Seven: Feb. 24 & Feb. 29
Palette
(1) A thin, usually oval or oblong board with a thumbhole at one end, used by painters to hold and mix their colors. (2) The range of colors used by a particular painter. (3) In Egyptian art, a slate slab, usually decorated with sculpture in low relief. The small ones with a recessed circular area on one side are thought to have been used for eye makeup. The larger ones were commemorative objects.
Basilica
(1) In ancient Roman architecture, a large, oblong building used as a public meeting place and hall of justice. It generally includes a nave, side aisles, and one or more apses. (2) In Christian architecture, a longitudinal church derived from the Roman basilica and having a nave, an apse, two or four side aisles or side chapels, and sometimes a narthex. (3) Any one of the seven original churches of Rome or other churches accorded the same religious privileges.
Nave
(1) The central aisle of a Roman basilica, as distinguished from the side aisles. (2) The same section of a Christian basilican church extending from the entrance to the apse or transept.
Baldacchino
A canopy usually built over an altar. The most important one is Bernini's construction for St. Peter's in Rome.
Transept
A cross arm in a basilican church placed at right angles to the nave and usually separating it from the choir or apse.
Foreshortening
A method of reducing or distorting the parts of a represented object that are not parallel to the picture plane in order to convey the impression of three dimensions as perceived by the human eye.
Crypt
A space, usually vaulted, in a church that sometimes causes the floor of the choir to be raised above that of the nave; often used as a place for tombs and small chapels.
Naturalism
A style of art that aims to depict the natural world as it appears.
Artist: Gianlorenzo Bernini Piece: Baldacchino Medium: Gilt bronze Year: 1624-1633
After Maderno's death in 1629, his assistant Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) assumed the title "architect of St. Peter's." Considering himself Michelangelo's successor as both architect and sculptor, Bernini directed the building campaign and coordinated the decoration and sculpture within the church as well. Given these tasks, the enormous size of St. Peter's posed equal challenges for anyone seeking to integrate architecture and sculpture. How could its vastness be related to the human scale and given a measure of emotional warmth? Once the nave was extended following Maderno's design, Bernini realized that the vast interior needed an internal focal point. His response was to create the monumental sculptural/architectural composite form, known as the Baldacchino, the "canopy" for the main altar of St. Peter's, at the very crossing of the transept and the nave, directly under Michelangelo's domeand just above the actual crypt of St. Peter where the pope would celebrate Mass. This nearly 100-foot piece created mostly in bronze stripped from the ancient Pantheon stands on four twisted columns, reminiscent of those from the original St. Peter's (and thought, too, to replicate those of Solomon's Temple). Rather than an architectural entablature mounted between the columns, Bernini inventively suggests fabric hanging between them. He used actual leaves, vines, fruits, and even lizards and cast them in bronze for the decoration. The Baldacchino is a splendid fusion of sculpture and architecture. At its corners are statues of angels and vigorously curved scrolls, which raise a cross above a golden orb, the symbol of the triumph of Christianity throughout the world. The entire structure is so alive with expressive energy that it may be considered as the epitome of Baroque style. In a related tribute, we see through the columns of the Baldacchino to the sculptural reliquary of the throne of St. Peter, the Cathedra Petri in the apse of the church, also designed by Bernini. Photo Scala, Florence The papal insignia—the triple crown and crossed keys of St. Peter—and the coat of arms of the pope under whose patronage this structure was created—the Barberini bees of Urban VIII—are significant elements of decoration in the Baldacchino. These same identifiers can also be seen in Cortona's Barberini ceiling Bernini's Baldacchino honors not just the power and majesty of God, but that of his emissary on earth, the pope. Bernini's relationship with the pope was one of the most successful in the history of patronage. Indeed, upon his elevation to the papacy, Urban VIII was said to have told the artist: "It is your great good luck, Cavaliere, to see Maffeo Barberini pope; but We are even luckier in that Cavaliere Bernini lives at the time of our pontificate." (However, the artistic aims of this pope drained the papal treasury and both the pope and, by association, Bernini were blamed for the excesses after Urban's death.) As Bernini directed our attention within the church, he also (later, under the patronage of Pope Alexander VII [r. 1655-1667] orchestrated our entrance into St. Peter's. Thus, he molded the open space in front of the façade into a magnificent oval piazza that is amazingly sculptural. This "forecourt"—an immense keyhole-shaped colossal colonnade—imposed a degree of unity on the sprawling Vatican complex, while screening off the surrounding slums. This device, which Bernini himself likened to the motherly, all-embracing arms of the Church, was not new. What was novel was the idea of placing it at the main entrance to a building. Also unusual was the huge scale. For sheer impressiveness, this integration of architecture and grandiose setting can be compared only with the ancient Roman sanctuary at Palestrina. Bernini's one major failure visually of St. Peter's was his inability to execute the bell towers that were initially planned by Bramante. He began construction, but, much to Bernini's humiliation, cracks appeared, and although these could have been the result of normal foundation settling, an inquest was convened, and the towers were dismantled. This failure would haunt him, but would provide a competitive resource for his rivals: Borromini in Italy and later Wren in England.
