1. ART HISTORY 132
Baroque: Italian

2. Baroque: Italian context: ecclesiastical Council of Trent (c. 1565)
part of the larger [Catholic] Counter Reformation
defined role assigned to arts in Catholic Church
headings:
1) clarity, simplicity & intelligibility
2) realistic interpretation
in contrast to Renaissance idealization
appropriateness of age, gender, type, expression, gesture & dress
3) emotional stimulus to piety

3. Baroque: Italian “Realist” tendency
Caravaggio ( )
biography: in permanent revolt against authority
fled Rome because charged w/ manslaughter
died of malaria
style: “realist” tendency
rejection of Mannerism
interest in surface textures & appearances
human figure not prettified
narrative: heightened emotion
moment of recognition
powerful foreshortening
light/shadow: dramatic chiaroscuro
spatial order: systematically destroys space between event in painting and viewer

4. Caravaggio Calling of St. Matthew (c. 1600) narrative: NT
moment of recognition
genre scene: anachronistic
mundane environment
contemporary clothes
composition: dynamic
narrow range of browns & flesh tones
punctuated by primaries that circulate vision through composition
light: chiaroscuro & “tenebrism”
dark setting envelopes occupants
sharply lit figures
e.g., Christ’s gesture highlighted by sharply descending diagonal

5. Caravaggio Conversion of St. Paul (c. 1600) narrative: NT
moment of recognition
emotional stimulus to piety
figures: realistic
setting: ambiguous & distilled
composition: clarity, simplicity & intelligibility
color: narrow range
punctuated by compliments
lighting: tenebrism & chiaroscuro
spatial order: shallow
dramatic foreshortening
overlapping

6. Caravaggio Entombment (c. 1600) narrative: emotional stimulus to piety
spatial order: shallow depth; distilled
foreshortening
overlapping
figures: realistic
agedness
corpse of Christ
discolored
dangling arm
composition: dynamic
compact, distilled arrangement
visually coherent
color: narrow range
punctuated by primaries
light: “tenebrism” & chiaroscuro
dark background
selective illumination
establishes volume & mass

7. Caravaggio Entombment (con’t.) figures: realistic (con’t.) Virgin Mary
realistic interpretation
in contrast to High Ren idealization
appropriate age, expression & dress
elderly
forehead wrinkled
sunken cheeks

8. Caravaggio’s Italian Baroque Entombment (c. 1600) vs
Caravaggio’s Italian Baroque Entombment (c. 1600) vs. Raphael’s High Renaissance Deposition (c. 1500)

9. CARAVAGGIO’s Italian Baroque Entombment (c. 1600) vs
CARAVAGGIO’s Italian Baroque Entombment (c. 1600) vs. MICHELANGELO’s High Renaissance Pieta (c. 1500)

10. Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus (c. 1600)

11. Baroque: Italian “classicizing” tendency
Carracci ( )
aesthetic: “classicizing”
movement against Mannerist artificiality
training: private teaching academy
drawing from life & Roman sculptures, coins, medallions
clear draftsmanship
medium: fresco (“Grand Manner”)
figures: heroic
characteristics:
illusionistic surfaces
High Renaissance decoration
draws inspiration from
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel
Raphael’s frescos in Vatican

12. CARRACCI’s “classicizing” tendency Italian Baroque Flight into Egypt (c. 1600)

13. Carracci Farnese Gallery style: “Classicizing” patron: Farnese
program: mythological themes
see Ovid's Metamorphosis
also alludes poem written by Lorenzo de Medici (c. 1475)
format: illusionistic enhancement of architectural space (“quadri riportati”)
themes: mythological
moralizing messages
hidden religious content

14. Carracci’s Triumph of Bacchus & Ariadne Farnese Gallery (c. 1600)

15. Carracci Farnese Gallery (con’t.) Polyphemus & Galatea
subject: mythological
P  cyclops
G sea nymph
figure: free adaptation of ancient Greek sculpture
Classical Discobolus
Hellenistic Laocoön
reverses legs
one arm extended down, other up
head tilted

16. Carracci’s Italian Baroque Polyphemus and Galatea (c. 1600 CE) vs
Carracci’s Italian Baroque Polyphemus and Galatea (c CE) vs. Myron’s Classical Greek Discus Thrower (c. 450 BCE)

17. Carracci’s Italian Baroque Polyphemus and Galatea (c. 1600 CE) vs
Carracci’s Italian Baroque Polyphemus and Galatea (c CE) vs. Hellenistic Greek Laocoön (c. 150 BCE)

18. RENI’s “classicizing” tendency Italian Baroque Aurora (1613-14)

19. Bernini (1598-1680) significance: successor to Michelangelo
unique ability to capture essence of narrative moment
aim: to synthesize/unify sculpture, painting and architecture into coherent conceptual and visual whole
patrons: many associated w/ papacy
early age, came to attention of papal nephew, Scipione Borghese
knighted at age 23, by Gregory XV
Urban VII, Alexander VII, Clement IX
quality of naturalism: realism
light: used as metaphorical device in religious settings
often, hidden light source intensifies focus of religious worship

20. Bernini Bust of Scipione Borghese (1632) subject: portraiture
patron: Cardinal Scipione Borghese
maternal uncle elected to papacy as Pope Paul V (1605)
placed SB in charge of internal and external political affairs
entrusted w/ finances of papacy and Borghese family
B’s first patron (c ); also patron of Caravaggio
composition: dynamic
narrative moment: mid-speech
quality of naturalism: realistic

