baroque post2

1. Baroque in Flanders

Rubens,Allegory on the Outbreak of War

Mars has left the Temple of Janus open, normally closed during times of peace

Venus and Cupids try to restrain Mars

Fury Alecto, torch in hand, pulls him forward

Below woman with a broken lute: harmony is destroyed

Mother and child indicate fertility cannot bloom

Fallen architect symbolizes the fall of civilization

Mars literally tramples on literature

Crying woman in black is Europe

Strong diagonals and masterful use of color

Painterly brushstroke

Baroque dynamics and composition

Developed musculature

Rubens,Arrival of Marie deMedici at Marseilles

Part of the Marie deMedici cycle of 21 paintings in the Louvre

Real people exist side-by-side with nymphs, sea monsters, naiads, genii

Neptune and the three sirens, a sea god and a triton escort the boat in the harbor

France in blue cape with gold fleur-de-lis falls to his knees before Marie

Fame salutes her with two trumpets

Arms of the Medici over the arch of the boat

Commander of ship wears a cross of the Knights of Malta, is a sharp counterpoint to the other figures in the painting

Dynamic movement

Rich vivid color

Heavily muscled men; ample females

Union of Northern and Italian painting that started with Drer

Van Dyck,Charles I Dismounted

Unstressed royal authority

A king and a cavalier

Venetian landscape with the Thames behind

Charles has dismounted and his horse is being held for him

He glances sharply at us from the side

Haughty pose

Van Dyck established the tradition of the graceful monarch, regal yet at ease

Velazquez,Surrender of Breda

Battle in 1625, Dutch forced to yield Breda to the Spanish

Magnanimity, humanity and valor of the victors is stressed

Dutch on left seen as youthful, disorganized

Spanish on right are dignified, with lances indicating their military precision

Key to the city is emphasized in the center

Emotional tone of generosity and mutual respect

Effect of the battle seen in the smoky background

Topography is accurate: artist interviewed participants in the battle and consulted other renderings of the area

Light and color are compositional devices that unify the elements

Velazquez,Las Meninas

Velzquez working on a huge canvas that could not fit through the door of the room. He pauses and takes a step back to study us.

Velzquez wears the Cross of the Order of Santiago, a symbol of nobility: painter enjoyed a court appointment and desired respect

Princess Margarita with two maids-in-waiting is the central focus of the painting

Dwarves on right; Philip IV had a large collection of dwarves, no abnormalities are glossed over by Velzquez

Blurring of figures on right suggests painters understanding of peripheral vision

Older woman is lady of honor, wears a nuns outfit to indicate she is a widow

Man in conversation with her is her escort

Velazquez,Las Meninas (continued)

Silhouetted man is Jos Nieto, aposentador of the Queen, head of the Queens tapestry works, rests his hand on a tapestry as he goes out, but pauses

Regular rhythm of the frames on the back wall anchors composition as opposed the irregular rhythm of the groups

Paintings above are works that illustrate mortals who challenged the gods

Perspective pulls you into the painting, but the mirror reflects out

Extension laterally: canvas on easel, windows

Alternating darks and lights reach into the painting

King and Queen are in the mirror, but what is being reflected? The painting Velzquez is working on? The King and Queen themselves? A portrait of the King and Queen hanging on the opposite wall?

What is Velzquez painting? This group? A painting of this painting? The King and Queen?

Characteristics of Dutch Art:

No church or aristocracy to commission paintings

Art has a bourgeois character

Paintings used to cover bare walls, give pleasure to the eye

Cheerful subjects, unpleasant ones are given a humorous slant

Artists worked on the open market, not for patrons: specialization according to subject matter

Small paintings for small homes

Subjects were easily understandable, some allegorical representations, no religious ecstasies and few pagan myths

Judith Leyster,Self-Portrait

Smile: she greets us casually, as does the fiddler

Self-assured, charming, sociable

Meets the viewers gaze, as if to speak to us

Signed her paintings with her initials and a star, punning meaning of her name leading star

Well-dressed while painting

Quick sure brushstrokes

Steen,The Feast of Saint Nicholas

Genre painting

Saint Nicholas has visited the children with various results

A girl grabs her doll as her mother pleads to look at it, or perhaps asks her to share

Boy at left is crying over his disappointed gift

Chaos in search for gifts

Man on right points out to small child how Saint Nicholas descended the chimney

Ten figures in a complex arrangement

Complicated series of diagonals unify figures that seem to bend this way and that in reflection of one another

