How to recognize Baroque art

Summary

This video script delves into the Baroque art period, highlighting its distinctive features through the works of masters like Bernini and Caravaggio. It contrasts the emotional intensity and dynamic diagonals of Baroque with the stability of Renaissance art. The script explores the use of light and shadow to create vividness and energy, the intimacy and realism of the scenes, and the direct relationship with the viewer. It also touches on the differences in Baroque art from Catholic and Protestant contexts, and how artists like Vermeer and Ruisdael brought subtlety and a sense of transition to the genre.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The Baroque style is characterized by intense emotionalism and a focus on naturalism, as seen in Bernini's sculpture of David.
• 🏹 Bernini's David captures a moment of high energy and tension, with a body poised to release energy, unlike the stability of Renaissance works.
• 📏 Baroque art often features dynamic, interrelated diagonals that convey energy and movement in both sculptures and paintings.
• 🌗 The use of light and shadow in Baroque art, such as in Bernini's sculptures and Caravaggio's paintings, creates dramatic contrasts and a sense of depth.
• 🤲 Baroque art engages the viewer's senses and emotions, often moving into the viewer's space, unlike the contemplative distance maintained in High Renaissance art.
• 👤 Caravaggio's paintings, like 'The Crucifixion of Saint Peter,' use foreshortening to create an intimate and immediate connection with the viewer.
• 🕊️ While Italian Baroque art often depicted religious scenes with dramatic lighting, Dutch Baroque paintings, such as those by Vermeer, focused on subtle transitions and domestic scenes.
• 🌫️ Vermeer's work, exemplified by 'Woman With A Water Pitcher,' showcases a quiet, subtle use of light and a focus on the ordinary moments of life.
• 🌳 In 17th-century Dutch landscape painting, artists like Ruisdael emphasized the transient nature of light and the atmosphere, moving away from idealized scenes.
• 📐 Baroque art often plays with rectilinear forms and the interplay between light and darkness to create a sense of depth and energy.
• ⏳ The Baroque period is defined by its emphasis on the passage of time, the effects of light, and the direct involvement of the viewer with the artwork.

Q & A

What is the Baroque style in art characterized by?

The Baroque style is characterized by intense emotionalism, a focus on naturalism, dramatic use of light and shadow, diagonal and arcing lines that convey energy, and a tendency to involve the viewer by breaking the traditional boundaries between the artwork and the viewer's space.

How does Bernini's sculpture of David exemplify the Baroque style?

Bernini's sculpture of David exemplifies the Baroque style through its dynamic pose, intense emotional expression, and the use of interrelated arcing diagonals that convey energy and movement. The sculpture also features a dramatic contrast between light and dark, creating a sense of vividness and immediacy.

What is the significance of the diagonal in Baroque art?

The diagonal in Baroque art is significant as it adds a sense of energy and movement to the compositions. It is often used to create a dynamic interplay of forms and lines that draw the viewer into the artwork and convey a sense of action and tension.

How does Caravaggio's painting style differ from Michelangelo's in terms of emotional impact?

Caravaggio's painting style differs from Michelangelo's by focusing on emotional immediacy and intimacy. While Michelangelo's works, such as his David, maintain a polite distance and appeal to the viewer's mind with ideal beauty, Caravaggio's paintings use foreshortening and dramatic lighting to create a sense of closeness and emotional involvement.

What is the role of light and shadow in Baroque paintings?

In Baroque paintings, light and shadow play a crucial role in creating a sense of depth, volume, and drama. The sharp contrasts between highlights and shadows energize the artwork, making it appear more vivid and real, and often serve to draw the viewer's attention to specific elements within the composition.

How does the Baroque style in painting differ from the Renaissance style?

The Baroque style in painting differs from the Renaissance style by moving away from the idealized, balanced, and stable compositions of the Renaissance towards more dynamic, emotionally charged, and dramatic scenes. Baroque paintings often feature diagonals, intense light and shadow contrasts, and a focus on the viewer's emotional response.

What is the significance of the contrast between Caravaggio's and Raphael's paintings?

The contrast between Caravaggio's and Raphael's paintings highlights the shift from the Renaissance to the Baroque period. While Raphael's painting emphasizes stability, balance, and the detailed natural world, Caravaggio's work focuses on emotional intensity, dramatic lighting, and a more immediate and intimate connection with the viewer.

