Donate Login Sign up Search for courses, skills, and videos. Arts and humanities Europe - Baroque 17th century Italy. Restoring ancient sculpture in Baroque Rome.
Bernini, Pluto and Proserpina. Practice: Bernini, David. Bernini, Apollo and Daphne. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Baldacchino. Bernini, Bust of Medusa. Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Practice: Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Bernini, Cathedra Petri Chair of St. Cindy Sherman later famously reinterpreted this painting, posing herself as Caravaggio's Bacchus, in her photograph Untitled after Caravaggio's Bacchus.
This work is one of two paintings representing the same subject matter; the other painting is in the Roberto Longhi Foundation in Florence. Here, a young boy, an example of the tousled, curly-haired youth who populated many of Caravaggio's early secular pieces, recoils in pain and surprise after having reached for one of the fruits on the table only to be bitten by a lizard, concealed among the pile of cherries.
On the table, Caravaggio demonstrates his skill rendering the play of light over and through different textures. In keeping with Caravaggio's wider style, the boy exists in a nondescript, timeless interior, with blank walls punctuated only by a stark, diagonal light source originating from the upper left, and outside the frame of the painting.
This heightens the intense expression of the piece, as it highlights the boy's bare right shoulder, raised as he recoils from the bite; his furrowed brow and mouth open in a gasp. The work is notable in large part for its striking sexual subtext. In the Italian street slang of Caravaggio's time, bitten fingers represented a wounded phallus, and the artist's inclusion of jasmine, a traditional symbol of sexual desire, in combination with the lizard lurking beneath the cherries and apples, each signifiers of temptation, suggests that the painting illustrates the perils of indulging in sexual appetites.
This work is an example of the Venetian pictorial genre of a 'concert' picture, exemplified by Titian's earlier work, The Pastoral Concert , in which artists celebrated the performance of music. This image, however, subverts the genre in a number of ways challenging traditional readings of it - it depicts a rehearsal rather than a concert and the inclusion of the classical clothing of the musicians and a winged cupid in the upper left of the image signals a symbolic intent probably linking music, love, and wine represented by the grapes in the cupid's hand.
The figures crowding the image seem to have been drawn separately and added to the composition. The central musician has been identified as Caravaggio's companion Mario Minniti and the other figure facing the viewer is possibly a self-portrait. The musicians are rehearsing madrigals and the lute player in the center is transported by the music, his wet eyes and dreamy expression suggesting sadness and lost love. The inclusion of a violin in the foreground indicates the presence of another musician.
Caravaggio's patron, Cardinal del Monte, for whom this work was commissioned, was interested in music and he and his friends tutored musicians and encouraged musical experimentation. The crowded space of The Musicians may invoke the musical environment found in del Monte's household. This painting depicts Medusa, the Gorgon monster of Greek myth whose hair was made of snakes and whose gaze turned viewers into stone.
Medusa was finally defeated by the hero Perseus who beheaded her using the reflection in his shield as a guide. Caravaggio depicts Medusa taking her final breath, immediately after the moment of her beheading. Unusually the image is painted on a circular canvas stretched over a convex wood backing. This mimics the shape of Perseus' shield and depicts the reflection of Medusa's final moments in its polished surface. It also references the practice of drawing Medusa on shields when going into battle to demonstrate victory over huge odds.
It is thought that Caravaggio used himself as the model for the image and as a self-portrait, Medusa is a good example of the artist's experimentation with gender and androgyny. In keeping with Caravaggio's interest in representing the world as it appeared and drawing from life, he used live snakes, common water snakes native to the Tiber River, to model Medusa's writhing vipers.
The green of these and that of the background contrasts strongly with the red blood of the decapitated head highlighting the gory and visceral nature of the image. The painting was sent by the artist's patron, Cardinal del Monte, to Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, as a gift, and was well-received by the Medici family who put it on prominent display. This image is from Caravaggio's first major public works commission, to create paintings for the lateral wall of the Contarelli Chapel in the Roman church San Luigi dei Francesi.
It has two companion pieces depicting other scenes from St. Matthew's life, including The Martyrdom of St. Peter, beckons to the tax collector Matthew to join him as a follower.
The person of Matthew has been variously identified. Most interpretations cite the bearded, central figure to be Matthew, as this figure's gesture, a hand with an extended finger pointing towards his chest seems to ask "who, me? Others have suggested that Matthew is the younger man with bowed head at the end of the table and this may be intentionally ambiguous. Biographer Andrew Graham-Dixon attributes a political meaning to this composition.
