Berry Brian Spanish Golden Age Valerie Hegstrom 21 Jan 2008 The Spanish Baroque Period: Skepticism and Desengao Objectives: Students should be able to: Understand what an artistic period is. Understand the influence of social and intellectual milieu on a work of art. Differentiate the characteristics of the Spanish Baroque period from the Renaissance.
Materials Needed: Overhead or digital projector Images of a Medieval painting A Renaissance painting (Michelangelos Sistine chapel for instance) Baroque paintings (Velasquezs Las Meninas, Holbeins The Ambassadors) Copies of El retrato vivo (is there a translation?). Copies of La vida es sueo (Lifes a Dream) are readily available in translation, but the play is significantly longer.
Activities: Warm-up/Hook: Ask the class if they feel there are any differences between the way they think and the way their parents think. What are some examples of the way our generation sees the world differently? Class discussion, 7-10 minutes. Introduce the notion of a period: The history of human thought and achievement is often divided into periods where thinkers and their works have similar characteristics and ideologies. In a given period there are connections between the different disciplines: science, philosophy, religion, visual and literary arts. Lecture and discussion, 5-7 minutes. Show paintings: development in visual representation can illustrate changes in the overall ideology of a society. Begin briefly with an example of a painting from the middleages to show lack of depth and perspective. Then show a Renaissance painting from one of the masters. Renaissance paintings look much more realistic because they paint using models of real people and they apply the concept of perspective. This is an example of how science influences artthe artistic technique of perspective painting comes from a better understanding of the science of sight. In Renaissance painting, the figures are very idealisticGod and men are celebrated through art. Then show some Baroque paintings. Holbeins The Ambassadors plays with the notion of perspective by applying two different perspectives. This causes part of the painting to seem distorted, which illustrates that perspective is an optical trick. Then show Las Meninas. This painting also toys with perspective and the conventional notions of representation. It is
full of ambiguity. We are not sure what the subject of the painting is. It also questions the relationship between the viewer and the painting. Presentation and discussion, 15 minutes. Baroque Conventions: The origin of the term Baroque is uncertain, but it has come to be associated with distortion. A baroque pearl is misshapen, elliptical. It is best to understand the Baroque as a reaction to the Renaissance. Go through list of contrasts between the Renaissance and Baroque periods (see The Renaissance World Before and After the Skeptical Crisis (adapted from a presentation by Matt Ancell) located at the end of this lesson plan. In the Baroque period people become skeptical of Renaissance ideals. This skepticism is represented in Spanish art through the notion of desengao or disillusionment. This functions on the assumption that most people experience and think about reality in a nave manner because they are tricked by conventional ideologies, they are engaados. Individuals become enlightened through moments of disillusionment, when they experience something that is out of place in the system of their ideology. The new experience forces them to reevaluate and modify their world view. Desengao is also commonly used as a device in Spanish Golden Age theater. A famous example of desengao is found in the most well know Spanish Golden Age playLa vida es sueo (Lifes a Dream). In the play, Basilio, the King of Poland and an astrologer, has read in the stars that his son will bring war and doom to his kingdom. In order to avoid this fate Basilio has his son, Segismundo, placed in prison as an infant and raised far from the city. Once Segismundo has grown, Basilio decides to give his son a chance as the ruler. He has Segismundos jailer drug him, dress him in princes clothing, and bring him to the palace. When Segismundo awakens in the palace, he thinks he is dreaming. Prince for only a day, Segismundo already begins to show his bad temperamenthe ends the day by throwing one of his servants out of the window, killing him. Regretting his decision, the King has his son drugged once again and taken back to his prison. When Segismundo reawakens in his prison he comments on how he had dreamt that he was the prince, but that it had seemed so real. This play makes us question whether or not what we experience on a daily basis is reality or merely a dream, thus achieving disillusionment, since most people believe their senses. This type of skepticism is based on the philosophy of Rene Descartes, who comments that all our life could be a dream. Descartes major works, Meditations and Discourse on Method, were produced in the 1630s, about the same time that Caldern produced La vida es sueo. Lecture and discussion, 15-20 minutes.
Assessment: See if the students can identify period specific characteristics in the paintings that they analyzed. Elements of the paintings: Van der Weydens Annunciation is a transitional piece in between the Medieval Period the and Renaissance. It has a very traditional medieval subject matter the angel announcing Marys immaculate conception. Medieval art is mostly based out of the Bible and almost always didactic. These figures look fairly plain
and they are in unnatural poses. Artists of this period are beginning to develop the techniques of perspective and representing textiles in paint, but here it is obvious that these are not yet perfected. The Creation of Adam and The School of Athens are very clear examples of Renaissance art. There is an abundance of natural looking light. The positions look more natural, though the body types are highly idealized. As we see in the School of Athens, perspective painting has been perfectedthe image has depth. It also shows that it is now acceptable to paint non-biblical subject matter. The Golden Age of Greece becomes a popular subject in the Renaissance. Caravaggio is one of the most well known baroque painters. In these two paintings he uses a technique called chiaroscuro, where the base for the painting is black instead of white. This causes an extremely high contrast. The subject matter for both paintings is also biblical, but it is with a new twist. In the Calling of Saint Matthew, we do not see the Saviors body; he is a disembodied arm and head. His hand points limpa position similar to that of The Creation of Adam. In the Supper at Emmaus, the Savior looks very androgynous (he has feminine features). In this painting Caravaggio toys with perspective; the basket of fruit looks like it is about to fall out of the canvas and the mans arm also seems to breach the boundary. We see that the fruit is beginning to rot, something we would never see in the Renaissance. In both, the figures look anything but idealistic; these scenes could have taken place in any local bar. Diego Velazquez studied the works of Caravaggio as he developed his own style. He also applies the chiaroscuro technique. Velazquezs most famous painting, Las Meninas, is very characteristic of baroque tendencies since it is a painting about painting (Velazquez is the artist in the painting). This reflexivity transfers to the stage, since plays about plays or theatricality were also common (as were plays about painting; see El retrato vivo, El pintor de su deshonra, etc.). As Caravaggio, Velazquez also toys with perspectiveart experts find no less than three vanishing points in Las Meninas, which is a cause for debate in the art community. The central character in the painting, La Infanta, seems like she was just posing for a portrait, but at the instant of representation all the figures seem to be in a moment of surprise; in other words, this is not traditional portraiture posing. They even seem to be in motion. Las Meninas is full of ambiguities: Where is the vanishing point? Who is the main subject of the painting? Who is in the mirror? What is Velazquez painting? Since these questions have no definite answers, they challenge the way we view painting and reality in generalthis is an element of desengao.
Homework: Read El retrato vivo and write a one-page response about characteristics of the Baroque Period in the play. If it cant be found in English, try Calder...