Artist: Guercino Piece: Aurora Medium: Ceiling fresco Year: 1621-1623
Another Aurora ceiling , painted less than ten years later by Guercino, is the very opposite of Reni's. Here (in the 1622 painting), architectural illusionistic framework (painted by Agostino Tassi), known as quadratura, combined with the pictorial illusionism of Correggio and the intense light and color of Titian, converts the entire surface into one limitless space, in which the figures sweep past as if driven by the winds. Rather than viewing Aurora in profile as in Reni's ceiling, we are clearly positioned below, looking up, seeing the underbelly of the horses as they gallop over our heads. With this work, Guercino continued and expanded the ceiling painting tradition descended from Correggio and started what became a flood of similar visions by other artists. The dynamic fulfillment of this style became known as the High Baroque, after 1630.
Artist: Caravaggio Piece: The Musicians Medium: Oil on Canvas Year: 1595
Another aspect of Caravaggio's work is his focus on the sensual and erotic nature of both music and young men, who are depicted as seducing and soliciting. We see these elements in The Musicians, with its four androgynous, seminude youths. Actually, it has been suggested that the painting shows two youths seen from two points of view. The musicians are half-length, but life-size; their blushed cheeks and full lips suggest erotic, sensual pleasures, enjoyed with each other and offered to a particular viewer. That viewer (the patron) was Cardinal del Monte, the influential, cultured patron and art collector, who arranged the St. Matthew commission for Caravaggio and who commissioned other homoerotic paintings from him. The lute, violin, horn (at back right), and the music sheets surrounding or being used by these half-draped men, and even the grapes being plucked at the left, suggest a contemporary bacchanal. The erotic undertones are part of the sensuality and passion that will be explored in the Baroque and frequently imitated in later works of art by other artists.Caravaggio carried a sword and was often in trouble with the law for fighting. When he killed a friend in a duel over a game, Caravaggio fled Rome and spent the rest of his short life on the run. He first went to Naples, then Malta, then returned briefly to Naples. These trips account for both his work in these cities and his lasting influence there. He died traveling back to Rome, where he hoped to gain a pardon. In Italy, Caravaggio's work was praised by artists and connoisseurs—and also criticized. Conservatives regarded Caravaggio and his work as lacking decorum: the propriety and reverence that religious subjects demanded. But many who did not like Caravaggio as a man were nevertheless influenced by his work and had to concede that his style was pervasive. The power of his style and imagery lasted into the 1630s, when it was absorbed into other Baroque tendencies.
