Baroque Painters

Judith Slaying Holofernes, Artemesia Gentileschi, photo
courtesy of Wikipedia CC

           Baroque painters of the 1600s adapted theatrical qualities on canvas through dramatic chiaruscuro, lighting and action.  The father of Baroque painting in Rome, Caravaggio (1571-1610), often painted a tight, intimate scene in which light played a major role.  Many painters began to follow the style of Caravaggio, such as Artemesia Gentileschi (1593-1656), a female contemporary.  Gentileschi’s most famous piece, Judith Slaying Holoferness, from 1614-1620, is her version of a famous piece of the same scene by Caravaggio.  Some say this is her response to his painting.

            Gentileschi’s Judith is a strong woman, forcing the sword through Holoferness’ neck as she grasps his hair with her hand.  Blood spurts from the wound onto her chest and arms and runs down crisp white sheets.  The scene is dynamic with movement.  Gentileschi’s Judith is a powerful woman, which contrasts to the dainty feminine Judith in Caravaggio’s depiction.

Judith Slaying Holofernes (1598-99), Caravaggio,
photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            However, Gentileschi in heavily influenced by Caravaggio’s style: an attention to physical darkness and lightness to make up the composition.  As in Caravaggio’s paintings, Gentileschi’s scene is lit by a stark light, which comes from out of the canvas and gleams on only the three figures in the foreground.  The background is completely shaded in darkness.  The heightened drama creates a tone of concealed danger.  Gentileschi's painting reflects a darker side to femininity, just as Caravaggio's paintings reveal his own dark side.  

Pious Love

Ecstasy of St. Teresa, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia CC

            Following the Catholic Counter-Reformation of the early 16^th century in Rome, religious art adopted a style that emphasized heightened drama, fluidity of movement and dynamic figures.  This style, known as Baroque, quickly took hold in Catholic architecture – many of the buildings, churches and fountains throughout Rome can be called Baroque.  The Roman artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was the popular architect whose works epitomize the Baroque period in Rome.

            Architect of the Cornaro Chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Bernini built the altar known as The Ecstasy of St Teresa (1647-1652).  The white marble statue, surrounded by polychromatic marble columns, depicts a scene from the writings of the famous saint in which she was pierced by an arrow and filled with the love and fulfillment of God.  The rather erotic depiction emphasizes the intense emotion after an angel has plunged and removed the arrow from her heart. 

                                                                                                                                                                   

Cornaro family depiction, photo courtesy
of Wikipedia CC

St. Teresa and angel, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            

This piece contains key aspects of Baroque sculptures.  The figures of St. Teresa and the angel are soft, seemingly alive as the drapery of the saint’s gown curves and folds in dynamic movement.  Bernini accents the figures by contrasting the softness of their skin and clothing with the rough texture of the rocks on which St. Teresa reclines, overcome with rapture.  Bernini also creates drama through the addition of a window directly above the sculpture, adding small golden beams that seem to be rays of light reaching down from the heavens.  Adding to the theatrics of his altar, Bernini depicted the commissioners, the Cornaro family, seated in box seats as if in a theater hall, straining to see the sight whilst talking amongst themselves.  These are all features that defined the Baroque period and made Bernini famous in his time.

Maniera

Joseph in Egypt, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            Jacopo da Pontormo, who lived from 1494-1556, was the epotime of a Mannerist painter.  His compositions manipulate nature in figure and setting.  Pontormo’s compositions are often confusingly busy, with lack of harmony or traditional focal points.  Paintings such as Joseph in Egypt (1515) are meant to tell biblical stories, but do so in a befuddling manner with no traditional foreground, background or middle.  The story is not told chronologically, but instead laid out all at once before the viewer’s eyes.  The figures wear contemporary clothes while the architecture harkens back to Classical Antiquity.  The architecture itself serves no purpose other than to help create a sense of depth and to add an interesting complexity to the work.

