Baroque Painting

Baroque painting is linked to the cultural movement Baroque (XVI - XVII century) which is often likened to the absolutism and the Counter-Reformation.

Introduction

The Nativity by Josefa de Óbidos, 1669, National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon.

The Council of Trent (1545-1563), during which the Roman Catholic Church must answer questions of internal reform raised by both Protestants and by its own members, encourage artistic creation, as a medium of devotion but also as teaching tool Entries must illustrate the doctrine without betraying And the usefulness of pictorial representations to an uneducated mass is recognized

Therefore, the Baroque art focused on the saints, the Virgin Mary and other well-known episodes from the Bible. This design populist role of the sacred art is seen by many art historians as one of the leading innovations of Caravaggio and brothers Carracci officiating (and were competing for commissions) in Rome to 1600.

However, although religious painting, the history painting, the allegories and portraits were still considered the most noble subjects, the landscape and genre scenes were also widespread.

The Baroque art is characterized by rich colors and deep games of shadows and bright lights. Unlike the Renaissance painting, which depicts an event usually takes place before the Baroque artists have a more dramatic representative action happening. Baroque art is deemed to evoke emotion and passion rather than rationality and calmness that emerges from the Renaissance painting.

Features

In terms of pictorial composition, baroque painting is characterized primarily by the use of many colors warm and bright ranging from pink to white through the blue. Then, the contrasts are present, with the play of light and shadow that can be used, for example, to highlight the muscle of man. To oppose the revival, which has a light canvas uniform illumination of the Baroque painting is done in patches. This technique draws our attention to certain areas and leaving others in the dark (using chiaroscuro).

Always in contradiction with the spirit of the Renaissance, Baroque Painting provides facial expressions to characters present on the canvas to convey feelings. It is also mainly an asymmetry (the action of the fabric is not especially the center). The lines of force of the canvas are not only horizontal or vertical but oblique or curved, which has the effect of giving unstable position the characters and a sense of movement. This impression of movement can be enhanced by draped agitated by the wind (clothing in reference to antiquity or arranged like curtains for a theatrical scene).

The Baroque is opposed by various criteria to the Renaissance because it is a time to break that wants to represent change. That is why the baroque paintings usually have a symbolic change, metamorphosis, which is sometimes represented by the impression of movement which is in the canvas. The movement has an important place in Baroque painting.

"The light through the lens and impressive the emulsion on the film, fails to replicate one aspect of the movement. But the movement is a continuous sequence of attitudes: the film in slow motion has revealed. The spirit of the baroque artist captures these aspects successive and condenses into a single image "

- Charprentrat P., Baroque art, Vendome, the Printing Presses Universitaires de France, 1967

The Baroque painters usually deal with artistic themes drawn from biblical tales and legends or mythological.

Notable Baroque painters

Netherlands: Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Ruisdael, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen

Spaniards: Francisco Ribalta (1565-1628) José de Ribera (1591-1652), Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664), Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Alonso Cano (1601-1667), Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682 ), Juan de Valdés Leal (1622-1690)

Flemings, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Frans Snyders, David Teniers the Younger

French: Trophime Bigot (1579-1650), Jean de Beaugrand (1584-1640), Abraham Bosse (1604-1676), Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743)

Italians: Michelangelo (1475-1564, the precursor of the baroque), Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680, said Bernini, nicknamed the "second Michelangelo"), Caravaggio (1571-1610), Guercino, Annibale Carracci (1560 -- 1609), Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639), Artemisia Gentileschi (1592-1652/53), Agostino Carracci, Lodovico Carracci ...

Lorraine: Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), Georges de La Tour (1590-1652)

Portuguese: Josefa de Obidos (1630-1684)