2. Intro to Baroque…
•The Baroque is often thought of as a period of artistic style, easily interpreted detail
to produce drama, tension, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture,
literature, dance, theater, and music.
•The style began around 1600 in Rome, Italy, and spread to most of Europe.
•The French word baroque is derived from the Portuguese word "barroco" or Spanish
"barrueco" both of which refer to a "rough or imperfect pearl“.
•The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Catholic
Church, in response to the Protestant Reformation, that the arts should communicate
religious themes in direct and emotional involvement, & not logically.
•the dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art is a means of impressing visitors
and expressing triumph, power and control.
Origin
3. Development of Baroque Art… Origin
•several decades after the Council of
Trent (1545–63), by which the Roman
Catholic Church answered many
questions, demanding that paintings and
sculptures in church contexts should
speak to the illiterate rather than to the
well-informed.
Council of Trent, held in Trento…it was
for Roman Catholics by Protestants
(Post- Renaissance).
•The Baroque is defined as the age where the oval replaced the circle as the center
of composition, that centralization replaced balance, and that coloristic and
"painterly" effects began to become more prominent.
•The Baroque era is sometimes divided into roughly three phases for convenience:
a. Early Baroque, c. 1590 – c. 1625
b. High Baroque, c. 1625 – c. 1660
c. Late Baroque, c. 1660 – c. 1725
Late Baroque is also sometimes used with the succeeding Rococo movement.
5. Baroque Art… 1. Painting
- use of oil painting.
-Predominance of colour & light over drawing.
- contrasts of light & shadow.
- realistic representations.
- movement.
- complex compositions.
•Caravaggio [Italy]
•Artemisia Gentileschi [Italy]
•Diego Velásquez [Spain]
•Peter Paul Rubens
•Andrea Pozzo[Italy]
•Nicholas Poussin
•Rembrandt Van Rijn (Netherlands)
•Vermeer(Netherlands)
•Judith Leyster (Netherlands)
•Anthony van Dyck(Belgium & England)
Artists
6. The Martyrdom of St. Matthew
by Caravaggio
Judith and her Maidservant with the Head of
Holofernes by Artmesia GentileschiThe Maids of Honor by Diego Velázquez
7. Two Young Men Eating at a Humble Table
By Velasquez
Helios & Phaeton By Nicolas Poussin The Blinding of Samson by Rembrandt van Rijn
The Girl with A Pearl Earring By Vermeer
8. Allegory of the Missionary Work of the Jesuits
By Andrea Pozzo[Church of Sant’ Ignazio]
Frescoes
9. Baroque Art… 1. Painting
Tenebrism
• Translated as “dark matter”
it is often characterized by a
small & concentrated light
source in the painting or what
appears to be an external
“spotlight” directed as a very
specific point in the
composition.
•Caravaggio started practicing
this type of painting.
The Conversion of St Paul by Caravaggio
10. Baroque Art… 2. Sculpture
-groups of figures assumed new importance and there was a dynamic movement
and energy of human forms.
- Baroque sculpture often had multiple ideal viewing angles.
- addition of extra-sculptural elements, for e.g., concealed lighting or
water fountains.
-Material : Marble
Soapstone
- Bernini was undoubtedly the most important sculptor of the Baroque period.
-sculptor of bust portraits.
14. Baroque Art… 3. Theatre
•Theatre evolved in the Baroque era and became a multimedia experience, starting
with the actual architectural space.
•In fact, much of the technology used in current Broadway or commercial plays was
invented and developed during this era.
•The stage could change from a romantic garden to the interior of a palace in a
matter of seconds.
•The entire space became a framed selected area that only allows the users to see a
specific action, hiding all the machinery and technology – mostly ropes and pulleys.
•The term Theatrum Mundi – the world is a stage – was also created. William
Shakespeare tragedies were also played.
15. Baroque Art… 3. Theatre
England
•The influence of the Renaissance was also very late in England, and Baroque
theatre is only partly a useful concept here, for example in discussing Restoration
comedy.
