Counter Reformation and Baroque Art

Counter Reformation and the Baroque

• The Counter Reformation was a response to the Protestant Reformation.
• It involved a revitalized papacy, new monastic orders, and a reforming council.
• The Council of Trent was convened in 1545 by Charles V and Maximilian II.
• The Baroque style of art was developed at the Vatican and dedicated to the Counter Reformation.
• It is described as an irregular pearl (Barroco in Portuguese).
• The Counter-Reformation's three main approaches were a revitalized papacy, new monastic orders, and a reforming council.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

• Arcimboldo was a painter at the Habsburg Court of Holy Roman Emperor King Maximilian.
• His most famous work is the Four Season series.
• His paintings depict the seasons using objects, fruits, and vegetables.
• One example is "Summer," an oil painting on limewood.

Giovanni Battista Fonteo Poem

• The poem was about the emperor bringing peace and prosperity to the world.
• The poem was written expressing peace and prosperity for the emperor, who was credited with giving peace and prosperity to the world.

Winter Series

• 'Winter' is an oil painting on limewood.

Council of Trent Decree

• The Council of Trent decreed that art and music be accessible to all, not simply the educated elite.
• Music's intelligibility was prioritized over melody, particularly in religious settings.
• Architectural designs were meant to create a reverent and worshipful environment.
• Paintings and sculptures were to be simple, direct, and acceptable in appearance .

Rise of Mannerism

• Mannerist artists rejected the idealism of past art styles;
• They often distorted figures into unusual or bizarre poses.
• The concept was to express new ideas of beauty through deviation from traditional norms.

Michelangelo

• Creating 'Pieta' in marble; demonstrating Mannerist and anti classical style.
• The style deviated from the traditional 'contrapposto' form, and is described as using a serpentine figure style.
• He also created 'Last Judgment' in fresco.
• The style shows elongated bodies, smaller heads, expressive faces, and a chaotic surface appearance with swirling bodies around Jesus.
• The Last Judgment's nudes were decreed obscene and required covering by the Braghettoni.

Correggio

• Known for a painting 'Jupiter and lo' in oil on canvas.
• Depiction exhibits a Mannerist characteristic of bizarre juxtaposition - lo displayed against Jupiter's dark, amorphous form.

Parmigianino

• Parmigianino is well known for the painting 'The Madonna with a Long Neck' on panel.
• This demonstrates Mannerism characteristics of distortion, dissonance, and ambiguity with an eccentric organization.

Veronese

• Created a painting named 'Feast in the House of Levi' showing a secular scene.
• The original painting title of ''Last Supper'' by Veronese was changed to ''Feast in the House of Levi'' after Pope Paul III initiated a Roman Inquisition;
• This was deemed inappropriate for a religious theme.

The Spanish Inquisition

• The painted works reflecting The Spanish Inquisition is detailed as an individualistic, private faith;
• The emotional characterization describes ecstatic throes of sweet happy pain and fearful glowing fire.
• The style reflects 'new religious style: The “illuminated ones”'

El Greco

• El Greco's 'Resurrection' shows elongated bodies and uses verticality to depict the Mannerist style.
• The way draperies fall over certain parts of the body is an element reflected in the painting's style.

Cervantes & the Picaresque Tradition

• Lope de Vega is known as a founder of Spanish theater.
• Lazarillo de Tormes is a picaresque novel.
• Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra used everyday speech, created vivid character portraits, and used a realistic representation in the narrative of 'Don Quixote'.

The Baroque in Italy

• Baroque religious art was intended to teach and inspire the faithful.
• Loyola's Spiritual Exercises emphasized using all the senses in experiencing a spiritual calling.

Andrea Pozzo

• Andrea Pozzo created 'Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius'.
• The painting depicts the four continents where Jesuits worked, demonstrated through foreshortening.
• The painting gives a sense of infinite space on the ceiling .

Bernini

• Bernini created 'Ecstasy of Saint Teresa' with mixed media.
• The work shows real people caught in emotion-charged moments.
• The painting demonstrates the moment when St. Teresa receives the Holy Spirit reflecting the Council of Trent decree.

Caravaggio

• Caravaggio created 'Conversion of St. Paul' in oil on canvas.
• His work used Tenebrism, displaying a highly dramatic contrast of light and dark.
• His work reflected the emotional and spiritual conflicts of the Counter-Reformation.
• Caravaggio also created 'Judith and Her Maidservant' demonstrating tenebrism.

Artemisia Gentileschi

• Artemisia Gentileschi's ''Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes'' shows a flamboyant and dramatic style.

Antonio Vivaldi & the Concerto

• Vivaldi's ''The Four Seasons'' is named after each season of the year.
• Vivialdi was a specialist in concerto music.
• The Council of Trent decreed secular music during mass should be avoided.
• Program music is instrumental music connected to a story or idea.

Secular Baroque in the North

• Amsterdam painters created a restrained style of Baroque art.
• Their art reflected their religious and civic values.

Jan Brueghel the Elder

• Jan Brueghel the Elder's still life paintings and vanitas paintings reflected a spiritual view of life.

Jacob van Ruisdael

• van Ruisdael's ''View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen'' showed a light-to-dark spectrum in the landscape painting style;
• The reflection of the light-to-dark style is reflective of the rhythm of life.

Jan Steen

• Jan Steen's ''The Dancing Couple'' depicts the fleeting nature of human life.

Johannes Vermeer

• Johannes Vermeer created ''Woman with a Pearl Necklace''.
• Vermeer's artistic style is characterized with domestic and quiet world of women.
• Vermeer's ''Tabula rasa'' refers to a blank slate, whereby moral history remains to be written.

Rembrandt van Rijn

• Rembrandt's ''Captain Frans Banning Cocq Mustering His Company'' showed a dramatic use of chiaroscuro.
• The work conveyed forceful expressiveness and reflected a wide range of human moods and emotions.

Baroque Music in the North

• Baroque music deliberately focused on drama and arousing emotion in listeners.

Johann Sebastian Bach

• Bach's cantatas were multi-movement commentaries on the day's text.
• Counterpoint meant adding more independent melodies to a main melody.

Continued

• Oratorios were long choral works that had no action or scenery.
• Passions were stories of death and resurrection from the Gospels.

Absolutism & the Baroque Court

• Louis XIV built the Versailles Palace.
• André Le Notre was a landscape architect.
• The Hall of Mirrors contained paintings of Louis XIV presented in a Roman Emperor persona.

The Court Arts of Spain

• Philip IV's declining economics and social conditions threatened absolutist authority.
• Philip IV used artistic support to counter the threats to power.

Peter Paul Rubens

• Rubens was commissioned by Philip IV.
• He painted women voluptuously, and robustly and placed them in the foreground of his paintings.

Diego Velázquez

• Velazquez's ''Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor)'' exhibits an interplay of illusion and space.
• No other painter, at the time, was granted permission to paint King Philip IV, except for Velazquez.