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22
POWER
AND
GLORY:
II
Prance Germany
and
Austria late seventeenth
and
early
eighteenth
centuries
It
was not
only
the Roman Church
that
had
discovered
the power of
art
to
impress
and overwhelm.
The kings and princes
of
seventeenth
century Europe were
equally
anxious to
display
their nllght and
thus
to
increase
their hold
on
the
nllnds
of the people. They, too, wanted
to appear s
beings
of
a different
kind,
lifted
by
divine
right
above the
comn1on
run of
n1cn.
This
applies
particularly to
the
most powerful
ruler
of
he
latter
part
of
the
seventeenth
century Louis
XIV
of
France
in
whose
political
programtne
the
display
and
splendour
of
royalty was deliberately used.
It
is surely no
accident that
Louis XIV
invited Bernini to
Paris
to
help
with the
designing
of
his palace.
This
grandiose
project never
materialized
but another
of
Louis
XIV s
palaces
became the very symbol of
his imn1ense
power. This
was
the
palace ofVersailles
which
was built
round about r66o-8o Jigure 291.
Versailles is so
huge
that
no
photograph
can
give an
adequate
idea
of
its appearance:
There
arc
no fewer than 23 windows looking
towards
the
park
in each
storey.
The
park
itself
with
its avenues
of
clipped
trees its urns and statuary _figure
292
and its terraces
and
lakes
extends
over
miles
of
countryside.
It
is
in
its
immensity rather
than
in
its
decorative
detail
that
Versailles is
B a t : ~ q u e
Its architects
were mainly intent
on grouping
the
enorn10us n1asses
of the
building
into
clearly distinct wings
and
giving each wing the
appearance
of
nobility
and
grandeur.
They
accentuated the middle
of
the
tnain storey
by
a
row of
Ionic colunms
carrying an
entablature with
rows
of
statues on
top,
and flanked this
effective
centre-piece with
decorations
of
a similar kind.
With
a
simple con1bination
ofpure
Renaissance
fonns, they would
hardly
have succeeded in breaking the
111onotony
of
so vast a f:tyade
but with
the
help
of
statues urns
and
trophies
they produced
a certain
amount
of
variety. It is in buildings like these therefore
that one can
best
appreciate
the true function
and
purpose ofBaroque
forms.
Had
the
designers ofVersailles
been
a little
rnore daring
than
they
were,
and
used n1ore
unorthodox
means
of
articulating
and
grouping the
enormous
building they
might have been
even
more
successful.
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448 POWER ND G LORY :
29
1
Louis k n Jules
H ardouin M;msMt
The palace
ersailles
,
uearl nris, lli5s R2
Baroque
p:1lacl
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n
gnrdrus
n
·rsni les
441)
1
t·group to th ·
ri
ht is
)
or
he LJ.uco
f . l ~ t IO i
u
n
•
6
9
FRAN
C E,
GEIIMANY
AND
AUSTRIA
1 1
T
E SE VENTEENTH AN D Y
EIGIITHNTII
C:ENTlJIIIfS
It
was Oilly-
H th
e n
ex
t generati
on
that this lesson was
compl
etely
absorbed by the arc
hi
tects of the period. For the Roman churches and
French
castles of he Ba
roque
style fir
ed
the imagination of the age.
Every
minor
ptinceling in southern Germany
wa
nted to have his Versailles;
every sm all
mo n
astery in Austria or in Spain wanted to c
omp
ete with the
impressive splendour
ofBorromin
i s and Dernini
s
designs. The pe ri od
round about 17 is
one
of the greatest
pe
riods ofarchitect
ur
e; and not of
architec
tu r
e alone.