Artist: Caravaggio Piece: The Calling of St. Matthew in Contarelli Chapel Medium: Oil/canvas Year: 1599-1600
As decorations, the three Contarelli paintings perform the same function that fresco cycles had in the Renaissance—each complements the others to fill out the narrative. In the chapel view, we see St. Matthew and the Angel, in which the tax collector Matthew turns dramatically for inspiration to the angel who dictates the gospel. The main image on the left in the chapel is The Calling of St. Matthew (fig. 19.2) which depicts the moment Matthew is chosen by Christ. The third canvas (on the right, but not seen here) is devoted to the saint's martyrdom. The Calling of St. Matthew displays a naturalism that is both new and radical. Naturalism was not an end in itself for Caravaggio, but a means of conveying profoundly spiritual content. Never before have we seen a sacred subject depicted so entirely in terms of contemporary lowlife. Matthew, the well-dressed tax collector, sits with some armed men, who must be his agents, in a common, sparse room. The setting and costumes must have been very familiar to Caravaggio. Two figures approach from the right. The arrival's bare feet and simple biblical garb contrast strongly with the colorful costumes of Matthew and his companions. Why do we sense a religious quality in this scene and not mistake it for an everyday event? What identifies one of the figures on the right as Christ, who has come to Matthew and says "Follow me"? It is surely not his halo, the only supernatural feature in the picture, which is a thin gold band that we might easily overlook. Our eyes fasten instead on his commanding gesture, borrowed from Michelangelo's Adam in The Creation of Adam, which bridges the gap between the two groups of people and is echoed by Matthew, who points questioningly at himself. The men on our left at the table seem not to be engaged in the unfolding drama, as they concentrate on the money being counted. In shadow, they are blind to the entrance of Christ—one even wears eyeglasses. Caravaggio uses the piercing light in this scene to announce Christ's presence, as Christ himself brought light: "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12.) The beam of sunlight in the darkness above Jesus is most decisive in determining the work's meaning and style. This strong beam of light against the dark background is known as a tenebristic effect, or tenebrism, a style that uses strong contrasts of light and dark. Caravaggio illuminates Christ's face and hand in the gloomy interior so that we see the precise moment of his calling to Matthew and witness a critical piece of religious history and personal conversion. Without this light, so natural yet so charged with meaning, the picture would lose its power to make us aware of the divine presence. Caravaggio gives direct expression to an attitude shared by certain saints of the Counter-Reformation: that the mysteries of faith are revealed not by speculation but through an inner experience that is open to all people. Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome. Credit: Canali Photobank, Milan, Italy Caravaggio's paintings have a quality of "lay Christianity" that spoke powerfully to both Catholics and Protestants. Without the painting's religious context, the men seated at the table might seem like figures in a genre scene. Indeed, Caravaggio's painting became a source for secular scenes: Fanciful costumes, with slashed sleeves and feathered berets, will appear in the works of Caravaggio's followers. Figures seen in half-length (showing only the upper half of their bodies) will also be a common element in other works by Caravaggio and his followers
Artist: Bernini Piece: David Medium: Marble Year: 1623
As in the colonnade for St. Peter's , we can often see a strong relationship between Bernini's sculpture and examples from antiquity. If we compare Bernini's David with Michelangelo's and ask which is closer to the Pergamon frieze or the Laocoön ), our vote must go to Bernini, whose sculpture shares with Hellenistic works that union of body and spirit, of motion and emotion, which Michelangelo so consciously tempers. This does not mean that Michelangelo is more classical than Bernini. It shows, rather, that the Baroque and the High Renaissance drew different lessons from ancient art. Bernini's David has the fierceness of expression, movement, and dynamism of the Laocoön. In part, what makes it Baroque in character is the implied presence of Goliath. Unlike earlier statues of David, including Donatello's , Bernini's is conceived not as a self-contained figure but as half of a pair, with his entire being focused on his (invisible) adversary. Bernini's David tells us clearly enough where he sees the enemy. Consequently, the space between David and his invisible opponent is charged with energy—it "belongs" to the statue. The intensity of his expression suggests his focused determination. It has come down to us that the David's face is modeled on Bernini's own; he made this self-portrait by looking in a mirror held by his patron, Cardinal Barberini, who would become Pope Urban VIII. Materials and TechniquesBernini's Sculptural Sketches Bernini's Sculptural Sketches Listen to the Audio Small sketches in sculpture—for large-scale works of sculpture or architecture—serve as models, practice pieces, or presentation pieces for the artist to show a patron. These sculptural models are called bozzetti or modelli. Bozzetto (singular) means "sketch," and bozzetti are generally smaller and less finished than modelli, which may be closer to the final product, or in some other way "finished" so that a patron can see them before the completion of the project. Artists may do several drawings as well as several bozzetti for a completed piece. And, indeed, Bernini did both drawings in pen and ink, in red or black chalk, or even in combinations of chalk and pen in preparation for a project, as well as making bozzetti. Bernini's bozzetti and modelli are made in clay (terra cotta), although the completed sculptures were executed in marble. This is not just a difference in medium, but in technique. Marble sculpture is created through a subtractive process—marble is chiseled away. But clay can be worked using both additive and subtractive methods, and we know that Bernini's work in clay was primarily additive. We can see multiple methods and evidence of a variety of tools used by Bernini in his clay bozzetto of the life-size Head of St. Jerome, created for a full-length marble sculpture of the saint. Analysis of the clay sculpture has shown that this piece, like many others, was made from wedged clay—that is, fresh clay that is rolled, smashed, and rolled repeatedly to