How does Vermeer's 'Woman With A Water Pitcher' embody the Baroque style despite its calm appearance?

Vermeer's 'Woman With A Water Pitcher' embodies the Baroque style through its subtle use of light, the focus on a moment in transition, and the intimate connection with the viewer. The painting features rectilinear forms that create a sense of stability, yet the woman's actions and the light's modulation introduce a sense of movement and change.

What is the role of the viewer in Baroque art?

In Baroque art, the viewer plays an active role. The art often moves into the viewer's space, breaking down the barrier between the artwork and the viewer. This is achieved through the use of foreshortening, dramatic lighting, and dynamic compositions that draw the viewer into the scene and elicit an emotional response.

How does the Baroque style in Dutch landscape painting differ from Italian Baroque art?

While Italian Baroque art often features dramatic scenes and intense emotional expressions, Dutch Baroque landscape painting, such as Ruisdael's 'Bleaching Grounds,' focuses on the subtlety of light, the transition of natural elements, and the realistic depiction of everyday scenes. The drama in Dutch Baroque landscapes comes from the interplay of light and shadow on the landscape rather than from narrative or religious themes.

What is the significance of the diagonal in Rubens' work compared to Bernini's sculpture?

In both Rubens' paintings and Bernini's sculpture, the diagonal is used to convey a sense of energy and movement. However, while Bernini's sculpture uses the diagonal in a three-dimensional form, Rubens' paintings use diagonal lines to create dynamic compositions and a sense of depth on a two-dimensional surface.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 The Baroque Style: Emotion and Movement in Art

This paragraph introduces the Baroque style through the lens of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's sculpture of David and Goliath. It emphasizes the emotional intensity and naturalistic detail of the Baroque period, contrasting it with the stability of the Renaissance. The sculpture's dynamic pose, interrelated diagonals, and the artist's use of light and shadow to create a sense of energy and three-dimensionality are highlighted. The paragraph also discusses how Baroque art engages the viewer's emotions and physical presence, moving away from the idealized beauty of the Renaissance towards a more immediate and visceral experience.

05:01

🖌️ Baroque Art: Contrasts, Emotion, and Intimacy

The second paragraph delves into the characteristics of Baroque art, using Caravaggio's painting and Bernini's sculpture as examples. It discusses the use of foreshortening to create a sense of proximity and the employment of diagonals to evoke energy and movement. The contrast between light and dark is highlighted as a key feature that adds to the vividness and emotional impact of the artwork. The paragraph also contrasts the Baroque style with the High Renaissance, pointing out the latter's emphasis on stability, balance, and detailed background information, versus the Baroque's focus on emotional intimacy and the immediate presence of the subject. The discussion extends to the differences in Baroque art produced in Catholic versus Protestant contexts, with a nod to the work of Vermeer, which, despite its quietness, shares the Baroque interest in light and the viewer's closeness to the subject.

Keywords

💡Baroque

The term 'Baroque' refers to a period in Western art history from the late 16th to the mid-18th century, characterized by dramatic, emotional, and elaborate artistic expressions. In the video, the Baroque style is exemplified through the works of Bernini and Caravaggio, where intense emotion and movement are conveyed through sculpture and painting, respectively.

💡Naturalism

Naturalism in art is the depiction of the world as it is in nature, with a focus on realistic details and the accurate representation of the human body. The script mentions how Bernini's sculpture of David embodies naturalism, capturing the tension and energy of a moment that could only last a split-second, thus enhancing the emotional impact of the artwork.

💡Diagonal

A diagonal is a line that cuts across a surface at an angle. In the context of Baroque art, diagonals are used to create a sense of movement and energy. The script describes how diagonals are interrelated and arcing in Bernini's sculpture, and criss-crossing in Caravaggio's painting, contributing to the dynamic quality of the works.

💡Foreshortening

Foreshortening is a technique used in perspective drawing to create an illusion of three-dimensional depth on a two-dimensional surface. The script refers to Caravaggio's use of foreshortening in his painting, making Saint Peter appear close enough to touch and adding a sense of immediacy to the scene.

