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The baroque period was brought upon by the Catholic Church and the Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant Reformation. Hoping to bring back Protestants to the Catholic Church, artists were commissioned to show just how rich and decadent heaven can be. This was shown through an immense amount of ornamentation, texture, and gold. It was elaborate ornamentation for ornamentation sake. The more opulent the art, the "better" it was. Baroque art attempted to over-dramatize and make everything theatrical.

 

It is important to note that the term, Baroque was applied to this period much later. It is derived from the Spanish word, barrueco, meaning irregularly-shaped pearl.

 

IMPORTANT DATES

 

1602 - Establishment of Dutch East India Compay

1603 - Death of Queen Elizabeth I

1607 - Establishment of Jamestown

1610 - 1643 -  Louis XIII Reigns in France

1618 - 1648 - Thirty Years War (Catholics vs. Protestants

1643 - 1715 - Louis XIV Reigns in France

ARCHITECTURE

Music

 

Music developed greatly during the Baroque period. Many famous composers were working, including: Cavalli, Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach. Opera became very popular as the music was refined and politcal leaders demanded the high-end entertainment. Many other types of musical forms were invented like the concerto, sontat, sinfonia, and oratorio. Just as the aesthetics of art became more ornamental, the music followed that same form. A critic, Rameau, complained that the music "lacked coherent melody, was filled with unremitting dissonances, constantly changed key and meter, and speedily ran through every compostional device".

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Bissell, R. Ward, et al. Masters of Italian Baroque Painting. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 2005.

 

Carl, Klaus H., and Victoria Charles. Baroque Art. LaVergne; London: Sirrocco - Parkstone International, 2009.

 

Castillo, David R. Baroque Horrors: Roots of the Fantastic in the Age of Curiosities. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010.

 

Gal, Ofer, and Raz Chen-Morris. Baroque Science. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2013.

 

Mullett, Michael A. The Catholic Reformation. GB: Routledge Ltd, 1999.

 

Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Baroque Architecture. London: Faber & Faber/Electa, 1986.

 

NUSSDORFER, LAURIE. "CITY POLITICS IN BAROQUE ROME, 1623 - 1644 (ITALY)." ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 1985.

 

Palisca, Claude V. (1991) [1961]. Baroque Music. Prentice Hall History of Music (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

 

Toman, Roff, Achim Bwednorz, and Barbara Borngässer. Baroque: Theatrum Mundi, the World as a Work of Art. Potsdam, Germany: h.f. ullmann Pub, 2012.

 

Watkins, Ally (2011-02-24). "Caravaggio's Rap Sheet Reveals Him to Have Been a Lawless Sword-Obsessed Wildman, and a Terrible Renter". Artinfo.

 

 

Girl with a Pearl Earring. Johannes Vermeer. c. 1665. Mauritshuis, The Hague. Oil on Canvas.

 

 

The majority of art centered on only a few subjects. Catholic art tried to bridge the gap between heaven and earth and depicted mostly religious stories. These paintings idealized the human body to show the power of religion. Other painters decided to focus on the everyday man or woman. Portraits and scene work showed the common man doing common tasks. They were shown as they truly were, a realistic representation of life.

Rembrandt

 

Rembrant Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 - 1669) was born in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic (Netherlands). Many of his paintings revolve around the theme of religion, which remains unclear as to what faith he followed. His mother was a Roman Catholic and his father a Protestant. 

 

In 1624, Rembrandt opened a studio with Jan Lievens. In 1629, he was discovered by a statesman and obtained several commissions for the court of The Hague. Prince Frederik Hendrik purchased commissions from him until 1646. His wife, Saskia (whom appears in many of Rembrandt's paintings) and him moved to Amsterdam where he sold paintings through an art dealer with great success. 

 

Over his lifetime, Rembrandt collected thousands of paintings and antiques. To avoid filing for bankruptcy, his collection was auctioned off in 1656. Based on the list of sales that still survives, he owned things like: Old Master paintings, busts of Roman Emperoros, a suit of Japenese armor and other things from Asia, as well as rare minerals (Slive). The sales were not enough to get him out of debt, so he sold his house and printing press in 1660. He did not do very many paintings after this time.