expel air, and then subsequently "worked." The clay is worked on by hand, using fingers (most probably the thumbs, index fingers, and middle fingers), with fingernails creating tracks, and tools that often have teeth. The idea that the clay is worked on by the artist with his own hands—his own fingers—is a tantalizing one. Large-scale sculpture and complex sculptural and architectural projects may employ several assistants chiseling marble. But here in a bozzetto we may be looking at the handiwork—the very fingerprints—of the artist. Several of Bernini's bozzetti have been examined for fingerprints in the clay, and indeed many have been found. Of the fifteen Bernini bozzetti at the Fogg Art Museum (the largest single collection of his bozzetti), thirteen have fingerprints. Thirty-four fingerprints in total have been found and some of the same prints have been found in works executed years apart. Therefore, it is most likely that these prints are Bernini's own. He smoothed surfaces, added clay, created lines and edges with his nails, wiped and depressed the clay with his own fingers. The Head of St. Jerome reveals Bernini's fingerprints, evidence of nail edging, and texturing from tined (fork-like) tools as he added more clay to represent the hair and nose. We know that the clay was hollowed out from the back, after being scooped out with fingers. As clay would be added to the face and hair, chances of cracking and breaking off increased. And we see much evidence of cracking in this bozzetto. It is apparent that areas were specifically smoothed over to prevent this. There is further evidence that a cloth was placed over the Head to keep the clay moist for continued work and to prevent further cracking. The Head of St. Jerome is enormously expressive, looking tortured, with his deep-set eyes and hollow cheeks, but it is the textures in clay that make this gaunt face most memorable. Bernini's David shows us a distinctive feature of Baroque sculpture: its new, active relationship with the surrounding space. But it is meant to be seen, as is most other Baroque sculpture, from one primary point of view. Bernini presents us with "the moment" of action, not just the contemplation of the killing—as in Michelangelo's work—or the aftermath of it—as in Donatello's. Baroque sculpture often suggests a heightened vitality and energy. Because they so often present an "invisible complement" (like the Goliath of Bernini's David), Baroque statues attempt pictorial effects that were traditionally outside the realm of monumental sculpture. Such a charging of space with energy is, in fact, a key feature of Baroque art. Caravaggio had achieved it in his The Calling of St. Matthew with the aid of a sharply focused beam of light. And as we have seen in Gaulli's ceiling for Il Gesù, both painting and sculpture may be combined with architecture to form a compound dramatic illusion—one that Bernini would explore in other works.
Artist: Bernini Piece: St. Teresa in Ecstasy in Cornaro Chapel Medium: Marble Year: 1645-1652
Bernini had a passionate interest in the theater and was an innovative scene designer. A contemporary wrote that he "gave a public opera wherein he painted the scenes, cut the statues, invented the engines, composed the music, writ the comedy, and built the theatre." Thus he was at his best when he could merge architecture, sculpture, and painting. His masterpiece in this vein is the Cornaro Chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, which contains The Ecstasy of St. Teresa. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), one of the great saints of the Counter-Reformation, and director of the Reformed Order of the Discalced ("shoeless," as shown here) Carmelites was canonized in 1622. Known for her mystical visions, she had described how an angel pierced her heart with a flaming golden arrow: "The pain was so great that I screamed aloud; but at the same time I felt such infinite sweetness that I wished the pain to last forever. It was not physical but psychic pain, although it affected the body as well to some degree. It was the sweetest caressing of the soul by God." Bernini has made Teresa's visionary experience as sensuously real as Correggio's Jupiter and Io; her arm and leg are limp and the saint's rapture is obvious. (In a different context the angel could be Cupid.) The two figures on their floating cloud, which is hollow (so Bernini could hang this group rather than fasten it to the wall), are lit from a hidden window above, so that they seem almost dematerialized. A viewer thus experiences them as a vision. The "invisible complement" here, less specific than David's but equally important, is the force that carries the figures—they levitate—toward Heaven and causes the turbulence of their drapery. Its divine nature is suggested by the golden rays (gilt wood) which come from a source high above the altar. In an illusionistic fresco by Guidobaldo Abbatini (ca.1600/05-1656) on the vault of the chapel, the glory of Heaven is revealed as a dazzling burst of light from which tumble clouds of jubilant angels. This celestial explosion gives force to the thrusts of the angel's arrow and makes the ecstasy of the saint fully believable. To complete the illusion, Bernini even provides a built-in audience for his "stage." On the sides of the chapel are balconies resembling theater boxes that contain marble relief figures depicting members of the Cornaro family, who also witness the vision. Their space and ours are the same, and thus they are part of our reality, while the saint's ecstasy, which is framed in a niche, occupies a space that is real but beyond our reach, for it is intended as a divine realm. Finally, the ceiling fresco represents the infinite space of Heaven. We may recall that The Burial of Count Orgaz and its setting also form a whole that includes three levels of reality . Yet there is a fundamental difference between the two chapels. El Greco's Mannerism evokes an ethereal vision in which only the stone slab of the sarcophagus is "real," in contrast to Bernini's Baroque staging, where there are several levels of reality and the distinctions between them break down. It would be easy to dismiss The Ecstasy of St. Teresa as a theatrical display, but Bernini was also a devout Catholic who believed that he was inspired directly by God. Like the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, which Bernini practiced, his religious sculpture is intended to help a viewer identify with miraculous events through a vivid appeal to the senses. Theatricality in the service of faith was basic to the Counter-Reformation, which often referred to the Church as the theater of human life: It took the Baroque to bring this ideal to life.