Matthew's slow rousing from "spiritual slumber by the coming of Christ" as an allusion to the French king's conversion. This painting is a notable example of two of the artist's compositional traits: his depictions of holy figures in the guise of modern-day Romans, and his unique use of light. The figures around the table are dressed as members of the early th -century middle classes and Jesus and St. Peter are more simply clothed and barefoot, the faces are realistic and non-idealized.
The only iconographic nod to the holy context of the scene is the faint, foreshortened gold halo above Christ's head, which is partly obscured by the diagonal beam of blinding light.
These details caused critics to express dismay at the image and accuse the artist of blasphemy. Though Caravaggio includes a prominently placed open window in the image, it provides no light; the brightness instead originates outside the picture frame, and is suggested as an otherworldly accompaniment to the divine presences of Christ and St.
Caravaggio used this dramatic light source to integrate the chapel space into the world of the painting. He also established the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which maintained a hierarchy of genres in painting and a distinctly Classical flavor. The convergence of these two styles gave 17th century painting an aesthetic tone that was wholly unique to France. Simon Vouet is known for introducing Baroque style painting to France. He studied in Italy and learned the techniques of the Italian masters, which he imbued with his own sensibilities.
Nicolas Poussin is known for his Classical style paintings created in 17th century France. His work features clarity, logic, order, and clean lines over color, serving as a counterpoint to Baroque style painting. Claude Lorrain is known particularly for his work in landscape paintings. Lorrain and Poussin were friends and were known to have traveled the Italian countryside together. His work features clarity, logic, order, and clean lines over color.
Georges de la Tour was a French Baroque painter known for painting religious chiaroscuro scenes lit by candlelight. His work shows a great deal of influence from Caravaggio, characterized by the painted effects of light and dark, but is unique in that he applies this technique to genre subjects. The style of painting produced in Flanders during the 17th century is known as Flemish Baroque. This style was produced between about , when the Dutch Republic split from the Habsburg Spain regions of the south, until about , when the Habsburg rule ended after the death of King Charles II.
Antwerp—the home of Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens—figured prominently as a point of artistic production during this time, as did Brussels and Ghent to a lesser extent. Peter Paul Rubens, the preeminent painter of the Flemish Baroque style, had a strong influence on the artistic aesthetic of the 17th century. Flemish Baroque painting is notable for the fact that it was separated into different thematic categories, and artists of the time tended to specialize in one of these areas.
These genres included history, portraiture, genre, landscape, and still life paintings. History painting, considered the most noble genre during the 17th century, was comprised of depictions of historical, biblical, mythological, and allegorical scenes.
Peter Paul Rubens was the dominant painter in this category, though his student Anthony Van Dyck also became prominent. More than in any other category, Flemish history painters continued to draw influence from Italian painting.
Rubens spent nine years in Italy studying the work of the masters, and he introduced the monumental hunting scene to painting. This is exemplified in his work Wolf and Fox Hunt , which depicts a noble battle on a large scale and was inspired by his study of classical antiquity. Portrait paintings were, for the most part, monumental or life sized, though the group and family portrait came into prominence during the 17th century.
Although he was not a portrait painter, Rubens completed some early works in this category. He also exerted influence through his student, Anthony Van Dyck, who became the court painter for Charles I of England and an influence on subsequent portraiture in England. Genre paintings depict scenes from everyday life and were very common in 17th century Flanders. The paintings of Adriaen Brouwer, which often show peasants fighting and drinking, serve as an example of Flemish genre painting.
Brouwer is known for painting his subjects in interior, rather than exterior, scenes. Landscape painting was another major category in the 17th century.
The style developed from earlier 16th century Flemish landscape paintings, which were not particularly realistic and employed the semi-aerial view typical of Peter Brueghel the Elder. Architectural interior painting also became popular around this time, developing out of the works of Hans Vredman de Vries and depicting the realistic interiors of existing churches and cathedrals.
Floral still life painting was widespread in 17th century Flanders, popularized by Brueghel the Elder around His sons, Jan Brueghel the Younger and Ambrosius Brueghel, were also known flower specialists of the time. Other subjects or subcategories of still life painting included the banquet still life, the animal still life, and garland scenes. Vanitas paintings were very popular in 17th century Flemish and Dutch work, and they often depict symbols such as skulls, flowers, rotting fruit, clocks, watches, smoke, and hourglasses, all of which are meant to convey the ephemeral nature of life on earth.
0コメント