Vermeer

 

Johannes Vermeer (1632 - 1675) lived most of his life in the city of Delft, Netherlands. Very little is known about Vermeer's life except for a few legal documents and comments from other artists. His father owned an art dealership and Vermeer took it over after his death. He did relatively few paintings compared to his contemporaries (thirty-seven) and most of them depicted ordinary people in two rooms of his house. He remained off the art radar until the 19th century when two art historians found his work and published an article about him. His popularity has grown since.

Peter Paul Rubens

 

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) was born in Siegen, Naussau-Dillenburg to two protestant parents. They fled Antwerp to Cologne shortly before Rubens was born in order to escape religious prosecution. Ironically, Rubens is known best for his Counter-reformation pieces trying to get Protestants to return to the Catholic faith.

 

Rubens was a humanist scholar and diplomat whom was knighted several times by high political figures. His painting skill developed under the mentorship of Tobias Verhaeght, Adam van Noort, and Otto van Veen. In 1598, he joined the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master. He traveled all over Europe copying the styles of great artists. 

 

When his mother became ill in 1610, Rubens moved closer to her and opened a studio. His studio is now the Rubenshuis Museum in Antwerp. He had multiple students including Anthony van Dyck (who later taught William Dobson).

Caravaggio

 

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1572 - 1610) was born in Milan, Italy to a well-off family. In 1576, his family left Milan and moved to Caravaggio to escape a plague. Caravaggio trained under Simone Peterzano (whom trained under Titian). With the surplus of churches being built in Rome, Caravaggio moved there in his early twenties hoping to get a job painting them. It worked. His first commision the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew was such a success that he had little trouble obtaining commissions the rest of his life. Outside of his art, Caravaggio's life was a mess. He was jailed on several occastions, vandalized his own apartment, and had a death warrent issued for him by the Pope (Watkins).

 

After he died from mysterious circumstances on his way to Rome to recieve a pardon for killing several people, his work was forgotten. In the 20th century, art historians found him again and have attributed him as one of the more important painters of the Baroque period.

Velazquez

 

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (1599 - 1660) was a Spanish painter, born in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. He was a painter for the court of King Philip IV. He apprenticed under Francisco de Herrara at twelve years old when he apprenticed for Francisco Pacheco. 

 

King Philip IV picked him up as a court painter. He not only painted portraits for him, but also lived and worked on the royal grounds. In 1627, King Philip IV created a competition to find the best painter in Spain and Velazquez won. Valezquez ended up painting forty portraits for Philip.

 

Luckily, Velazquez's connection to the royal family allowed him to escape the censorship of the Spanish Inquistion. He has released works, particularly one of a female nude, that would have not been allowed under the Spanish thumb.

Claude Lorraine

 

Claude Lorrain (1600 - 1682) was a french painter who spent most of his life in Italy. He is most known for his landscape paintings. 

 

Lorrain spent most of his life traveling the countryside. He traveled frequently between Marseilles, Genoa and Venice. He received commissions by the French Ambassador in Rome, Cardinal Bentivoglio, Pope Urban VIII, and the King of Spain.

 

In 1663, Claude fell seriously ill from gout. Luckily, he recovered and went on to paint several more works, many of his most famous.

 

 

William Dobson

 

William Dobson (1611 - 1646) was born in London, England. His portraits made him one of the first notable English painters. His father was a decorative artist. Dobson was apprenticed to William Peake and Francis Cleyn. He had access to the Royal Collection, and gained skill by copying works by Titian and van Dyck. After van Dyck's death, Dobson was the serjeant painter to the King. 

 

Throughout his life, Dobson painted hundreds of portraits. As many as sixty have survived. 

Peace of Westphalia

 

Consisting of three major treaties, the Peace of Westphalia ended many wars and brought an allegiance throughout much of Europe. Although conflict still arose, these treaties paved the way for future alliances throughout the European continent. The first treaty, the Peace of Munster ended the Eighty Years' War (1568 - 1648) between the Dutch Republic and Spain. The second and third, the Treaty of Munster and the Treaty of Osnabruck, ended the Thirty Years' War between the Holy Roman Empire and France, Sweden, and others.