Artist: Francesco Borromini Architecture: San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane Year: 1638-1667 Façade and dome
Bernini's church designs are dramatically simple and unified, while Borromini's structures are extravagantly complex. But where the surfaces of Bernini's interiors are extremely rich, Borromini's are surprisingly plain: They rely on the architect's phenomenal grasp of spatial geometry to achieve their spiritual effects. Bernini himself agreed with those who denounced Borromini for flagrantly disregarding the classical tradition, enshrined in Renaissance theory and practice, that architecture must reflect the proportions of the human body. Certainly, Bernini, even at the height of the Baroque, was more tied to a classical vocabulary. But perhaps his criticisms of Borromini were only an expression of all-too-human rivalries. Borromini's first major project was the church of San Carlo alle Quattreo Fontane, a small strcuture on a difficult to fit corner. It is the syntax, not the vocabulary, that is new and disquieting here. The ceaseless play of concave and convex surfaces make the entire structure seem elastic, as if pulled out of a shape by pressures that no previous building could have withstood. The plan is a pinched oval that suggests a dis intended and half melted Greek cross, yet it is a basically central planned church. The inside of the coffed dome looked stretched. If the tension was relaxed , it would snap back to normal. Light coming from the windows, partially hidden at the base of the dome, and a honeycomb of fanciful coffers decreasing size to create the illusion of greater height make the dome appear weightless. The symbol of the Trinity appears in the vault of the lantern in this church, built for the Trinitarians, an order dedicated to the mysteries of the Holy Trinity. On the facade, designed almost 30 years later, the pressures and counter-pressures reach their maximum intensity. He emerges architecture and sculpture in a way that must have shocked Bernini. No such union attempted since Gothic art.
Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi Piece: Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes Medium: Oil/canvas Year: 1625
Born in Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-ca. 1653) was the daughter of Caravaggio's friend, follower, and rival Orazio Gentileschi, and grew up in this artistic milieu. She became one of the major painters of her day and was the first woman to be admitted to the Accademia del Disegno in Florence. Nonetheless, it was difficult for a woman artist to make her way professionally. In a letter of 1649, she wrote that "people have cheated me" after she had submitted a drawing to a patron only to have him commission "another painter to do the painting using my work. If I were a man, I can't imagine it would have turned out this way." Her best-known subjects are biblical heroines: Bathsheba, the tragic object of King David's passion, and Judith, who saved her people by beheading Holofernes. Both themes were popular during the Baroque era, which delighted in erotic and violent scenes. Artemisia's frequent depictions of these women (she often portrayed herself in the lead role) suggest an ambivalence toward men that was rooted in her turbulent life. (Artemisia was raped by her teacher, Agostino Tassi , who was tried and sentenced to banishment from Rome.) Artemisia's Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (fig. 19.5) is a fully mature, independent, dramatic, and large work, no less powerful for its restraint. The theme is the apocryphal story of the Jewish widow Judith, who saved her people by traveling with her maid to the tent of the Assyrian general Holofernes (who was about to lead an attack on the Jews), got him drunk, and then cut off his head with his own sword. It yields parallels to the story of David and Goliath—might conquered by virtue and innocence. However, in the case of Judith slaying Holofernes, the victor was not always seen positively, but with some suspicion since her triumph was one of deceit: Having entered his tent and offered him drink, Judith then killed her foe. The unspoken promise of sexual activity was never realized. Here, rather than the beheading itself, the artist shows the instant after. Momentarily distracted, Judith gestures theatrically as her servant stuffs Holofernes's head into a sack. The object of their attention remains hidden from view, heightening the air of suspense and intrigue. The hushed, candlelit atmosphere—tenebrism made intimate—creates a mood of mystery that conveys Judith's complex emotions with unsurpassed understanding. Gentileschi's rich palette, seen here, was to have a strong influence on painting in Naples, where she settled in 1630.
