art

Essentials of Baroque Painting

Marc A. Cirigliano

In a very real sense, Baroque painting , sculpture and architecture are a continuation and further development of their Renaissance counterparts.

So, we have these characteristics of Baroque painting

• Diagonal composition

• Action pushed to extreme foreground

• Use of repoussoir figures or coulisses, figures or objects on the

foreground sides that bring our eye into the painting’s center

• Action frozen at climactic moment

• Dramatic intensity through strong chiaroscuro, strongly contrasting

light and shade

• Often, use of cellar lighting (lighting angled from above)

• Painterly brushstrokes to suggest movement, not simply define form

Let us look at an example of these characteristics.

Caravaggio

Supper at

Emmaus

1601

Image: Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supper_at_E

mmaus_(Caravaggio,_London)

The iconography.

Two of Jesus’ disciples meet a stranger on the road to Emmaus. The invite him to

dine.

The moment Caravaggio depicts is when the resurrected Jesus, heretofore

unrecognized, reveals himself. He will soon vanish from their presence. Luke: 24:

30–314: 30–31).

Compositional

effects in the

painting.

Moment in the

story where the

disciples recognize

Christ.

Repoussoir figure

draws the viewer

in to the story.

Foreshortened

arms draw the

viewer in.

Jesus

foreshortened

hand and arm

draw the viewer in.

Basket of fruit on

table’s edge adds

depth.

Action pushed to the foreground with strong chiaroscuro (light

and shade), both of which make the moment more dramatic.

The purpose of all

these compositional

effects was to make

the viewer

experience the holy

event with all of his or

her senses.

This was a Counter-

Reformation strategy

to counter the

Protestant assertion

that all you needed

was faith and a Bible

to be a good

Christian.

The Catholic promise

was of a genuine

Christian experience

through the institution

of the Church.

The basis of the French Academy, which will set the standards for painting and sculpture in Europe until the early 20th century.

Académie de peinture et de sculpture (Academy of Painting and Sculpture), founded in France in 1648.

We usually refer to it these days as The Academy.

• Created by very young Louis XIV with initiative of Charles Le Brun

• Modeled on Italian examples: Accademia di San Luca in Rome

• Paris already had Académie de Saint-Luc, city artist guild, like any other Guild of Saint Luke, who was considered the first Christian artist

The Académie developed the Hierarchy of Genres, a system of classifying and establishing the initial artistic value of a work of art based on the subject matter. We say initial value, because, it was recognized that some Still Life painter were more talented that some History Painters.

In fact, although there were academic rules for the arts on how to draw, how to paint, the subjects to use, etc., they did recognize that some people had more artistic talent than others, often an unquantifiable quality they referred to simply as the “je ne sais quois,” literally, the “I do knot know what” of imagination and genius.

The genres of painting and sculpture in descending order of importance:

History painting, including significant narrative religious, mythological and allegorical subjects

Portrait painting, usually of significant people

Genre painting, scenes of everyday people living everyday life

Landscape

Animal painting

Still life

History is the ideal world of eternal ideas, how the world should be. The genres descend in order to moral importance down to the level of lifeless solid matter in the still life.

Highest

to

Lowest

Understanding Linear and Painterly.

A new iteration of the Disegno vs. Colorito Controversy.

This was an ongoing debate in the French Academy about

whether painting should appeal to the intellect or the

emotions.

Image from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

/The_Baptism_of_Christ_(P

iero_della_Francesca)

Baptism of Christ

Piero della Francesca

c. 1448–50

Tempera on panel

An example of

linear technique

where objects

are defined by

clean edges and

the paint is

blended

smoothly.

Go to the next

slide for more

detail.

The Linear is

linked to the

Renaissance,

the painterly to

the Baroque,

but these are

not absolutes.

Frans Hals, Singing Boy with Flute, c. 1623, oil on canvas,

68.8 x 55.2 cm (Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche

Museen zu Berlin)

Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "Frans Hals, Singing Boy with Flute," in Smarthistory, November 28, 2015, accessed April 10, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/frans-hals-singing-boy- with-flute/.

An example of the painterly

technique, where the soft buttery

quality of the paint and its

brushstrokes are a central elements

of the painting’s look.

An angel done in a liner style compared to the painterly technique in the

Hals’ painting.

Hals mage from WikiMedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frans_Hals_- _Singing_Boy_with_Flute_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Note the definite edges and smooth surfaces in the linear style on the left,

with the heavier paint and brushwork with the painterly on the right.

Each is artistic in its own way, but the effects are different. The linear is clear

and crisp, the painterly suggestive and in motion. Sometimes, a single

painting will have both techniques.

Both images from the Artchive: http://www.artchive.com/ftp_site.htm

Another Example of Linear vs. Painterly

French painter Nicholas Poussin’s Muse

vs.

Peter Paul Ruben’s daughter

An example of the linear

technique, with subtle glazing

(layering) of the paint to create

color gradations.

Detail of the Muse from Nicolas

Poussin’s Inspiration of the

Poet, 1629-1630, Oil on canvas

Image from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_In

spiration_of_the_Poet

An example of the painterly

technique, with the paint applied

thickly so that we see the

brushstrokes.

Peter Paul Rubens

Portrait of Clara Serena Rubens,

daughter of Rubens

c. 1616

Oil on canvas, mounted on panel

37 X 27 cm

Image from Liechtenstein The Princely

Collections:

http://www.liechtensteincollections.at/en/

pages/artbase_main.asp?module=brows

e&action=m_work&lang=en&sid=87294&

oid=W-2682004161714673

LinearPainterly

A More Accurate Description, it is not

always absolutely one or the other

Painterly Linear

Controlled glazes, vs. Looser brushstrokes

i.e., thin layers with impasto, heavy paint,

of paint like soft butter

LinearPainterly