The term Baroque was originally used as a critical term in order to insult the movement and discourage artists from painting using it's techniques, claiming it was unnecessarily extravagant and complex in it's features, it is only modernly that it's themes and ideas have become more popular and have been regarded as a form of high art from the 17th Century. It is described as a Dionysian art period.
In society at this time, there was a division of faith between Catholic and Protestant Europe, with the former becoming immersed in the Baroque style of art and architecture. This resulted in such designs as the Palace of Versailles, the fountains in Rome and churches. However, Protestantism aimed to remove the religious connotations in art, whitewashing all interiors and looking forwards to new ideas free from the constraints of Catholicism.
Subjects of Baroque Art
As previously explored, Baroque art featured heavily a return to an extreme sense of religion, focusing on biblical figures, mythological figures and the inclusion of allegorical figures in their paintings as well as more broad themes of chastity, peace faith and modesty. An example of an artist who accentuates these themes is Guido Reni who is known as a Bolognese master, he depicted emotion intensely with highly ornate scenes based on mythology e.g. Lady with a Lapis Lazuli Bowl c. 1630's and St Mary Magdalene c. 1642.
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| Guido Reni's "St Mary Magdalene" c. 1642. |
The Milan born artist was the most famous of Baroque artists and the most controversial high profile artist to date, his criminal record haunted by acts of crime and even murder. He was know for his unconventional methods of acquiring models for his paintings. However, despite this his artwork is some of the most influential throughout time.
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| "The Supper at Emmaus" by Caravaggio, painted in 1601. |
His paintings were often claimed in the 20th Century as using the camera obscura in order to draw the image and was also plagued by rumours that he had been a murderer and fished a prostitute from a river in order to use as a model for one of his paintings.
Chiaroscuro
The technique of chiaroscuro, developed lightly during the Northern Renaissance, that creates a source of light within a scene, i.e. from a candle or unnatural source, illuminating certain sections of the scene and darkening the other tones, looking more at tonal values rather than line. It creates heavy shadows and dingy compositions as shown in the image below.
Georges de la Tour is an artist that used chiaroscuro as a tool in order to achieve light and tonal values. often from candlelight in order to illuminate features closely, his other focus being on peasant scenes using oil paints.
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| "Mary Magdalene with a Night Light" by Georges de la Tour, Oil Painting, c. 1635. |
Key Artists
Other important artists include Juan Sanchez Cotan, a Spanish painter who was the first, particularly in the Baroque period, to look primarily at still life compositions. It looks at the existence of death, noticable in the way chiaroscuro is used to create a sense of recession into the darkness of the background, making the image appear more sinister with rich colours ascending out of the black. In Still Life with Game Fowl, Vegetables and Fruits from 1602. He named this a bodegon, often using dead plants, animals and rotting food to illustrate his intentions.
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| "Still Life with Game Fowl, Vegetables and Fruits" by Juan Sanchez Cotan in 1602. |
In conclusion to the Baroque era of art, it looks at a highly stylized form of lighting and tone. It's focused on observation and the combining of people and objects into composition rather than focusing on singular objects it centres around movement and the recession into darkness. Baroque art began as a heavily criticized art period, but by the 20th Century had become important to fine art in accordance with it's painting techniques.
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