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The Baroque (UK: /bəˈrɒk/, US: /bəˈroʊk/; French: [baʁɔk]) is a style of architecture, music, dance,
painting, sculpture and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the
1740s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including the Iberian Peninsula it
continued, together with new styles, until the first decade of the 1800s. It followed Renaissance
art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (in the past often referred to as "late Baroque")
and Neoclassical styles. It was encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the
simplicity and austerity of Protestant architecture, art and music, though Lutheran Baroque art
developed in parts of Europe as well.  
[1]

The Baroque style used contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep colour, grandeur and
surprise to achieve a sense of awe. The style began at the start of the 17th century in Rome, then
spread rapidly to France, northern Italy, Spain and Portugal, then to Austria, southern Germany
and Russia. By the 1730s, it had evolved into an even more flamboyant style, called rocaille or
Rococo, which appeared in France and Central Europe until the mid to late 18th century. 

In 1527 Europe, religious dominance had the power to direct

and inform the content and climate of society's artistic output. At the time,
a backlash against the conservative Protestant Reformation was compelled
by the Catholic Church to re-establish its importance and grandeur within
society. Artists followed suit by reviving Renaissance ideals of beauty,
infusing into the era's artwork, music, and architecture a revived nod to
classicism further enhanced by a new exuberant extravagance and
penchant for the ornate. This highly embellished style was coined Baroque
and became marked by its innovative techniques and details, delivering a
lush new visual language into what had been a relatively toned down
period for art. 
Baroque churches became a pivotal example of the invigorated emphasis
on the glory of Catholicism with their designs that incorporated a large
central space with a dome or cupola high overhead, allowing light to
illuminate the space below. The dome was one of the central symbolic
features of baroque architecture illustrating the union between the
heavens and the earth. Extremely intricate interiors, rife with
ornamentation, allowed for a feeling of being fully immersed within an
elevated and sacred space. 
The defining characteristics of the Baroque style were: real or implied
movement, an attempt to represent infinity, an emphasis on light and its
effects, and a focus on the theatrical. A number of techniques were
introduced, or further developed, by Baroque artists to accomplish these
effects including quadro riportato (frescos that incorporated the illusion of
being composed of a series of framed paintings), quadrature (ceiling
painting), and trompe l'oeil techniques. This allowed for a blurring of the
boundaries between painting, sculpture, and architecture that was
signature to the movement. 
Baroque ushered in a new era for European sculpture, led largely by the
work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which emphasized sensual richness, dramatic
realism, intense emotion, and movement. In Baroque sculpture figures
assumed new importance, often spiraling outward from a central vortex,
reaching into the surrounding space, meant to be seen in the round from
multiple perspectives. 
The use of chiaroscuro, in which the treatment of light and dark in an
artwork helped to create dramatic tension, was a key component in
Baroque artwork. It was further evolved by Baroque master Caravaggio
into tenebrism, which used the intensification of contrast within dark
atmospheric scenes to spotlight particular elements. 
The origin of the term Baroque is a bit ambiguous. Many scholars think it
was derived from the Portuguese barrocco, meaning an imperfect or
irregularly shaped pearl. And some, like the philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau thought it was derived from the Italian barocco, a term used to
describe an obstacle in formal logic in the medieval period. In growing
usage the term originally contained negative connotations, the artwork
within its cadre viewed as bizarre and sometimes ostentatious. But in 1888
Heinrich Wölfflin's Renaissance und Barock (1888), the term was officially
used as a simple descriptive to denote the distinct artistic style. 

 
 
The Calling of St Matthew (1599-1600) 
Artist: Caravaggio 
Artwork description & Analysis: This work shows a dark tavern where a
number of men dressed in contemporary clothing have turned to face
Christ, his right arm pointing toward St. Matthew. The light, creating a
diagonal that follows Christ's gesture, highlights the expressions and
gestures of the men, conveying a sense of the dramatic arrival of the
divine. The figures are depicted realistically, their strong muscled calves
and thighs in mid-movement. The man at the end of the table is slumped
over counting coins. 
 
This work was one of three paintings that the artist created in a
commission to depict the signature moments in the life of St. Matthew.
Employing chiaroscuro, the intense contrast of light and dark, the work
exhibits the direct realism and intense sense of psychological drama that
distinguished Caravaggio's work. His technique involved using ordinary
people as models and painting them directly, leaving out the drawing
stage, and, as a result, as art curator Letizia Treves said, he "made these
Biblical stories so vivid, he brought them into his own time - and he
involves you, so that you don't just passively watch. Even today, you don't
need to know the story...to feel involved in the drama." 
 
