Mannerism/Baroque

"Judith with the Head of Holofernes"

. This is a biblical story. Judith was the woman in the front with her maidservant in the back. The man is a general who had oppressed the Jewish people. Holofernes wants to have sex with Judith and he invited her to his tent. Judith is planning something else. She goes into his tent and kills him. Artemisia paints her own face in as Judith. She may have painted this to express her anger about her perspective teacher and how she really felt about the situation. She did two copies of this piece- one in Naples and one in Florence.

What are triangles symbolic of?

the holy trinity- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The monks that asked Borromini for this church particularly worshipped the trinity.

Hals

thick and quick brushwork, color from outfit in the background, diagonals, NOT still life, smiling

Tenebrism

A baroque characteristic, tenebrism is extreme chiaroscuro which is contrast between lights and darks. Light is usually symbolic of God.

"The Jolly Troper"

A troper is a drinker. In this painting, the drinker is presenting his glass to the viewer. The brushwork is very quick-Characteristic of Hals. He will often will pick a color out of the outfit (in this case yellowish gold) and then use that color as a sort of haze over the whole piece. Hans uses a lot of diagonals this was very important to add to the movement and immediacy feeling of his paintings. The diagonals are in the left shoulder, head, hat, the drink, and his collar. There is no stability in the painting, it is almost like wind going through everything. By that I mean that it all seems quick and immediate, like you walked in on the subject and surprised him. The painting is not prettied up like other Northerns. This painting has the opposite feel of the Vermeer. In that one, the woman looks like she could stand there forever but when you are caught in this Baroque moment it looks like things are going to change immediately. These are two different types of Baroque moments.

What questions about the church and art arose after the "last supper?"

After this, there is a big meeting of church officials called the council of Trent. They meet on and off from over a decade. They were trying to figure out the principals for religious art. Should the church even continue to use art? They decided that their would continue but they didn't now what it should look like. The principals were that all truth, no matter how ugly, should be shown, there should be no extraneous figures, a painting should be a stimulus to you piety, the painting should be clear, simple, and intelligible, and all religious figures should have halos (this painting just looks like jesus is being struck by lighting). It took artists 40 years to actually pay attention to these rules.

Gentileschi's type of painting?

Artemisia loved to do imagery of strong women. This is exactly what she was so she portrayed it through art.

Arrival of Marie de'Medici at Marseilles

As Ruben's reputation grows, he gets a commission from a French Queen names Marie de'Medici. 200 years later after the bankers in Florence, one of the Medici's end up marrying a king. She comes to France in a really tense moment and she wants the people to like her so she hires Rubens to create a whole bunch of propaganda paintings. These were designed for the waiting room of the palace. Marie arrives from Italy. There is a red carped rolled out for her and she is walking from a giant, beautiful ship. The person greeting her is the representation of France with symbol of the French government on his cape. There are angels and cupids flying around as if to say that Godly figures wanted Marie to be there and they are announcing her. There are also all sorts of mythological figures rising out of the sea as sea creatures. You can see the style of Rubens as the women coming from the sea. You can also see Ruben's classic red in the banner and the carpet. Marie is in an amazing outfit to display her amazingness.

"Banquet of the Civic Guard of St. George"

At this point in his career, everyone wanted a Hals portrait. A civic guard group is a sort of conglomeration. It started out as a religious group then the religious connotation went a way and it was concentrated as a group that patrolled the neighborhood and protected it. Eventually, even these aspects became less important as the civic guard became primarily a social business club for economic movers and shakers within their community. Each of the civic guard groups was named after a saint and met once a year to have an anniversary dinner. This was a 3 day banquet where people got really drunk and ate a lot. After the three days they would go back to their lives. Because the group was wealthy they wanted to record this event so they would call in artists to create portraits of their group. Each paid the artist the same amount of money because they all wanted to be represented in the best light. Hans was the main guy to go to if you wanted a civic guard portrait. There were, however, a few problems for group portraits. You had to figure out each person differently, put large groups of people together in nice ways, and make it look interesting at the same time. To do this, he caught all of the people in a Baroque moment. The composition almost looks unplanned because people are talking to each other, looking in different directions, etc. In the back there is a flag bearer that represented the group. there are also a lot of different diagonals in this piece including the flag, the men on the right, the people's sashed and collars, and the food. Hans was able to show every persons face in the group.