Artist: Borromini Piece: Sant'Ivo Year: Begun 1642
Borromini's church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza was built at the end of an existing cloister for a university, which soon became the University of Rome. It is more compact than San Carlo, but equally daring. Sant'Ivo is a small, central-plan church based on a hexagonal star. The six-pointed plan represents Sapienza (wisdom), although as the church was first built under Pope Urban VIII (Barberini) it was suggested by contemporaries that the plan represented the Barberini bee, also seen in Bernini's Baldacchino and Cortona's ceiling . In designing this unique church, Borromini may have been thinking of octagonal structures, such as San Vitale in Ravenna , but the result is completely novel. Inside, it offers a single, unified, organic experience, as the walls extend the ground plan into the vault, culminating in Borromini's unique spiral lantern. The hexagonal star pattern is continued up to the circular base of the lantern. The stars on the wall refer to the Chigi family of Pope Alexander VII, who was in power when the building was completed.
Caravaggio and the Caravaggisti
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was famously sensitive when it came to matters of artistic originality: he threatened both the painter Guido Reni and artist and biographer Giovanni Baglione for copying his style. Despite his best efforts to protect his singular style, however, Caravaggio became one of the most widely imitated artists in the history of Western art. After his untimely death in 1610, many Italian and non-Italian artists alike came to be considered his "followers," even though they had never met the artist or worked alongside him. Unlike the typical Renaissance master-follower relationship, these artists could claim no direct descent from the studio of Caravaggio (since he did not have one), and in some cases they had not even seen his paintings first-hand. Some artists imitated Caravaggio for only a brief phase of their careers - Baglione, Carlo Saraceni, and Guercino for example - while others remained committed to Caravaggio's stylistic model for the duration of their lives. Nevertheless, these painters, often labeled Caravaggisti, emulated aspects of Caravaggio's style, technique, and choice of subjects and were responsible for the dissemination of Caravaggism across the European continent. Google this term and go to the Khan Academy result https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/baroque-art1/baroque-italy/a/caravaggio-and-caravaggisti-in-17th-century-europe
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation (also the Catholic Revival or Catholic Reformation) was the period of Catholic resurgence beginning with the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648), and was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation.
Crossing
The area in a church where the transept crosses the nave, frequently emphasized by a dome or crossing tower.
Tenebrism
The intense contrast of light and dark in painting.
Artist: Annibale Carracci Piece: Landscape with the Flight into Egypt Medium: Oil on Canvas Year: 1603
The sculptured precision of the Farnese ceiling shows us only one side of Annibale Carracci's style. Another important aspect is seen in his landscapes, such as the Landscape with the Flight into Egypt (fig. 19.8). Its pastoral mood and soft light and atmosphere hark back to Giorgione and Titian. The figures play a minor role here: They are as small and incidental in the manner of a northern European landscape . The painting only hints at the biblical theme of the Flight into Egypt (there are some camels on the hillside). Indeed, the landscape would be equally suitable as a backdrop for almost any story. The old castle, the roads and fields, the flock of sheep, the ferryman with his boat—all show that this "civilized," hospitable countryside has been inhabited for a long time. Hence the figures, however tiny, do not appear lost or dwarfed. This firmly constructed "ideal landscape" evokes a vision of nature that is gentle yet austere, grand but not awesome.
