1. If it’s not Baroque don’t fix it!
Baroque Art
If it’s not Baroque don’t fix it!
Hee Hee Hee!

2. Characteristics of Baroque Art
Return to Rome as the centre of the arts—that’s where the money was
Art seems “overdone”
Complex, but unnecessarily
More passionate

3. Mannerism
Began in Italy—spreads North because of - outbreak of the plague (1522) - the sack of Rome (1527)
Self-consciously artificial –derived from certain aspe4cts of works of Raphael and Michelangelo
Formulated abstraction—emphasizes grace variety, and virtuoso at the expense of clarity, content, and unity

4. Appeals to a small sophisticated audience
Comes out of the High Renaissance quest for originality—projection of individuals personality—explore imaginations freely
Many regarded it as decadent
Intensely religious subjects yet also shows spiritual bankruptcy
Later praise for its visionary power to help shift to religious sensibility

5. The Venus of Urbino Titian, 1538
The Venus of Urbino was painted for Guidobaldo della Rovere, the heir of Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. If the pose of this Venus brings to mind that of Giorgione's Sleeping Venus in Dresden (which the young Titian had completed after Giorgione's death) the intent of the painting is quite different. Titian's Venus has nothing to do with Giorgione's idealised image of female beauty, it is normally interpreted as an allegory of marital love. There have been some suggestions that there might be a connection with the wedding of Guidobaldo della Rovere and Giuliana Varano in 1534.
This is an extremely fine composition. It invites us to dwell on more than just the warm, golden figure of this young woman with her cascading curls and the attractive, carefully studied movement of her arm. Observe the way the sheet has been painted, with masterful blends of colour, the small dog lazily curled up asleep, the amusing touch of the two maids rummaging in the chest, the world outside the window, and the malicious, but at the same time ingenious expression of the young Venus. There is an intimacy of this scene of almost domestic simplicity which places the whole composition in a warm, human, temporal reality.

6. Christ in the House of Levi Veronese, 1573

7. Detail

8. Burial of Count Orgaz El Greco, 1586

9. Detail Count is dying in the hands of the Pope
Signifies deep religiousness

10. Detail: Contemporaries & Patrons

11. Detail: Ascension Ascension is rebirth
Birth canal is recreated so the Count is reborn into Heaven

12. Baroque Art in the South
Art become propaganda—Counter Reformation: want to get people back into the church and St. Peter’s most important venues for art
Mysticism brought into the church—architecture glorifies God
Jesuits help to reform church in 1500s/1600s
Attendance kept of people going to church

13. The Calling of St. Matthew Caravaggio, 1599-1602

14. Detail

15. Judith and the Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes Gentileschi, 1625

16. Glorification of the Reign of Pope Urban VIII da Cortona, 1633-1639; Fresco
Baroque pre occupation with the continuum of space in illusionistic painting
Elaborate allegory or symbolic representation of the virtues of the papal family
Subdivides vault into 5 separate areas
Central field devoted to an allegorical-emblematic glorification of Pope Urban VIII

17. Detail Bumble Bees represent the family of Pope Urban VIII
Fresco painted in his ancestral home

18. David (marble) Bernini, 1623
David in action, in the very moment of shooting.
the harp (on the ground) David will play after his victory, which is decorated with an eagle's head, a symbolic reference to the Borghese family—who commissioned the piece.
From every angle a different feeling of motion and/or posing is seen.
According to contemporary sources the head of David is the self-portrait of the artist and Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (who visited Bernini several times in his atelier) himself held the mirror during its execution.

19. Ecstasy of St. Theresa Bernini, 1645-1652; marble
Very theatrical; somewhat erotic, but met all religious and moral requirements

20. Tabernacle (Baldacchino) at the Crossing of St
Tabernacle (Baldacchino) at the Crossing of St. Peter’s Bernini;
Urban VIII with great ruthlessness and excellent taste inaugurated the Baroque embellishment of Rome. The completion of the decoration of St Peter's was to occupy most of the century, and from the start Bernini was at the centre of the plans.
The Baldacchino was begun in 1624.

21. Baroque Art in the North
Holland and Flanders (S. Netherlands)
Not sponsored by the State and church because of Reformation/Protestantism
Private collector is chief form of support
Pictures became a commodity
Supply and demand allowed artists to produce for a market—not unusual for an artist to run and business

22. France and England
France: more about the glorification of King Louis XIV
England: no real contribution except the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London in 1666

23. Malle Babbe Frans Hals; 1650
Most frequently he shows the instant when the joy of life is at its highest: the spontaneous laughter of a child, the smile of a courtesan, or the wild shriek of an old crone, like in this painting.