💡Emotionalism

Emotionalism is the expression of strong emotions in art, aiming to evoke a response from the viewer. The video discusses how Baroque art, unlike the more restrained Renaissance art, is characterized by intense emotionalism, as seen in the passionate depiction of David by Bernini and the dramatic portrayal of Saint Peter by Caravaggio.

💡Contrast

Contrast in art refers to the juxtaposition of elements such as light and dark, or color differences, to create emphasis and depth. The script explains how Bernini and Caravaggio use contrast between highlights and shadows to energize their sculptures and paintings, respectively, and to involve the viewer emotionally.

💡Instability

Instability in art can refer to a sense of imbalance or precariousness in a composition. The video describes how the positioning of Saint Peter in Caravaggio's painting creates a feeling of instability, as if the cross might fall at any moment, adding to the dramatic effect of the scene.

💡Verisimilitude

Verisimilitude is the quality of appearing true or real in art, often achieved through detailed and accurate representation. The script notes that Caravaggio's painting of Saint Peter has a sense of veracity, making the figures appear as if they could be physically touched, thus engaging the viewer on a more personal level.

💡Perspective

Perspective is a technique used in art to represent three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. While the script contrasts the deep perspective and spatial illusion of Renaissance painting with the more intimate and immediate approach of Baroque art, it also highlights how Caravaggio uses darkness to push the figures to the foreground, creating a different kind of perspective.

💡Light and Shadow

The use of light and shadow is a key element in Baroque art, used to create drama, depth, and a sense of three-dimensionality. The script illustrates this with examples from Bernini's sculpture and Caravaggio's painting, where the interplay of light and shadow activates the forms and draws the viewer into the scene.

💡Transition

Transition in art can refer to the depiction of a moment in time that is fleeting or in flux. The video discusses how Vermeer's painting captures a moment of transition, with the light and the woman's attention shifting, creating a sense of subtle change that is central to the Baroque aesthetic.

💡Landscape

In the context of the video, landscape refers to a type of painting that depicts natural scenery. The script mentions Ruisdael's painting of the Bleaching Grounds as an example of Baroque landscape art, where the emphasis is on the dynamic portrayal of clouds and the transition of light and shadow across the fields, rather than an idealized view of nature.

Highlights

The Baroque style can be recognized through its intense emotionalism and naturalistic lessons from the Renaissance.

Bernini's sculpture of David captures a split-second of energy and movement, contrasting the stability of Renaissance art.

Interrelated arcing diagonals in Baroque art create a sense of energy and involvement.

Baroque art appeals to the viewer's emotions and bodies, rather than just their minds.

Bernini's David demonstrates the artist's willingness to cross the body with arms and diagonals for energized forms.

The complexity of Bernini's composition allows for greater contrasts between light and dark, activating the sculpture.

Caravaggio's painting of Saint Peter uses foreshortening to bring the subject close to the viewer, similar to Bernini's approach.

Caravaggio's painting creates a sense of instability and motion through the use of diagonals and the weight of the subject.

The use of sharp contrasts between light and shadow in Caravaggio's painting creates vividness and energy.

Renaissance paintings differ from Baroque in their emphasis on space and architecture, whereas Baroque focuses on emotional intimacy.

Caravaggio's art is characterized by emotional involvement, even in the depiction of violence.

Raphael's High Renaissance painting emphasizes stability and balance, contrasting with the dynamic Baroque style.

Baroque art in Northern Europe, like Rubens' works, also features dramatic diagonals and light-dark contrasts.

Protestant Baroque art, such as Vermeer's, differs from Catholic Baroque, focusing on domestic scenes and subtle light transitions.

Vermeer's painting demonstrates the Baroque interest in light through the subtle modulation and gradations of tone.

The use of rectilinear forms in Vermeer's painting creates a sense of stability that the woman's movement subtly resists.

Baroque art involves the viewer by breaking down the barrier between the viewer and the artwork, creating a sense of closeness.

Ruisdael's landscape painting captures the transition of light and clouds, reflecting the Baroque interest in time and change.

Baroque art is characterized by its use of diagonals, energy, drama, and a direct relationship with the subject.

Transcripts

(jazzy piano intro)

- [Voiceover] How can you look at a painting or sculpture

and know that it was made during the period

that we call the Baroque?

- [Voiceover] How do you recognize the Baroque style?

