French Baroque 1600-1750 Europe in the 1600 s was at the end of Counter Reformation, and as the political and cultural shifts took place, we begin to see art, particularly in France, influenced more and more, by the ruling monarchy. The transition from Mannerism into Baroque is not clear, but eventually the arts started to adopt a new look. And feel. Paintings started to become more exuberant, dynamic and ornamented. The scale of work produced during this time increased dramatically.
Where Mannerism marked a departure from classical and realistic norms, Baroque becomes a return to these norms, but with an emotional undertow and visual tension. However, through the Baroque pursuit of eloquence, it abandoned the precious and contorted effects of mannerism. It was during this time that artists developed a love of harmony and symmetry and pursued new values expresses as metaphor, allegory. Artists main source of income were mostly from private commissions from upper class patrons instead of coming from the church. This led to the treatment of subject matter that was more universal, and less idealistic in theme. The French approach to art in the early 1 seventeenth century differed from the rest of Europe.
The majorities of Baroque artists from France were seen to be at odds with “the spirit of the age”, and were sometimes regarded as anti-Baroque. Artists like de la Tour did not take a conceptual view of art, and lacked the imaginative exuberance that is so common in other artwork from the 17 th century. At this time the majority of the European population was composed of the working class. The French artist differed in the treatment of commoners, especially in comparison to the Dutch, who saw them as a source of good-natured humor. The French however portrayed them having grave and stoic dignity, resigned to a life of hardship. The peasant was given a level of respect never before seen in painting.
The Essay on Relationship analysis of the Baroque and Romantic Art Movements
Baroque art movement started in the 17th century extending to early 18th century and led to the Rococo, Neoclassical and then to Romanticism art movement. The styles of Baroque period began in Rome, Italy and later spread to most parts of Europe. Romanticism movement began in Europe in the late 18th century and extended to mid-19th century leading to Realism art Period. The name Baroque is ...
Baroque artists outside of France Georges de La Tour is one of the earliest of the French Baroque painters. He started out painting religious and genre scenes in a mannerist style, later showing strong influence from Caravaggio. He had a very abrasive personality that can be described as, haughty, sharp-tongued, self-assured, stingy, and violent. But he somehow produced a body of work that transcended his true nature. He gives us frozen moments that spur the viewer to introspection. Contrary to Caravaggio, La Tour has the light source contained inside the boundaries of the painting.
The light is always obscured by another element in the painting, which gives it a more dramatic, more human feel, with greater depth. The emotional effect of this is very intimate and human. The duplicitous nature of shadow and light in a La Tour painting could be seen as a metaphor for the good and bad contained within human nature. It is also vague enough to be open to multiple interpretations. In any interpretation this duality is almost given more importance than the subject matter.
The personality of Nicolas Poussin was contrary to La Tour, though both were very rational and humanistic. Poussin sought to enter into the person of his subject, to become immersed in psychological analysis. He combines his love of virtue and his love of landscape by placing tragic figures in richly interesting and complexly constructed, “heroic” landscapes. He produced some of the most demanding, yet satisfying landscape paintings in western culture. He believed passionately that the disposition of the painting as a whole could be constructed to covey a mood or emotion. He also had a unique combination of pagan and Christian themes, often giving a poetic treatment to subjects from classic mythology and ancient history.
The Essay on Baroque Style
The Baroque style was a style in which the art and artists of the time focused upon details, and intricate designs. During this time the portraits began to portray modern life, and artists turned their backs on classical tradition. Buildings were more elaborate and ornately decorated. These works of art created history and altered the progress of Western Civilization. The progress has been an ...
Poussin was a classicist for whom the aesthetic values of antiquity represented not only a formal ideal, but also a moral standard, a way conceiving a form that cannot be separated from the good and true. The Death of Germanic us marks the beginning of Poussin’s alternative approach to the dominant trend of seventeenth-century Baroque style. In relation to other painters of that generation, Poussin offered clarity, order, decorum, rest, and reasonable limits. These separations appear to be a direct influence from his adopted Italy, specifically Titian and later, Rubens. His earliest paintings have a golden “Venetian” light, blurred landscapes, and luminous skies. His later works are full of fleshy, softly modeled, gods and mortals, all distinctive characteristics of his earlier counterparts.
In relation to lesser Baroque artists of the time, Poussin’s style is cool, rational, measured austerity. Others manifested as flamboyant, lush, and irregular sensuality. Toward the end of the seventeenth-century the French monarchy, under king Louis XIV, attained an almost obsessive control over artists, and subsequently changed the style of French painting. This is the birth of Rococo and eventually the French Revolution. Rococo’s departure from the classical ideals of earlier work marks the end of the Baroque period. Despite this period’s lack of consistency in artistic development, its influence was lasting.
The trademarks of seventeenth-century art, such as direct observation, emotional intensity, and facility with light and color, laid the foundation for the two major styles to emerge out of eighteenth-century Europe, Neo-classicism, and Romanticism. Some of these influences remain even today. — – Bibliography Renaissance to Romanticism: trends in Style in Art, Literature, and Music, 1300 – 1830 Frederick B. Art 1962 Art in Theory, 1648 – 1815: an anthology of changing ideas Harrison, Wood, and Gainer 2000 The Baroque Age Giulio Carlo Arg an 198917 th and 18 th Century Art, Baroque: Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture Held and Posner 1979 Portrait of the Artist, Nicolas Poussin (1650) Jonathan Jones The Guardian Saturday, October 5 th, 2002 The High Art of Nicolas Poussin Karen Wilkin The New Criterion Vol. 13, No.
Baroque Essay Art Painting Style
The Baroque Period was the age of reason when minds and imaginations opened up new worlds of scientific knowledge as well as artistic creativity. (Fleming, 375) The Baroque era was a period of grandeur and magnificence that gave off a powerful awe inspiring style that was full of flamboyant concepts and overall dramatic quality. From Venice, as well as from Rome and the centers where international ...
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