FlandersMoreRubens The Elevation of the Cross The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus The Presentation of thePortrait of Marie de’ Medici Arrival (or Disembarkation) of Marie de Medici at Marseilles TheConsequences of War Anthony van Dyck Charles I at the Hunt St. Jerome with an AngelDutch RepublicMoreJohannes Vermeer The Art of Painting Woman Holding a Balance The Glass of Wine Young Womanwith a Water Pitcher Rembrandt The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp Self-Portrait with Saskia NightWatch (Officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelmvan Ruytenburgh) The Three Crosses Bathsheba at her Bath Self-Portrait A Girl at a Window Is It ARembrandt? Frans Hals Singing Boy with Flute Malle Babbe Judith Leyster Self-Portrait RachelRuysch Fruit and Insects Jan van Huysum Vase with FlowersSpainMoreVelázquez Las Meninas Los Borrachos Vulcan's Forge The Surrender of Breda Juan Sánchez CotánQuince, Cabbage, and Cucumber Ribera The Martyrdom of Saint PhilipFranceMoreHyacinthe Rigaud Louis XIV & Versailles Louis Le Vau, et.al. Château de Versailles Nicolas PoussinEt in Arcadia Ego Landscape with St. John Le Nain Peasant Family in an Interior

The Baroque:Art, Politics & Religion in 17th-century Europe

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Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Cathedra Petri (or Chair of St. Peter), gilded bronze, gold, wood, stained glass, 1647-53 (apse of Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome) Rome: From the “Whore of Babylon” to the Resplendent Bride of ChristWhen Martin Luther tacked his 95 theses to the doors of Wittenburg Cathedral in 1517 protesting theCatholic Church’s corruption, he initiated a movement that would transform the religious, political, andartistic landscape of Europe. For the next century, Europe would be in turmoil as new political and religiousboundaries were determined, often through bloody military conflicts. Only in 1648, with the signing of theTreaty of Westphalia, did the conflicts between Protestants and Catholics subside in continental Europe.

Martin Luther focused his critique on what he saw as the Church’s greed and abuse of power. He calledRome, the seat of papal power, “the whore of Babylon” decked out in finery of expensive art, grandarchitecture, and sumptuous banquets. The Church responded to the crisis in two ways: by internallyaddressing issues of corruption and by defending the doctrines rejected by the Protestants. Thus, while thefirst two decades of the 16th century were a period of lavish spending for the Papacy, the middle decadeswere a period of austerity. As one visitor to Rome noted in the 1560s, the entire city had become a convent.Piety and asceticism ruled the day.

By the end of the 16th century, the Catholic Church was once again feeling optimistic, even triumphant. Ithad emerged from the crisis with renewed vigor and clarity of purpose. Shepherding the faithful—instructingthem on Catholic doctrines and inspiring virtuous behavior—took center stage. Keen to rebuild Rome’sreputation as a holy city, the Papacy embarked on extensive building and decoration campaigns aimed at

highlighting its ancient origins, its beliefs, and its divinely-sanctioned authority. In the eyes of faithfulCatholics, Rome was not an unfaithful whore, but a pure bride, beautifully adorned for her union with herdivine spouse.

View of the CerasiChapel in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome with Annibale Carracci's altarpiece, The Assumption of the Virgin,1600-01, oil on canvas, 96 in × 61 inches and to the right, Caravaggio's Conversion of Saint Paul(Conversion of Saul), 1601, 91 in × 69 inches

The Art of Persuasion: to Instruct, to Delight, to MoveWhile the Protestants harshly criticized the cult of images, the Catholic Church ardently embraced thereligious power of art. The visual arts, the Church argued, played a key role in guiding the faithful. Theywere certainly as important as the written and spoken word, and perhaps even more important, since theywere accessible to the learned and the unlearned alike. In order to be effective in its pastoral role, religious arthad to be clear, persuasive, and powerful. Not only did it have to instruct, it had to inspire. It had to move thefaithful to feel the reality of Christ’s sacrifice, the suffering of the martyrs, the visions of the saints.

Caravaggio, The Crowning with Thorns, 1602-04, oil on canvas, 165.5 x 127 cm (Kunsthistorisches Museum,Vienna)

The Church’s emphasis on art’s pastoral role prompted artists to experiment with new and more direct meansof engaging the viewer. Artists like Caravaggio turned to a powerful and dramatic realism, accentuated bybold contrasts of light and dark, and tightly-cropped compositions that enhance the physical and emotionalimmediacy of the depicted narrative. Other artists, like Annibale Carracci (who also experimented withrealism), ultimately settled on a more classical visual language, inspired by the vibrant palette, idealizedforms, and balanced compositions of the High Renaissance. Still others, like Giovanni Battista Gaulli, turnedto daring feats of illusionism that blurred not only the boundaries between painting, sculpture, andarchitecture, but also those between the real and depicted worlds. In so doing, the divine was made physicallypresent and palpable. Whether through shocking realism, dynamic movement, or exuberant ornamentation,seventeenth-century art is meant to impress. It aims to convince the viewer of the truth of its message byimpacting the senses, awakening the emotions, and activating, even sharing the viewer’s space.