"David"

Baroque moment. This version of David is not nude. However, it looks a bit like the Classical discus thrower. The discus thrower stays in its own plane but here he is stepping out of his own place of space and out of the frame. This was done for Cardinal Borghese.

Diego Velasquez

Before he turned to talking inspiration from Caravaggio, he was a painter on the open market who sold art to whoever wanted it instead of having a patron to paint for.

Characteristics that caragaggio brought to baroque?

Earth tones, tenebrism, religious moments in genre scenes

Vermeer characteristics

Genre, blue and yellow, woman in the home, still life

Rembrandt

Hazy atmospheric perspective, color from outfit in background, spotlight effect, somber

Peter Paul Rubens

He was Belgium (Flemish). Rubens was the most sought after, and productive artist of the 17th century. His art studio was like a factory because he had to produce so many pieces of art. What made Rubens so appealing were things like his charismatic personality, knowing how to flatter people in works of art, he also knew the type of nude that appealed to the 17th century,and the great coloring of his art. Rubens was known for popping color and muscular figures in his early times.

Artemisia Gentileschi

Her father, Orazio Gentileschi, was a major painter greatly influenced by Caravaggio. He saw that she had tremendous talent so her father taught her. Her father didn't know how to teach her perspective and she was sent out to another person to learn it. This ends up in a court trial as she claims that the perspective teacher raped her. her reputation was tarnished.

St. Peter's Cathedral (Vatican)

In the center of the oval is an ovulus, with fountains on either side. The oval is a colonnade- columns on the perimeter to serve as shade from the heat and rain. This colonnade was done by the artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. The symbol of this semicircle (colonnade) represents all-embracing arms that bring people back to the church and also to bring back Protestants who wanted to come back to the Mother church.

Which artist uses blue and yellow colors?

Jan Vermeer

"Last Supper"

Judas is on the other side of the table. Jesus, with the bright light, is actually at the center of the table. it only throws you off because the table is diagonal. The setting in supposed to be in a place called the "upper room". In this painting, however, it looks really scary. There are people cleaning the floor, cats, waiters, angels swooping in front the ceiling. It is an extremely chaotic painting. This takes away from he religiosity. There is no true sense that this is a religious painting.

Decorum

Means what is proper in a certain situation. Caravaggio's religious paintings lacked decorum.

"The Laughing Cavalier"

This painting has a sharper, more satiny brushwork. This is much different than Hans' other works but he still uses diagonals everywhere. They are in the collar, hat, mustache, and beard of the man. This painting is not as immediate as the troper but the man also looks like he is moving, almost changing his position. Hans uses the same idea of taking the clothing color and using it as a haze or the background.

Who named the style "mannerism?"

Mannerism is a derogatory name given to this style who really don't like the change from the Renaissance.

Differences between mannerism and baroque?

Mannerism= light colors, crowded, jumbled figures Baroque= earth-tone palette, simple, few figures, genre scenes, diagonals

How did Caravaggio revolutionize art after the period of mannerism?

Many people say that the early works of Caravaggio are highly sexualized paintings. Most of them were young boys offering fruit. Fruit often is symbolic of sex. This, however, didn't make him a lot of money. He also got in trouble for using prostitutes as religious models.

Rubens characteristics

Popping colors, muscular figures, large girls

Gentileschi characteristics?

Portrays women as strong

Rembrandt's "Self Portraits"

Rembrandt does more self portraits than any other artist. As opposed to writing down his life, he paints it like a diary. Through his portraits you can see him going from a confident young man to an aged, more somber man. there are 60 or 70 of these portraits throughout the world. Rembrandt was painting at the same time as Hals and immediately became very popular. Once Rembrandt started making a lot of money, he realized that he also loved to spend it. He bought a ton of real estate and his financial records show that he was a crazy overspender. In his earlier self portraits, there is a cooler color pallet, using bluish grays and that sort of stuff. In his younger years he shows himself as a confident young artist and you can even see his tendency towards spending in his collar, jewelry, hat, and nice fir outfit. There is a hazy atmospheric perspective. He also pulls out the color from his outfit and uses it in the background. As he gets older, the palette changes. It becomes warmer, as if the palette is also aging. The paintings become more somber, deeper with a spotlight effect. He would have seen the Mona Lisa because he went to an auction where it was being displayed. You can see that he started to use some of those ideas like the 3/4 view. He also paints his face older, it is not as idealized as the earlier ones. You can see that he is not so happy and, in fact, at this point in his life he has actually gone through tremendous tragedy. He has outlived everyone that he loved, his family, his wife, and even his children who died in infancy. He has to deal with this as well as going through financial chaos. He has to spend everything because of his overspending problems.

