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A. Baroque

Baroque is a period of artistic style that started around 1600 in Rome, Italy, and spread
throughout the majority of Europe.

Key Points

§ The most important factors during the Baroque era were the Reformation and the Counter-
Reformation ; the development of the Baroque style was considered to be closely linked with
the Catholic Church. The popularity of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Catholic
Church, which had decided at the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious
themes and direct emotional involvement in response to the Protestant Reformation .

§ The Baroque style is characterized by exaggerated motion and clear detail used to produce
drama, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture , painting, architecture, literature, dance, and
music.

§ The chiaroscuro technique refers to the interplay between light and dark that was often used
in Baroque paintings of dimly lit scenes to produce a very high-contrast, dramatic atmosphere.

§ Famous painters of the Baroque era include Rubens, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt. In music,
the Baroque style makes up a large part of the classical canon, such as Bach, Handel, and
Vivaldi.

§ The later Baroque style was termed Rococo , a style characterized by increasingly decorative
and elaborate works.

Key Terms

Counter-Reformation: The period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–
1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years’ War (1648); sometimes considered a
response to the Protestant Reformation.

Reformation: The religious movement initiated by Martin Luther in the 16th century to reform
the Roman Catholic Church.

Council of Trent: One of the Roman Catholic Church’s most important ecumenical meetings,
held between 1545 and 1563 in northern Italy; it was prompted by the Protestant Reformation
and has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation.

chiaroscuro: An artistic technique popularized during the Renaissance, referring to the use of
exaggerated light contrasts in order to create the illusion of volume.

Overview: The Baroque Period

The Baroque is a period of artistic style that started around 1600 in Rome , Italy, and spread
throughout the majority of Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. In informal usage, the
word baroque describes something that is elaborate and highly detailed.
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The most important factors during the Baroque era were the Reformation and the Counter-
Reformation, with the development of the Baroque style considered to be linked closely with the
Catholic Church. The popularity of the style was in fact encouraged by the Catholic Church,
which had decided at the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes
and direct emotional involvement in response to the Protestant Reformation. Baroque art
manifested itself differently in various European countries owing to their unique political and
cultural climates.

Characteristics

The Baroque style is characterized by exaggerated motion and clear detail used to produce
drama, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, and
music. Baroque iconography was direct, obvious, and dramatic, intending to appeal above all to
the senses and the emotions.

The use of the chiaroscuro technique is a well known trait of Baroque art. This technique refers
to the interplay between light and dark and is often used in paintings of dimly lit scenes to
produce a very high-contrast, dramatic atmosphere. The chiaroscuro technique is visible in the
painting The Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens. Other important Baroque
painters include Caravaggio (who is thought to be a precursor to the movement and is known
for work characterized by close-up action and strong diagonals) and Rembrandt.

B. Rococo

Rococo salons are known for their elaborate detail, serpentine design work, asymmetry and
predisposition to lighter, pastel, or gold-based color palettes.

Key Points

§ After the reign of Louis XIV, the wealthy and aristocratic moved back to Paris from Versailles
and began decorating their homes in the new Rococo style that was associated with King Louis
XV.

§ The notion of the salon is an Enlightenment era ideal that transformed the salon, or living
room, into the central space for aristocracy to entertain guests and engage in intellectual
conversation.

§ Rococo interiors are highly unified in nature, and represent the coming together of a number
of decorative arts.

§ As with other Rococo art forms, the color palette is lighter, the lines are curvaceous (‘S’
curve), and the decoration is excessive.

§ Furniture rose to new heights in the period and emphasized lighthearted frivolity.
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§ Furniture, friezes, sculpture, metalwork, wall, and ceiling decoration are woven together
stylistically in the Rococo salon.

§ Rococo style developed first in the decorative arts and interior design, and its influence later
spread to architecture, sculpture, theater design, painting, and music.

§ Rococo style is characterized by elaborate ornamentation, asymmetrical values, pastel color

palette, and curved or serpentine lines.

§ Rococo art works often depict themes of love, classical myths, youth, and playfulness.

§ Antoine Watteau is considered to be the first great Rococo painter who influenced later
Rococo masters such as Boucher and Fragonard.

§ In sculpture, the work of Etienne-Maurice Falconet is widely considered to be the best

representative of Rococo style.

§ Rococo sculpture makes use of very delicate porcelain instead of marble or another heavy
medium.

§ Rococo architecture was a lighter, more graceful, yet also more elaborate version of Baroque
architecture, which was ornate and austere.

