Baroque Painting Style and Key Artists
Baroque Painting Characteristics
New genres developed, such as:
- Still lifes
- Landscapes
- Portraits
- Vanitas
- Genre paintings
- Custom scenes
The iconography of religious subjects was enriched. A trend emerged combining realism with theatrical and ‘efectista’ (dramatic/striking) qualities.
Color, light, and movement are the defining elements of the pictorial form. Color predominates over line. Effects of depth, perspective, and volume are achieved more through contrasts of light and shades of color than with crisp, taut lines of drawing.
Light becomes a key element in Baroque painting. Light draws or blurs contours, defines the atmosphere and mood of the painting, and shapes colors and nuances. The technique of chiaroscuro was perfected by many Baroque painters.
An impression of movement was intended. Complicated compositions and unusual perspectives are used, with volumes distributed asymmetrically. The dynamics of space, the vision of scenes in depth, the structure of compositions using diagonals, and the distribution of patches of light and color shape space dynamically. Contours are diluted, and figures lose individual relevance against the unity of the scene.
Complete mastery of painting technique was achieved in both oil painting on canvas and in fresco. This allowed for great realism in pictorial representation. A theorized imitation of reality was achieved, distinct from the Renaissance idealization and the conception of the previous century.
Caravaggio: Master of Tenebrism
Caravaggio emerged from Roman Mannerism but rejected its containment and balance due to his passionate and unstable character. He identified with the values of Counter-Reformation art: emotions and the feelings of ordinary people, who became protagonists in his work. He was admired by religious orders because his painting captured the standards set by the Council of Trent.
Technique:
- Sought impact
- Few characters
- Close-ups
- Agitated gestural dynamism
- Focal, dramatic light that ‘rips’ through the composition
- Foreshortened diagonals draw us into the picture
- Sharply contrasting colors, vibrant, intense, very bright in the main subject, blurring and obscuring the rest
Religious subjects included the Passion of Christ, saints, and martyrs. He also painted still lifes (bodegon).
Periods of development:
- Mannerist (portraits, Bacchus)
- Works for religious orders
- ‘Death of the Virgin’ (from this point, he had problems with assignments and had to flee Rome)
He was a master of tenebrism (darkness).
Rubens: Flemish Baroque Master
He was the most popular painter of the Flemish school, treating all sorts of subjects:
- Religious scenes
- Rich historical scenes
- Classical mythology
- Music
- Hunting scenes
- Portraits
- Book illustrations
- Designs for tapestries
He produced around 3000 pictures. Some left his workshops, where, apparently, work was done in a chain. They were painted by him and his disciples.
His values are vitalism, sensuality, excess, pleasure, and overflow. His work includes exaltatory painting and propaganda.
Self-portraits:
- One as a young, self-confident, successful man showing strength and power
- Another as an older man with a skeptical face, lacking force