"Return of the Prodigal Son"

Rembrandt is considered to be one of the greatest religious painter. This is because he is known to truly internalize what religion is all about. He captures the essence of the Judeo-Christian Ethic. He probably belonged to a smaller protestant community and he loved reading the old biblical stories from the old testament. This painting has earthy, warm colors. They are also in the Baroque moment, there is a spotlight effect, and tenebrism. This painting is telling the story of the Prodigal son. A man had two sons, the two sones are the ones feeling down and the one shrinking away into the background. The good son, in the back, always does what his father says. The bad son, the one kneeling, does all of the wrong things with his fathers money. Gambling, drinking, etc (Prodigal). One day, the bad son leaves. He is gone for a very long time. The father mourners and after a ling while, he sees a ratty figure with a shaved son who turns out to be the son who had run away. Shaving one's head is a sign of repentance. The younger son is hurt because the bad son had done son much wrong and now they were giving him the fat cow. Jesus told this story to tell of sin and forgiveness. This is the idea that is you have sone wrong, come to the father, repent, and you will be forgiven. The other two figures in the painting are just helpers who don't really mean anything. Rembrandt portrays this message very simply and eloquently.

"The Night Watch"

Rembrant. civic guard group again, but the main person Frans Banning Cocq is in the spotlight, the leader. Makes it interesting putting them outside and making them do an aciton like a history painting. First time. Captain and ceif deputy look like they are walking outside the painting. LOUD. some random people like little girl with dead animal. some people got mad bc their faces were blocked. tenebarism,palette, diagonals, baroque moment.

Water Seller of Seville

Seville is where Velasquez was living at this time. This has earth tones, dark background, and normal objects with amazingly rendered textures. On the surface, these paintings look like they have no subtext but really it has a deeper meaning. The boy in this is the same boy as in the egg painting. There is a deeper meaning and we know this because there is a glass with some sort of black object inside of it. There is also a man in a sfumato haze sort of hidden in the back. The black object is told to be a fig. This indicated sexuality. The older man is passing the fig to the younger guy. The younger one doesn't really know what is happening. The guy in the back, however, is in between the ages of the two in the front and is actively drinking from the cup (sexually active).

Madonna with the long neck

Some manneristic characteristics of this painting are the strange disproportional bodies of both Mary and Jesus. The thing is, there is no real way to know that this is Mary and Jesus. The only way to really know is that we are so used to the image trigger of a woman and a baby being Mary and Jesus. Also, at the bottom of the painting is a strangely small figure that happens to be a prophet. The angels are the people on the left. A new idea of Mannerism is to sexualize the religious figures with long legs and sexualized poses

"The Calling of St. Matthew"

St. Matthew was one of the writer of the gospels. Before he was a writer, he was a tax collector. He is on the left (pointing at himself) and his friends are counting coins. Jesus is the guy in the back on the right and is calling St. Matthew to do something else.Matthew is pointing at himself as if to say "Who me?". Jesus is calling him to join him and stop being a tax collector. Jesus picks Matthew and makes him one of his leading apostles. It is a meaningful piece because to be picked out from a crown among people makes people feel special. The observer is supposed to get involved because this is propaganda for the Catholic church saying that they may have a special experience like Matthew

Frans Hals

The Dutch often have themselves represented in portraits more than all other countries. They are obsessed with portraits of themselves. Hals' Technique uses thick brushwork as well as quick brushwork, this causes his paintings to look crazy, unpolished, and have a momentary quality. This kind of look is what people were looking for. Hals became extremely popular in the 1630s.

Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus

The emotions of Rubens painting were very action- oriented. Revolving around the Baroque Moment. Rubens was known for a pop of red sometimes but in this painting, the color is a bit light. Ruben's paintings are the opposite of Caravaggio. The two girls in the painting are the daughters of Leucippus. The two guys are attracted to them so they just take them. This is the action of rape (abduction). The women are what really draw your eye in the painting. The cupid in the corner signifies the guys attraction to the girls. The girls that Ruben paints are almost always large. This was what was appealing to men and most of the time the patrons were male. Compositionally, it is done mainly in diagonals. You can almost put a pyramid around the people. The man on the right takes on an almost mannerist body type because his port is strangely proportions and not reasonably placed.