In the early 1600s, noted artists including Rubens, Velázquez, Rembrandt,
and the Caravaggists throughout Europe were widely influenced by
Caravaggio's style. He also influenced lesser-known artists like Dirck van
Baburen, Gerrit van Honthorst, and Valentin de Boulogne. By the end of
the century, his work fell into obscurity displaced by a rising emphasis on
classicism, and wasn't revived until the mid-20th century with a major
exhibit in Milan in 1951. His work has again become influential, for
example, upon photographer David LaChappelle, the artist Mat Collishaw,
and filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Scorsese said of his work, "You come upon
the scene midway and you're immersed in it ... It was like modern staging
in film: it was so powerful and direct." 
Oil on canvas - San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome 

 
Le debarquement de Marie de Médicis au port de Marseille le
3 November (c. 1622-1625) 
Artist: Peter Paul Rubens 
Artwork description & Analysis: This painting depicts the arrival of The
Queen of France Marie de' Medici, dressed in resplendent silver,
accompanied by the Grand Duchess of Tuscany and the Duchess of
Mantua, as she disembarks on a red parapet. A soldier in a blue cloak
patterned with gold fleur-de-lis to signify France, opens his arms to greet
her. Above her, a mythological winged figure, representing Fame with two
trumpets, heralds her arrival to marry King Henry IV. The diagonal of the
red parapet that extends from the gold prow of the ship creates a sense of
movement and it also divides the painting into two different worlds; the
elegant and refined world of nobility above, and the classical mythological
scene below. Three Greek Naiads, goddesses of the sea who ensured safe
voyages, fill the lower frame. To their left, Neptune with a gray beard holds
out his arm to calm the sea, while next to him, the god Fortune leans
against the boat while steering it. These mythological figures lend grandeur
and allegorical meaning to the Queen's arrival, but, at the same time, the
three nude Naiads overshadow the event with their dynamic sensuality. 
 
Rubens' masterful compositions that combined a wealth of history and
allegory with depictions of signature moments in scenes of visual
exuberance were much in demand with the nobility. The unabashed
sensuality of his full-figured female nudes was also innovative, and so
distinctive they are still dubbed as "Rubenesques." As art critic Mark
Hudson wrote, "He imported the proto-baroque painting of Titian and
Michelangelo and the gritty realism of Caravaggio into Northern Europe,
fusing them into a physically gigantic, sensually overloaded, triumphantly
Catholic art." 

 
Judith and Holofernes (c. 1620-1621) 
Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi 
Artwork description & Analysis: This dynamic painting depicts the Biblical
story of the pious widow Judith and her attendant Abra as they behead the
struggling Assyrian general Holofernes. When Holofernes besieged and
threatened to destroy her city, Judith adorned herself and went out to
meet him on the pretext of offering information. Intending to seduce her,
he invited her into his tent for dinner but as the Bible says, "was so
enchanted with her that he drank far more wine than he had drunk on any
other day in his life." Taking a sword, Judith beheaded him and returned
with his head in a basket to the city, where she was acclaimed as a hero.
Unlike traditional depictions which emphasized Judith's beauty and
delicacy and portrayed Abra as an observing witness, this work innovatively
emphasizes the women's strength, their expressions conveying determined
resolve, as they work together, sleeves rolled up, to do a difficult but
necessary task. The intense physicality and violence of the depiction, as art
historian Esperança Camara wrote, "to this day...strikes its viewers with
both revulsion and awe at the skill of the artist who so convincingly
transformed paint into blood." 
 
This particular subject was popular in Renaissance Florence, as seen in
Donatello's statue Judith and Holofernes (1460). In the Baroque period, it
became identified with the Church Militant, an expression of the victory of
Christianity. But Gentileschi's portrayal took on a unique immediacy as it
was informed by a personal traumatic experience. She portrayed herself as
Judith and Holofernes resembles the artist Agostino Tassi, her art tutor
who raped her. In 1612 he was put on trial (although it was Gentileschi who
was tortured to ascertain her truthfulness), found guilty, and spent eight
months in prison before being pardoned early into his sentence. Even
though he had been convicted of rape previously and suspected of having
murdered his wife, Tassi benefited from both the gender privileges of the
era and the protection that powerful patrons extended to artists. Pope
Innocent X said, "Tassi is the only one of these artists who has never
disappointed me," meaning because he never pretended to be a man of
honor. As art critic Jonathan Jones wrote, "she communicated a powerful
personal vision," that "fought back against the male violence that
dominated the world she lived in." Perhaps as a result of that intense
personal vision, her work was later hidden away. By the 1700s it was
viewed as 'too violent.' In her own time, as Jones wrote, "the visceral
power of her paintings made her one of the most famous artists in
Europe." Feminist artists, including Judy Chicago and the Guerilla Girls in
the 1970s, subsequently rediscovered her work. 
Oil on canvas - Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy 

MORE BAROQUE ART AND ARCHITECTURE

ARTWORK AND ANALYSIS: 
  
