2 papers Art history visual analysis (5-7 pages)
Reborn0804
unit2_baroque_flemish.pptART HISTORY 132
Baroque: Flemish
Baroque: Flemish
- context: military history
- Eighty Years War (c. 1570-1650)
- controversy: six northern provinces of Netherlands sought to separate from Spanish domination
- religious differences Protestant vs. Catholic
- political SP attempt to curtail local autonomy
- outcome: c. 1620 southern Netherlands (Flanders)
- continued to be ruled by staunchly Catholic Spanish regents
- artists relied heavily on commissions from Church & State
Peter Paul Rubens
(1577-1640)
- biography:
- raised Catholic
- classically-educated Humanist scholar
- spent eight (8) years in Italy (c. 1600-08)
- profoundly influenced by Titian
- studied High Ren masters & Caravaggio
- synthesizes Humanism:
- natural & supernatural
- reality & fantasy
- learning & spirituality
- diplomat
- knighted by both Philip IV (SP) and Charles I (England)
- court painter to Spanish regent in Flanders
Rubens
- Raising of the Cross (1610)
- patron: Antwerp Cathedral
- narrative: immediacy; moment of doubt
- perspective: overlapping/foreshortening & aerial
- composition: dynamic
- color: vibrant, localized primaries
- light/shadow: chiaroscuro & tenebrism
- figures: solid, sculptural
- musculature derived from Michelangelo
- dramatic, twisting, contorted poses
- observation of reality
- no trace of Mannerism
- study from live models
Rubens
- Bacchus (c. 1640)
- theme: Humanistic
- figures: idealized & grotesque
- full proportions ventures away from Classical antiquity
- emphasizes rippling, dimpled flesh
- equates fleshiness w/ prosperity
- composition: distilled, synthetic
- CVA
- implicit triangular format
- repeating gestures
- dynamic diagonals
- spatial order: compressed
- perspective: minimal use of aerial & linear
- color: vibrant Venetian qualities
- light/shadow: chiaroscuro
- bleaching effect (see Velazquez)
- emphasizes surface texture
- e.g., wine decanter
Rubens’ The Garden of Love (c. 1625)
(Left) Detail from RUBENS’s Flemish Baroque The Garden of Love (c. 1625)
vs,
(right) detail from Classical Greek Three Goddesses (c. 450 BCE)
Rubens
- Arrival of Marie de’ Medici
- date: c. 1625
- subject: history painting
- Henry IV (King of FR) first wife barren
- obtained permission from Pope to divorce
- de’Medici chosen
- financial reasons
- political convenience
- narrative: moment of recognition
- aesthetic: combines Caravaggio’s realism w/ Carracci’s idealization
- composition: dynamic
- color: vibrant
- light/shadow: dramatic chiaroscuro effects
Rubens
- Arrival of Marie de’Medici (con’t.)
- issue: royal propaganda
- R glossed over truth (re: likeness) in favor of royal patron
- contrapposto
- improved facial features
- ruddy complexion
- surface texture:
- sheen of satin gowns
- lace
Rubens
- Arrival of Marie de’Medici (con’t.)
- theme: Humanist
- allegorical representation of ancient gods & goddesses
- Fame
- Neptune
- figures: idealized
- curvaceous & supple
- males: powerful musculature (re: Michelangelo)
- poses: three views (frontal, ¾, rear)
(Left) detail of sea nymphs from RUBENS’s Arrival of Marie de' Medici (c. 1625) vs.
(right) detail of Eve from Michelangelo’s High Ren Expulsion from Paradise
(c. 1500) in Sistine Chapel
IMAGE INDEX
- Slide 3: RUBENS. Rubens, his wife Helena Fourment, and their son Peter Paul (c. 1640), Oil on wood, 203.8 x 158.1 cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Slide 4: RUBENS. The Raising of the Cross (1610), Center panel of a triptych, 15’1” x 11’9 5/8”, Antwerp Cathedral, Belgium.
- Slide 5: RUBENS. Bacchus (c. 1640), Oil on canvas, transferred from panel, 191 x 161.3 cm., Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.
- Slide 6: RUBENS. The Garden of Love (c. 1630), Oil on canvas, 78 x 111 3/8 in., Prado, Madrid.
- Slide 7: (Left) Detail from RUBENS’s Flemish Baroque The Garden of Love (c. 1625); vs. (right) detail from Classical Greek Three Goddesses (c. 450 BCE)
- Slide 8: RUBENS. The Arrival of Marie de' Medici (c. 1625), Oil on canvas, 155 x 115 1/4 in., Museé du Louvre, Paris.
- Slide 9: Detail of Marie de’Medici and attendants from RUBENS’s The Arrival of Marie de' Medici (c. 1625).
IMAGE INDEX
- Slide 10: Detail of Neptune and sea nymphs from RUBENS’s The Arrival of Marie de' Medici (c. 1625).
- Slide 11: (Left) detail of sea nymphs from RUBENS’s Flemish Baroque The Arrival of Marie de’ Medici (c. 1625); and (right) detail of Eve from Michelangelo’s High Renaissance Expulsion from Paradise (c. 1500) in the Sistine Chapel.