"baroque moment" in the calling of st matthew?

The spotlight falls on Matthew and his friends, being chosen by God. As opposed to the dramatic moment before the scene, the Baroque Moment is catching the direct moment of the action. There is no ambiguity.

Dutch baroque art- predestination

The paintings in Holland were not for Churches. They were extremely rigid in terms of church decoration. They didn't want people to be distracted or for them to be worshipping the picture instead of the spirit. Holland was Calvinist. John Calvin believed in predestination. He believed it was already decided whether they would go to heaven or hell. The artist painted for people's houses to demonstrate the people going to heaven leading a good life. They also did pictures of people doing bad things and go to hell to tell you what not to do. They were moral examples. But they just wanted prayer in the churches. The people didn't know if they should be good or bad if their fate was already decided. Then John Calvin decided that the people could do good things with an inner strengths shows that you might be one of the ones to go to heaven. They would do good things to try to prove that they were the "elect". The ones who couldn't stay away from bad behavior were damned. You could also tell that you were elect if you were doing well in business. The people loved to have pictures of themselves and other people. They joined clubs to make business contacts.

Exposure of luxury

This is a strange piece because, as a portrayal of Venus and Cupid, you cannot tell what is going on with cupid's body. He is extremely anatomically incorrect. The little woman's face behind venus is unknown of the meaning but many people believe that the people in the back just represent different types of emotion. Ie. Anger, greed, etc. The two faces at the bottom right are comedy and tragedy masks. The figures are very pale and almost marble-like.

"The Ecstasy of St. Theresa"

The story has the characters of the nun St. Theres and an angel. St. Theresa was an extremely devout nun who had visions. This is one of her most famous visions. She is envisioning an angel coming to her with a fire-tipped arrow. The angel lifts her cloak and pierces her heart. She says at first the pain was horrible but then she realizes that this feeling is her becoming overwhelmed by god. A sweet emotion of the love of God overtakes her. The Baroque period loves St. Theresa because she provides an emotional story that they can portray meaningfully. It also makes people want to get close to God like Theresa did. In the back of the sculpture there are gold rods that look like they are coming down like sunlight. This represents God's presence. There is a hidden window in the back of the church that lights up the rays. St. Theresa is floating on a cloud while her drapery is beautifully falling over it.

"The Conversion of St. Paul"

The story of Paul was that he was originally a rabbi named Saul. His mission was to speak against the false messiah of Jesus. He spoke in the middle east. One day, riding his horse to speak in Damascus, he sees a bright blinding light at falls off of his horse. He is temporarily blinded and he hears Jesus say to him, "Saul,why do you persecute me?". After three days, Saul gets up off the ground and he can now see. His mission now is to preach for Jesus.He changes his name to Paul and he now follows Jesus. Small means Paulus in latin. He changes his name to this to humble himself towards Jesus. In this painting, Saul is in the action of falling off of the horse. His arms are up and he is now talking to Jesus.

Why is Las Meninas so confusing?

There are so many levels of reality, there is a painting within a painting, and reflections of reality.

What are possible reasons for artists trying to break away from the rules of the renaissance?

They were sick of the order of the renaissance art, or there was a lot of political stress and the artists were trying to reflect that, or this is a period of time where society is increasingly enjoying the idea of puzzles and unclear meanings that you have to figure out. This society may actually be having fun with this element of confusion.

"Kitchen Maid"

This is a genre painting, the woman is in the kitchen pouting milk. She is in the baroque moment of pouring the milk. The table is in a diagonal, also a common baroque composition. Repoussoir is using an object to define the foreground plane. The table in this case defines the front of the paintings and almost bushes into the viewer's space. There are also rectangles everywhere. The window, table, and box in the corner. In Vermeer paintings, he used a blue and lemon yellow. He uses these colors in every painting. The color palette here is in between earth tones and bright colors. This woman is doing the right thing by working and simply following the task that she is supposed to be doing. She is concentrating on what has to be done. She isn't even distracted by the window next to her. The dutch believed that the home was a sanctuary where the mother protected the kids, cleaned the house, and made the food. All work was pleasing in the eyes of God. This makes a timeless interior space.