•There was an 18-year break when London theatres were closed during the English
Civil War and English Commonwealth until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.
16. Baroque Art… 3. Theatre
o Restoration Comedies
• refers to English comedies written and
performed in the Restoration period from
1660 to 1710.
•Comedy of manners is used as a synonym
of Restoration comedy.
• Theatre companies
- Original patent companies, 1660–82
- United Company, 1682–95
-War of the theatres, 1695–1700
The comedy of manners is an
entertainment form which satirizes the
manners and affectations of a social
class, often represented by
stereotypical stock characters.
The Restoration of the English monarchy
began in 1660 when
the English, Scottish and Irish
monarchies were all restored
under Charles II that followed the Wars
of the Three Kingdoms.
The term Restoration is used to describe
both the actual event by which the
monarchy was restored, and the period
of several years afterwards in which a
new political settlement was established.
17. Baroque Art… 3. Theatre
•Restoration comedy was strongly
influenced by the introduction of the
first professional actresses.
•Before the closing of the theatres, all
female roles had been played by boys,
and the predominantly male audiences
of the 1660s and 1670s were curious,
censorious, and delighted at the novelty
of seeing real women engage in & take
part in drama.
First Actresses
Nell Gwynn was
one of the first
actresses and the
mistress of
Charles II.
•Successful Restoration actresses included
Charles II's mistress Nell Gwyn, who was
famous for her ability to "move the
passions" and make whole audiences cry
•Anne Bracegirdle & Susanna
Mountfort are few more other female
actresses.
18. •A new speciality introduced almost as
early as the actresses was the breeches
role, which called for an actress to appear
in male clothes (breeches being tight-
fitting knee-length pants, the standard
male garment of the time), for instance to
play a witty heroine who disguises herself
as a boy to hide, or to engage in escapades
disallowed to girls.
•Playing these cross-dressing roles, women
behaved with the freedom society allowed
to men, and some feminist critics, such as
Jacqueline Pearson, regard them as
subversive of conventional gender
roles and empowering for female members
of the audience.
Baroque Art… 3. Theatre
19. Baroque Art… 3. Theatre
First Actors
•During the Restoration period, both male and
female actors on the London stage became for
the first time public personalities & celebrities.
•The greatest fixed star among Restoration
actors was Thomas Betterton, active in
organising the actors' revolt in 1695 & original
patent-holders in the resulting actors'
cooperative.
•Betterton played every great male part there
was from 1660 into the 18th century.
Betterton's expressive performances seem to
have attracted audiences as magnetically as did
the novelty of seeing women on the stage.
•He was soon established as the leading actors.
Thomas Betterton played the
irresistible Dorimant in George
Etherege's Man of Mode.
20. Baroque Art… 3. Theatre
Aristocratic Comedy (1660–80)
•high heroic drama might be thrown in to enrich the comedy mix, as in George
Etherege's Love in a Tub (1664), William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1675),
urbane wit comedy plot.
Decline of comedy, 1678–90
Comedy renaissance, 1690–1700
•During the second wave of Restoration comedy in the 1690s, the "softer"
comedies, reflected more on cultural & social perceptions.
•The playwrights appealed more socially mixed audiences with a strong middle-
class element & to female spectators. The focus in comedy is less on young lovers
outwitting the older generation, more on marital relations after the wedding bells.
•John Vanbrugh, The Provoked Wife (1697)
•The tolerance for Restoration comedy even in its modified form was running out
at the end of the 17th century, as public opinion turned to respectability and
seriousness even faster than the playwrights did.
21. Germany
•German theatre in the 17th century lacked major contributions. The best known
playwright was Andreas Cryphius, who used the Jesuit model of the Dutch Joost
van den Vondel and Cornielle.
•There was also Johannes Velten who combined the traditions of the English
comedians with the classic theater of Corneille and Moliere.
•His touring company was perhaps the most significant and important of the 17th
century.
Baroque Art… 3. Theatre
The Society of Jesus is
a male religious
congregation of
the Catholic Church.
