Baroque Art

Baroque Art

Baroque is the principal European art style in the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth. Artists of this period: Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Giordano and Tiepolo in painting, Bernini in sculpture, and Borromini, Fischer von Erlach and Wren in architecture.

“Theatrical values pervade the baroque. It sees the world as a state, on which identities change, are called in question, confused, masked, and double masked. But the theatre is also a décor, in which art, with increasingly sophisticated techniques, challenges the authority of nature, both in the play-house and in festive forms of make believes.”

Through my research I found, the term “Baroque” applied to various styles. In French, it means irregular, and consequently, flawed pearl. The Baroque painting and sculpture had a tendency to be, stormy, exceedingly emotional, and more dynamic than earlier styles. It has been identified as encompassing an art of passion and theatrical displays. More dynamic than earlier styles, the period is identified as encompassing an art of passion and theatrical displays, it’s forceful, brilliant, tense, busting with energy, sensual and extravagant.

Bernini is similar to his Italian Renaissance predecessors in that he practiced architecture and sculpture, painting, stage design, and playwright. He had his first commission from the papal family when he was only 11. In 1623 he was given the task of designing the high alter of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The “Baldacchino” was completed in 1633, stand at approximately 100 feet. “The twisted columns symbolize the union of Old and New Testaments, the vine of the Eucharist climbing the columns of the Temple of Solomon. The fanciful Composite capitals, combining elements of both Ionic and the Corinthian orders, support an entablature with a crowning element topped with an orb/sphere and a cross.” I have been to the Vatican and have seen this piece; it is...