21. Bernini Apollo and Daphne (1622-25) patron: Cardinal Scipione Borghese
subject matter: early 17C Italian poetry
see Ovid’s Metamorphoses
intellectual context: frustrated desire and enduring despair and pain, provoked by love
meaning: personal, special resonance for SB, who was widely ridiculed for his attraction to other men
narrative moment: transformative
A reaching out toward river nymph D, just as she is transformed into laurel tree by her father
prevent D from being burned by touch of god of sun
figural type: androgynous male (see Hellenistic Greek)

22. Bernini David (c. 1625) patron: Cardinal Scipione Borgheses
commissioned to decorate Galleria Borghese at private villa
style: “dynamic” tendencies
influences: Hellenistic Greek
Baroque qualities:
spatial order: active vs. self-contained
realism of detail & differentiation of texture
drapery: abstract play of folds & crevasses
attempting pictorial effects traditionally outside sculpture’s domain

23. Classical Greek Discus Thrower (c. 450 BCE) vs
Classical Greek Discus Thrower (c. 450 BCE) vs. BERNINI’s Italian Baroque David (c CE)

24. (Left) DONATELLO’s Italian Early Ren. David (c. 1450) vs
(Left) DONATELLO’s Italian Early Ren. David (c. 1450) vs. (right) BERNINI’s Italian Baroque David (c. 1625)

25. (Left) BERNINI’s Italian Baroque David (c. 1625) vs
(Left) BERNINI’s Italian Baroque David (c. 1625) vs. (right) MICHELANGELO’s Italian High Ren David (c. 1500)

26. Bernini Cornaro Chapel (c. 1650) function: funerary
dedicated: Saint Teresa
mystic of Spanish Counter-Reformation
1st Carmelite nun to be canonized
aesthetic influence: Humanism
materials: multimedia
marble panels
painted ceiling
gilded bronze
sculpture portraits
lighting: windows, both hidden & apparent

27. Detail (“transverberation”) of Bernini’s Ecstacy of St. Teresa (c

28. (Left) Detail of BERNINI’s Italian Baroque Ecstasy of St. Teresa (c
(Left) Detail of BERNINI’s Italian Baroque Ecstasy of St. Teresa (c. 1650) vs. (right) MICHELANGELO’s High Renaissance Pietá (c. 1500)

29. IMAGE INDEX
Slide 3: CARAVAGGIO. Detail of self-portrait from David ( ), Oil on wood, 90.5 x 116 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Slide 4: CARAVAGGIO. The Calling of Saint Matthew (1600), Oil on canvas, 10' 7 1/2" X 11' 2”, Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome.
Slide 5: Detail of Christ and St. Peter from CARAVAGGIO’s Calling of St. Matthew.
Slide 6: CARAVAGGIO. Conversion of St. Paul ( ), Oil on canvas, 90 1/2 x 70 in., Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.
Slide 7: CARAVAGGIO. Entombment (c. 1600), Oil on canvas, 300x cm., Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome.
Slide 8: Detail of Mary from CARAVAGGIO’s Entombment.
Slide 9: Comparison between CARAVAGGIO’s Entombment (c ) vs. RAPHAEL’s High Renaissance Descent from the Cross (c. 1500).

30. IMAGE INDEX
Slide 10: CARRAVAGIO. Supper at Emmaus (1601), Oil on canvas, by 55 in., National Gallery, London.
Slide 11: Portrait of Annibale CARRACCI.
Slide 12: CARACCI. Flight into Egypt (c ), Oil on canvas, 4’ x 7’6”, Galleria Doria Pamphili, Rome.
Slide 13: CARACCI. Loves of the Gods (c. 1600), Ceiling frescoes in the gallery, Palazzo Farnese, Rome.
Slide 14: CARRACCI. Bacchus and Ariadne, central ceiling panel from Farnese Gallery (c. 1600).
Slide 15: CARRACCI. Polyphemus and Galatea, from Farnese Gallery (c. 1600).
Slide 16: Comparison between (Left) CARRACCI’s Polyphemus and Galatea vs. (right) Classical Greek Discuss Thrower (c BCE).
Slide 17: Comparison between (left) CARRACCI’s Polyphemus and Galatea vs. (right) Hellenistic Greek Laocoön (c. 200 BCE).

31. IMAGE INDEX
Slide 18: RENI. Aurora ( ), ceiling fresco in the Casino Rospigliosi,Rome.
Slide 19: BERNINI. Bust of Scipione Borghese (1632), marble, 31in. high, Galleria Borghese, Rome.
Slide 20: BERNINI. Apollo and Daphne ( ), marble, 96 in. high, Galleria Borghese, Rome.
BERNINI. David (c. 1625), Marble, , lifesize, Galleria Borghese, Rome.
Slide 20: Portrait of Bernini by BACICCIO (c. 1665)
Slide 21: Comparison between Classical Greek Discuss Thrower (c BCE) vs. BERNINI’s Baroque David (c. 1625).
Slide 22: (Left) DONATELLO’s Early Renaissance David (c. 1425); and (right) BERNINI’s David (c. 1625)
Slide 23: (Left) MICHELANGELO’s HIGH Renaissance David (c ); and (right) BERNINI’s David (c. 1625)
Slide 24: BERNINI. Cornaro Chapel (c. 1650), Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.
Slide 25: BERNINI. The Ecstasy of Saint Therese (c. 1650), Marble, Cappella Cornaro, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.