Deposition from the Cross, photo courtsey
of Wikipedia CC

                 

            Although his paintings are a far cry from the symmetry of the Renaissance, Vasari states that “in every one of Jacopo’s works…there will not be something good and praiseworthy.  His figures are complex, twisted in dramatic movements, and display his understanding of manipulation.  His complex architectural structures, though out of place, are often interesting and distinctive.

Pontormo also utilizes color in an extroirdinary way, such as in his 1526-28 Desposition from the Cross.  This particular painting holds a beautiful array of pastel blues and reds.  Though the proportions and use of natural space are entirely manipulated, the color stands out most on his figures.  An interesting aspect of the composition of Ponrotmo’s Desposition is the subtle spiral the figures of the piece create.  Crowded into the front of the image and taking up the entire canvas, there is no traditional or defined setting for the painting.  Thus, the complexity and harmony of the way the figures relate to each other is a large part of what makes this painting remarkable.

Mannerism

Madonna with the Long Neck, photo courtesy

of Wikipedia CC

Mannerism, a painting style of heightened drama based on imitating the ideas and figures of the High Renaissance while manipulating the images, came about in the 1520s and lasted only until the 1580s. Mannerist painting is most notably recognized for attention to artificiality.  Francesco Parmigiano's Madonna with the Long Neck (1534-40) typifies the unique style of the Mannerist era.  Though a traditional subject, Parmigiano’s painting differs drastically from the High Renaissance Madonna and Child depictions.

The unbalanced and asymmetric composition rejects the harmonious paintings of Raphael and Michelangelo.  The figures in this piece crowd to the front left of the composition, so much that the artist later added a small figure in the bottom right to add a sense of depth and balance  The heads of five women overlook the Madonna, who towers over them.

Madonna profile, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

The man in the far right, unfinished,

photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

There is little architecture to provide a sense of space, depth, or size.  The Madonna’s cloak fills the entire center of the piece, hiding whatever throne she sits on.  The only architecture is a line of columns in the background, which serve no substantial architectural purpose but add an odd illusion of never ending depth.

The elongated baby Jesus, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

Lastly, the Madonna and Child are strangely out of proportion.  The body of baby Jesus is childlike yet elongated, so he drapes over his mother’s lap, while the body of Mary is also largely out of proportion.  Her elongated body also stretches to tower over the figures in the painting, while her legs are too large, in order to account for her large son. 

The painting, ultimately, represents the artist’s reaction to the High Renaissance.  Artists of the mannerist era were reacting not only to the style of High Renaissance painting, but also to the Catholic Church, which was undergoing a great deal of turmoil at the time.

The Charmer

           Raphael of Urbino, according to Vasari, was born in 1483 on Good Friday.  Whether truth or not it provides an interesting comparison between the Savior and the artist on Vasari’s part – an artist who apparently possessed the “moral habits” that those of his talented counterparts did not. 

close of up Michelangelo's portrait, School of Athens
photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            Raphael first studied under Pietro Perugino in Perugia as a youth.  Quickly surpassing his master’s style, he moved onto other towns before arriving in Florence.  Vasari writes that Raphael extolled the city, as well as its two great masters – Leonardo and Michelangelo.  Leonardo, born in 1452, was too old to be contemporary with Raphael, unlike Michelangelo.  Much opposite in demeanor, charming Raphael worked for Pope Julius II on a room in his apartment while Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel.  His famous fresco School of Athens exemplifies his keen ability to improve his techniwue through observation.  In this one piece alone, there is one figure more beautiful than the rest – the figure of Michelangelo.  Raphael added this portrait after viewing Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel as homage to his talent.  In this last addition Raphael adapted Michelangelo’s lifelike fresco style with color and shading, causing it stand out from the fresco as a whole.

School of Athens, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            Vasari writes that as an adult, Raphael strived to alter his style to match that of Michelangelo’s.  He abandoned the style of Pietro to study the human body as Michelangelo did.  However, Raphael realized he would never surpass the master in that style, and instead “began to attain great versatility in all those other aspects of painting.”

