17^th Century Italian Baroque

The 17th century was a time in which art and religion were inextricably connected. The Counter Reformation was Catholic Church's attempt to command authority over the Christian world and battle the Protestant threat. How is this seen in the art? In the attempt to win back those that had been drawn away by Protestantism, the aesthetics of the time became dramatic, emotional, sensual, grandiose, and opulent. Religious works became imbued with sensual undertones.

Artinthepicture offers this: "The Baroque originated around 1600. The canon promulgated at the Council of Trent (1545?63), by which the Roman Catholic Church addressed the representational arts by demanding that paintings and sculptures in church contexts should speak to the illiterate rather than to the well-informed, is customarily offered as an inspiration of the Baroque, which appeared, however, a generation later. This turn toward a populist conception of the function of ecclesiastical (church) art is seen by many art historians as driving the innovations..."

In an attempt to win back those that had been drawn away by Protestantism, the aesthetics of the time became dramatic, emotional, sensual, grandiose, and opulent. Simple, right? To attract people, awe them. Religious works, like sculptures and buildings, were imbued with sensual undertones. What is more viscerally understood than sensuality, right?

Berini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

When talking about the Baroque, perhaps the most salient work to discuss is Berini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa . It is, in a word, stunning.

smarthistory.org: Saint Theresa was a nun who was canonized (made a Saint by the Church) because of the spiritual visions she experienced. She lived during the middle of the 16th century in Spain—at the height of the Reformation. Saint Theresa wrote several books in which she described her visions.
This is her description of the event that Bernini depicts:


Beside me, on the left, appeared an angel in bodily form.... He was not tall but short, and very beautiful; and his face was so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest rank of angels, who seem to be all on fire.... In his hands I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he pulled it out I felt that he took them with it, and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease, nor is one's soul content with anything but God. This is not a physical but a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it—even a considerable share.

Saint Theresa describes her intensely spiritual experience in very physical, even sexual terms. Why? We know that an important goal of Baroque art is to involve the viewer. Theresa is describing this in physical/sexual terms so that we can understand. After all, being visited by an angel and filled with the love of God is no small experience. How can we ordinary mortals hope to understand the intensity and passion of this experience except on our own terms?

Compare Renaissance master, Michelangelo's David (left) with Baroque master, Bernini's David (right). The visual art of the Renaissance was about seeking balance, symmetry, and perfect optical observation. This is seen well in Michelangelo's David. He displays a calm poise, control, and determination. He is captured after the action-- his sling hangs down his back as he looks confidently onwards, almost to an unseen crowd.
Compare this to Berini's David. This David is about the tension

before the rock leaves his sling.
Its composition is dynamic, his arm extends behind his back and you anticipate its flight across his body and the explosive trajectory of the rock, through the air, and into Goliath. This is the energy that transformed the Renaissance mastery of sculpture and painting into the evocative Baroque style. Bernini is known as one of great Baroque masters, responsible for the arms added to the St. Peter's Cathedral in the 17th century that are now symbolic of the Vatican. Saint Peter's Basilica underwent a large renovation-- its purpose was to establish itself as the seat of Roman Catholicism. The plan that Michelangelo originally laid out for the structure was considerably expanded by architect Carlo Maderno to accommodate the large congregations.

Caravaggio and the Caravaggisti

Nowhere is drama more seen in Baroque art than in the work of Michelangelo Merisi, commonly known as Caravaggio. Caravaggio perfected a way to render light with a dramatic and palpable quality. 

This is known as tenebrism. This technique uses large areas of darkness to contrast sharply with brightly lit areas. The artists that followed in Caravaggio's footsteps and utilized the dramatic effects of tenebrism are known as Caravaggisiti.
(Calling of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio, above) They include in the great female artist  Artemisia Gentileschi (Judith and Maidservant with Head Holofernes, Artemisia Gentileschi, right). For Caravaggio and the Caravaggisti, light was used as a metaphor for the divine and revelation. This is the difference between tenebrism and the Renaissance's chiaroschuro. Chiaroschuro was used to simulate spatial depth through graduations of light and dark-- it is based on empirical observation of light and shadows (a technique called modeling). Tenebrism was a exaggeration of chiaroschuro and is not optically correct. The revelatory light is analogous to faith-- it changes the way one sees the world. In Conversion of Saint Paul, Caravaggio illustrates the moment when Paul, not yet Saint Paul, fall off his horse and hears God calling his name. The horse, nor the servant hear God's call. But an understanding of Caravaggio would suggest that the light in which Paul is bathed as actually the presence of God. (Conversion of Saint Paul, Caravaggio, below)

 Thought food:

Comparing Caravaggio's work to Bernini's, based on their garb and content, do they seem like they worked in period?

Giovanni Gabrieli and the canzona

  The canzona was derived from Renaissance secular music, like the madrigal, known for its distinctive LONG~short~short rhythm known as the canzona rhythm. Gabrieli designated specific instruments for specific parts (a practice known as orchestration today). He controlled the variation in volume and intensity (known as dynamics) with the designations piano (for soft) and forte (for loud). This is well heard in Canzona Duodecimi Toni. His compositions mirror Carravaggio's contrast between light and dark. Gabrieli is also responsible for the organization of music around a tonic note, or a central note that is the focus of the composition. Canzona Duodecimi Toni's resolution is on C. His compositions mirror Carravaggio's contrast between light and dark. Gabrieli is also responsible for the organization of music around a tonic note, or a central note that is the focus of the composition. Canzona Duodecimi Toni's resolution is on C.

Claudio Monteverdi and the Opera

Claudio Monteverdi was appointed musical director at saint Mark's where he proposed a very different approach to composing music. Traditionalists at the time preferred that the text served the music and Monteverdi sought to reverse this relationship-- thus, the opera was born. Although he was not the first to write an opera, as a group called the Camerata of Florence, dedicated to discovering the style of singing that the ancient Greeks used to unite their poetry and music and Caccaini, in the 16th century, wrote works that placed solo vocal lines above instrumental lines, he is known as the first to integrate music and drama successfully.

Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto

Vivaldi specialized in composing concertos, which are a secular form of instrumental music arranged in three movements. This form was in existence prior to Vivaldi but he systematized it-- the first movement usually being allegro (cheerful and quick), the second, slower and expressive, and the third, livelier than the first. Concertos usually feature one or two instruments that perform passages that contrast back and forth with the orchestra in the first and third movements. This form is called ritornello ritornello in the tonic and the solos interrupt in different keys, back and forth, until the ritornello returns in the tonic in the concluding section.