Art History
3.Transition piece: Gersaint's Signboard, Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1721 -
putting away portrait of King Louis', right side is the beginning of Rococo.
3.Saying Grace Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin 1740
rejected rococo because it showed simplicity and humble family life rather than intricate detailing.
2 Georges de la Tour;Adoration of the Shepherds, 1645-50
subject matter deeply religious, but also completely generic no sign of any of the expected characters simplicity, only the light is dramatic frozen motion - limited gestures. He used the devices of caravaggios dutch followers, but uses effects different.. Like using night setting, like van honthorst but the light source is shaded by an old mans hand and has a different mood. Made them not very religious looking.. Light is material not spiritual!. Classical composure fervent spirualit and genre realism.
What is rococo?
type of art that moved away from religion with a lighter, elegant and charming style, flowersand stuff
2 Flemish- Rembrandt van Rijn,Supper at Emmaus, 1628
1628 dramatic/tenebristic. Christ is both there and disappearing at the same time. Another hidden light source
1-2.1 Apollo fountain - Tuby, 1670.
Added to original Fountain of Swans built in 1636. Shows Apollo, the king's icon, bursting forth in his chariot to go take the sun across the sky. Symbolic of Louis XIV being a great king bursting forth to do great and memorable things. Faces the palace, suggesting that this was his home.
Social practices after the death of Louis XIV -
After Louis died, the aristocrats moved into townhomes with their kids. They developed luxurious but smaller sized lives outside of the palace. They were still very nice, but they didn't have to worry about the king's spies everywhere. The art style is now definitely rococo. Children were encouraged to be kept in the home and taught and enjoyed. RICH PEOPLE WANTED MORE POWER
1-2.5 Architects of Versailles
André Le Nôtre - main landscape architect.\ Jules Hardouin-Mansart - Versailles Orangery architect.
2 ITALY Rome - Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1620
Artemisia was one of the best followers of Caravaggio, demonstrating dramatic passion as well as utilizing tenebrism for added drama. Even in this scene, she outdid Caravaggio in the depiction of this biblical story.
Who rejected rococo?
Artists Who Rejected Rococo - Those into Neoclassicism were the ones who rejected the softness of rococo.
1.4 Colonnade (St. Peter's Piazza, St. Peter's Square, etc) - Bernini, 1667.
Bernini's use of mathematical perfection. The shape of the arms are significant because it's supposed to represent the embracing arms of the church which relates back to the absolute monarchy. Entirely baroque in concept. Has the pre-existing obelisk and fountain and Bernini had to work around.
1-2.3 The Orangerie - Jules Hardouin-Mansart, 1686.
Built upon Le Vaus' original design from 1663. Housed hundreds of exotic plants, namely oranges, pomegranates, olives, etc. The plants were all potted so that they could be toted around the gardens and in and out when the weather turned cold. Great status symbol of Louis XIV, as oranges and other citrus fruits were a rare commodity and showed wealth and privilege.
2 caravaggio and caracci
Carracci as the paragon of Italian painters, who had fostered a "renaissance" of the great tradition of Raphael and Michelangelo. On the other hand, while admitting Caravaggio's talents as a painter, over-naturalistic style, if not his turbulent morals and persona. He thus viewed the Caravaggisti styles with the same gloomy dismay. Painters were urged to depict the Platonic ideal of beauty, not Roman street-walkers. By the 21st century, observers had warmed to the rebel myth of Caravaggio, and often ignored the profound influence on art that Carracci had. ----=Caravaggio almost never worked in fresco, regarded as the test of a great painter's mettle. =Carracci's best works are in fresco. Thus the somber canvases of Caravaggio, with benighted backgrounds, are suited to the contemplative altarss. Carracci's "frescoes convey the impression of a tremendous joie de vivre, a new blossoming of vitality and of an energy long repressed". It is instructive to compare Carracci's Assumption with Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin. Among early contemporaries, Carracci was an innovator. He re-enlivened Michelangelo's visual fresco vocabulary, and posited a muscular and vivaciously brilliant pictorial landscape, In the century following his death, , Carracci and baroque art in general came under criticism from neoclassic critics and admirers of Caravaggio. This question is asking how is the dark style connected to the counter reformation? He starts out as the head of the counter reformation, by really portraying religious feeling in a dramatic way. More dramatic than the clergy and sacraments paraded through the churches and cities. He questions why the clergy need to do this. Altar vs. sacrament table is important. Sacrament tables are not center, which helps differentiate. You've got Darby saying that science is the new religion, as seen in the bird suffocation painting.