"Woman With a Water Jug"

This is another genre painting. It depicts a solitary, isolated woman in her home. Calvinists believed that the outside world housed everything that was bad and the home of each person kept safety for them and inspired good values. The mothers made the home a safe and moral place. In Vermeer paintings, you never see outside, even if there is a window. This woman is very confined in her space. Although it is a big room, the table, window, and map all confine her space in their placement. The woman herself almost looks like a still life, like she will never move, like a frozen Baroque moment. As well as depicting the moral values of the home, this painting is also a display of wealth. The outfit that the woman is wearing, with the yellow and blue that Vermeer always uses, is a wealthier outfit. Other things that show the wealth of this person are: the ornate table cover, the brass jug, the intricacy of the window, and the map. Maps were very expensive because of how proud the dutch were of their conquests around the world. The map in this case can also symbolize bringing he world into your home. The window is only bringing the bad things but the map is expanding the horizons. The light reflections of the still life objects is characteristic of a typical northern painting.

Las Meninas

This is his masterpiece for Phillip's family and the name means "maids of honor". This means that there are women of special status who get to attend to the children of the kind (Phillip). This is a very complicated painting. The girl in the middle is the kings daughter, Margarita called Infanta Margarita (first child of the king). There are people around her attending to her. There are also people like the dog, dwarfs to entertain the king, nurses, attendants, and a painter. The door in the back is the Queen's door and the man is opening the door for her. The painter in the shot is Velasquez himself. The king and the king are not present in the immediate front of the painting but they are being reflected in the mirror in the back of the room. This shows that they are in front of the painting. This is in the action of something. The people are all turned, probably looking at the king and queen. They all stop their actions and look at the king and queen. Then what is valences painting? Maybe the mirror in the back is a reflection of his painting. is there a possibility that they are looking at the viewers. This is a confusing painting. There are many squares and rectangles throughout the painting. This was really popular in the 17th century.

Old woman cooking eggs

This looks exactly like another Caravaggio painting with the genre moment, tenebrism, limited amount of characters, earth tones, and the idea of lighting the scene with a black background. This painting was most likely an open market painting. There is something that differentiates Velasquez from Caravaggio because of the still life objects that are placed in the painting. They are pushed to the foreground. it shows the different objects and textures. the Spanish are very influenced by the northern Renaissance Paintings of extreme symbolism. Even though the background is very black, there is still something hanging there. They want to let people know that it is an actual background so that you can see where the limit of the piece is.

Portrait of a young man

This man you can see the body from the hips up, exposing more of the body. The hands are also positioned differently. They are not nicely folded, but more with an "I'm better than you" vibe. There is a sort of aloof, disdainful status tat the people and the painter are going for. His body is also turned 3/4, but the head is completely turned to the audience. People loved to wear black int he 16th century.

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

This means "St. Charles at the Four Fountains". This church is squashed into a really small area in rome and there are four fountains pushed into either side. The big circle thing on top is a medallion. This is a bunch of concave and convex movement everywhere. Once Borromini invents this, it starts to show up everywhere. The inside of the church is very small but the walls also curve in and out. The movement from the outside is reflected on the inside. There are more unfitted columns and the walls keep moving. Baroque loves the oval shape. The dome on this church is oval shaped. He could have made the church oval but he made it more like a squashed amoeba. People who have analyzed the floor plan say that in the shape you can perfectly inscribe two equilateral triangles. Borromini is breaking with architectural tradition.

Where would "madonna with the long neck" be placed?

This type of painting would be put in a church. The church, at first, didn't have a problem with Mannerism, but as the years go on, they start to hate it.

Who painted woman cooking eggs?

Velasquez

"Caravaggisti"

a name for someone who follows Caravaggio. This what Gentileschi was, even after the trial.

What is the significance of the columns at the cathedral

columns on the perimeter to serve as shade from the heat and rain. This colonnade was done by the artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. The symbol of this semicircle (colonnade) represents all-embracing arms that bring people back to the church and also to bring back Protestants who wanted to come back to the Mother church.

Mannerism

deliberate confusion, defy progression of space- piling stuff up, chaos and jumble, distorted figures, no central focus-focus on the outside of the painting.

Velasquez characteristics

earth tones, Dark background, tenebrism, still life objects

3 Caravaggio characteristics?

earth tones, tenebrism, nowhere background, important action in the foreground