Adult meaning to this childrens scene

Jacob van Ruisdael,View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen

Flat horizon of the Netherlands: sky takes up of painting

Sullen clouds, dramatically painted

Receding spaces through dark and light passages

Bleaching linen manufactured in Holland

Long strips of treated cloth were spread out to bleach in the fields

Openness and height, very distant and elevated point-of-view

Frans Hals,Archers of Saint Hadrian

Responsible citizen mentality among the Dutch

No static arrangements; no interaction

Strong horizontal emphasis with vertical spears punctuating the composition

Left group around dominant figure of Col. Johan Claez. Loo, his cane indicates his authority

Right group is a separate unit: Lt. Hendrick Gerritsz. Pot holds a book (minutes of meeting?)

Back to back groups

Distinct individuality of figures

Dynamically grouped with strong diagonals of composition

Rembrandt,Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp

First great commission

Dutch law: open cadavers of executed criminals only, allowed for entertainment purposes like this

Specific anatomy lesson in January 1632

Lessons took 4-5 days, Descartes may have attended this one

Dr. Tulp is singled out seated in a chair of honor

He wears a broad rimmed hat: academic badge of chairman

His hands (alone) are prominently shown

Cadavers body compared to the book at right

Caravaggesque background

Figures stare out into space

Rembrandt,The Night Watch

18 men portrayed in the commission, represented according to how much they paid, but 29 figures in total, 2 figures cut off when the painting was cut down at left

Civic guard group getting ready for a march, makes for a lively composition

Captain Frans Banning Cocq holds a baton in right hand and wears a red sash, wears a gorget of steel barely visible under his white collar

Captain gestures as if to speak

Orders given to his lieutenant to march forward

Central figures come forward

Use of musket shown: musketeer in red is charging his musket by transferring powder into the muzzle from one of the wooden cartridges attached to his bandolier

Figure behind Cocq is firing musket

Third figure behind lieutenant is clearing the pan by blowing off the powder that remained there after the shot

Deep chiaroscuro

Liveliness of figures, psychological penetration

Rembrandt,Self-Portrait

Probed states of human soul

Changing lights and darks suggest changing of human mood

Self-satisfied artist at the height of his career

Common Motifs in Vermeers Paintings

Checkerboard floor

Horizontal beam ceiling

Light from the left

Heavy drapery and/or map

Figures seen from the back or side

Figures occupied in daily pursuit

Sensitivity to light

Back wall is always flat against picture plane

Vermeer,The Letter

Light filtering from a unseen window at left

We look in, they are unaware

Figures framed by portal and a curtain

Smile on servant, surprised look on the woman

Woman is well-dressed, holding a lute

A lute was a symbol of serenading, hence of love

Is a love letter being brought?

Sense of quiet expectation

Vermeer,Allegory on the Art of Painting

Painters costume, chandelier and maps out of date

Woman is Clio, Muse of History

Laurel and garland, holds a trumpet of fame in her right hand

Map frames history

Nostalgia for bygone days of Catholic rule over Holland and Catholic patronage of artists

Artist in his studio (Vermeer?)

Looking in on figures who seem unaware

Quiet and stillness

Touches of light flicker across the map, revealing the pulled edges

Poussin,Et in Arcadia Ego

Influenced by Raphael

Three shepherds in idyllic landscape of Arcadia

And I am in Arcadia, also phrase related to person buried in tomb

Death is present, even in Arcadia

Shadow of mans arm is the sickle of Death

Shepherd places his finger on the tip of the shadow

Tomb is ruined

Compact, balanced grouping

Elegiac mood

Woman: ambivalent, expression of joy and sadness. Does she represent Death?

Trees turn from green on left to grey and barren on right (life to death)

Grand Manner of Painting

Rigaud,Louis XIV

Majestic, awesome

Very richly designed

Sumptuous display of garments, drapery, rugs

Louis XIV felt he had good legs: they are exposed to view

Long flowing wig

Stately parade

Essence of the Sun King in his glory

Baroque ornateness

Wren, Saint Pauls, London

Exterior:

Drum of dome resembles Saint Peters

Influence of the Tempietto

Three domes: hidden central element is a brick cone that holds the dome up, outside dome gives a rounded shape, the hemispherical dome is of wood and is painted

Faade:

Two storied faade is classicizing

Frontispiece is an equilateral triangle

Coupled columns

Juxtaposition of concave and convex designs in the towers recalls Borromini

Contrasts of dark and light in the porch

Interior:

Octagonal crossing is the dominant central space in nave