baroque sculpture

BAROQUE SCULPTURE

Revision

Sculpture

• It is one of the most popular arts.• The clients are the church and the nobility.• It is the way of expression of different religious

believes.• It was used as a way of advertising power• Works are located in public places, such as courtyards

and fountains.

Sculpture: Characteristics

• Creation of images that can be seen from different points of view.

• Tendency to open structures.• Complicated lines, being the diagonal the most used.• Interest for the effects of light:

– different treatment of surfaces – Resource to breaking wall to get the ideal illumination

Sculpture: Characteristics

• Combination of different materials in the same work• Grandiloquence of the gestures• Human treatment of the depicted characters• Mythological and religious images frull of humanities

and passions• Perfect organisation of the volumes to obtain the

desired effect

Eskultura: Ezaugarriak

• Tension and drama: moment of maximum tension• Violent contrast of light and shadows• Regional differences

Sculpture: Characteristics

• Types of sculptures:– Relief– Portrait– Equestrian portrait– Allegories– Mythological stories– Religious– Easter sculptures (Spain)– Fountains– Pantheons

Sculpture: Italy

• Bernini– He created a new style in sculpture– Sources of inspiration were the paintings of his contemporaries– Sense of drama and naturalism (following Caravaggio)– Captured in stone frozen moment of human bodies in motion– Works:

• Apollo and Daphne• Sainte Therese Ecstasy• Fountain of the Four Rivers• Fountain of the Triton

Sculpture: France

• Girardon– Quite classical conception– He worked for Louis XIV– Author of fountains (Apollo Tended by Nymphs), pantheons

(Richelieu)

Eskultura: Frantzia

• Puget– Impassioned work– Formed in Italy– Expressed physical vigour and emotional intensity– Work: Milon of Crotona

Sculpture: Spain• Religious sculpture had an important development• It is realised for the Easter parades.• Characteristics:

– Humanity (passions, mainly sufferance)– Symbols of sufferance: blood– Individual or group images– Wood is the most used material (polychrome)– Additional elements: real clothes, glazed eyes, hair– Common images:

• Painful Virgin (Dolorosa)• Ecce Homo (Christ tied up to a column)• Death Christ• Calvary

Sculpture: Spain

• Castilian School: Gregorio Fernandez– His style evolved from the refinement and elegance of Court

Mannerism to Baroque naturalism– Master in depicting the human body with anatomical detail,

tension in muscles, strength of bones and softness of flesh and skin

– Clothing heavy and flat, with rigid and angular folders, producing contrast of light and shadows

– Dramatic expressions– Simple polychromes (flat colours)– Works: Virgin with the Dead Christ, Road to the Calvary,

Saint Theresa

Sculpture: Spain

• Andalusian School:– Greater classical tradition– Artist maintained the aesthetic of latter Mannerism

(athletic figures, elegant composition, and idealised beauty)

– Incorporation of the effects of naturalism in emotions– Artists: Martinez Montañes, Alonso Cano, Pedro de

Mena, Jose de Mora

Sculpture: Spain

• Andalusian School:– Martinez Montañes: “ The God of Wood”

• Combined love of beauty and serenity of the Mannerism with the naturalism of the Baroque

• Elegant figures in restful poses• Human and contained emotions• Saint John the Evangelist

Eskultura: Espainia

• Andalusian School:– Alonso Cano

• Combines classicism and Baroque• Purity of form, delicacy and contaiment of expression• Careful anatomy and slender outline• Oval faces, eyes with melancholic and pensive gaze• Saint John the Baptists

Sculpture: Spain

• Andalusian School:– Pedro de Mena:

• Greater simplification of form• Spiritual content• Pure sentiments or states of mind: ecstasy• Saint Peter of Alcántara, Ecce Homo

Sculpture: Spain

• Andalusian School:– Jose de Mora:

• Simplicity and expression• Realistic pain• Faces with expression of introspection and sad gazes• Impossibility of consolation• Virgin of Solitude

Sculpture: Spain

• Pasos or processional scenes– Made of light but fragile materials at the beginning– Wooden carvings popular since 17th century– Polychrome and with fake additions: glass eyes and tears,

ivory teeth, hair– Viewpoints should be taken into account– Different work in characters:

• Goodies: meticolous, pretty to look, dressed in timeless clothing• Baddies: less detail, no additions, ugly and unpleasant, clothing

from the time they were made

Sculpture: Spain

– Mounted in wooden platforms: scenes seemed almost alive with the movement

– Main images desmounted and put in altars and baddies packed

– There were famous those of Valladolid, made by Gregorio Fernandez

– Decadence during the 18th century

Sculpture: Spain• In the late Baroque there were French and Italian

influences• Creation of a new classicism• Murcia took relevance: Salcillo

– Influenced by the Neapolitan school (Belen tradition)– Movement, delicacy and tender beauty– Perfection of form, serch of elegance and refinement– Great dynamism– Added materials and polychrome

• Luisa Roldan– Larger sife sized an small terra-cotta compositions

Rococo Sculpture

• There is not a breaking with the former• The tune was set by courts and it is decorative• Staircases, columns with atlantes become common• Gardens and parks were adorned more than ever before with

statues. These isolated and groups were placed on fountains• The social role of sculpture increased to show the power of

dynasties and nobility, mainly when cities expanded

Rococo Sculpture

• Taste for technical virtuosity, sheer brilliance of manner• Allegory was used because it had an elaborate system of symbols• Religion was a bit less used during the Enlightement• Portraits give importance to reallity with psychological quirks• Female portrait were less austere• Cult of great men• Increase of the number of equestrian statues• Funeral monuments

Rococo Sculpture

• Bouchardon:– Clean forms, can and harmonious rhythms– Precursor of the Neoclassicism – Works: Louis XIV

Rococo Sculpture

• Houdon:– Charming images a bit ambiguous

• Works: Voltaire, La Frileuse

Rococo Sculpture

• Pigalle: The Negro Paul, Tombe of Marshl Saxony

Rococo Sculpture

• Falconet: Equestrian statue of Peter the Great