            At the youthful age of 37, Raphael died and was buried in the Pantheon in Rome, where he gained great fame and was beloved by its people.

Harmony in Symmetry

Tempietto, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            In the 1490s, Italy moved swiftly into the High Renaissance with artists who were inspired and influenced by Classical Roman techniques and architecture.  While the first truly Renaissance building is thought to be the Odpedale degli Innocenti in Florence – designed by architect Filippo Brunelleschi and built between 1419 and 1445 – the first High Renaissance building exists in Rome, in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio.  Constructed in 1502 by Donato Bromante, the Tempietto is based on the classic Roman central plan temples, and influenced by such buildings as the Pantheon.

            

detail in Tempietto, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            The Tempietto, built on the exact spot where St. Peter was supposedly crucified around 67 CE, contains such Roman influences as a hemispherical dome, Doric columns supporting marble capitals, and entablatures.  The perfectly symmetrical building harkens back to Classical Antiquity temples in its shape and construction. 

drawing of Tempietto, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia CC

            

    

          

          Bramante’s greatest achievement with his design is the illusion of size created by the building.  The grandeur of the outside, as well as the decreasing of size with each level, causes the building to seem much larger.  The Tempietto, not meant for large congregations, contains little space inside; and thus was perhaps more built as a majestic homage to Chrstianity – and its link to antiquity’s architectural harmony.  

The Artist as Genius: da Vinci and Painting

Baptism of Christ, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

Leonardo da Vinci, who lived from 1452-1529, became one of the most celebrated artists of his time.  According to Giorgio Vasari, from childhood da Vinci easily mastered every subject he sought to learn, though he often grew bored before moving on to another.  Most well known for painting, da Vinci tired of or grew frustrated of many projects, as with the subjects he abandoned, and became most well known for rarely finishing a commission.  Vasari writes that da Vinci’s “understanding of art [caused him to begin] many projects but never finish any…feeling that his hand could not reach artistic perfection in the works he conceived, since he envisioned such subtle, marvelous, and difficult problems that his hands, while extremely skillful, were incapable of ever realizing them”(pg 287, The Lives of Artists).  It is for this reason that da Vinci was the first artist of the Renaissance to alter the traditional power of patron over artist, in turn for artists’ power over patrons.  

Madonna of the Rocks, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia CC

During his youth da Vinci painted in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio.  At the time, Verrocchio worked on a painting of Saint John baptizing Christ, and though da Vinci only painted a small angel carrying garments, the figure stands out so superbly that according to Vasari “this was the reason why Andrea would never touch colors again”(287).  This is a notable point, most poignant when the painting, The Baptism of Christ (1475) is viewed in person because da Vinci's work with color here is far superior when compared to the entire painting.  Even as a young man da Vinci’s keen eye for observation added so much to his skill with painting that he was able to create images like none before.  His eye for observation is obvious when any one of his paintings is compared to one of his contemporaries.  When others painted hazy mountains in the distance, da Vinci created realistic atmospheric perspective.  Sfumato in paintings such as Madonna of the Rocks (1480) and Mona Lisa (1503-1505) adds a tonal mysterious and emotional impact.

Mona Lisa, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

Da Vinci was, however, not only a forrunner of advancing painting; he was also one of the first men to study correct human anatomy extensively.  Creating a book filled with drawings of cadavers and dissections of his own hand, he sketched the inner workings of the human body so as to accurately understand it.  He also filled notebooks with drawings of inventions far beyond his time – so far beyond that there was no technology to keep up with his ideas. 

Ultimately, Leonardo da Vinci was a conceptual genius, loved in his time and in the modern world.  Best known in his day for advancing the art of painting, he has also never been truly surpassed in this art.  However, more like the modern artist, da Vinci was more concerned with the concept of his art than the presentation, and when carried out his perfectionism caused him frustration and grief.