Lunacy or Legitimacy? the Baroque Age
Baroque lasted from c.1580 to c.1750 (Sohm 227) and spanned Europe. Beginning in Rome, Italy a “stylistic trend” (Wood 1) would develop in seventeenth century Europe that would have an underlying shared philosophy: one that would be readily “adopted by kings, emperors, popes, and other aspiring absolutists” (Sohm 227). Many historians believe that Baroque was so successful because of the Roman Catholic Church. Due to the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church called the Council of Trent c.1545-1563. Wary of Protestantism, and eager for converts, the church looked toward the Arts. The Roman Catholic Church believed that works of art “should speak to the illiterate rather than the well-informed” (Baroque par.4). This new idea of art for the masses eventually caught on with the famous Caravaggio and Carracci brothers, well known Baroque painters, in 1600.
It is important to understand the personality of Baroque. According to Sohm (227), historians differ on how to characterize this difficult style and age. He himself remarks that Baroque’s “psychology was self-aware, mystical, manipulative, melodramatic, and playful. Its subjects ranged from the abject to the sublime, from caricatures to idealized portraits, from sexualized ecstasies to bloody dismemberings” (Sohm 227). Artists are both included and excluded, depending on the expert (Wood 2). In the nineteenth century, Baroque was viewed as “grotesque, corrupt” (Wood 2). In fact the word Baroque, some believe, is taken from the Spanish word barrueco or misshapen, oval pearls. Sohm writes, however, that during baroque times, these pearls were highly in fashion (227). Depending on the viewpoint, this period is beautiful, contradictory or sublime.
It is fair to characterize Baroque art as “visceral” and “aimed at the senses”(Baroque par.5). There is a high level of drama in Baroque paintings. For instance, whereas in a Michelangelo painting you may have two characters in repose, in a Baroque piece one character might be in the middle of throwing a rock at another character. The message is active, clear, and straightforward, as if you were reading a picture book. After all, the idea was to present messages to people who could not read, to present a story visually. Another method that visual artists employed during Baroque was the use of contrapposto or counterpoise. This would involve portraying the subject’s hips and shoulders pulled in exaggerated opposite directions creating a dynamic effect in both painting and sculpture. Peter Paul Rubens is considered to be a famous Baroque painter. His patron was Marie de Medici from Paris and his paintings can today be viewed in the Louvre.
Sculpture took on a new form during Baroque, especially in the hands of its most famous artist, Bernini. Bernini’s most renowned sculpture can be seen in Rome, Saint Theresa in Ecstasy, in the Cornaro chapel. Beloved by the family who commissioned it, but stunning onlookers in the centuries that followed, we see Saint Theresa in a sacred scene with a look on her face that can only be best “described as orgasmic”(Baroque par.17). Regardless, Bernini was an unstoppable genius who produced works of architecture, art, plays and spectacles. He has almost become the Baroque poster boy. Sculpture was extremely vital during Baroque. For the first time the viewer could look at the piece from multiple directions. The use of concealed lights and water was also introduced. Looking back there was a sense of a vortex, of spinning, of reaching and great energy in sculpture.
Baroque architecture was magnificent and complex, arranged in such a way as to impress guests. Visitors would enter rooms sequentially. Each room was built to be more stunning and beautiful than the next. Eventually, one would reach an incredible staircase which would lead to the state apartment, presence chamber or throne room, which would be the most opulent room of all. On the exterior, Baroque played with mass and void. Architects balanced colonnades between columns, used delightful painting techniques, played with “light and shade” (Baroque par.20) and made free use of domes. Germany, Austria and Poland enthusiastically built Baroque architecture. The Ludwigsburg Palace in Germany is an example and you can visit the Wilanow and Biaystok Palace in Austria and Poland. Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Jan Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor were all well known Baroque architects c.1600-1725 (Baroque par.21).
It is only recently that historians have now understood Baroque music. Thanks to Curt Sachs, a 1919 German musicologist, we now know that there were quite a few developments in the Baroque music scene. First, counterpoint, or harmony, replaced polyphony, which involved several voices singing independently. Johann Sebastian Bach, in his The Art of the Fugue, was the most famous counterpoint musician. Another note-worthy musician during this time was Handel, who wrote such works as Water Music and Messiah. Opera was also started in Baroque by the Florentine Camerata, a disgruntled group of “humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals”(Florentine Camerata par.1). Florentine Camerata believed that music could be revived by monody, a solo sang along a single vocal line to the music of an instrument and following ancient Greek storylines . They had both the full support of a rich patron, Giovanni de Bardi, and the Roman Catholic Church who each wanted to support them for their own reasons. Giovanni participated for the prestige and perhaps the profit; the Church for the simple fact that they shared the belief that current music was corrupt. From this, opera was born.
Baroque literature and philosophy were tied closely together. The values that predominated during Baroque guided writers during this time. The most well-known writer of this time is John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost. Metaphor and allegory were used frequently in art and literature. Philosophically, the concepts of the power of Man, the virtuoso, adherence to realism, a focus on the reader or client, these were all part of Baroque. The creative writing school of Marinism developed in the 17th century as an escape from classical literature. Another concept that arose relating to philosophy was the idea of Maraviglia, or wonder and astonishment. A group calling themselves the metaphysical poets also emerged at this time, which despite there name was strikingly rational.
It has been suggested that our modern world closely resembles Baroque. “Omar Calabrese proposed baroque as the best conceptual category for late twentieth-century culture with its transgressions of pop culture into high art, its self-conscious referencing of the past, and its frenetic visual flux and its polymorphic media (Sohm, 230).” However, will our modern world still have the enduring opulent palaces, the splendid winding gardens, the magnificent paintings, the intricate music and the complex literature to admire? Baroque grandeur, its historical and artistic and philosophical merits will never be lost to time.
Works Cited
Sohm, Philip L. “Baroque” Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Ed. Jonathan Dewald. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004, 227-230. 6 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Thomson Gale. UNIV OF ALBERTA. 16 January 2006.
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. January 16, 2006. Wikimedia Foundation. January 17, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/php?title=Baroque&oldid=35470842 17 January 2006, 08:26 UTC
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. January 16, 2006. Wikimedia Foundation. January 17, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/php?title=Florentine_Camerata&oldid=284743991 17 January 2006, 08:22 UTC
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. January 16, 2006. Wikimedia Foundation. January 17, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/php?title=Marinism&oldid=31812520 17 January 2006, 08.20 UTC
Wood, Carolyn A. Concept of the Baroque. Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. 6 vols. Charles Scribner’s and Sons, 2000. Reproduced in History Resource Centre. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. 2 pages.