Th
ese cas
tl
es and church
es
w ere not simply planned
as
buildings - all the arts had to contribute to the effect ofa fantastic and
artificial world. Wh ole towns
were
used like stage settings, stretches
of
co un try were transfor
med int
o gardens, brooks into ca
sca
des. Arti
sts
were
given free rein to plan to their hearts content and to translate their mo st
wllikely visions
in t
o sto ne and gilt stucco. Often the mo ney ran out before
their plans became reality,
but what
was c
ompleted
of his outburst
of
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45
I OWER AND
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451
195
1
von
1hltlcb r:mdt
o\jOltl ll ll
1)1
cntzcnhof
er
\ o irmsr
rltr
cnsrlr
c ~ m m
e r s f e l d n
nuum
1
, t IJ
4
l-lt
iiNC
E,
M N Y
AN D
AUSTRIA
, LATE
S E V ~ N
A
Nil Ei\
1\L Y G
l T I ENTH CENTU
I\IES
ext
ravagant crea
tion
transfom1ed the face
of
many a
town
and landscape
of Catholic Europe. It was particularly in Austria, l3ohem.ia and southern
Germany that the ideas
of h
e Italian and Fr
ench
Baroque
were
fused
into the bold
es
t and most
co
nsistent style.
Figure 293
shows the palace
which
th
e Austrian architect, Luc
as
von
Hil
debrandt (1668
-1
745), built
in Vienna for Marlborough s ally, Prince Eugene ofSavoy. T he palace
stands on a hill, and seems to
hover
lightly over a terraced garden with
fcmntains and clipped hedges. Hildebrandt h
as
gro
up
ed it
cl
early into
seven different parts, rem.iniscent ofgarden pavilions: a
fiv
e-w indowed
centre-piece bulging forward, flanked by two wings
of
only slightly lesser
height, and this group in turn flanked by a lower part and four turret-like
corner pavilions, wh i
ch
fi·amc the whole building.
The
central pavilion
and the co rner-pieces arc the most richly decorated parts, and th e
building forms an intticate pattern, which is neverthele
ss
completely clear
and lucid in its outline.
Tlus
lucidity is n
ot at
all disturbed by the fi:eak ish
and
grotesque
ornament
that Hildebrandt employed in the details of the
deco ration, the pilasters tapeting
offdownward
s, the broken and scro
ll
y
pe
diment
s
over
the windows, and the statues and trophies
li
ning the roof.
lt is
on
ly when we e
nt
er the
building that w e feel the full
impact
of
this fantastic sty
le of
deco ra
tion. 1 igur 294
shows
the entrance hall
ofPtin
ce
Eugene s palace, and F ~ g u r e 295
a
sta ir
case ofa German castle
designed by llildebrandt. We
cannot
do ju
stice to these
in tetiors unl
ess
we visualize
them in usc - on a day when
the owner was givi ng a feast or
holding a reception, when the
lamps we re li t and men and
women
in
the gay and stately
fashions of the time arrived to
mount
the
se
stairs. At such a
moment
, the
co
ntrast
between
the dark, unlit streets of the
time, reek ing
of
dirt and
squalor, a
nd
the radiant fairy
wo rld
of
the nobleman s
dwelling must have been
ovetw hclming.
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45 POWER AND GLORY:
The buildings of the C hu rch made usc ofsimilar striking effects. Pigure
296 sh
ows
the Austrian monastery ofMclk , on th e D anu be. As
one
comes
do
wn
the
river, this monastery,
wi th
its
cu po l
a and i
ts
strangely shaped
tower
s
stands
on the
hill like some
unreal
a
pp
ari ti
on.
It was
bu
ilt
by
a local
builder
called Jakob
Prandtauer
(died 1726) and decorated by
some
of he
Italian travelling 11irtuosi who
were eve
r ready
with ne
w
id
eas
and
designs
from the vast store ofBaroqu e patterns. How we
ll
these humble artists
had
learnt
the difficult art ofgroup
in
g and organizing a
building to
give
the
appearance
of
stateliness
without mono
to
ny
The
y
were
also careful to
g
raduat
e
the decoration, and to
use
the more extravagant
forms sparingly,
but all the more effectively, in
the
par ts of the building they wanted to
throw in to relief.
In th e
in t
e rior, h
owever, they
cast offall restraint. E
ven
Berni ni or
Borromini
in
their
most exuberant moods would never
h
ave gone
quite
so fa
r. Once
more
we must
imagine w h
at
i t m
eant for
a simple
Aust
rian
pea sant to leave his rmhousc and en ter thi s strange wondcrland,fi
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454 POWER AND
GLOil
V:
I I
envelops you and stops all qu
es
tioning. You feel you are in a world where
our
rules
and
standards simply do not apply.
