Study Guide 3 PowerPoint - A r t H ist or y and t he Cinema...

Art History and the Cinema
Quiz 3

What is Baroque?
(Turn of the 17
th
century)
•
Like Gothic, Baroque was originally a pejorative
term. It is a French variant of the Portuguese
barroco , meaning an irregular, and therefore
imperfect, pearl. The Italians used the word
barocco to describe a convoluted medieval style of
academic logic.
•
Relatively unrestrained, overtly emotional and
more energetic than earlier styles.
•
Baroque artists rejected aspects of Mannerist
virtuosity and stylization, while absorbing the
Mannerists’ taste for chiaroscuro and theatrical
effects. They were more likely than Mannerist
artists to pursue the study of naturalism that
reflects some of the scientific advances of the

What makes Baroque look
Baroque?
David , 1623,
Bernini,
Baroque
•
New taste for dramatic action
and violent narrative scenes
•
Emotion is given a wide range
of expression – a departure
from the Renaissance adherence
to Classical restraint
•
Baroque color and light are
dramatically contrasted and
surfaces are richly textured
•
Landscape genre, and still life,
which had originated as
separate but minor categories of
painting in the sixteenth
century, gained new status in
the seventeenth. Allegory also
takes on a new significance in
Baroque art and is no longer
found primarily in a biblical
context.
David , 1504,
Michelangelo, High
Renaissance
Compare
to

Francesco
Borromini
(1599-1667)
•
Bernini’s greatest professional rival
in Rome. They collaborated on the
baldacchino, but immediately
afterward their interests diverged.
•
From about 1634 to his death,
Borromini worked on the
Trinitarian monastery of San Carlo
alle Quattro Fontane (St. Charles at
the Four Fountains) in Rome,
named after the fountains at the
four corners of the street
intersection.
•
The small monastery church is
Borromini’s best-known building,
and it established his reputation for
daring architectural innovation (c.
1634-1667).
St. Charles at the Four
Fountains

Caravaggio (1571-1610)
•
Michelangelo Merisi was the leading
Baroque painter in Rome, also called
Caravaggio because he was born in the
small northern Italian town of
Caravaggio and he did not want to be
confused with Michelangelo di
Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.
•
In about 1590, Caravaggio moved to
Rome where his propensity for violence
landed him in repeated difficulties.
•
In his relatively short life, despite the
interruptions to his career caused by
brushed with the law, Caravaggio
worked in an innovative style that
influenced painters in Italy and
Northern Europe.