Baroque

1600-1750
Religious tensions with Western Christianity
o Roman Catholicism vs. Protestantism
Both doctrinally correct and visually/emotionally appealing
Dramatic, selective illumination of figures out of deep shadows
o Contrast with light for dramatic effect
Emphasized realism of everyday life
Reflects the growth of absolutist monarchies
Sense of movement, energy, tension
Caravaggio
o Radial naturalism
o Dramatic, theatrical approach to chiaroscuro
o Begins modern painting
Velzquez
o Portrait artist, Court artist
Vermeer
o Mostly painted domestic interiors
o Master of composition and in the representation of space
Ter Borch
o Charmingly realistic portraits and small, intimate genre scenes

List of Works:
1. Caravaggio, The Calling of St. Matthew, 1599-1600
a. Marked by mystery, not by the clarity sought by CounterReformation guidelines.
b. Subject of conversion. Viewers encountering the painting obliquely
across the empty space of the chapel interior seem to be
witnessing the scene as it is occurring, elevated on a recessed
stage opening through the wall before them.
c. Simple and direct telling of the story.
d. Momentary drama that reduces and simplifies.
e. Power of art to engage.
2. Caravaggio, The Conversion of St. Paul, 1601
a. Focuses on Paul's internal involvement with a pivotal moment, not
its external cause.

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b. No clear physical setting, only mysterious darkness.

c. Light = important, tells the story.
d. Descriptive and ordinary representation of Christian art.
Velzquez, Water Carrier of Seville, c. 1619
a. A study of surfaces and textures of the splendid ceramic pots that
characterized folk art through the centuries.
b. Elements of painting arranged with almost mathematical rigor.
c. Objects and figures allow the artist to exhibit his virtuosity in
rendering sculptural volumes and describing contrasting textures
illuminated by dramatic natural light.
d. What it means to find water in a hot place.
e. Leaves viewer with interpretive dilemma.
Bernini, Baldacchino, 11624-33
a. Exemplifies the Baroque objective to create multimedia work,
combining architecture and sculpture that defy categorization.
b. Gigantic corners symbolize the union of Christianity and its Jewish
tradition.
c. Theatrical gestures.
Velzquez, The Surrender at Breda, 1634-35
a. Treats theme of triumph and conquest in an entirely new way--far
removed from traditional gloating military propaganda.
b. Took liberties with historical fact to create a work of art that
embodied an idealized rendering of the meaning of the surrender to
his Spanish patron.
c. Displays his ability to arrange a large number of figures and tell a
story effectively.
d. Revealed a breadth and intensity unsurpassed in his century, and
became an inspiration to modern artists such as Manet and
Picasso.
e. Considered best historical work in West European painting.
Poussin, Landscape with St. Matthew and the Angel, 1639-40
a. Epitomize new style of rigorously ordered and highly idealized
Classical landscapes with figures, invented.
b. Subject of painting is the balance and order of nature.
c. Creates perfect/ideal world.
i. Static, balanced, geometric.
d. Small subject is ambiguous, realizes worldly and largeness.

e. Baroque, Neoclassicism.
f. Refers to a more general past.
i. Narrative is only a minor part.
7. De La Tour, Mary Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, c. 1640
a. Light emanates from a source within the picture itself.
b. Compression of the figure into the front of the pictorial space lends
a sense of intimacy to the saint's relationship with viewers, although
the Magdalen is completely unaware of our presence.
c. Light not only unifies the painting; it creates its somber mood.
d. Mary Magdalen has put aside her rich clothing and jewels and
meditates on the frailty and vanity of human life.
e. Even the flickering light that rivets our attention on her meditative
face and gesture is of limited duration.
8. Bernini, St. Teresa of vila in Ecstasy, 1645-52
a. Dramatic scene represents a famous vision described with startling
physical clarity by Teresa, in which an angel pierced her body
repeatedly with an arrow, transporting her to a state of ecstatic
oneness with God.
b. Example of the emotional and theatrical style of Bernini in response
to the religious and political climate in Rome during the period of
spiritual renewal known as the Counter-Reformation.
c. Art became an instrument of propaganda and also a means of
leading the spectator to a reinvigorated Christian practice and
belief.
i. Dynamic and drastic--goal of the Church
d. Multimedia effect.
9. Velzquez, Las Meninas, 1656
a. Draws viewer into the scene.
b. Painter is present, brushes in hand, beside a huge canvas.
c. Personal statement of dignity and importance of painting itself.
i. Allegory of painting.
d. Brushwork becomes abstract, lack of lines and shapes lets it
breathe.
10. Ter Borch, The Suitors Visit
a. One of the most refined genre painters.
b. Appears to represent a prosperous gentleman paying a call on a
lady of equal social status, possibly a courtship scene.

