AP European History

Barron’s

The Reformation

The Baroque Period of Art

The visual arts began to flourish and become more awe-inspiring; thus, Baroque art was born. The general intent of the Baroque period was to create a unity where all forms of art in a single expressive purpose could converge toward a single aim: to engage the viewer physically and emotionally. This art was meant to overpower the viewer and make the viewer feel small in comparison to the art and its subject matter. The term “Baroque” derives from a Portuguese word jewelers used to denote an irregularity in a misshapen or irregular pearl. Baroque therefore literally meant imperfect, grotesque, or absurd. The Baroque era began in the late sixteenth century in Italy and ended in some areas around the early nineteenth century.

• • The term also refers to the seventeenth century as a whole and is sometimes used as a general term indicating eccentric or fanciful modes of paintings, architecture, sculpture, dress, or behavior in any period.
• • Baroque art spread throughout Western Europe and into Russia and other places in Europe influenced by the court of Louis XIV.
• • Also found in Latin America, the English colonies, and northern Europe.
  1. Never had the Western world known such active international exchange in the intellectual field.
  2. The internationalism was not checked by differences in religious belief.
     1. For example, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), a Flemish painter, worked in Italy, France, Spain, and England.
     2. Rubens was considered a “European” painter, whereas Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), a Neoclassical French painter, worked only in France for most of his life.
• • Baroque art was an instrument of the Counter-Reformation, which took place from 1545 until the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648.
  1. The Catholic Church was losing its followers in rapid numbers due to the rise of Protestantism.
     1. Created the Council of Trent to set about renovating the Catholic Church.
     2. The society at this time was generally illiterate.
  2. Knowing this, the Catholic Church decided to bring back the wayward Catholics through art.
     1. Baroque artists frequently capitalized on the immediacy of these emotional reactions, and spiritual art became an art of sensation.
     2. Its effect was not to elevate the spirit but to stagger and overpower the senses.
• • Baroque art was larger than life, escaping boundaries and overpowering the viewer.
• • It is important to contrast the Baroque style with that of the Calvinist painters of the Dutch Golden Age who concentrated on realistic details in portraits and the interiors of buildings in the works of such artists as Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals. Their works were much smaller and more detailed, and attempted to shed insights into slices of life and individual personalities.
  1. Rembrandt Van Rijn’s (1606-1669) innovative portraits and use of light
  2. Johannes Vermeer’s (1632-1675) clear domestic scenes
  3. Franz Hals’s (c.1582-1666) portraits of wealthy citizens of Antwerp and Amsterdam

Some examples of Baroque painters and their defining characteristics include:

• • Peter Paul Rubens’s (1577-1640) fleshy nudes and overwhelming biblical scenes
• • Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s (1571-1610) contrast of light and dark
• • Artemisia Gentileschi’s (1593-1652) paintings of dramatic tension and suffering
  1. Beyond the realm of the two-dimensional
• • Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1650) was the greatest sculptor of the era.

In the musical world:

• • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was the ultimate Baroque composer
• • Claudio Monteverdi (1547-1643) who wrote the oldest opera still performed, Orfeo
• • Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) who composed The Four Seasons
• • George F. Handel (1685-1759) whose Messiah has become a classic.

Eventually, the Baroque style led to the Rococo Style of art, characterized by elegance, pleasantness, and frivolity. It greatly contrasted the emotional grandeur of the Baroque.