Baroque Art

Baroque Research

Characteristics and key influences of the movement:

Baroque work typically consists of paintings, sculptures and architecture. The work also has a clear colour scheme, ranging from warm tones of reds and oranges and deep, dark blacks and greys. However, it can also be described as emotional due to the fact that the work is aimed to being out certain emotions within the audience, for example loyalty and love towards a king at the time. The composition of Baroque work shows the main focus or problem in a spotlight, highlighting the main part with lighter and warmer colours and the background and surrounding in deeper dark colours. Using strong light and dark is called Chiaroscuro.

Baroque work all have the same themes in common, ranging from religion and the church to historical events. They all seem to include people too, be it Monarchs, the rich or Popes. The work is grouped together based on the fact that they all have the same themes and also usually depict historical or religious events.

The artwork can be described as immaculate, exaggerated, luxurious, realism, extravagant and curvaceous.

Baroque work originated in Italy and travelled around through trade and travel around Europe. Books were printed and ornaments were made, which were sent to Britain, also sending the Baroque style with them. The work sent messages of religious events and historical events to other places and the fact that each piece was handmade made everything more special.

Artists were inspired by historical and religious events and people at the time, also monarchs and the rich. The artists would only be able to convey the opinions of the people who they would paint for, as they tended to have a higher authority than them and controlled them, propaganda.  The most significant artists at the time were people such as: - Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Rubens, Bernini.

Cultural contexts of the movement:

“Baroque was the dominant style in art and architecture of the 17^th Century, characterised by self-confidence, dynamism and a realistic approach to depiction” – TATE

As the artist are working, there are events happening in the world that effected their pieces, for example, portraiture of King Charles I, as he wanted to be painted how he wished to be seem by his people. This was also the same with King Louis XIV. Artists were also influenced by the church, as the church was very highly influential and at the time art was used as propaganda and to depict important and historical/religious events.

The society at the time was very dependent on the church and people were interested in the stories and seeing what there king was like, as it was very rare to ever see him, other than in paintings. This meant that most artwork that they would see would be of those themes. However, the audience would mainly be the rich as they could afford the paintings and artwork, so the other pieces would mainly be to please them. The reign of King Charles I in 1625 and Louis XIV in 1643, had an impact because art was catered to how they wanted people to see it. But also, the church highly impacted because they still had a large control over people and opinions at the time. Nothing that the church or the monarchs weren’t happy with, or didn’t agree with would be seen by the audiences.

Galileo was also a key event during the time as he was the start of the transition from natural philosophy to modern science, this lead to more people experimenting to different things and understood the world a bit more.