the baroque in france, flanders and spain

The Baroque in France, Flanders and Spain

France

• Effects of the Thirty Year War were tremendous

• Baroque style slightly more tempered than Italy

• Paris under Louis XIV (the Sun King) becomes the cultural center of Europe

• 72 year reign of Louis XIV

LeNain

Louis LeNain (1588-1677)

•Devoted to scenes of daily life (genre paintings)

•Dignity in subjects vs. Brueghel

•Treated reverently

Nicolas Poussin (1593-1665)• Worked almost exclusively in Rome• Embodies the classical spirit of antiquity• Infleunced by Raphael and Titian• Aware in his paintings of specific times and seasons• Not about sensualtiy (like Titian or Rubens) but foreshadows

later neo-classicism• Painter of Allegories• Poses derived from classical sculpture• Avoided base, or low subjects – antithesis of Caracaggio

Claude Lorrain (1600-1682)

• Worked almost exclusively from Rome• Little interest in narrative• Often commissioned others to paint in figures

(used to establish scale, unlike Giorgione where emphasis is on mood)

• Landscapes – idealized• Many studies from nature

Louis XIV

• Influenced by Fronde Parliament in 1648• Ascended throne at age 13 (1651)• Superintendent of Finance – Nicolas Fouquet

who builds Vaux le Vicomte in 1657 (Le Vau, Le Notre, and LeBrun)

• 1661 Begins serious building at Versailles

RIGAUD, Hyacinthe

1694

Bernini, 1665

Emphasizing Louis grandeur and superiority

Mansart, Chateau of Blois

Vaux le Vicomte, Fouquet arch. – Louis Le Vau, Gardens – Andre Le Notre, Interior Charles LeBrun

The Party in 1661

"On 17 August, at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France: at two in the morning he was nobody.“ - Voltaire

Versailles

• Louis XIV moves court to Versailles (note influence of the Fronde

• Envisions an ideal architecture and landscape• Includes a small city to house the nobility• Central axis of the landscape design is the East West

path of the sun• Not noted for frescoes, but high acievement in

furniture (sold to pay for armies)• architect LeVau and landscape architect Le Notre

La Fronde• La Fronde (1648–1653) was a civil war in France,

occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The word fronde means sling, with which the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin were broken with stones by Paris mobs. The Fronde was divided into two campaigns, the Fronde of the parlements and the Fronde of the nobles. The timing of the outbreak of the Fronde des parlements, directly after the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years War was significant.

Fountain of Latona

From Ovid’s Metamorphosis

Latona, mother of Diana and Apollo, is fleeing Juno’s wrath with her children.

Stops at a lake to drink, but is prevented from doing so by the peasants there whom she turns into frogs.

Story chosen specifically by Louis.

Fountain of Apollo

Signing of the Treaty of Versailles, 1919

Antoine Coysevox

Conditions for the Baroque

• Continuing Influence of Michelangelo• Catholic need to demonstrate Glory and Beauty• Council of Trent (1545-63) strongly advocates

pictorial clarity and narrative relevance in religious art

• Need for Royalty to utilize excess for their own desires: secular uses for what begins as religious propoganda

Flemish Baroque Art

• Separation of the Netherlands into Belgium and Holland

• Rubens from Southern Provinces (Catholic)• Note Spanish wars against the Netherlands

(William of Orange)

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

• Scholar, diplomat, painter• Spoke and wrote in 6 languages• Synchronized styles of North and South (southern

classicism with Northern detail)• Abundant physical energy and splendid color• Spiraling compositions with figures often in motion• Ample women – full bodied and sensual• Incredibly wealthy

• Studied in Venice and worked for several years at the Court of Mantua in Italy

• Worked in Spain and got to know Velazquez• Great series of paintings for Marie de-

Medici in France (24 huge canvases)

Rubens and his first wife And his second

Rubens married Helena Fourment on December 6, 1630, when he was fifty-three and she was sixteen. Helena became the model and the inspiration for many paintings by Rubens dating from the 1630s, particularly those dealing with themes of ideal beauty or love.

1610

Rubens, , 1601

1612- 14

The Deposition

1612- 14

The Visitation The Deposition Simeon and the Bris

1612- 14

Belvedere Torso, Plaster cast after an original attributed to Apollonius (1st century B.C.)