§ Rococo emphasized the asymmetry of forms, while Baroque was the opposite.

§ The Baroque was more serious, placing an emphasis on religion, and was often characterized
by Christian themes; Rococo was more secular and light-hearted.

§ Rococo architecture brought significant changes to the building of edifices, placing an

emphasis on privacy rather than the grand public majesty of Baroque architecture.

C. Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism refers to movements in the arts that draw inspiration from the “classical” art and
culture of ancient Greece and Rome.

Key Points

§ The height of Neoclassicism coincided with the 18th century Enlightenment era, and
continued into the early 19th century.

§ With the increasing popularity of the Grand Tour, it became fashionable to collect antiquities
as souvenirs, which spread the Neoclassical style through Europe and America.

§ Neoclassicism spanned all of the arts including painting, sculpture, the decorative arts,
theatre, literature, music, and architecture.

§ Generally speaking, Neoclassicism is defined stylistically by its use of straight lines, minimal
use of color, simplicity of form and, of course, an adherence to classical values and techniques.
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§ Rococo, with its emphasis on asymmetry, bright colors, and ornamentation is typically
considered to be the direct opposite of the Neoclassical style.

§ Neoclassical subject matter draws from the history and general culture of ancient Greece and
Ancient Rome. It is often described as a reaction to the lighthearted and “frivolous” subject
matter of the Rococo.

§ Neoclassical painting is characterized by the use of straight lines, a smooth paint surface, the
depiction of light, a minimal use of color, and the clear, crisp definition of forms.

§ The works of Jacques-Louis David are usually hailed as the epitome of Neoclassical painting.

§ David attracted over 300 students to his studio, including Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,
Marie-Guillemine Benoist, and Angélique Mongez, the last of whom tried to extend the
Neoclassical tradition beyond her teacher’s death.

§ Neoclassicism emerged in the second half of the 18th century, following the excavations of
the ruins of Pompeii, which sparked renewed interest in the Graeco-Roman world.

§ Neoclassical sculpture is defined by its symmetry, life-sized to monumental scale, and its
serious subject matter.

§ The subjects of Neoclassical sculpture ranged from mythological figures to heroes of the past
to major contemporary personages.

§ Neoclassical sculpture could capture its subject as either idealized or in a more veristic
manner.

§ Neoclassical architecture was produced by the Neoclassical movement in the mid 18th
century. It manifested in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic
ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of the classicizing features of Late
Baroque.

§ The first phase of Neoclassicism in France is expressed in the “Louis XVI style” of architects
like Ange-Jacques Gabriel (Petit Trianon, 1762–68) while the second phase is expressed in the
late 18th-century Directoire style.

§ Neoclassical architecture emphasizes its planar qualities, rather than sculptural volumes.
Projections and recessions and their effects of light and shade are more flat, while sculptural
bas- reliefs are flatter and tend to be enframed in friezes, tablets, or panels.

§ Structures such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Panthéon in Paris, and Chiswick House in
London have elements that convey the influence of ancient Greek and Roman architecture, as
well as some influence from the Renaissance and Late Baroque periods.

D. Romanticism
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Romanticism, fueled by the French Revolution, was a reaction to the scientific rationalism and
classicism of the Age of Enlightenment.

Key Points

§ The ideals of the French Revolution created the context from which both Romanticism and
the Counter- Enlightenment emerged.

§ Romanticism was a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of
Enlightenment and also a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature.

§ Romanticism legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority, which permitted

freedom from classical notions of form in art.

§ The Industrial Revolution also influenced Romanticism, which was in part about escaping
from modern realities.

§ Romanticism was also influenced by Sturm und Drang, a German Counter-Enlightenment

movement that emphasized subjectivity and intense emotion.

§ ” History painting,” traditionally referred to technically difficult narrative paintings of multiple

subjects, but became more frequently focused on recent historical events.

§ Gericault and Delacroix were leaders of French romantic painting, and both produced iconic
history paintings.

§ Ingres, though firmly committed to Neoclassical values, is seen as expressing the Romantic
spirit of the times.

§ The Spanish artist Francisco Goya is considered perhaps the greatest painter of the Romantic
period, though he did not necessarily self-identify with the movement; his oeuvre reflects the
integration of many styles.

§ The German variety of Romanticism notably valued wit, humor, and beauty.

§ The decline of explicitly religious works, a result of the Protestant Reformation, contributed
to the rise in the popularity of landscapes.

§ English painters, working in the Romantic tradition, became well known for watercolor
landscapes in the 18th century.

