza, Italy, ca. 1566–1570, one of the most influential architectural prototypes for the next five hundred years.

GUARINO GUARINI, Chapel of Santissima Sindone (view into dome), Turin, Italy, 1667–1694.

Compare Renaissance dome of Sant’Eligio degli Orefici (view into dome), Rome, Italy, attributed to BRAMANTE and RAPHAEL, ca. 1509; reconstructed ca

CARAVAGGIO (Michelangelo Merisi, Italian, ), Conversion of Saint Paul, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Italy, ca Oil on canvas, approx. 7’ 6” x 5’ 9”. Use of perspective, low horizon line, and tenebrism brings the viewer into the experience. Theatricality is a hallmark of the Baroque.

CARAVAGGIO, Calling of Saint Matthew, Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, Italy, ca. 1597–1601. Oil on canvas, 11’ 1” x 11’ 5”. What role does light play in this painting? Detail from The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, c. 1511

Details (Matthew & Jesus) from Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Matthew, Italian Baroque c. 1597–1601

ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI (Italian, ), Judith Slaying Holofernes, ca. 1614–1620. Oil on canvas, 6’ 6 1/3” x 5’ 4”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. “Caravaggista” theatricality, tenebrism and drama Poor restoration has Removed the furrows from the women's foreheads that indicated intense concentration and effort.

Compare (left) Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes ( ) and Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes

PIETRO DA CORTONA (Italian, ), Triumph of the Barberini, ceiling fresco in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy, 1633–1639. Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII of the Barberini family. What does the fresco tell you about the Counter-Reformation?

DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ (Spain, ), Water Carrier of Seville, ca (The artist was around 20 years old.), Oil on canvas, 3’ 5 1/2” x 2’ 7 1/2”. Wellington Museum, London. Shows influence of Caravaggio. Know term: genre

DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), Oil on canvas, approx. 10’ 5” x 9’. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

CARAVAGGIO, Calling of Saint Matthew, Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, Italy, ca. 1597– Oil on canvas, 11’ 1” x 11’ 5”. Compare the representation and role of light in Caravaggio and Velazquez.

Self-portrait of Diego Velázquez – a detail in Las Meninas. He is wearing the cross of the Order of Santiago that he was awarded in According to legend, the king himself painted the cross.

PETER PAUL RUBENS (Flemish, ), Arrival of Marie de’ Medici at Marseilles, 1622–1625. Oil on canvas, approx. 5’ 1” x 3’ 9 1/2”. Louvre, Paris. One of 21 vast canvases for the queen’s new Luxembourg palace in Paris. Ostentation and elaborate spectacle

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN (Dutch, ), The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq (Night Watch), Oil on canvas (cropped from original size), 11’ 11” x 14’ 4”. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Self-Portrait, ca. 1659–1660. Oil on canvas, approx. 3’ 8 3/4” x 3’ 1”. Kenwood House, London. How is light used for psychological purposes?

Rembrandt, Self Portrait, 1629 (23 years old) What formal means does Rembrandt use to focus our attention on the face? Is this really by Rembrandt? Read “Assessing Authenticity: The Rembrandt Research Project.”

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Christ with the Sick around Him, Receiving the Children (Hundred Guilder Print), ca Etching, approx. 11” x 1’ 3 1/4”. Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Etching was perfected in the early 17 th century. How is it different from engraving? What possibilities did it open up for the art market?

JAN VERMEER, Woman Holding a Balance, c. 1664; Oil on canvas, 40.3 x 35.6 cm; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Protestant piety and prosperity

JAN VERMEER, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, c ; Oil on canvas, 18 X 16 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

JAN VERMEER, Allegory of the Art of Painting, 1670–1675. Oil on canvas, 4’ 4” x 3’ 8”. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Vermeer’s probable use of the camera obscura First representation of a Camera obscura, 1544 JAN VERMEER, Allegory of the Art of Painting, 1670–1675.

NICOLAS POUSSIN (French, ) Et in Arcadia Ego (Even in Arcadia I am present), ca Oil on canvas, approx. 2’ 10” x 4’. Louvre, Paris. Classicism aims at “evenness and moderation in all things.” (Poussin)

NICOLAS POUSSIN, Burial of Phocion, Oil on canvas, approx. 3’ 11” x 5’ 10”. Louvre, Paris. From Plutarch’s Life of Phocion (an Athenian general). A noble landscape for a noble theme – the “Grand manner”

Compare Poussin 1648 Burial of Phocion with Rubens 1625 Arrival of Marie de Medici. Both Baroque painters

HYACINTHE RIGAUD (French, ) Louis XIV, Oil on canvas, approx. 9’ 2” x 6’ 3”. Louvre, Paris. French Baroque Art in the service of Absolutism: “The Sun King”

Aerial view of palace at Versailles, France, begun 1669, and a portion of the gardens and surrounding area. French Baroque

JULES HARDOUIN- MANSART and CHARLES LE BRUN, Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), palace of Versailles, Versailles, France, ca

Controlling nature – Gardens of Versailles

LOUIS LE NAIN (French Baroque era, ca ), Family of Country People, ca Oil on canvas, approx. 3’ 8” x 5’ 2”. Louvre, Paris. Genre scene