Let's start by looking at this very important sculpture

by Bernini of the Biblical story of David,

who defeats the giant Goliath.

- [Voiceover] I'm standing in front of this sculpture,

and I wanna duck.

This man is about to launch a rock.

- [Voiceover] He's giving this every ounce

of energy he's got.

- [Voiceover] Look at his eyebrows,

the way they're knit together.

Look at the way that he's biting his lips.

The artist is observing the human body,

understands all of the naturalistic lessons

that had been gained during the Renaissance,

but is putting them towards an intense emotionalism.

- [Voiceover] This is a position of the body

that could only be like this for a split-second.

- [Voiceover] The body itself has broken with the stability

that had been so characteristic of the Renaissance.

Bernini's body is wound up,

and is about to release its energy.

He's like a spring that's taut.

And you're right, his body could never hold this position

for more than a moment.

- [Voiceover] We see a diagonal.

- [Voiceover] And it's not just straight diagonals,

these are interrelated, arcing diagonals.

And so there is this tremendous energy

that's not only the result of the representation

of his body, but it's the very forms and lines

that the artist is creating in stone.

- [Voiceover] And that's part of the way

that the figure involves us.

It moves into our space.

With Michelangeolo's David, we maintain a polite distance.

Its ideal beauty is there for us to contemplate.

But Baroque art does something different.

Instead of appealing to our minds,

it appeals to our bodies.

- [Voiceover] It appeals to our emotions.

- [Voiceover] Michelangelo's David looks like a god.

- [Voiceover] Well, Michelangelo is largely unwilling

to sacrifice the pure, linear qualities of his figure.

Notice the way in which the line of his body is almost

unobstructed, whereas Bernini is absolutely willing

to cross his body with his arms, with all of those diagonals

that energize but also move away from

that notion of the ideal.

There's another important aspect

that the complexity of Bernini's composition enables,

and that is a greater set of contrasts

between light and dark.

Michelangelo's David, because he is so planar,

the marble is all available to the light,

and so you don't get deep shadow.

With Bernini, because the form is crossing itself,

you get these contrasts between highlights and shadows

that further activate the sculpture.

- [Voiceover] So how do we see this in painting?

- [Voiceover] One of the great examples is to look at

the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio.

- [Voiceover] This is an amazing painting,

and incredibly powerful, very much like Bernini's David.

We're confronted with something very close to us,

which here is Saint Peter,

who asked to be crucified upside-down, because he said

he wasn't worthy to die the way that Christ died.

So, here we see Peter nailed to the cross.

The bottom of the cross almost feels like it's so close

that we could touch it.

So the same way that Bernini's David moved into our space,

Caravaggio is using foreshortening.

- [Voiceover] But it also creates an incredible

sense of instability.

Look at the way that that cross is just being raised up,

and we're not sure that the massiveness of Peter

and of the lumber is too heavy,

whether or not he may fall with a giant thud,

that everything feels contingent and in motion.

- [Voiceover] And here we have the diagonal of the cross,

but also another diagonal formed by the back of the figure

who's helping to raise the cross, and the figure underneath

who's raising it with his back.

And so we have criss-crossing diagonals,

which is also a very common feature of Baroque art.

- [Voiceover] It's interesting to compare this to Bernini's

sculpture, because Bernini was working in the round.

Here, the artist is creating an illusion of form, of mass,

and one of the ways he's able to do that

is to create these sharp contrasts between light and shadow,

which, just like the Bernini sculpture,

is creating a sense of vividness and energy.

So we've got this dark background,

and these brilliantly highlighted figures,

creating this sense of veracity

that we could reach out and touch them.

- [Voiceover] The whole thing about Renaissance painting

was there was an illusion of space, there was architecture,

there was landscape behind the figures,

but here, Caravaggio uses darkness so that everything

is pushed to the foreground.

- [Voiceover] So it's emotional, it's intimate,

it feels real, it feels immediate.

- [Voiceover] And it gets to us in our bodies.

Look at how close Peter's feet are, and we can see the nails

that have been driven through his feet.

We can see the nails in his hand.

There's an interest in making us emotionally involved

even in the violence, here.

- [Voiceover] I'm interested in the way that the

center of gravity has been shifted, and is being

raised up so that there is this instability.