Self-Portrait. William Dobson. Date unknown. National Portrait Gallery. Oil on canvas.

Self-Portrait. Claude Lorrain. Date Unknown. Engraving.

Self-Portrait. Velazquez. c. 1640. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia. Oil on canvas.

Portrait of Caravaggio. Ottavio Leoni. c. 1621. Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence. Chalk on paper.

Self-Portrait. Peter Paul Rubens. c. 1623. Royal Collection. Oil on canvas.

Self-Portrait. Detail of the painting The Procuress Vermeer. c. 1656.Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden. Oil on canvas.

Self-portrait. Rembrandt. c. 1658. Frick Collection, New York. Oil on canvas.

ARTISTS

BAROQUE

Baroque architecture used Roman and Renaissance style as a basis to create a new, whimsical and highly theatrical style. The purpose of the excessive use of gold and ornamentation was to entice people back to the Catholic Church by signafying the power of God. Baroque artists and architects explored how light and shadow play off architectural elements of a space. Although most of the exteriors of Baroque buildings tend to be monocromatic and more reminiscent of the Reniassance style, the interior is a burst of color and texture that can only be attributed to the Baroque period.

COSTUMES

Fashion began to change quickly because mass producing clothing begins. With the ability to produce clothing on a larger scale, there was an ability to show nationalism and allegiance to their home country through clothing. The clothing period during this time is most known for the Cavalier Period (1620s - 1660s). Like the art and architecture, costumes were still the Elizabethan silhouette, but removed all of the stiffness and added a lot of decorative elements. It is trademarked by the flacid style of all of the garments.

 

WOMEN: During the Cavalier Period, women's clothing loses all of the stiff structure underneath. Women's bodices had a tabbed peplum added that aided in softening the strong angularity of the stomacher. The waistline raised slightly and the bodices had some structure to them. However, the women did not wear corsets in this period. The skirts were kicked out by bum rolls, but we lost all of the structure of the farthingale. The shoulders were sloped which were accentuated by the dropped shoulder seam and the collars that fell off the shoulder. Women's hair were typically pulled back in a bun with the sides having a bad perm. There were still high foreheads with comb-overs and bad bangs.

 

MEN: During the Cavalier Period, men's clothes were still the artificial Elizabethan silhouette, but if you removed all of the padding and stiffness. Surface decoration, like bows, was added in abundance. Points were used as decoration instead of functional. Most closures were hook and eyes. The chemise evolved into a linen under shirt. Waistlines on the doublet moved higher and was left open below the waist to show the shirt. To emphasize the high waist, men wore capes or mantels draped over one shoulder. Slashing diminished to a single slash on sleeves instead of multiple. Paning was popular and was done with pinking shears. The farther north you went, the more rigid and formal the structure was (Puritan). Men's hair was longer to compensate for the lower collars. Towards the end of the period, lots and lots of decoration was used. The doublet can be cropped at the waist and pants became fuller at the knee, many times looking like skirts. Full bottomed curl wigs were becoming fashionable for men.

 

 

THEATRE

The baroque style brought a lot of complexity to theatre and opera. New technological advancements in theatrical scenery and mechanisms were critical to successfully pull of the periods taste for elaborate grandeiour. Several theatrical elements used during this period are raked stages, pole and chariot systems and Deus ex Machina. Scenic designers became very important, most notably Indigo Jones. Another element that sticks around is the intermezzo, a short musical piece between acts. It is now the modern intermission.

 

PLAYWRIGHTS:

 

Pierre Corneille (1606 - 1684)                                   Moliere (1622 - 1673)                         Jean Racine (1639 - 1699)

           Le Cid  - 1637                                                              Tartuffe  - 1664                                      Phedre - 1677

           Horace - 1640                                                             Don Juan - 1665                                     Esther - 1689

                                                                                                 Le Misanthrope - 1666

STYLES MORGUE

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