By:

Shikha Bisht
 The Baroque Style of Art
The term Baroque is applied to diverse styles, a fact that highlights the approximate character of art-
historical categories. Like Gothic, Baroque was originally a pejorative term. It is a French variant of
the Portuguese barroco, meaning an irregular, and therefore imperfect, pearl. The Italians used the
word barocco to describe a convoluted medieval style of academic logic. Although Classical themes
and subject matter continued to appeal to artists and their patrons, Baroque tended to be relatively
unrestrained, overtly emotional, and more energetic than earlier styles. Baroque artists rejected
aspects of Mannerist virtuosity and stylization, while a so i g the Ma e ists’ taste for chiaroscuro
and theatrical effects. They were more likely than Mannerist artists to pursue the study of nature
directly. As a result, Baroque art achieves a new kind of naturalism that reflects some of the
scientific advances of the period. There is also a new taste for dramatic action and violent narrative
scenes, and emotion is given a wide range of expression—a departure from the Renaissance
adherence to Classical restraint. Baroque color and light are dramatically contrasted, and surfaces
are richly textured. Baroque space is usually asymmetrical and lacks the appearance of controlled
linear perspective; sharply diagonal planes generally replace the predominant verticals and
horizontals of Renaissance compositions. Landscape, genre, and still life, which had originated as
separate but minor categories of painting in the sixteenth century, gained new status in the
seventeenth. Allegory also takes on a new significance in Baroque art and is no longer found
primarily in a biblical context. Portraiture, too, develops in new directions, as artists depict character
and mood along with the physical presence of their subjects.

Whereas Renaissance artists reveled in the precise, orderly rationality of classical models, Baroque
artists embraced dynamism, theatricality, and elaborate ornamentation, all used to spectacular
effect, often on a grandiose scale.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian artist who was perhaps the greatest sculptor of the 17th century and an
outstanding architect as well.He was born Dec. 7, 1598, Naples, Kingdom of Naples [Italy]—died
Nov. 28, 1680, Rome, Papal States . Bernini created the Baroque style of sculpture and developed it
to such an extent that other artists are of only minor importance in a discussion of that style.

Be i i’s a ee ega u de his fathe , Piet o Be i i, a Flo e ti e s ulpto of so e tale t who

ultimately moved to Rome. He was strongly influenced by his close study of the antique Greek and
Roman marbles in the Vatican, and he also had an intimate knowledge of High Renaissance painting
of the early 16th century. His study of Michelangelo is revealed in the St. Sebastian (c. 1617), carved
fo Maffeo Ca di al Ba e i i, ho as late Pope U a VIII a d Be i i’s g eatest pat o .

Bernini’s ontri ution in Baroque Art

Be i i’s ea l o ks att a ted the atte tio of “ ipio e Ca di al Bo ghese, a e e of the

reigning papal family. Under his patronage, Bernini carved his first important life-size sculptural
g oups. The se ies sho s Be i i’s p og essio f om the almost haphazard single view of Aeneas,
Anchises, and Ascanius Fleeing Troy (1619) to strong frontality in Pluto and Proserpina (1621–22)
and then to the hallucinatory vision of Apollo and Daphne (1622–24), which was intended to be
viewed from one spot as if it were a relief. In his David (1623–24), Bernini depicts the figure casting a
stone at an unseen adversary. Several portrait busts that Bernini executed during this period,
including that of Robert Cardinal Bellarmine (1623–24), show a new awareness of the relationship
between head and body and display an ability to depict fleeting facial expressions with acute
realism. These marble works show an unparalleled virtuosity in carving that obdurate material to
achieve the delicate effects usually found o l i o ze s ulptu es. Be i i’s se sual a a e ess of
the surface textures of skin and hair and his novel sense of shading broke with the tradition of
Michelangelo and marked the emergence of a new period in the history of Western sculpture.

BERNINI’S ART WORKS

1. DAVID

͛ ͜

Be i i’s Da id diffe s fu da e tall I his life-size marble sculpture David of 1623, all trace of
Mannerism has disappeared. He represents a narrative moment requiring action. David leans to his
right and stretches the sling, while turning his head to look over his shoulder at Goliath. In contrast
to Do atello’s ela ed, self-satisfied bronze David, who has already killed Goliath, and
Mi hela gelo’s , ho te sel sights his ad e sa , Be i i’s is i the idst of the a tio . Be i i’s
David, his muscular legs widely and firmly planted, begins the violent, pivoting motion that will
launch the sto e f o his sli g. (A ag full of sto es is at Da id’s left hip, suggesti g he thought the
fight would be tough and long.) Unlike Myron, the fifth-century bc Greek sculptor who froze his
Discus Thrower at a fleeting moment of inaction, Bernini selected the most dramatic of an implied
sequence of poses, requiring the viewer to think simultaneously of the continuum and of this tiny
fraction of it.

Donatello, David, c. 1430–40 Michelangelo, David .c. 1501–4.

