ernst gombrich - power and glory i (ch. 21)
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21
POWER
AND GLORY: I
Italy later setJcnteenth and eighteenth centuries
We
ren1ernber
the beginning of the Baroque manner ofbullding in
such
works of1atc sixteenth-century art
as
Della Porta s church
of he
Jesuit Order,
page
]8g figure
250.
Della
Porta
disregarded
the
so-called rules
of
classical
architecture
for
the
sake
ofgreater
variety
and more imposing
effects. It is
in
the
nature of
things
that
once
art has
taken
this
road it
rnust
keep
to
it.
If variety and
striking effects arc
considered in1portant,
each
subsequent
artist has
to produce more complex
decorations
and n1ore
astounding ideas
so
as
to
rcmJin
in1pressive.
During the
first
half of the
seventeenth
century,
this process
of
piling
up
rnore
and n1ore
dazzling
new
ideas for bulldings
and
their
decorations
had
gone
on in
Italy,
and
by the
middle of
the
seventeenth century the
style
we callllaroque
was fully developed.
~ g u r e
8 shows a typical
Baroque church
built
by
the
Elmous
architect
Francesco
Borromini 1599-1667)
and
his assistants. It
is
easy
to
sec
that
even the
fon s
which llorromini
applied arc really Renaissance forms.
Like Della Porta,
he
used
the form of
a
temple
front
to frame
the
central
entrance
and, like hin1, he
doubled
the
pilasters
on the
sides
to
gain a
richer
effect.
But
by con1parison
with
Borrom.ini s Elyade, Della Porta s
looks almost severe
and
restrained.
Borromini
was
no longer
content with
decorating
a
w a l ~ with the
orders
taken
from classical architecture.
He
cmnposcd
his
church through
a
grouping
of
different
forms-
the
vast
cupola,
the
fLmking towers
and the
Elyade.
And
this £tyade is
curved
as if
it had been
n10delled
in
clay.
If we
look
at
the
detail
we
find
even more
surpris ing effects.
The
first storey
of the towers
is square,
but the second
is round
and the
relation
between the two
storeys is brought
about
by a
strangely
broken
entablature which
would
have
horrified evc1y
orthodox
teacher of architecture, but which
docs the job assigned to
it extrnncly
well.
The
frames
of
the doors
flanking
the
nuin porch
arc
even more
astonishing.
The way
in
which the
pediment
over the entrance
is
made
to
fi·ame
an
oval
window
has
no
parallel in
any
earlier building.
The
scrolls
atld curves
of
the
Baroque
style
had
come
to
dominate both the
general
layout
and the
decorative details. It has
been
said
of
such
Baroque
buildings
that they
arc
over-ornate and
theatrical. L3orromini
himself
would hardly
have
understood why
this
should be
a reproach. He
wanted
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436 P
O\VE
it
AND GLOI Y:
I
a c
hu r
ch
to l
ook
festive and to be a building
full
of
sp
l
endour
and
move
ment. lfit is
th
e aim o
fth
·c theatre
to
delig
ht
us with a vis
ion
of a
fai ry world oflight
an
d pageantry why should not the archite
ct
designing
a c
hu r
ch have a rig
ht
to give us an
id
ea
of
even greater
pom
p and glory to
remind us ofHeaven?
When
we e
nter th
ese churches
we
understa
nd
e
ven
better
ho
w the
pomp
and display
of
precious stones
of
gold and stucco were used deliberately
to conj
ur
e up a vision ofheavenly glory
muc
h more concretely than the
medieval cathedrals do. Pigure
83
shows the in terior of
Borromini s
chu rch. To those of us who arc used to the chu rch inte1i ors of north
ern
co
untries this dazzling page
antr
y
ma
y well look
too wo
rldly for
our
taste.
But
th
e Catholic
Chur
ch of the period thought differently.
Th
e more the
Pr
otestan ts preached against
outward
s
how
in the churches the
mo r
e
eager was the
Roman
Church
to
enlist the power of the artist. Thus the
Reformation and
th
e w hole vexed issue
of m
ages and their
wo
rship
z z
m c c ~ c o
orron i i
C arlo Rainaldi
C mrct ofSta
AJIIlrSC
- Piazz Na11o1w
Rom
e
•653
A church
o
hc Rom m
igh aroqu
l
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437
RJ
Francesco
Borromini
Carlo
Hainaldi
flll rior
o
ire
cf rdr
of
Stn
· s e Piazz
m oun
Rome
.