Giovanni Battista Gaulli, also known as il Baciccio, The Triumph of the Name of Jesus, Il Gesù ceilingfresco, 1672-1685

The Catholic Monarchs and their TerritoriesThe monarchs of Spain, Portugal, and France also embraced the more ornate elements of seventeenth centuryart to celebrate Catholicism. In Spain and its colonies, rulers invested vast resources on elaborate churchfacades, stunning, gold-covered chapels and tabernacles, and strikingly-realistic polychrome sculpture. In theSpanish Netherlands, where sacred art had suffered terribly as a result of the Protestant iconoclasm (thedestruction of art), civic and religious leaders prioritized the adornment of churches as the region reclaimedits Catholic identity. Refurnishing the altars of Antwerp’s churches kept Peter Paul Rubens’ workshop busyfor many years. Europe’s monarchs also adopted this artistic vocabulary to proclaim their own power andstatus. Louis XIV, for example, commissioned the splendid buildings and gardens of Versailles as a visualexpression of his divine right to rule.

View of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich

The Protestant North In the Protestant countries, and especially in the newly-independent Dutch Republic (modern-day Holland),the artistic climate changed radically in the aftermath of the Reformation.

Two of the wealthiest sources of patronage—themonarchy and the Church—were now gone. In their stead arose an increasingly prosperous middle classeager to express its status, and its new sense of national pride, through the purchase of art.

Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait, c. 1630, oil on canvas, 651 x 746 cm (National Gallery of Art, Washington)

By the middle of the 17th century a new market had emerged to meet the artistic tastes of this class. Thedemand was now for smaller scale paintings suitable for display in private homes. These paintings includedreligious subjects for private contemplation, as seen in Rembrandt’s poignant paintings and prints of biblicalnarratives, as well as portraits documenting individual likenesses.

Willem Claesz Heda, Banquet Piece with Mince Pie, 1635, oil on canvas, 42 x 43-3/4 inches (NationalGallery of Art, Washington) But, the greatest change in the market was the dramatic increase in the popularity of landscapes, still-lifes,and scenes of everyday life (known as genre painting). Indeed, the proliferation of these subjects asindependent artistic genres was one of the 17th century’s most significant contributions to the history ofWestern art. In all of these genres, artists revealed a keen interest in replicating observed reality—whether itbe the light on the Dutch landscape, the momentary expression on a face, or the varied textures and materialsof the objects the Dutch collected as they reaped the benefits of their expanding mercantile empire. Theseworks demonstrated as much artistic virtuosity and physical immediacy as the grand decorations of thepalaces and churches of Catholic Europe.

“Baroque” – the word, the style, the period In the context of European history, the period from c. 1585 to c. 1700/1730 is often called the Baroque era.The word “baroque” derives from the Portuguese and Spanish words for a large, irregularly-shaped pearl(“barroco” and “barrueco,” respectively). Eighteenth century critics were the first to apply the term to the artof the 17th century. It was not a term of praise. To the eyes of these critics, who favored the restraint andorder of Neoclassicism, the works of Bernini, Borromini, and Pietro da Cortona appeared bizarre, absurd,even diseased—in other words, misshapen, like an imperfect pearl.

Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis of Assisi According to Pope Nicholas V's Vision, c. 1640, oil on canvas,110.5 x 180.5 cm (Museum Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona) By the middle of the 19th century, the word had lost its pejorative implications and was used to describe theornate and complex qualities present in many examples of 17th-century art, music and literature. Eventually,the term came to designate the historical period as a whole. In the context of painting, for example, the starkrealism of Zurbaran’s altarpieces, the quiet intimacy of Vermeer’s domestic interiors, and restrainedclassicism of Poussin’s landscapes are all “Baroque” (now with a capital “B” to indicate the historicalperiod), regardless of the absence of the stylistic traits originally associated with the term.

Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with St. John, 1640, oil on canvas, 39-1/2 x 53-5/8 inches (Art Institute ofChicago)

Scholars continue to debate the validity of this label, admitting the usefulness of having a label for thisdistinct historical period, while also acknowledging its limitations in characterizing the variety of artisticstyles present in the 17th century. Text by Dr. Esperança Camara

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