The suggested o ti uu i pa ts a d a i ualit to the statue. I Be i i’s Da id, the e e g

confined i Mi hela gelo’s figu es a d u sts fo th. The Ba o ue statue see s to e o i g
through time and through space. This kind of sculpture cannot be inscribed in a cylinder or confined
in a niche. Its unrestrained action demands space around it. Nor is it self-sufficient in the
Renaissance sense, as its pose and attitude direct attention beyond it to the unseen Goliath.
Be i i’s Da id o es out i to the spa e su ou di g it, e p essio of i te se o e t atio o
Da id’s fa e o t asts i idl ith the lassi all pla id isages of Do atello’s a d Ve o hio’s
e sio s a d is o e e otio all ha ged e e tha Mi hela gelo’s. The te sio i Da id’s fa e
augments the d a ati i pa t of Be i i’s s ulptu e.

Be i i’s David is a single figure, it assumes the presence of Goliath, thereby expanding the space—
psychologically as well as formally—beyond the sculpture. This is a characteristic, theatrical Baroque
technique for involving the spectator in the work.
2. Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Gianlorenzo Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Cornaro

chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy, 1645–1652. Marble,
height of group 11 6

Another work displaying the motion and emotion that are hallmarks of Italian Baroque art is
Be i i’s E stas of “ai t Te esa i the Co a o hapel of the Ro a hu h of “a ta Ma ia della
Vitto ia. The o k e e plifies the Ba o ue aste ’s efusal to li it his statues to firmly defined
spatial settings. For this commission, Bernini marshaled the full capabilities of architecture,
sculpture, and painting to charge the entire chapel with palpable tension. The marble sculpture that
se es as the hapel’s fo us depicts Saint Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), a nun of the Carmelite order
and one of the great mystical saints of the Spanish Counter-Reformation. The conversion occurred
after the death of her father, when she fell into a series of trances, saw visions, and heard voices.
Feeling a persistent pain, she attributed it to the fire-tipped arrow of divine love an angel had thrust
repeatedly into her heart.
Architecture:

Gianlorenzo Bernini, baldachino, St. Peter’s, Rome, 1624–33. Gilded bronze, approx. 95 ft. (28.96 m) high.

Bernini had won the commission to erect a gigantic bronze baldacchino under Giacomo della
Po ta’s do e. Co pleted et ee 6 a d 6 , the a op like structure (baldacco is Italian for
silk f o Baghdad, su h as fo a cloth canopy) stands almost 100 feet high (the height of an
average eight-story building) and serves both functional and symbolic purposes. It marks the high
altar and the tomb of Saint Peter, and it visually bridges human scale to the lofty vaults and dome
above. Bernini reduced the space at the crossing so that worshipers would be drawn to the altar. He
did so by erecting the bronze baldachino, or canopy, o e the high alta a o e “t. Pete ’s to . Four
twisted columns, decorated with acanthus scrolls and surmounted by angels, support a bronze
valance resembling the tasseled cloth canopy used in religious processions. At the top, a gilded cross
stands on an orb. The twisted-column motif did not originate with Bernini. In the fourth century,
Constantine was thought to ha e take spi al olu s f o “olo o ’s Te ple i Je usale a d
used the at Old “t. Pete ’s. Eight of these olu s e e i o po ated i to the pie i hes of Ne
“t. Pete ’s. Be i i’s olu s see to pulsate, a d the da k o ze, a e ted ith gilt, stands out
against the lighter marble of the nave and apse. Such contrasts of light and dark, like the organic
quality of the undulating columns, are characteristic of Baroque.
St. Peter’s

St. Peter’s basilica and piazza, Vatican, Rome. Maderno, facade, 1607–26; Gianlorenzo Bernini, piazza design, c.
1656–57.

In 1656 Bernini began the exte io of “t. Pete ’s. His goal was to provide an impressive approach to
the church and to define the Piazza San Pietro. The piazza, or public square ,is where the faithful
gather during Christian festivals to hea the pope’s essage and receive his blessing. Bernini
conceived of the piazza as a large open space, organized into elliptical and trapezoidal shapes (in
contrast to the Renaissance circle and square). He used Classical Orders and combined them with
statues of Christian saints. He divided the piazza into two parts . The columns are four deep, and the
colonnades end in temple fronts on either side of a large opening. Crowds can thus convene and
disperse easily; they are enclosed but not confined. Bernini compared the curved colonnades to the
a s of “t. Pete ’s, the Mothe Church, spread out to embrace the faithful. The second part of the
piazza is a trapezoidal area connecting the oval with the church façade. The trapezoid lies on an
upward gradient, and the visitor approaches the portals of “t. Pete ’s a se ies of steps. As a result,
the walls defining the north and south sides of the trapezoid become shorter toward the façade. This
enhances the verticality of the façade and offsets the horizontal emphasis produced by the
incomplete flanking towers. The two sections of the piazza are tied together by an Ionic entablature
that extends all the way around the sides of both the oval and the trapezoid, and the entablature is
crowned by a balustrade with marble statues of saints. The integration of the architecture with the
participating crowds reflects the Baroque taste for involving audiences in a created space, in
particular a processional space leading to a high altar.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Fourteenth Edition, Volume II
by Fred S. Kleiner
2. A history of western art / Laurie Schneider Adams. —5th ed
3. www.britannica.com
4. www.visual-arts-cork.com