Since the Renaissance, this Hellenistic torso has had a major influence on artists working in the classical tradition, most notably Michelangelo. Sketching the torso, or a cast of it, was regarded as essential in the training of an Academic artist. Sir Joshua Reynolds said 'A MIND elevated to the contemplation of excellence perceives in this defaced and shattered fragment, ... the traces of superlative genius, the reliques of a work on which succeeding ages can only gaze with inadequate admiration.'

St. Christopher

Farnese Hercules

The Marie de Medici Cycle in the Louvre• 24 paintings in 3 years• Story of Marie’s Life, Marriage to Henry IV, and her Reign as Queen

Education of Marie

The Arrival of Marie de’Medici 1622-26

Baroque in FlandersRubens, Arrival of Marie de’Medici at Marseilles• Part of the Marie de’Medici cycle of 21 paintings in the

Louvre• Real people exist side-by-side with nymphs, sea

monsters, naiads, genii• Neptune and the three sirens, a sea god and a triton

escort the boat in the harbor• France in blue cape with gold fleur-de-lis falls to his

knees before Marie• Fame salutes her with two trumpets• Arms of the Medici over the arch of the boat• Commander of ship wears a cross of the Knights of

Malta, is a sharp counterpoint to the other figures in the painting

• Dynamic movement• Rich vivid color• Heavily muscled men; ample females• Union of Northern and Italian painting that started with

Dürer

Baroque in FlandersRubens, Allegory on the Outbreak of War• Mars has left the Temple of Janus open, normally

closed during times of peace• Venus and Cupids try to restrain Mars• Fury Alecto, torch in hand, pulls him forward • Below woman with a broken lute: harmony is

destroyed• Mother and child indicate fertility cannot bloom• Fallen architect symbolizes the fall of civilization• Mars literally tramples on literature• Crying woman in black is Europe• Strong diagonals and masterful use of color• Painterly brushstroke• Baroque dynamics and composition• Developed musculature

Baroque in Flanders

Van Dyck, Charles I Dismounted• Unstressed royal authority• A king and a cavalier• Venetian landscape with the

Thames behind• Charles has dismounted and his

horse is being held for him • He glances sharply at us from

the side• Haughty pose• Van Dyck established the

tradition of the graceful monarch, regal yet at ease

Tapestry Artist

Baroque in SpainVelazquez, Las Meninas• Velázquez working on a huge canvas that

could not fit through the door of the room. He pauses and takes a step back to study us.

• Velázquez wears the Cross of the Order of Santiago, a symbol of nobility: painter enjoyed a court appointment and desired respect

• Princess Margarita with two maids-in-waiting is the central focus of the painting

• Dwarves on right; Philip IV had a large collection of dwarves, no abnormalities are glossed over by Velázquez

• Blurring of figures on right suggests painter’s understanding of peripheral vision

• Older woman is lady of honor, wears a nun’s outfit to indicate she is a widow

• Man in conversation with her is her escort

Baroque in SpainVelazquez, Las Meninas (continued)• Silhouetted man is José Nieto, aposentador of the Queen, head of the

Queen’s tapestry works, rests his hand on a tapestry as he goes out, but pauses

• Regular rhythm of the frames on the back wall anchors composition as opposed the irregular rhythm of the groups

• Paintings above are works that illustrate mortals who challenged the gods• Perspective pulls you into the painting, but the mirror reflects out• Extension laterally: canvas on easel, windows• Alternating darks and lights reach into the painting• King and Queen are in the mirror, but what is being reflected? The painting

Velázquez is working on? The King and Queen themselves? A portrait of the King and Queen hanging on the opposite wall?

• What is Velázquez painting? This group? A painting of this painting? The King and Queen?

Baroque in SpainVelazquez, Surrender of Breda, 1635• Battle in 1625, Dutch forced to yield Breda to the

Spanish• Magnanimity, humanity and valor of the victors is

stressed• Dutch on left seen as youthful, disorganized• Spanish on right are dignified, with lances

indicating their military precision• Key to the city is emphasized in the center• Emotional tone of generosity and mutual respect• Effect of the battle seen in the smoky background• Topography is accurate: artist interviewed

participants in the battle and consulted other renderings of the area

• Light and color are compositional devices that unify the elements

Jusepe de Ribera, Lo storpio, 1642

Zurbaran

Saint Serapion1628