2 COunter reformation
Catholic Church's attempt to stop the protestant movement and to strengthen the Catholic Church supporters of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and its religious art included Italy, Spain and its colonies of Flanders and Naples, as well as southern Germany. Its leading exponents were therefore Italian Baroque artists like Caravaggio, Pietro da Cortona, Bernini, and Andrea Pozzo; the school of Spanish Painting, such as El Greco, Ribera and Francisco de Zurbaran; and the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens.
1.2 The Baldacchino - Bernini, 1634 ST PETER
Directly under Michelangelo's dome and right above the tomb of St. Peter. Stylistically vine-like. Only the pope can enter under the Baldacchino. Made of the bronze stolen from the Pantheon and melted down, symbolic of the Catholic victory over paganism. Under its canopy is the high altar of the basilica. Columns are considered Solomonic.
Caravaggio
Italian painter noted for his realistic depiction of religious subjects and his novel use of light chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image.
2 The Flight into Egypt, 1604 Caracci
Landscape is very venetian; lots of natural light displayed throughout. This was the most popular style of the 18th century. Doesn't focus on the story, but rather on the background. Very Serene moment.
2 Conversion of St. Paul, 1604. Caravaggio
Lights of Christ reflected in horse's side. Natural light used as supernatural light. Like in other conversion of St. Matthew. Angle of arms creates lines of force- all you need to focus on is between them. A sense of supernatural shown only through naturalism. Use of light and shadows revolutionary. Gives the audience a real sense of the moment, for US to be converted.
3.Salon de la Princesse, Germain Boffrand in collaboration with Joseph Natoire and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, 1740
No clear definition between ceiling and walls; swirling amorphous shapes; silver as opposed to gold. They constituted the new apartments of the Prince on the ground floor and the Princesse on the piano nobile, both of which featured oval salons looking into the garden. These rooms have changed very little since the 18th century, including the Chambre du prince, Salon ovale du prince, Chambre d'apparat de la princesse and the very fine Salon ovale de la princesse with gilded carvings and mirror-glass embedded in the boiserie and ceiling canvases and overdoors by François Boucher, Charles-Joseph Natoire, and Carle Van Loo. The walls melt into the vault. Irregular painted shapes, topped by sculpture and separated by rocaille shells, replace the hall's cornices. Painting, architecture, and sculpture combine to form a single ensemble. The profusion of curving tendrils and sprays of foliage blend with the shell forms to give an effect of freely growing nature, suggesting that the designer permanently bedecked the Rococo room for a festival.
3.Cupid a Captive, François Boucher, 1754.
Painted by Madame de Pompadour's favorite artist. Fete galante style with soft curves and pastels and lots of greens and foliage.
3.1 Marriage a la Mode, William Hogarth, 1743
REJECTED rococo. facial expressions, both spouses have just had affairs. They both have syphilis. The tax collector is upset that they aren't paying their bills. Rejected rococo because yeah it's fancy but it has morally ambiguous content.
1 St. Peter Rituals/ History
Rituals - Different sacraments, Mass, Pope only one to go under the Baldacchino How does the art/architecture show the purpose for that area
3.Amelionburg Palace, Munich 1734
Rococo
2 England - Joseph Wright of Derby, Philosopher giving a lecture at the Orrery, 1766.
Scientific inventions are painted. Science becomes the new religion. The light source makes it very Caravaggesque.
3.Nymph and Satyr Carousing, Clodion, 1790
Small, lively sculptures representing sensuous Rococo fantasies. Shows the erotic playfulness of two of Bacchus' symbols.
1.3 Cathedra Petri - Bernini, 1653. ST PETER
St. Peter's throne. Stained glass windows behind it with dove descending unto the chair, validating him as first bishop/pope of Rome/Catholic church. Gold leaf everywhere. Flowing golden clouds. It is said to be the original wooden chair of St. Peter that he used as the first bishop of Rome, encased in sculpted gilt bronze. Way the light is let in through the window creates a natural glow mimicking the sun. Considered a reliquary, as it was supposed the original "chair of Peter".
1-2.4 Hall of Mirrors - Jules Hardouin-Mansart, 1684.
The Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the Palace, was built to replace a large terrace designed by the architect Louis Le Vau, which opened onto the garden. The terrace originally stood between the King's Apartments to the north and the Queen's to the south, but was awkward and above all exposed to bad weather, and it was not long before the decision was made to demolish it. Pays tribute to the political, economic and artistic success of France. 357 mirrors total. served as a place for waiting and meeting. It was used for ceremonies on rare occasions, for example when sovereigns wanted an extra dash of lavishness for entertainment (balls or games) held for royal weddings or diplomatic receptions. Treaty of Versailles signed here.
2 Dutch NETHERLANDS - Gerrit Van Honthorst, Supper Party, 1620
The Supper Party outfits are more northern european; not a religious painting (but still has a moral); hidden light source. A bunch of contemporary people and a prostitute, which you would not see in a Carracci painting.
Social practices before the death of Louis XIV
The nobility and aristocracy all spent their time in Versailles with the king. They enjoyed a life of extreme luxury, but the king had spies everywhere so it was kind of a trade off. Children weren't kept in the home; they were sent off to be apprentices or learn at school.
1-2.2 Apollo Served by the Nymphs Sculpture - François Girardon and Thomas Regnaudin, 1675.
The sculpture of Apollo served by the Nymphs is composed of seven figures. It was created between 1667 and 1675 by the sculptors François Girardon and Thomas Regnaudin. Originally intended to be placed in the Tethys grotto, a structure overlooking the gardens, formerly located near the Chapel, this work is one of Louis XIV's first commissions in the area of sculpture. It introduces the theme of Apollo into the gardens.
1. History of Versailles/ rituals
Was a hunting lodge.royal palace built during the reign of Louis XIV which he used to enforce his power and prestige Rituals: Morning/evening rituals. It was a giant debacle where the King would go about his nightly getting ready routine but it was a big fancy occasion that everyone was invested in. Cause he's the king. Flowers for events taken in and out and replanted over and over again to make him seem like some otherworldly force over even nature to his guests.
2 Spain- Diego Velazquez- Water Carrier of Seville, c. 1619
Whilst not as aggressively provocative as Caravaggio, Velázquez does not by any means idealize his subject
HIstory of rococo
after the French King, Louis XIV, demanded more youthful art to be produced under his reig
2 Caracci
as one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of the Baroque style, borrowing from styles from both north and south of their native city, and aspiring for a return to classical monumentality, but adding a more vital dynamism. While Carracci laid emphasis on the typically Florentine linear draftsmanship, as exemplified by Raphael and Andrea del Sarto, their interest in the glimmering colours and mistier edges of objects derived from the Venetian painters, notably the works of Venetian oil painter Titian, which Annibale studied during his travels around Italy in 1580-81. Carracci was remarkably eclectic in thematic, painting landscapes, genre scenes, and portraits, including a series of autoportraits across the ages. He was one of the first Italian painters to paint a canvas wherein landscape took priority over figures, such as his masterful The Flight into Egypt.
1.1 Maderno's Facade - Maderno, 1612. ST PETER
he drama inherent in santa susannas facade appealed to Pope Paul V, who commissioned Maderno in 1606 to complete Saint Peter's in Rome. In many ways, Maderno's facade is a gigantic expansion of the elements of Santa Susanna's first level. But the compactness and verticality of the smaller church's facade are not as prominent because Saint Peter's enormous breadth counterbalances them. Because he had to match the preexisting core of an incomplete building, Maderno did not have the luxury of formulating a totally new concept for Saint Peter's. Moreover, the facade's two outer bays with bell towers were not part of the architect's original design. Hence, had the facade been constructed according to Maderno's initial concept, it would have exhibited greater verticality and visual coherence. Maderno's plan also departed from the Renaissance central plans for Saint Peter's designed by Bramante and, later, by Michelangelo. Paul V asked Maderno to add three nave bays to the earlier nucleus be- cause Church officials had decided that the central plan was too closely associated with ancient temples, such as the Pantheon. Because the facade is so expansive, it made it so that Michelangelo's dome was further pushed back and harder to see unless from a distance.
3.Pilgrimage to Cythera, Antoine Watteau, 1717 -
island makes you fall in love; shows frivolity, and mocking of affection; wild foliage- more nature; frilly and light; all about fleeting and vain things; fete galante as subject; colors pastel
