Baroque Period

Baroque Painting
• encompasses a great
range of styles, as most
important and major
painting during the period
beginning around 1600
and continuing
throughout the 17th
century, and into the early
18th century is identified
today as Baroque
painting.

• characterized by great
drama, rich, deep
colour, and intense light
and dark shadows
 Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion
instead of the calm rationality that had been prized
during the Renaissance.

Michelangelo, working in the Bernini's Baroque David is

High Renaissance, shows his caught in the act of hurling the
David composed and still before stone at the giant.
he battles Goliath
Among the greatest painters of the Baroque
period are: Rembrandt,
Velázquez
Caravaggio

Poussin
Rubens,
Michelangelo Merisi / Amerighi da Caravaggio
(September 29, 1571 – July 18 1610)

•an Italian artist active in

Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between
1592 and 1610

•His paintings, which combine a realistic

observation of the human state, both
physical and emotional, with a dramatic
use of lighting, had a formative influence
on the Baroque school of painting.
Caravaggio's Artwork

Amor Vincit Omnia. 1601–1602.

Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Caravaggio shows
Cupid prevailing over all human
endeavors:
war, music, science, government.
Caravaggio's Artwork
•The Musicians, 1595–
1596, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York.

•thought to have been

his first painting done
expressly for the
cardinal.
 Caravaggio's Artwork
Caravaggio's approach
was, typically, to choose the moment
of greatest dramatic impact, the
moment of the decapitation itself. The
figures are set out in a shallow
stage, theatrically lit from the
side, isolated against the inky, black
background. Judith and her maid
Abra stand to the right, partially over
Holofernes, who is vulnerable on his
back. X-rays have revealed that
Caravaggio adjusted the placement of
Holofernes' head as he
proceeded, separating it slightly from
the torso and moving it slightly to the Judith Beheading Holofernes
right. The faces of the three 1598–1599. Galleria Nazionale
characters demonstrate his mastery d'Arte Antica, Rome.
of emotion, Judith in particular
showing in her face a mix of
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
(July 15 1606– October4 1669)

•Dutch painter and etcher. He is

generally considered one of the
greatest painters and printmakers in
European art and the most important
in Dutch history.
•His contributions to art came in a period of
great wealth and cultural achievement that
historians call the Dutch Golden Age when
Dutch Golden Age painting, although in
many ways antithetical to the Baroque style
that dominated Europe, was extremely
prolific and innovative.
 Rembrandt's Artwork

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633. The painting is still missing after
the robbery from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.
 Rembrandt's Artwork

It is prominently displayed
in the
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
t he Netherlands, as the
best known painting in its
collection. The Night Watch
is one of the most famous
paintings in the world.

The Night Watch or The Militia Company of Captain

Frans Banning Cocq, 1642. Oil on canvas; on
display at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Rembrandt's Artwork
The Abduction of
Europa, 1632. Oil on
panel. The work has been
described as "...a shining
example of the 'golden
age' of Baroque painting."
 Peter Paul Rubens
(June 28 1577 – May 30 1640)
a Flemish Baroque
painter, and a
proponent of an
extravagant Baroque
style that emphasised
movement, colour,
an d sensuality.

well known for his

Counter-
Reformation
altarpieces, portraits
, landscapes, and
history paintings of
mythological and
allegorical subjects.
 Rubens' Artwork
•Once attributed to the minor
Dutch artist Karel van
Mander, it is now recognised
as a work by Rubens.

•reflects Raphael's influence

on Titian and Jan Brueghel
the Elder's influence on
Rubens, who adds a parrot
and changes Adam's
posture, musculature, age
and expression.

T
h
e
 Rubens' Artwork
Peter Paul
Rubens presented
his Venus in Front
of the Mirror as
the ultimate
symbol of beauty.

Venus at the Mirror, 1615

 Rubens' Artwork
The painting was
held in the personal
collection of the
artist until his
death, then in 1666 it
went to the Royal
Alcazar of
Madrid, before
hanging in the
Museo del Prado.

The Three Graces, 1635, Prado

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez
( June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660)
•a Spanish painter who was the
leading artist in the court of King Philip
IV and one of the most important
painters of the Spanish Golden Age.

•Velázquez's artwork was a model for

the realist and impressionist painters,
 Velázquez's Artwork
The work's complex
and enigmatic
composition raises
questions about
reality and
illusion, and creates
an uncertain
relationship between
the viewer and the
figures depicted.
Because of these
complexities, Las
Meninas has been
one of the most widely
analyzed works in
Western painting.

Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) 1656

 Velázquez's Artwork

The triumph of Bacchus/Los Borrachos 1629 (The Drinkers/The Drunks)

The painting shows Bacchus surrounded by drunks.

 Velázquez's Artwork
shows the influence of
chiaroscuro, with a
strong light source
coming in from the left
illuminating the
woman, her utensils and
the poaching
eggs, while throwing the
background and the
boy standing to her
right into deep shadow.

Vieja friendo huevos (1618, English: Old Woman

Frying Eggs). National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.
 Nicolas Poussin
(June 15 1594 – November 19 1665)
the leading painter of
the classical French
Baroque
style, although he
spent most of his
working life in Rome.
His work is
characterized by
clarity, logic, and
order, and favors line
over color.
 Poussin's Artwork
The composition is
built in a series of
opposing
diagonals, highlightin
g Venus’s shapely
limbs and soft belly
and casting the
lovers into
shadow, foreboding
Adonis’s imminent
doom.

Venus and Adonis French (1594–1665)

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
 Poussin's Artwork
Poussin shows
the cause of
Cephalus'
rejection of
Aurora through
the putto holding
up Procris'
portrait

Cephalus and Aurora - Nicolas Poussin - 1627 - National

Gallery, London.
 Poussin's Artwork

Selene and Endymion 1630s - The Detroit Institute of Arts.

Poussin's painting shows Endymion awake, kneeling to

welcome the arrival of the moon goddess, while her brother
the sun-god is just beginning his journey across the heavens
in his golden chariot.
Thank you