Seventeenth-Century Art in Europe
History
The intellectual and political forces set in motion by the Renaissance and Reformation of the 15th and 16th centuries intensified in the 17th century. Religious wars continued, although gradually the Protestant forces gained control in the north, where Spain recognized the independence of the Dutch Republic in 1648. In Rome an energized papacy, aided by the new Jesuit Order, maintained the primacy of Catholicism in the southern Europe, the Holy Roman Empire, and France.
Introduction
• As rulers' economic power waned, artists found patrons in the Church and urban middle class.
• Baroque art deliberately evokes intense emotional responses from viewers. Dramatically lit, theatrical compositions often combine several media within a single work as artists foreground their technical virtuosity.
• A version of Classicism also arose, inspiring portraiture, genre paintings, still lifes, and religious scenes in lifelike fashion.
How to recognize Baroque art
• This dramatic scene, created by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) between 1645 and 1652, represents a famous vision described with starting, physical clarity be Teresa, in which an angel pierced her repeatedly with an arrow, transporting her to a state of ecstatic oneness with God, charged with erotic associations.
• Caravaggio's use of tenebrism (chiaroscuro where selected forms are highlighted against a dark background) inspired generations of painters. Caravaggio's use of tenebrism (chiaroscuro where selected forms are highlighted against a dark background) inspired generations of painters.
Baroque
• The most important factors during the Baroque era were the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation; the development of the Baroque style was considered to be closely linked with the Catholic Church. The popularity of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Catholic Church, which had decided at the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes and direct emotional involvement in response to the Protestant Reformation.
• The Baroque style is characterized by exaggerated motion and clear detail used to produce drama, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, and music.
• The chiaroscuro technique refers to the interplay between light and dark that was often used in Baroque paintings of dimly lit scenes to produce a very high-contrast, dramatic atmosphere.
• Famous painters of the Baroque era include Rubens, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt. In music, the Baroque style makes up a large part of the classical canon, such as Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi.
• The later Baroque style was termed Rococo, a style characterized by increasingly decorative and elaborate works.
Caravaggio - Bacchus
Caravaggio, Bacchus, 1595, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.
Caravaggio is not only attempting to depict Bacchus, but also a boy dressed up as Bacchus. It Is a sensual scene inviting the viewer to succumb to their carnal desires. The boy is youthful and handsome, round yet muscular. He barely makes an attempt to keep his robes on as he coaxes the viewer to join him with a suggestive look in his eye. In the basket there is a bursting pomegranate as well as a rotting apple. Caravaggio uses these elements together to hint at the Vanitas theme. Youth and pleasure are fleeting. Everything must succumb to death and rot. It is also possible that the rotting apple simply represents fermentation, suggesting not only that fermentation is literally rot, but also that improper methods of fermentation lead to the personification of rot.
Rembrandt - Self-portrait with Two Circles
Rembrandt, Self-portrait with Two Circles, c. 1665 – 69, oil on canvas, 114.3 x 94 cm (Kenwood House)
As in many of the artist's late works, the painting is characterized by an improvisational handling, with details that read as unfinished. There are areas, such as the face and the right side of the hat, where a gray layer of paint has been used as a tonal middle ground, upon which bold lights and rich dark accents have been added, sometimes with rapid strokes of paint applied wet-into-wet. In several places, Rembrandt "drew" into the paint while it was still wet, incising lines in the mustache, left eyebrow, and shirt collar. The hands, palette, brushes, and fur lining of the artist's gown, or tabbaard, were painted with great rapidity. Whether Rembrandt intended to more fully finish these areas is not known, but the painting's overall forcefulness renders concern for its completion superfluous.
Peter Paul Rubens - The Garden of Love
Peter Paul Rubens, The Garden of Love, 1630-1631, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
In this 6.5 ft x 9.4 ft piece, a large group of well-dressed persons in the style of the 17th century lounge about, picnicking in an idyllic garden. Everyone is finely dressed, exercising their wealth and high class status. This demonstrates the depth of a full court scene in a recessional manner. Cupids interact with the individuals, bringing mythological figures into a realistic garden scene to produce a fantastical painting. All around the group, symbols of matrimonial love can be found including: the cupids, a pair of doves, flower crowns, music making, and Juno’s peacock. The dogs represent loyalty and fealty. The garden represents Paradise, but also fertility. This painting is an allegory and exaltation of love and marriage, as well as the merry company.