The Art Of Baroque And The Baroque Period

The Baroque era began in the year 1600, at the end of the Renaissance period (Kamien 99). The word Baroque has had several different meanings. Back in its time, the word Baroque has meant: Bizarre, Flamboyant, and Elaborately ornamented. Historians, however, used this word to indicate the particular style in all different forms of art that fills space; which includes canvas, stone, or sound (Kamien 99). The Baroque Period is also known as “the age of absolutism” because so many different rulers of the time used and abused their royal power to control their subjects. For example, in Germany, the duke of Weimar imprisoned the famous Johann Sebastian Bach into prison for a month just because Bach asked to leave his job as the Duke’s musician (Kamien 99). This era in time was also home to scientific discoveries by Newton and Galileo. The Baroque era has shaped the world, as they knew it, to what the people of the twenty-first century all know and love.

Baroque painting contained dramatic details, large in scale and was full of energy. This style was intentionally non-symmetrical. The painters of this time were looking to capture the real feelings of their subjects along with the movement or action taking place.

Caravaggio’s, however, was darker and more dramatic. Caravaggio started an intense style called tenebrism. Tenebrism is a more prominent form of chiaroscuro, where there are vehement contrasts between light and dark. Fred Kleiner best describes Caravaggio’s style, “In his art, Caravaggio injected naturalism into both religion and the classics, reducing them to human dramas played out in the harsh and dingy settings of his time and place” (Kleiner, 681). Caravaggio painted during the Italian Baroque in the 1600’s. Italian Baroque artists like Caravaggio embraced theatricality and extravagant ornamentation, while Renaissance artists focused more on precise classical models. Now Caravaggio wasn’t exactly an upstanding member of society, most of what the art world knows about him is through his police reports. Caravaggio’s Entombment was created in 1603 and, like Giotto’s Lamentation, depicts the death of Jesus. While they both depict the same religious scene and use styles that are new for their time, Caravaggio’s painting has some drastic differences from Giotto’s. Caravaggio’s painting is oil painted on canvas, which gives Caravaggio the opportunity to be more detailed in his painting than Giotto can with fresco. Caravaggio creates these intense dramatic scenes of diagonals and intense movement. Unlike Giotto, Caravaggio uses linear perspective to direct his viewer’s attention to the body of Jesus. Caravaggio does this by using a diagonal cascade of mourners descending towards Jesus’ body. Inclusively, Caravaggio started a darker, more dramatic movement that gave naturalism a new realistic element.

During the Baroque Ages a man by the name of Caravaggio was a very prominante artist,

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio better known as simply Caravaggio was an Italian Baroque master painter born in Italy around 1571. After he apprenticed with a painter in Milan, he moved to Rome, where he lived for most of his life. His work influenced painters around Europe. He’s most known for his gruesome subjects and use of Tenebrism, which was a technique that used heavy shadow to

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

Francesco used a style that I really enjoy, it is called pittura di tocco and it is a style known for its small dotting in the art work and it's small but clean brush strokes. It's a style that not many artist can lock down it is very very advanced. He started in venice italy when he was passed down a shop from his father who was deceased and he worked alongside his brother to make and sell hand made paintings. His paintings are beautiful painting like the venetian capriccio which is a landscape painting of the molo towards santa Maria. He was born october 1712 and when his father passed away in the year 1716 and that's when he had the shop passed down to him, he was only 4 when the shop was handed down to him and his brother. He worked with

•The creation of the baroque style—an art style full of emotion, flamboyancy, symbolism, vigor, and subtlety—largely as a product of the Catholic Church patronage of the arts

While Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Bernini were all artists during the Renaissance and Baroque time periods, they are different from each other. Both Caravaggio and Bernini studied Michelangelo and incorporated pieces of his style into their own.

Michelangelo Merisi, known as “Caravaggio” was known for introducing realism and drama by using theatrical lighting and gesture to Italian Baroque art. Caravaggio’s paintings were focused on religious matter commissioned for the Catholic Church. Georges de la Tour was well known in his own time but then forgotten until well into the twentieth century. His work consisted mostly of candlelit subjects, and he commissioned paintings for royal aristocrats such as King Louis XIII and Henry II of Lorraine. George de la Tour is one of the most important examples of the many artists during the seventeenth century who were greatly influenced by the work of Caravaggio.

The Baroque Period (1600-1750) was mainly a period of newly discovered ideas. From major new innovations in science, to vivid changes in geography, people were exploring more of the world around them. The music of the baroque period was just as extreme as the new changes. Newly recognized composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi were writing entirely new musical ideas and giving a chance for new voices to be heard that were normally not thought of sounds. Their musical legacy is still recognized today, and is a treasured discovery of outstanding compositions being reiterated with every performance of them.

Until the late 19th century many biographers and art scholars deliberately ignored Caravaggio work. Some people felt as if his work was to natural or just ordinary. (Sayre, 2010) His work of art was characterized by displaying weakness or humankind. Sometime people had a difficult time trying to figure out if his painting was religious or not. In fact the contrast in his paintings between light and dark tones was evident in the spiritual content and its representation in the painting. (Sayre, 2010) Caravaggio became ill on a beach in Port Ercole. Caravaggio passed away July 18, 1610 after battling with malaria which he fought to overcome.

I see this very much in Zurbaran’s paintings of Saint Francis, where the use of chiaroscuro gives it a dramatic effect but not an idealized or unrealistic feel. However, in keeping with the focus of this essay which is the influence new scientific knowledge had in the arts we

This painting exemplifies many of the characteristics of Caravaggio’s paintings, which is typical in the Baroque period.

At this time last year, I would have considered all music before the 20th century to be classical. However, after taking a Dual Credit Music Appreciation course, I realized that “old” music cannot simply be grouped into a single category. There are so many differences that I had no idea existed. Throughout the years, music has changed and evolved, meeting the needs of listeners and performers. Different composers have been catalysts in this change as they have developed new styles and genres. Even though the classical period is directly subsequent of the baroque period, baroque and classical music have countless different qualities and characteristics.