Artist: Velázquez Piece: Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor) Medium: Oil/canvas Year: 1656
Velázquez's mature style is seen at its fullest in The Maids of Honor. Both a group portrait and a genre scene, it might be subtitled "the artist in his studio," for Velázquez depicts himself at work on a huge canvas. In the center is Princess Margarita, who has just posed for him, among her playmates and maids of honor. The faces of her parents, King Philip IV and Queen Maria Anna, appear in the mirror on the back wall. Their position also suggests a slightly different vantage point than ours, and indeed there are several viewpoints throughout the picture. In this way, the artist perhaps intended to include a viewer in the scene by implication, even though it was clearly painted for the king and hung in his summer quarters at the Alcázar Palace. Antonio Palomino, the first to discuss The Maids of Honor, wrote: "the name of Velázquez will live from century to century, as long as that of the most excellent and beautiful Margarita, in whose shadow his image is immortalized." Thanks to Palomino, we know the identity of every person in the painting. Through the presence of the princess, king, and queen, the canvas commemorates Velázquez's position as royal painter and his aspiration to the Order of Santiago—a papal military order to which he gained admission only with great difficulty three years after the painting was executed. In the painting, he wears the red cross of the order, a detail added after his death. Velázquez had struggled to establish his status at court. Even though the usual family investigations (almost 150 friends and relatives were interviewed) assisted his claim to nobility, the very nature of his profession worked against him. "Working with his hands" conveyed on Velázquez the very antithesis of noble status. Only by special papal dispensation was he eventually accepted into the Order of Santiago. The Maids of Honor, then, is an expression of personal ambition; it is a claim for both the nobility of the act of painting and that of the artist himself. The presence of the king and queen affirm his status. The Spanish court had already honored Titian and Rubens (although not in the same way); as these artists were both held in high regard, they served as models for Velázquez and continued to have a significant impact on him. The painting reveals Velázquez's fascination with light as fundamental to vision. The artist challenges us to match the mirror image against the paintings on the same wall, and against the "picture" of the man in the open doorway. Although the side lighting and strong contrasts of light and dark suggest the influence of Caravaggio, Velázquez's technique is far subtler. The glowing colors have a Venetian richness, but the brushwork is freer and sketchier than Titian's. Velázquez explored the optical qualities of light more fully than any other painter of his time. He aimed to represent the movement of light itself and the infinite range of its effects on form and color. For Velázquez, as for Jan Vermeer in Delft, light creates the visible world.
Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi Piece: Self-Portrait Medium: Oil on Canvas Year: 1638-1639
We know that, possibly for a few years (ca. 1638-40), Artemisia also worked in London where her father had been court painter to Charles I of England from 1626 to 1639. Indeed, several of her paintings were recorded in the king's inventory after his execution, and father and daughter may have worked together on a project in Greenwich. Among her most daring and creative works is Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, one of the most innovative self-portraits of the Baroque period. Artemisia was able to do here what no male artist could: She depicted herself as the allegorical female figure of Painting, La Pittura. The dress and activity of the subject conforms to Cesare Ripa's description of La Pittura in his popular Iconologia (1593), a book of allegories and symbolic emblems for artists. There, the allegorical figure of Painting is described, in part, as a beautiful woman, with disheveled black hair, wearing a gold chain which hangs from her neck, and holding a brush in one hand and a palette in the other. Thus, the painting asserts Artemisia's unique role as a woman painter—representing not just herself, but all of Painting and reflecting the new, elevated status of artists.
Jesuit order
a Roman Catholic order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1534 to defend Catholicism against the Reformation and to do missionary work among the heathen; it is strongly committed to education and scholarship. Society of Jesus.
Colonnade
a row of columns supporting a roof, an entablature, or arcade.
Trompe L' Oeil Ceilings
is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. Forced perspective is a comparable illusion in architecture. During the Renaissance, painting a ceiling was common place. Most ceilings were transformed into trompe l'oeil murals
Façade
the face of a building, especially the principal front that looks onto a street or open space.
Illusionism
the principle or technique by which artistic representations are made to resemble real objects or to give an appearance of space by the use of perspective.
Artist: Diego Velázquez Piece: Water Carrier of Seville Medium: Oil/canvas Year: 1619
Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) painted in a Caravaggesque vein during his early years in Seville. His interests at that time centered on scenes of people eating and drinking rather than religious themes. Known as bodegónes, these grew out of the paintings of table-top displays brought to Spain by Flemish artists in the early seventeenth century. The Water Carrier of Seville, which Velázquez painted at age 20 under the apparent influence of Ribera, already shows his genius. His powerful grasp of individual character and dignity gives this everyday scene the solemn spirit of a ritual. The scene is related to Giving Drink to the Thirsty, one of the Seven Acts of Mercy, a popular theme among Caravaggesque painters of the day. Velázquez's use of focused light and the revelation of shapes, textures, surfaces—from the glass of water to the sweat of water on the pottery jug—is extraordinary. He must have thought so, too, as he gave this painting to his sponsor, a royal chaplain from Seville, no doubt in hopes of gaining royal attention.
