Week 2 Project History of Art from the Middle age to Modern Times

Page 1 of 1 History of Art from Middle Ages to Modern Times

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Baroque The word Baroque which derives from French and means irregularly shaped refers to art, music and literature produced in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. As a style, Baroque art is typically dramatic, emotional and dynamic. It is marked by sharp diagonals and strong contrasts and color and light. The Catholic Church's Counter-Reformation, a direct response to the Protestant-Reformation, defined much of the art and architecture produced in 16th century Italy and Flanders. The Catholic Church commissioned large scale buildings, sculptures and paintings meant to be a sort of propaganda and to encourage piety in viewers. Elaborate sculptural installations such as Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Baldacchino and Saint Teresa of Avila and Ecstasy, 1645-52 are examples of Counter-Reformation sculpture. Caravaggio's the Calling of Saint Matthew, 1599-1600 epitomizes Italian Baroque painting in its subject who shows Christ singling out the Roman tax collector, Matthew to join him in a spiritual life and its composition in which the artist employs Tenebrism or the dramatic contrast of dark and light. Also, typical of the Italian Baroque approach, this biblical subject matter is told through what seemed to be ordinary figures with their dirty feet. Indeed, the only visible manifestation of Christ's holiness is a faint outline of a halo above his head. Flemish Baroque painter, Peter Paul Rubens also produced Counter-Reformation works such as his Raising of the Cross, 1610-11. The dramatic diagonal that defines the composition of this triptic is typically Baroque as are the muscular emotional figures, strong color and gestural application of paint. Dutch Baroque art showed the influence of Protestantism and the middle-class merchants and traders who served as patrons. Dutch Baroque artists create portraits, still life, landscapes and genre scenes of domestic life. Generally, Dutch Baroque art tended to be naturalistic in style and captured the transitory aspects of the every day. Rembrandt Van Rijn's large group portraits and Jan Vermeer's quiet interior studies are typical of this period's style.