c. The spaniel and stringed instruments symbolize the harmony of

souls, and thus a possibly loving relationship.
i. Or, could represent a liaison, with a sexual interpretation of
the dog and instruments.
d. Exquisite rendition of lace, velvet, and satin can be seen as a
symbol of excess.
11. Le Vau and Le Ntre, Plan of the Gardens of the Palace of Versailles,
1661-1785
a. Imposed order upon the vast expanses of palace gardens and park
by using broad, straight avenues radiating from a series of round
focal points.
b. Formal gardens became an exercise in precise geometry.
c. Classically harmonious in their symmetrical, geometric design but
Baroque in their vast size and extension into the surrounding
countryside, where the gardens thickened into woods cut by
straight avenues.
d. Image of geographic and territorial control.
12. Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, c. 1664
a. Perfect equilibrium creates a monumental composition and a
moment of supreme stillness.
b. Juxtaposition between scale and painting of Last Judgment turns
scene into a metaphor for eternal judgment, a sobering religious
reference that reflects the artist's own position as a Catholic living in
a Protestant country.
c. Shimmering, reflective light from the window evokes the vanitas
theme of the transience of earthly life, allowing the painter to
comment on the ephemeral quality of material things.
13. Le Vau and Hardouin-Mansart, Garden Faade of the Palace of Versailles,
1678-85
a. Overall design is a sensitive balance of horizontals and verticals
relieved by a restrained overlay of regularly spaced projecting
blocks with open, colonnaded porches.
b. More classicized, grander and longer.
14. Rigaud, Louis XIV, 1701
a. Despite his pompous pose and magnificent surroundings, the
directness of the king's gaze and the frankness of his aging face
make him appear surprisingly human.

b. Memorialized important political alliances by recording them in

visual form. Elaborate details and trappings of luxury.
c. Much more interested in costume/ceremony, king who owns signs
of privilege effortlessly.
d. Ambition to make spaces extension of himself.

Rococo

1700-1760
Visual representation of optimism felt
Purely ornamental, light, casual, and irregularly designed
Climax and fall of Baroque art
o Reaction against grand manner of art and rigidity
Artificial, make-believe, game-playing
o Art of the aristocracy
Unreflective and indulgent
Pastel colors, delicate curving forms, lighthearted mood
Watteau
o Spurred interest in color and movement
o Forerunner of 19th c. Impressionism
Fragonard
o Veiled eroticism
o hedonism

List of Works:
1. Watteau, Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera, 1717
a. Portrayed an imaginary idyllic and sensual life of Rococo aristocrats
but with the same melancholic undertone that hints at the fleeting
quality of human happiness.
b. Created new category in the academy--elegant outdoor
entertainment. Aristocratic leisurely pursuits.
c. Hidden viewpoints, odd balance.
d. Natural nature of the body.
2. Watteau, The Signboard of Gersaint, c. 1721
a. Painted for new urban aristocrats who frequently purchased
paintings for their homes through art dealers in the city.
b. Depicts ideal gallery visited by elegant and cultivated patrons.
c. Shoplifter's paradise.
d. Growing commercialization of art is becoming topic of art itself.
e. Sensuality of the body.
f. Painted more for urban elite.
3. Fragonard, The Swing, 1766

a. Intended to be sensually explicit. Image that bursts with anticipation

and desire, but also maintains a sense of humor.
b. Elements suggest transience.
c. Reminders of mortality and allegorical figure of Fame.
d. Symbols of the fragility of human life.
e. Men are implicated in the vanitas theme.

Romanticism

1790-1850
Revulsion against established values (social order, religion)
Exalter individualism, subjectivism, irrationalism, imagination, emotions
and senses over intellect.
Product of Christianity
Corresponds to rapid, dynamic social changes during French Rev. and
Napoleonic era.