Artist: Francisco de Zurbarán Piece: St. Serapion Medium: Oil on Canvas Year: 1628
Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) began his professional life as a painter, as did Velázquez, in Seville, and he stands out among his contemporaries for his quiet intensity. His most important works, done for monastic orders, are filled with an ascetic piety that is uniquely Spanish. St. Serapion shows an early member of the Mercedarians (Order of Mercy) who was brutally murdered by pirates in 1240 but canonized only 100 years after this picture was painted. The canvas was placed as a devotional image in the funerary chapel of the order, which was originally dedicated to self-sacrifice. Zurbarán's painting reminds us of Caravaggio. Shown as a life-size, three-quarter-length figure, St. Serapion fills the picture plane: He is both a hero and a martyr. The contrast between the white habit and the dark background gives the figure a heightened visual and expressive presence, so that a viewer contemplates the slain monk with a mixture of compassion and awe. Here, pictorial purity and spiritual purity become one, and the stillness creates a reverential mood that complements the stark realism of the image. As a result, we identify with the strength of St. Serapion's faith rather than with his physical suffering. The absence of rhetorical pathos is what makes this image deeply moving.
Artist: Bernini Architecture: St. Peter's piazza design and colonnade Year: 1607-1612 (Facade and Nave by Carlo Maderno)
Carlo Maderno (ca. 1556-1629) was the most talented young architect to emerge in the midst of the vast ecclesiastical building program that commenced in Rome toward the end of the sixteenth century. In 1603, he was given the task of completing, at long last, the church of St. Peter's .Pope Clement VIII had decided to add a nave and narthex to the west end of Michelangelo's building, thereby converting it into a basilica plan. This change, which had already been proposed by Raphael in 1514, made it possible to link St. Peter's with the Vatican Palace to the right of the church. St. Peter's Maderno's design for the façade follows the pattern established by Michelangelo for the exterior of the church. It consists of a colossal order supporting an attic, but with a dramatic emphasis on the portals. The effect can only be described as a crescendo that builds from the corners toward the center. The spacing of the supports becomes closer, the pilasters turn into columns, and the façade wall projects step by step. This quickened rhythm had been hinted at a generation earlier in Giacomo della Porta's façade for Il Gesù . Maderno made it the dominant principle of his façade designs, not only for St. Peter's but for smaller churches as well. In the process, he replaced the traditional concept of the church façade as one continuous wall surface, with the "façade-in-depth" becoming dynamically related to the open space before it. The possibilities of this new treatment, which derives from Michelangelo's Palazzo dei Conservatori , were not to be exhausted until 150 years later. Recent cleaning of the façade of St. Peter's revealed it to be of a warm cream color, which emphasized its sculptural qualities.
Artist: Giovanni Battista Gaulli under the guidance of Bernini Piece: Triumph of the Name of Jesus Medium: Ceiling fresco with stucco figures Year: 1672-1679
Ironically, the new style of architecture fostered by Francesco Borromini and Guarino Guarini provided few opportunities for decoration. But, after 1670, such frescoes enjoyed a revival in older buildings which reached its peak in the interior of Il Gesù, the mother church for the Jesuit order. At the suggestion of Gianlorenzo Bernini, the greatest sculptor-architect of the century, the commission for the ceiling frescoes went to his young protégé Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639-1709). A talented assistant, Antonio Raggi (1624-1686), made the stucco sculpture. The program, which proved extraordinarily influential, shows Bernini and Gaulli's imaginative daring. As in the Cornaro Chapel, the ceiling is treated as a single unit that evokes a mystical vision. The nave fresco, with its contrasts of light and dark and sharply foreshortened figures, spills dramatically over its frame, then turns into sculptured figures, combining painting, sculpture, and architecture. Here, Baroque illusionism achieves its ultimate expression. The subject of the ceiling painting is the illuminated name of Jesus—the IHS derived from the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus—in the center of the golden light. It is a stirring reference both to the Jesuit order, dedicated to the Name of Jesus and to the concept that Christ is the Light of the World. The impact of his light and holiness then creates the overflowing turbulence that tumbles out of the sky at the end of days and spreads the word of the Jesuit missionaries: "That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow...".
Contrapposto
Italian word for "set against." A composition developed by the Greeks to represent movement in a figure. The parts of the body are placed asymmetrically in opposition to each other around a central axis, and careful attention is paid to the distribution of weight.