The members are
called Jesuits.
22.
23. Baroque Art… 3. TheatreBaroque Art… 3. Theatre
Moliere
•was a French playwright and actor who is considered to
be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western
literature. Among Molière's best known works are The
Misanthrope, The School for Wives, Tartuffe, The Miser.
Joost van den Vondel
•(17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was
a Dutch poet, writer and playwright.
•He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and
playwright of the 17th century.
•His plays are the ones from that period that are still
most frequently performed, and his epic Joannes de
Boetgezant (1662), on the life of John the Baptist, has
been called the greatest Dutch epic.
24. Baroque Art… 3. Theatre
Spain
•The Baroque had a Catholic and conservative character in Spain.
•aimed for a public content with an ideal reality that manifested fundamental 3
sentiments: Catholic religion, monarchist & national pride & honor originating
from the chivalric, knightly world.
27. Baroque Art… 6. Music
-The term Baroque is also used to designate the style of music composed during a
period that overlaps with that of Baroque art.
-the role of ornaments was greatly diminished in both music and architecture.
-Many musical forms were born in this era, like the concerto, sinfonia,
sonata, cantata & oratorio.
-Also, opera was born out of the experimentation of the Florentine Camerata, the
creators of monody, who attempted to recreate the theatrical arts of the Ancient
Greeks.
-An important technique used in baroque music was the use of ground bass, a
repeated bass line. Dido's Lament by Henry Purcell is a famous example of this
technique.
28. Baroque Art… 6. Music
Johann Sebastian BachGeorge Frideric Handel Giovanni Gabrieli
Heinrich Schütz George Frideric Handel Jean-Baptiste Lully
29. Baroque Art… 6. Music
Concerto
is a musical composition usually composed in three parts, in which (usually)
one solo instrument (for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute)
is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band.
Examples of this form are Giovanni Gabrieli's "In Ecclesiis“, Heinrich Schütz's
"Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich.“
The concerto began to take its modern shape in the late Baroque period.
Concerto Musical form
30. Frederick the Great playing a flute concerto, C. P. E. Bach at the piano, Johann Joachim
Quantz is leaning on the wall to the right; by Adolph Menzel, 1852
31. Baroque Art… 6. Music
Cantata
is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, often involving
a choir.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed around 200 cantatas. Several cantatas were,
and still are, written for special occasions, such as Christmas cantatas.
Cantatas are use in the church services are called church cantata, sacred cantata,
or sometimes secular cantata.
Sacred cantatas for the liturgy or other occasions were not only composed by
Bach but also by Dieterich Buxtehude, Christoph Graupner, Gottfried Heinrich
Stölzel.
Liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its
particular beliefs, customs and traditions.
33. Baroque Art… 6. Music
Oratorio
is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists, Like an opera.
However, opera is musical theatre, while oratorio is strictly a concert piece—
though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are sometimes
presented in concert form.
In an oratorio there is generally little or no interaction between the
characters, and no props or elaborate costumes.
Opera tends to deal with history & mythology, including romance & murder,
whereas oratorio often deals with sacred topics, making it appropriate for
performance in the church. Protestant composers took their stories from
the Bible, while Catholic composers looked to the lives of saints, as well as to
Biblical topics.
It became extremely popular in early 17th-century Italy partly because of the
success of opera and the Catholic Church's prohibition of spectacles. Oratorios
became the main choice of music during that period for opera audiences.
34. Baroque Art… 6. Music
Sonata
-a piece sung.
-it is played as opposed to a cantata.
-Most of these pieces are in one binary-
form movement only.
-also applied for solo instruments.
Eg., Johann Sebastian Bach
Three Sonatas for solo violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
Rosary Sonatas
George Frideric Handel
Sonata for Violin and Continuo
Giuseppe Tartini
Devil's Trill Sonata
Beethoven's manuscript sketch for Piano
Sonata No. 28, Movement IV, Geschwind,
in his own handwriting.