- [Voiceover] A way to drive this point home is just

to compare this to a painting by Raphael

from the High Renaissance, where we have

an emphasis on stability and balance.

The figures in this painting by Raphael

are in the shape of a pyramid,

which is the most stable of forms.

There's a clear light on the figures,

they're situated within this three-dimensional space.

We can move from foreground,

to middle-ground, to deep background.

- [Voiceover] And Raphael is enjoying the opportunity

to give us as much information as he can,

not only about the three figures in the foreground,

but about the natural world beyond them,

whereas Caravaggio is being much more careful

about what we're going to focus on.

- [Voiceover] Look at that beautiful face of the Madonna.

She's not a particular person,

she is the divine mother of God.

- [Voiceover] But Peter is an actual individual

that we're seeing.

This is a particular man,

at a particular point in his life.

- [Voiceover] And there's dirt,

and clothes that are disheveled.

This is much more the real world

than we ever see in the High Renaissance.

- [Voiceover] So all of the art

that we've looked at has been Italian.

Can we see these same characteristics

in art that's being produced north of the Alps?

- [Voiceover] We can certainly see it in the art of Rubens.

if we looked at Rubens' raising of the cross,

we would see a diagonal, we would see dramatic

contrast of light and dark.

- [Voiceover] What if we were looking at artists

who lived in a Protestant context?

- [Voiceover] A lot of the characteristics

we've been describing, these are characteristics

that we associate with Catholic Baroque art,

that sought to energize believers.

In Holland, we're looking at paintings

that are very different than the altarpieces

from Catholic Europe, and that's because

we're in a Protestant country, where artists are

no longer commissioned to paint altarpieces for the Church.

So let's take something that seems like the opposite

of the Baroque art that we've been talking about.

Let's take Vermeer's Woman With A Water Pitcher.

- [Voiceover] Instead of seeing a Biblical scene,

we're seeing a common domestic scene.

A wealthy woman in her home, in the North of Europe.

- [Voiceover] So what makes this Baroque?

- [Voiceover] Everything in this painting is quiet.

The light has a subtlety to it.

It is very different from the drama and violence

of the light that we saw in Caravaggio.

Instead, the artist seems to be in love

with the very subtle modulation of light,

the very subtle gradations of tone.

Look especially at the way that the light

filters through her headdress.

- [Voiceover] Or under her right arm,

as she opens that window.

- [Voiceover] We see a woman surrounded

by rectilinear forms.

The rectangle of the window,

of the map on the upper right,

the rectangle of the table to the lower right.

She inhabits that space between.

But she's moving and resisting the stability and geometry

that is set up by the environment around her.

- [Voiceover] She's picking up or putting down the pitcher,

opening the window, this caught moment in-between.

And even the light has a sense of being in-between,

of the light coming in from the outside,

of the light in the interior.

And that interest in light is key to Baroque art,

whether it's Caravaggio's drama

or the subtlety of light in Vermeer.

- [Voiceover] This is a painting that is about

subtle transition, and whether or not

it's the subtle transition of the light,

or the subtle transition of her attention

from the basin and pitcher to the window.

- [Voiceover] We are close to her,

we feel as though we could reach out

and feel that rug that covers the table.

So that closeness that we saw in

Caravaggio and Bernini is still here.

- [Voiceover] Let's move through all of these different

types of paintings, how do we recognize the Baroque

in 17th century Dutch landscape?

- [Voiceover] Here's Ruisdael's beautiful painting

of the Bleaching Grounds.

But notice it's not an ideal landscape.

This is the landscape of Ruisdael's hometown of Haarlem.

- [Voiceover] We call this a landscape,

but this is really about those clouds.

Look at those huge, voluminous forms

that are moving across that sky.

I can see them forming and unforming before my very eyes.

This is still about transition, and look at the way

that those clouds cast shadows that create these

alternating fields across the land below.

- [Voiceover] So, Baroque art is about time,

it's about effects of light, whether that's dramatic

or more subtle, it's about involving the viewer,

of moving into our space, of breaking down

the barrier between us and the work of art.

It's about the use of the diagonal,

of a sense of energy and drama,

sometimes subtle drama, but still drama.

- [Voiceover] And for me, it's always about

a sense of direct relationship with the subject.

(jazzy piano outro)