Art is Us 5: Baroque, Northern Renaissance, Rococo

Baroque: The Appearance of Reality

Where have we seen this before?

Compare

Intimate relationship

Observed relationship

Plane vs. Recession

Linear vs. Painterly

Closed vs. Open Form

High Renaissance

Baroque

Trace the edges of this detail and

see where they disappear, leaving

the viewer to fill in the missing

visual information. This device

invites viewer participation. An

example of a painterly technique.

Caravaggio portrays Christ in his

Supper at Emmaus with real, not

idealized men.

He invites viewer participation

through intimate lighting, a

recessional, painterly

and open form composition.

We are at the table

Action in repose

gives way to…

THE ACT!

Classic

Idealized

Reason

Contemplative

Linear

Plane

Closed Form

Time Stopped

Hellenistic

Natural

Passion

Active

Painterly

Recession

Open Form

Time In Flux

HIGH RENAISSANCE & BaroqueIs to

as…

Is to

as…

Is to

as…

Is to

as…

Is to

as…

Is to

as…

Is to

as…

Is to

as…

Reason is to Passion as…

Complete the equations

Caravaggio: The Conversion of St. Paul

Find visual evidence of…

Compositional planes

Painterly interpretation

Open form

Light source

Velázquez provides further evidence of a trend that focuses on a world as we see it. Idealized

mythology gives way to a Bacchus who is not idealized or glorified. It is painterly with a

composition which is recessional and arranged in open form.

Velázquez:

Spanish Baroque

Court painter : A portrait signature.

Northern Renaissance Art for the eye and soul.

What tells us that

this is NOT Baroque?

Van Eyck: The Arnolfini Wedding

Morphological

&Iconographic Interpretations

How many different surfaces can we find?

How many symbolic images can we find?

What unifies this painting and the couple?

Compare

Henry VIII confronts us in a

compositional plane, i.e. his

body faces us squarely. He

rules!

The replication of each detail

in a total illumination presents

a linear painting approach.

No lost edges or areas left to

our imagination.

Rembrandt’s self-portrait

The glance; not the eye. (Painterly)

The breath; not the lips. (Painterly)

Forms appear and dissolve in light and

shadow, creating a “trap-door” lighting.

Details are suggested, providing only a

glimpse of any specific detailing.

His body turns away from us creating a

recessional plane which does not confront.

Renaissance’s sovereignty of line gives way to painterly sketching.

Note the recessional composition.

No one saw a working

mill worthy of notice

until Rembrandt draws

our attention to it as an

object of aesthetic

beauty.

Rembrandt’s

Night Watch

Group portraiture

with a new focus

and a lost reputation.

As relevant today as….

Self-portraits of an artist

Franz Hals

Expressive and candid portraiture

Dutch merchants

sustain their artists

with commissions

That fleeting moment with

a smile and fast brush.

VERMEER: A New Vision

A candid view of secular life

with the help of new optics.

Pla

ne

Pa

inte

rly O

pe

n F

orm

Peter Paul Rubens

The Flemish painter whose

compositions dramatize

mythology with the aid of

his patron’s money and

often, her own image.

A VIEW OF

WOMAN IN

MYTH & LIFE

(Spare no flesh)

Where do we draw the line?

…and when it

comes to flesh…

François Boucher

The Rococo Period: Indulgence during the Age of Authority…

…but then we have Chardin. The common and ordinary. A commission?

The Rape of the Sabine Women

Pruning the divergent

branches of the 17th

& 18th Centuries.

Poussin

Plane or Recession?

Linear or Painterly?

Classic or Hellenistic

origins?

What might the title be

for this period of art?

From an Age of Authority to

an Age Of Reason.

Fragonard

Jacques Louis David

To be continued…