A Brief History of Neoclassical Art 
“The only way for us to become great, or even inimitable if possible, is to imitate the Greeks.” 
—Johann Joachim Winckelmann 
As the term implies, neoclassicism is a revival of the classical past. The movement began around
the middle of the 18th century, marking a time in art history when artists began to imitate Greek
and Roman antiquity and the artists of the Renaissance. Apart from Diderot, other art critics
desired a “better” kind of art that followed the styles of past masters like Nicolas Poussin
(French, 1594–1665), Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564), and Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520) who
were very much influenced by the classical world. 
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, founder of modern archeology and art history, praised the Greeks
and believed them to be as close to perfection as possible. Following Winckelmann’s words,
many artists began to study Greek architecture and create classically inspired works of art. In
1738, excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum led to the finding of well-preserved, colorful
paintings, mosaics, and pottery. These discoveries only fueled artistic fascination and curiosity for
antiquity, and artists began to use this new knowledge of the past in their art, creating their own
“new” classical style that was extremely different from the Rococo—a style popular during the
early to mid-18th century. 
One such artist was Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780–1867). His painting of
Oedipus and the Sphinx (1808) represents a scene from the classical Greek plays of Sophocles.
Oedipus, the protagonist of the plays, finds himself face to face with a Sphinx, who asks him the
now-famous riddle: It walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the
evening. Aside from the subject matter drawing inspiration from Greek culture, the physical
characteristics are traditionally classical: beauty, harmony, balance, and line. The use of strict
horizontal and vertical lines, clearly seen in Oedipus’s stance, is a very important neoclassical
characteristic that helps create a harmonious and balanced composition. Though Ingres’s image
of Oedipus does not portray the idealized human form essential to classicism, his depiction of the
male figure agrees with Winckelmann’s idea of “imperfect nature.” Perfection lies within the
imagination, and the image one creates in reality is only the idea of perfection. 
 

  

BEGINNINGS OF NEOCLASSICISM 
Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain 
Neoclassicism adopted the hierarchy of painting that was established by
the French Royal Academy of the Arts in 1669. History painting, which
included subjects from the Bible, classical mythology, and history, was
ranked as the top category, followed by portraiture, genre painting,
landscapes, and still-lifes. This hierarchy, was used to evaluate works
submitted for the Salon or for prizes like the illustrious Prix de Rome, and
influenced the financial value of works for patrons and collectors. The
works of Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain were revered as the ideal
exemplars of history painting, and both artists were primary influences
upon Neoclassicism. 
While Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain were both French Baroque artists
who spent most of their working lives in Rome, it was their distinctive
emphasis on a more classical approach that appealed to Neoclassical
artists. Claude, as he is commonly called, painted landscapes, using
naturalistic detail and the observation of light and its effects, with figures
from mythological or Biblical scenes, as seen in his A landscape with Apollo
guarding the herds of Admetus and Mercury stealing them (1645) An effect
of orderly harmony was conveyed in many of his works, which appealed to
Neoclassicism's belief that art should express the ideal virtues. 

 
While he was also a noted painter of religious subjects, Nicholas Poussin's
mythological and historical scenes were his primary influence on
Neoclassicism. His The Death of Germanicus (1627) made him famous in his
own time, and influenced Jacques-Louis David as well as Benjamin West
whose The Death of General Wolfe (1770) draws upon the work. Though
the works of Venetian Renaissance artist Titian influenced his color palette,
Poussin's compositions emphasized clarity and logic, and his figurative
treatments favored strong lines. 
The Grand Tour 
 
Neoclassicism was inspired by the discovery of ancient Greek and Roman
archeological sites and artifacts that became known throughout Europe in
popular illustrated reports of various travel expeditions. Scholars such as
James Stuart and Nicholas Revett made a systematic effort to catalog and
record the past in works like their Antiquities of Athens (1762). Wanting to
see these works first hand, young European aristocrats on the Grand Tour,
a traditional and educational rite of passage, traveled to Italy "in search of
art, culture, and the roots of Western civilization," as cultural critic Matt
Gross wrote. Rome with its Roman ruins, Renaissance works, and recently
discovered antiquities became a major stop. Famous artists, such as
Pompeo Batoni and Antonio Canova, held open studios as many of these
aristocratic tourists were both avid collectors and commissioned various
works. 
Johann Joachim Winckelmann 
 
Neoclassicism began in Rome, as Johann Joachim Winckelmann's Thoughts
on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1750) played a
leading role in establishing the aesthetic and theory of Neoclassicism.
Though German, he lived most of his life in Rome where several notable
Catholic officials became his patrons. Arguing that art should strive toward
"noble simplicity and calm grandeur," he advocated, "the one way for us to
become great, perhaps inimitable, is by imitating the ancients." The work,
which made him famous, was widely translated, first into French, then into
English by the artist Henry Fuseli in 1765. 
 
 
 
 
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