24. Detail
The old crone

25. Blinding of Samson Rembrandt; 1636
The story of Samson, which had a great attraction for the Baroque public, is prominent in Rembrandt's art.
His Blinding of Samson more than any other work shows Rembrandt's unrivalled use of the High Baroque style to appeal to his contemporaries' interest in the sensational.
It is his most gruesome and violent work.
The painting represents the bloody climax of the story. Samson has been overwhelmed by one of the Philistines, who has the biblical hero locked in his grip. Samson's right hand is being fettered by another soldier, and a third is plunging a sword into his eye, from which blood rushes forth. His whole frame writhes convulsively with sudden pain. The warrior standing in front, silhouetted against the light in the Honthorst manner, has his halberd ready to plunge into Samson if he manages to free himself before the hideous deed is done. Delilah, with a look of terror mixed with triumph, is a masterful characterization seen in a half haze, as she rushes to the opening of the tent.
Here again the chiaroscuro adds an element of mystery and pictorial, as well as spiritual, excitement.

26. Detail

27. Return of the Prodigal Son Rembrandt; 1665
Rembrandt interprets the Christian idea of mercy
It goes beyond the works of all other Baroque artists in the evocation of religious mood and human sympathy.
Expressive lighting and colouring together with a selective simplicity of setting, help us to feel the full impact of the event.
The whole represents a symbol of all homecoming, of the darkness of human existence illuminated by tenderness, of weary and sinful mankind taking refuge in the shelter of God's mercy.

28. Detail
The main group of the father and the Prodigal Son stands out in light against an enormous dark surface.
The son, ruined and repellent, with his bald head and the appearance of an outcast, returns to his father's house after long wanderings. He has wasted his heritage in foreign lands and has sunk to the condition of a swineherd. His old father, dressed in rich garments has hurried to meet him before the door and receives the long-lost son with the utmost fatherly love.

29. Detail
Unforgettable is the image of the repentant sinner leaning against his father's breast and the old father bending over his son. The father's features tell of a goodness sublime and august; so do his outstretched hands, not free from the stiffness of old age.

30. Night Watch Rembrandt
Probably Rembrandt's most famous and most controversial painting
Original Title: "Sketch of the painting from the Great Hall of Cleveniers Doelen, in which the young Heer van Purmerlandt [Banning Cocq], as captain, orders his lieutenant, the Heer van Vlaerderdingen [Willem van Ruytenburch], to march the company out."
It is, therefore, a "Doelen" piece or group portrait in which the captain can be seen in the foreground wearing black and the lieutenant wearing yellow.
What sets Rembrandt's group portrait apart from other comparable paintings is his use of chiaroscuro as a dramatic device.
the scenery is made up more or less of individual "types". The painting includes the entire repertoire of portrait poses and gestures from Rembrandt's store of figures.

31. Detail

32. The Love Letter Vermeer; 1666
We look at the principal scene through a doorway.
The other objects nearest the viewer are also muted and almost blurred. On the other hand, the mistress and her maid, as well as the room in which they are placed, are well defined in spite of their recession into space.
the two figures are devoid of individualization and resemble puppets rather than persons. Part of this shallowness may be due to damage from the theft and subsequent holding for ransom of the painting, which occurred at an exhibition in Brussels in The picture suffered much more than was later admitted, and no restorer, however skilful, can equal Vermeer.

33. Detail

34. Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop de la Tour; 1645
one of the figures is arched over the top of the canvas, and again the attention to mood is shown in the minute observation of the effects of light in certain areas
tells the Bible story in the simplest of terms. Only items essential for identifying the subject, in this case the paraphernalia of the carpenter's shop, are included.

35. Detail
The attention to mood is shown in the minute observation of the effects of light in certain areas, especially that of the translucency of the child's hand silhouetted against the candle, revealing even the dirt in the fingernails.

36. Rape of the Sabine Women Poussin;1636-1637
Poussin was the greatest as well as the most influential painter of 17th-century France.
Here he shows Romulus, ruler of the newly founded city of Rome, giving a prearranged signal with his cloak for the Roman soldiers to carry off the Sabine women to become their wives, thereby establishing themselves permanently in their new home.
The Sabine men, who had come unarmed to what they thought would be a religious celebration, are put to flight.
The subject enabled Poussin to display to the full his unsurpassed archaeological knowledge and his mastery of dramatic interpretation

37. Detail

38. The Garden of Love Rubens; 1638
The splendid vision of sensual dalliance once hung in Philip IV's bedchamber. The subject is a traditional medieval one, in which lovers were shown conventionally in a garden, sometimes with moral messages or symbols accompanying them. In the Italian Renaissance the theme had been represented in 'fête champêtres' such as the one attributed to Giorgione or Titian in the Louvre. This picture by Rubens is an important link in the tradition running from those works to the scenes of Watteau and Pater in the eighteenth century.

39. Palace at Versailles Hardouin-mansart; 1669-1685

40. Detail: Garden Front