§ Artists in the Barbizon School brought landscape painting to prominence in France, and were
inspired by English landscape artist John Constable. The Barbizon school was an important
precursor to Impressionism.

§ The glorified depiction of a nation’s natural wonders, and the development of a distinct
national style, were both ways in which nationalism influenced landscape painting in Europe
and America.
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A. Impressionism

Impressionism is a 19th century movement known for its paintings that aimed to depict the
transience of light, and to capture scenes of modern life and the natural world in their ever-
shifting conditions.

Key Points

§ The term ” impressionism ” is derived from the title of Claude Monet’s painting, Impression,
soleil levant (“Impression, Sunrise”).

§ Impressionist works characteristically portray overall visual effects instead of details, and use
short, “broken” brush strokes of mixed and unmixed color to achieve an effect of intense color
vibration.

§ During the latter part of 1873, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Sisley organized the Société
Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs (“Cooperative and Anonymous
Association of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers”) to exhibit their artworks independently to
mixed critical response.

§ The Impressionists exhibited together eight times between 1874 and 1886. The individual
artists achieved few financial rewards from the impressionist exhibitions, but their art gradually
won a degree of public acceptance and support.

§ Impressionists typically painted scenes of modern life and often painted outdoors or en plein
air.

§ Impressionist paintings can be characterized by their use of short, thick strokes of paint that
quickly capture a subject’s essence rather than details.

§ Impressionist paintings do not exploit the transparency of thin paint films (glazes), which
earlier artists manipulated carefully to produce effects.

§ Thematically, Impressionists works are focused on capturing the movement of life, or quick
moments captured as if by snapshot.

B. Post-Impressionism

A group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-
Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum
describes them as “breaking free of the naturalism of Impressionism in the late 1880s, a group
of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply
optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of
simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense
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as well as abstract tendencies.” The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent
van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced “moonk”).

Key Ideas

§ Symbolic and highly personal meanings were particularly important to Post-Impressionists

such as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Rejecting interest in depicting the observed world,
they instead looked to their memories and emotions in order to connect with the viewer on a
deeper level.

§ Structure, order, and the optical effects of color dominated the aesthetic vision of Post-
Impressionists like Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, and Paul Signac. Rather than merely
represent their surroundings, they relied upon the interrelations of color and shape to describe
the world around them.

§ Despite the various individualized styles, most Post-Impressionists focused on abstract form
and pattern in the application of paint to the surface of the canvas. Their early leanings toward
abstraction paved the way for the radical modernist exploration of abstraction that took place in
the early-20th century.

C. Pointillism/Neo Impressionism

Neo-Impressionism, movement in French painting of the late 19th century that reacted against
the empirical realism of Impressionism by relying on systematic calculation and scientific theory
to achieve predetermined visual effects. Whereas the Impressionist painters spontaneously
recorded nature in terms of the fugitive effects of colour and light, the Neo-Impressionists
applied scientific optical principles of light and colour to create strictly formalized
compositions. Neo-Impressionism was led by Georges Seurat, who was its original theorist and
most significant artist, and by Paul Signac, also an important artist and the movement’s major
spokesman. Other Neo-Impressionist painters were Henri-Edmond Cross, Albert Dubois-Pillet,
Maximilien Luce, Théo Van Rysselberghe, and, for a time, the Impressionist painter Camille
Pissarro. The group founded a Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884.

The terms divisionism and pointillism originated in descriptions of Seurat’s painting technique, in
which paint was applied to the canvas in dots of contrasting pigment. A calculated arrangement
of coloured dots, based on optical science, was intended to be perceived by the retina as a
single hue. The entire canvas was covered with these dots, which defined form without the use
of lines and bathed all objects in an intense, vibrating light. In each picture the dots were of a
uniform size, calculated to harmonize with the overall size of the painting. In place of the hazy
forms of Impressionism, those of Neo-Impressionism had solidity and clarity and were simplified
to reveal the carefully composed relationships between them. Though the light quality was as
brilliant as that of Impressionism, the general effect was of immobile, harmonious
monumentality, a crystallization of the fleeting light of Impressionism.
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Pointillism, also called divisionism and chromo-luminarism, in painting, the practice of applying
small strokes or dots of colour to a surface so that from a distance they visually blend
together. The technique is associated with its inventor, Georges Seurat, and his student, Paul
Signac, who both espoused Neo-Impressionism, a movement that flourished from the late
1880s to the first decade of the 20th century.