Baroque Art And Art

The 18th century, more precisely between 1715 and 1789, was a significant time period in the fashion sphere for women in France. The time period itself was a mark of great change for the history of France due to various political reasons as well as various art movements and often times fashion, despite being a branch of art, is overlooked by most viewers. However, fashion during this time excelled in France and was essentially the symbol of a new era in this domain; French fashion was now snowballing into something much greater that still echoes to this today. Ultimately, the goal of this essay is to describe women’s fashion during the period of 1715-1789 and the shifts it made through the analytical use of various sources including artwork, literature, museums’ online archives and internet sources.

Europe went through an era fueled by the search of truth and grand ambitions. This was a time period was characterized by much advancement in the sciences, politics, philosophy, and the arts.

Baroque and High Renaissance are two very important periods in art history, during that time a lot of different forms of art were created which include architecture, painting, and music. Baroque is just another word for having flashy symmetrical decoration. It’s a style that started around the 1600s in Italy and with its popularity it quickly spread around Europe. High Renaissance artist displaces the importance of draftsmanship, structured, and often-centralized compositions. Many artists quickly rise to stardom during these eras. This paper compares and contrasts these two art periods with the works created by great artists such as Marcantonio Franceschini who lived during the Baroque period and Mariotto Albertinelli who lived during the High Renaissance period.

At this time Paris was fun and careless before the French Revolution of 1789 released its horrors on it. But the outbreak of the revolution changed everything, and with all of the violence around, she fled France with her daughter to find safety in Italy (Moffat and Mossman). When she returned, Paris was a completely different place. However, the demand for her art had not changed. Vigee Le Brun is considered a painter of the rococo period. Rococo is best described as an eighteenth century art style that places importance on the carefree life rather than grand heroes. Originally the rococo fashion started in Paris, where Vigee Le Brun was born. It changed the way people looked at art and the world in general (Bleiberg). Vigee Le Brun not only used the rococo style in her art, but also to influence fashion, persuading women to wear simple, high waist shifts, which would be an important stepping stone in changing fashion forever. By refusing to put powder in her hair, she made being natural beautiful. If it weren’t for her innovations we might still be wearing Victorian gowns and wigs. She made fashion and styles for young women, such as herself, more daring and interesting (Steadman).

The history of the coiffures of the XVIII century is particularly interesting, and many scholars consider this century to be “a century of women”. It is a time of sophistication, mannerism, simplicity and unimaginable complex coiffures at the same time. Hair has always been a reflection of general trends in fashion and Rococo style defines the accents in the XVIII century. The most stylish womеn managed to wear stuffed birds, statues and even mini-gardens with tiny artificial tree on their heads. The well-known and beloved A-la Belle Poule hair model with the famous frigate also belongs to this time. Such a design could take the whole day and coiffure itself could be worn for several days and sometimes even a week. After becoming a Queen, Marie

The era known as the Baroque period includes the seventeenth and most of the eighteenth centuries in Europe. The Baroque style was a style in which the art and artists of the time focused upon details and intricate designs. Their art often appeals to the mind by way of the heart. During this time the portraits began to portray modern life, and artists turned their backs on classical tradition. Much of the art shows great energy and feeling, and a dramatic use of light, scale, and balance (Preble 302). Buildings were more elaborate and ornately decorated. These works of art created history and altered the progress of Western Civilization. Architecture such as the palace of Versailles, and artists like

The Renaissance and the Baroque eras created some of the most famous works of art produced in the world. The two eras expressed differences in style and theme, but they also have many characteristics in common. To better understand the similarities of the eras it will be described by the characteristics, styles and the influences of each; Renaissance and Baroque works of art. Famous artist from the Renaissance era were Leonard da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Famous artist from the Baroque era were Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn and Michelangelo Merisi o Amerighi da Caravaggio.

How each of the artists utilized the Rococo style in art in their own ways in the eighteenth century? With the reign of Louis XV and death of Louis XVI, the Rococo style was more expressed in France.1 The term Rococo is labeled as “French taste”.2 The Rococo style is simplified forms, display shapes of nature, decorative arts that influenced interiors of churches and palaces in France. 3 The Rococo style not only was used in the interiors and architectures, but it was famous to use in the paintings as well.

Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation had really stirred the religious pot. In the early 1600’s, the Catholic Church responded with the Counter Reformation which propelled the Baroque movement and its artistic aim of making Catholic theology appeal to the masses. Biblical stories with drama and movement were some of the ways Baroque artists sought to engage the viewer. Baroque dominated most of the seventeenth century Europe and later developed into the Rococo style later during the eighteenth century. Begun in the 1700’s, the Rococo Era was art of the aristocracies for the aristocracies. It was technically flashy, but without deep thought or emotional drama, the Rococo celebrated the leisure activities of the upper class. The Rococo style is above all an expression of wit and frivolity. Rococo style signaled the shift from Rome to Paris as the new capital of culture and fashion in Europe. Both styles were influenced by political, social and religious factors, and there are profound differences between the two styles. For this essay, I chose to compare an Italian painting from the Baroque era with a French painting from the Rococo Era. The two paintings I chose to compare and analyze are Luca Giordano’s Martyrdom of St. Bartolomeo, and Jean-Marc Nattier’s Terpsichore, Muse of Music and Dance.

Beginning with the Baroque period, the Baroque was an art movement in the 17th and early 18th century which comes after the Renaissance before the Enlightenment, Neoclassicism. It’s origins, like renaissance art, were in Italy and the historical context really have is two historical movements that are associated with the Baroque. First, the Counter Reformation and second, Absolutism. As far as the Baroque tradition it represents a rejection of renaissance restraint. When looking at the School of Athens by Raphael, we can see this very technically perfect painting from the Renaissance where it looks like it could’ve been posed for which is what renaissance art is, restraint, that you are supposed to think about balance in the composition, and you’re supposed to hold something back. Renaissance art was not very emotional. One thing we should note is this painting of Aneas Fleeing Burning Troy by Federico Baroccci, is not restraint. We see a bunch of running around, burning fires, it’s not balanced, and there’s more action, but at the same time we still see this framework of classical themes. When looking at Baroque art, we’ll still be able to see themes that are very religious or grounded in the Greco Roman classical traditions. More characteristics of Baroque art we can see are motion, emotion, grandeur, and contrast. A piece of work where we can see almost all of these characteristics would be St. Michael the Archangel by Guido Reni. We see St. Michael trampling the devil,

A body of instruments accompanying the concertino in an orchestra in a baroque concerto grosso

During the 1920s the art world experienced a lot of change. The art world began to display its new flawless works in colorful expressionism. Haute couture, French for high fashion, was no exception to these newly made changes. Coco Chanel born as Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was an artist of clothing and of beauty. Chanel’s early life was not as pleasing as she made it known to be.

Fast forward to Chanel’s young adult life, and you can see it wasn’t long off that she would set up shop in Paris, France in 1910, eventually expanding out to Deauville, and then Biarritz. She had started off with designing, and marketing hats which became a very successful hit amongst the fashionistas of that day. Chanel’s empire was growing exponentially, and in 1920 she expanded into the realms of couture now working in jersey which at the time was unheard of in the French fashion circle. Soon she was blurring the lines of what was acceptable, setting fashion trends instead of adhering to the routine, and was giving way to entire style genres such as the “chemise” and the “little boy” look. Her fashion statements were a gigantic contrast to what was socially acceptable, and of course Chanel fell under scrutiny over it, but she went on to create more casual, shorter, and idyllically “liberating” clothing for the day’s modern woman. In essence she was liberating women from the stuffy, confining fashions that they were used to, and giving way to a loose more relaxed style all together while maintaining it’s inherent feminine charm. Chanel was creating more than just a design, or an article of clothing, she was creating a movement that would change the way society viewed fashion in it’s entirety. (Lewis)

Coco Chanel, born on August 19, 1883 in Saumur, France, influenced 1920s fashion greatly through her trademark pieces such as “little black dress” and jersey suits and many more. These key fashion pieces are still very popular in our current day time in women’s fashion. Before Chanel became well known, most women would wear corsets that would leave them feeling stiff to give them more of a hour glass look as well as skirts with long hems that would reach the floor. Chanel went past the social boundaries of most women, and created different and diverse pieces. She disregarded societies idea of

Around 1947, after the end of World War II that Christian Dior introduced “Kings” style. This style gave a sense of luxury to Americans and was very classy. The women began to wear formal dresses that had delicate necklines. The women were also introduced to stylish hats and distinctive hairstyles with curls. The men’s style didn’t see many changes expect that the war jackets were now distant, and they followed a narrow shoulder and hip pattern in everything they wore (“Brief History”).