One can understand that north of he Alps, no less than in Italy, the
individual arts were swe
pt
into this orgy of decoration and lost much of
their independent importance.
Th
ere were of course, painters and
sc
ulptor
s
of
distinction in
the
period
round
about
1700
but
perhaps there
was onJy one master whose art
com
pares with the great leading painters
of the first halfof the seventeenth cen
tur
y. Tllis master was Antoine
Watteau
1684- 1721 ).
Watteau came from a part of Flanders which had
been conquered by France a few years before his birth, and he settled in
Paris,
where
he died
at the
age
of hir
ty-seven. H e,
too
, designed int
erior
decorations for the cas tles of he nobility, to provide the appropriate
background
for the festivals and pageant ies
of
court society. l3ut it
would
seem as if he actual festivities had
not
satisfied the imagination of the artist.
H e began to paint his own visions ofa life divorced from all hardship and
triviality, a drea
m-lif
e
of
gay picnics in fairy parks where it never rains, of
musical parties where all ladies are beautiful and all lovers graceful, a society
in wh ich all are dressed in sparkling silk
without
looking showy, and
where the life of he shepherds and sheph erdesses seems to be a succession
of
nlinuets. From such a description one
might
get the impression that the
9R
Antoine Wattcau
Fetr ;
pMk
c. 9
Oil
un canvas. 27 6 X
93
l l l
so\ 4 ) 76 in;
Wallace
oll
ect
io
n
Lontlou
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455
G
ERMANY
AND A U STRIA LATE S V ~ N A N D EARLY
EIGIHU
UNT H
C:
t
N
I
Art
uuder roynl
pnrrounge: Louis X
1/
s tiug
th
e oynl
Gobeliu
s Fnao
ry ill
667
Tap
es
t
ry
Mm c de
Vcnailles
art ofWatteau is over-prec
iou
s a
nd
artificia
l.
For many, it has
co
me to
reflect
the
taste of he French aristocracy of the early eighteenth century
which
is known as Rococo: the fashi
on
for dainty col
ou
rs and delicate
d
eco
ration which succee
ded
th
e
mo r
e robust taste of the Baroque period,
a
nd
w
hi
ch
ex
pr
essed
it
s
elf
n gay fi-ivolity.
But
Watteau was far
too
great an
artist to be a mere
exponen
t of he f shions ofh is time. Rather it was he
w
ho se dr
eams and ideals helped to
mould
the
fas
hion
we
call Rococo.
Just
as Va nDyck had helped
to
create the idea of the gentlemanly case we
associate with the Cavaliers, pag
e 405 Jigure
262 so Wattcau has emiched
our
store
of m
aginat
ion
by his vision
of
grace
ful
gallantry.
Figure 298 shows his picture ofa gatheting in a park.
Th
ere
is
nothing of
the noisy gaiety of an Steen s revelries, page 428 _/igure 278 in tllis scene ; a
sweet and almost melancholy calm prevails. These young men and
wo
men
just sit and dream, play with flo wers or gaze at each other. Th e light dances
on their shimmering dresses, and trans
fi
gures the
co
pse i
nt
o an
ear
thly
paradise.
The
qualities o
fWatteau
s
art, the delicacy
ofhis
brush
wo
rk
and the refinem
ent
of his c
olour harm
onies are n
ot
easily revealed in
reproductions. His inunensely sensitive paintings and drawings mu st really
be seen and enjoyed in the originaL Like Rubens, w hom he admired,
Watt
ea
u
co
uld
co
nvey the impression ofliving, palpitating flesh through
a mere w hiff
of
chalk or
co
lour.
But
the
moo
d
ofllis
studies is
as
diff
eren
t
from Rubens s
as
his paintings are from j an Steen s.
Th
ere is a touch of
sa
dn
ess in these visions
ofbe
auty wllich
is
difficult to describe or define ,
but w
hi
ch li fts Watteau s art beyond
th
e sphere of me re sk ill an d prettiness .
Watteau was a sick man, who died of consumption at an early age. Per
hap
s
it was his awareness
of
the transi
ence of
bea
ut
y w
hi
ch gave to Ius art that
intensity which no ne of his many adnlirers and imitators could equaL