1653
ITALY
, LAT ER
SEVENThEN
'J H
AND EIGHTEENTH ChNTU RIES
whic
h had influenced the course
of
a
rt
so often
in
the past, also had an
·''
indirect effect on the development ofBaroque. The Catholic world had
discovered that art could serve religion in ways that went beyond the simple
task a
ss
i
gned to it
in the early
Middle
Ages- the task
of
eaching the
Doctt;ne to people who could
not
read, page
95·
t
could help to persuade
and
co
nvert those
who
had, perhaps, read too
much.
Architects, painters
and sculptors we re called upon
to
transform churches
into
grand show-
pieces
whose
splendour and vision nearly swept
yo
u off
your
feet.
It is not
so much the details that matter n these interiors s the general effect of he
whole. We cannot hope to
understand them
or to
judge them correctly,
unless we visualize th
em
s the fram
ework
for the splendid ritual
of
he Roman
Church , unless we have seen them during High Mass, w hen the candles are
light on the altar, when the smell of ncense fills
the
nave, and wh
en
the
sound of he organ and the choir transports us into a different world.
This s
upr
eme art of theatrical deco ration had mainly been developed
by
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43S
1 0
\V
EI
AND
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9 ITA Y LA T RSeVENT EENTH t\N i l IG I TUN T H r.hN I UIUES
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44
POWER AND
GI .
OltY
: I
of
e
moti
on
wh
ich artists had so
fur
shunned. If we compare t he face
of
his
swoon
ing saint with any work done
in
previous centuries, we find that
he achieved an
int
ensity of
a
cial expression
whi
ch un t
il then
was never
attempted
in
art. Looking from figure 286 to the head of Laocoon,
paJ .e
110
figure 6g or
of
Michelangelo s Dy
in
g slave ,
page
J IJ .figure 201
we
realize
the difference . Even Bernini s handling ofdraperies was at the time
completely new. Instead
ofletti
ng them fall in dignified folds
in
t
he
approved classic
al
manner, he made
them
writhe a
nd
whirl to add to the
effect
of
exc
itemen
t and
mo v
eme
nt
.
In
a
ll
these
eff
ec
ts
he was soon
imitated all over Europe.
lfit is true ofsculp tur
es
like Bernini
s
St Teresa that they can only
be judged in the setting for which they were made, the same applies even
mo re to the painted decorations ofBaroque churches.
F
igure 287 sho ws
the decoration of the ceiling of the J
es
uit church in
Rome
by a pain t
er
of
Bernini s following, Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639 - T709) .
Th
e artist
wants to give us the illusion that the vault of the chu rch has opened, and
that we look straig
ht
into the glories ofHeaven . Correggio before h.im
had
the idea ofpainting the heavens on the ceiling, page
JJ8 figure
217 but
Gaulli s e
ffe
cts are incomparably m
ore
theat1;cal. The theme is the wo rship
of the Holy Name ofj esus, w hi ch is inscribed
in
radiant letters in the
ce
nt r
e
of
His church. l t is s
urr
ounded by infinite multitudes
of
cherubs,
angels, and saints, each gazing in rapture into the light, w hile whole
legions ofdemons or
fa
llen angels arc driven out of he heavenly regions,
1
86
Detailo
igure 85
Giovanni
ila ttista ~ u l l i
Tl•e wonhip
o
he Holy
Name of]esw
l
li70
-
8J
c<
·iling o he csui[
church
o l
Ccsu Rome
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4 P
IT tY l TEi l SEVENTEENTH
ND
EIG HTEENTH
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:iovanni
U mista Tiepolo
11tr
banquet o
C:h·c>patm r 1750
P;al aao
L ahi
;a
Vnucc
l89
Dcuil o igur
e
2 8S
H3
/
Ti l lY
LATE/I SEV[NTF.F.NTII
l iND
F
IGIITH N I N T U U
expressing their despair.