List of Works:
1. Vige-Lebrun, Portrait of Marie Antoinette With Her Children, 1787
a. Drawing on the theme of "good mother," Vige-Lebrun portrays the
queen as a kindly, stabilizing mother to try to counter public
perceptions of her as selfish, extravagant, and immoral.
b. The queen maintains her regal pose, as is appropriate, but her
children are depicted more sympathetically.
c. Alludes to the allegory of Abundance and is intended to assure
peace and prosperity for France under the reign of her husband,
Louis XVI, who came to the throne in 1774 but was executed, as
was she, in 1772 during the Reign of Terror.
d. Humble, less grandiose.
2. Gros, Napoleon in the Plague House at Jaffa, 1804
a. Overall effect is Romantic, not simply because of the dramatic
lighting and the wealth of details, both exotic and horrific, but also
because the main action is meant to incite veneration of Napoleon
the man more than republic virtue.
b. Trying to boost soldiers' morale during Egypt campaign.
c. Christian overtones. C
d. omplicated history painting, heroic but also racial/ethical
ambiguities.
3. Ingres, Large Odalisque, 1814
a. Exoticized version of a female slave or concubine in a sultan's
harem.
b. Reveals calculated eroticism.
i. She is fantasy of a white slave.

c. Commitment to academic line and formal structure was grounded in

his Neoclassical training, but his fluid, attenuated female nudes are
much more in the Romantic tradition.
d. Form and body are more malleable and extended.
e. Idealized in an aesthetic particularity.
4. Gricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-19
a. Moment in the story is fraught with emotion, as the survivors on the
raft experience both fear that the distant ship might pass them by
and the hope that they will be rescued. Sensationalist and topical,
yet conforms to academy rules in every other way.
b. Powerful composition, pyramid of bodies.
c. Suggests metaphorically that freedom is often dependent on the
most oppressed members of society.
d. Athletic bodies like Michelangelo chosen to generalize and ennoble
his subject, elevating it above the particulars of a specific shipwreck
in the hope that it would speak to more fundamental human
conflicts: humanity against nature, hope against despair, and life
against death.
e. Story is a political referendum on the new monarch/aristocratic
regime.
f. Walks fine line between natural event and beauty.
5. Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People: July 28, 1830, 1830
a. Depicts contemporary heroes and victims engaged in the violent
struggles of the times.
b. Encapsulated the history of France after the fall of Napoleon.
i. Memorialized the revolution just a few months after it took
place.
ii. Reports significant events, but departs from facts in ways
appropriate to the intended message.
c. Literally placed a Classical allegorical figure in the thick of the
battle, replete with a contemporary weapon and Phrygian cap.
d. Presents the event as an emotionally charged moment, full of
passion, turmoil, and danger.
e. Moment just before the ultimate sacrifice, as the revolutionaries
charge the barricades to near-certain death, making this a dramatic
example of Romanticism.
f. New emergence of Revolutionary spirit in France.

g. Complicated take on political heroism.

h. Individual is as important as the collective, introspective, emotive.

Neoclassicism

1790-1850

List of Works:
1. Soufflot, The Panthon, 1775-92
a. Classicism considered the single, true style.
b. Attempted to integrate traditions: the Roman architecture he had
seen on two trips to Italy; French and English Baroque Classicism;
and the Palladian style being revived at the time in England.
c. Conveyed severity and powerful simplicity.
2. David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784-85
a. Based on ancient Roman historical texts.
b. Emotional intensity of this history painting pushed French academy
rules on decorum to the limit.
c. Quickly and ironically became an emblem of the 1789 French
Revolution.
i. Its message of patriotism and sacrifice for the greater good
effectively captured the mood of the leaders of the new
French Republic established in 1792.
ii. Prefigures the ethical problems of the Revolution.
d. Balance between male and female domain.
e. Tranquil background.
i. Emphasis of subject over landscape.
f. Legible and theatrical, very temporary.
3. David, Death of Marat, 1793
a. Avoids the potential for sensationalism in the subject by portraying
the tragic aftermath: the dead Marat slumped in his bathtub, his
right hand still holding a quill pen, while his left hand grasps the
letter that Corday used to gain access to his home.
b. Tightly composed, powerfully stark image.
c. Blank and undifferentiated background adds to the quiet mood of
the piece.
d. Transforms an ugly, brutal scene into one of somber eloquence.
e. Marat's pose, which echoes the Pieta implies that, like Christ, Marat
was a martyr for the people.
f. Memorializes the present--makes current political history.

4. David, Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard, 1800-01

a. Glorification of Napoleon.
b. Represented in the Grand Manner, with David using artistic license
to imagine how Napoleon might have appeared as he led his troops
over the Alps into Italy.
c. Cape conveys energy, impulse, and power.
d. Portrays him as "Hannibal."
e. Fusion of present and past to produce allegories.
f. Insinuates obstacles to overcome.
g. David's Classicism is politically elastic.