The crowded
scene seems to burst the
fi·
ame of
the ceiling, which brims over
with
clo
ud
s carrying saints and sinners right
down
into
the church. In letting the picture thus break the fi·ame, the artist
wants to confuse and
overwhelm
us, so
that we no
l
onger know
w hat
is
real and
what
illusion. A painting like this has
no meaning
outside the
place for
which
it was made.
Per
haps
it
is
no coincide
nc
e, t
her
efore,
that, after the development
of
the full Baroque style, in which all artists
co
llaborated in the achievement
ofone
effect, painting and sculpture
as
indepe
nd ent
arts declined in Italy and throughout Catholic Europe.
In the eighteenth century Italian artists we re mainly superb internal
decorators, famo us throughout Europe for their skill in stucco
work
and
for their great fi·escoes, which
could
transfonn any hall
of
a castle or
monastery into
a setting for pageantry.
One of
the most famous
of
these
masters was the Venetian Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696 r770), who
worked
n
ot
only
in Italy
but
also
in Germany
and
Spain.
F ~ ~ u r e
288
sh
ows part of
his
decor
at
ion of
a Venetian palace, painted
about
1750.
It
represents a subject which gave
Tiepo
lo every
oppo
rtunity to display gay
colours and sumptuous costumes: the
banquet of
Cleopatra.
The
st01y
goes that
Mark
Antony gave a feast in hon
our
of the Egyptian queen
which
was to be the
ne
p us u
ltra ofluxury
.
The most
costly dishes
fo
llo
wed
each
other
in en dle
ss
succession. The
queen
was
not
impressed. She
wagered
her proud
host that
she would
pr
oduce
a dish
much more
costly
than anything he had offered yet -
took
a famous pearl fi·om
her
ear-ring,
dissolved it in vinegar
and
drank the brew. ln
Tiep o
lo s fresco
we
sec
her
showing Mark Antony the pearl while a black servant offers her a glass.
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444 1 0\VEII AND GLORY:
Frescoes like these must have been fun to paint and they arc a pleasure
to
look at. And yet some
may
feel that these fireworks arc ofless
permanent val
ue
than the
more
sober creations ofearlier periods. The
great age
ofitalian
art was ending.
Only in
one speci l ized branch did Italian art create new ideas in the
early
eighteenth cent
ury.
That
was, char cteristically
enough,
the painting
and engraving ofviews. The travellers who came to Italy ·om all over
Europe to admire the glories ofher past greatness often wanted to take
souvenirs with them. In Venice,
in
particular,
whose
scenery is so
fascinat
in
g to the artist, there developed a school ofpainters who catered
for this demand. Figure
290
shows a
view ofVenice
by one of these
painters, Francesco Guardi
1712-93).
Like Tiepolo s fresco, it shows
that Venetian art had
not
lost its sense ofpageantry, oflight and ofcolour.
I t
is interesting
to compare
Guardi s v
ie
ws
of he
Venetian lagoon
with
the sober
and faithful seascapes ofSimon de Vlieger, page 418,jigure 27 1
painted
a century ea rl er. We realize that the spirit
ofBaroque,
the taste
for movement and bold effects, can express itselfeven in a simple view of
>9
Francesco Guardi
Vie•v o
S. Ci01gio
Maggiore Veuice
c. 77s-
So
Oil on c:mvas 5 x
93·5
c:m,
x in;
W a l l ~ c e
Collection
ondon
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Com10isseurs and
lllliqu ri
es
ass
e
mbl
e
Rom
e 1725
llmving by P. L Gheni;
Jtn and b
ck
ink on b u ~
f
Jpcr 27
x
39 5
em,
ro
x }i in Albertiru
rcnna
145
ITALY LATER S V N T ~ N T
ANIJ EIG
H T
EENTH
CENTUR I ES
a ci ty Guardi has completely mastered the effects that had been stuclied by
seve
nt
eenth-century
paint
e
rs He
has learned that o
nce
we are given the
ge
ne
ral
impression ofa scene
we
are
quit
e ready to supply and supplement
the details ourselves. If
we look
closely at
his
go
nd
oliers
we
discover to
our
surprise that they arc
mad
e
up
simply ofa few deftly placed col
oured
patches - yet
ifwe
step back the illusion becomes completely effective.
Th
e tradition ofDaroque discoveries which lives in these late fi·uits of
Italian art was to gain new
importan
ce
in
subsequent periods.
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