School Encyclopedia. Baroque

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Baroque (Italian barocco - “bizarre”, “strange”, “prone to excesses”, port. pérola barroca (literally “pearl with vice”); there are other assumptions about the origin of this word) - characteristic European culture XVII-XVIII centuries, the center of which was Italy. The Baroque style appeared in the late Renaissance, at the end of the XVI - early XVII centuries in Italian cities: Rome, Mantua, Venice, Florence. The Baroque era is considered to be the beginning of the triumphal procession of "Western civilization". Baroque opposed classicism and rationalism.

One of the first monographs on the Baroque was Wölfflin's Renaissance and Baroque (German: Renaissance und Barock, 1888). Baroque occupied the period between the Renaissance and Classicism, and in its later version it was called Rococo. Wölfflin calls picturesqueness and passion as characteristic features of Baroque. Dvořák singled out Mannerism from the early Baroque. Subsequently, Panofsky outlined a tendency to see in the Baroque not an antithesis, but a continuation of the Renaissance.

In the XVI century, Italy - the first link in the art of the Renaissance - lost its economic and political power. Foreigners - the Spaniards and the French - begin to manage on the territory of Italy, they dictate the terms of politics, etc. Exhausted Italy has not lost the height of its cultural positions - it remains cultural center Europe. The center of the Catholic world is Rome, it is rich in spiritual powers.

Power in culture manifested itself in adapting to new conditions - the nobility and the church need everyone to see their strength and viability, but since there was no money for the construction of the palazzo, the nobility turned to art to create the illusion of power and wealth. A style that can elevate them becomes popular. This is how Baroque appeared in Italy at the end of the 16th century.

The origin of the word baroque is more controversial than the names of all other styles. There are several versions of the origin. Portuguese barroco - an irregularly shaped pearl that does not have an axis of rotation, such pearls were popular in the 17th century. In Italian baroco - a false syllogism, an Asian form of logic, a sophistry technique based on metaphor. Like pearls of irregular shape, baroque syllogisms, the falsity of which was hidden by their metaphor.

The use of the term by critics and art historians dates back to the 2nd half of the 18th century and refers, at first, to figurative art and, consequently, also to literature. Initially, the term acquired a negative connotation. Ernst Gombrich wrote: “The word “baroque”, meaning “bizarre”, “absurd”, “strange”, also arose later as a caustic mockery, like a bogey in the struggle against the style of the 17th century. This label was used by those who considered arbitrary combinations of classical forms in architecture unacceptable. With the word "baroque" they branded willful deviations from the strict norms of the classics, which for them was tantamount to bad taste. It was only at the end of the 19th century that the re-evaluation of the Baroque took place, thanks to the European cultural context from Impressionism to Symbolism, which highlights the links with the Baroque era.

One controversial theory suggests that all of these European words come from the Latin bis-roca, twisted stone. Another theory is from the Latin verruca, a steep high place, a defect in a gemstone.

In different contexts, the word baroque could mean “pretentiousness”, “unnaturalness”, “insincerity”, “eliteness”, “deformity”, “exaggerated emotionality”. All these shades of the word baroque in most cases were not perceived as negative.

Finally, another theory suggests that this word in all the languages ​​mentioned is parodic from the point of view of linguistics, and its word formation can be explained by its meaning: unusual, unnatural, ambiguous and deceptive.

The ambiguity of the Baroque style is explained by its origin. According to some researchers, it was borrowed from the architecture of the Seljuk Turks.

Baroque is characterized by contrast, tension, dynamic images, affectation, striving for grandeur and pomp, for combining reality and illusion, for the fusion of arts (urban and palace and park ensembles, opera, cult music, oratorio); at the same time - a tendency towards autonomy of individual genres (concerto grosso, sonata, suite in instrumental music). The ideological foundations of the style were formed as a result of a shock, which for the 16th century was the Reformation and the teachings of Copernicus. The notion of the world, established in antiquity, as a rational and permanent unity, as well as the Renaissance idea of ​​man as a most rational being, has changed. According to Pascal, a person began to realize himself "something in between everything and nothing", "one who catches only the appearance of phenomena, but is not able to understand either their beginning or their end."

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Nicknamed Caravaggio, considered the most significant master among Italian artists who created at the end of the 16th century. a new style in painting. His paintings, painted on religious subjects, resemble realistic scenes of the author's contemporary life, creating a contrast between late antiquity and modern times. The heroes are depicted in twilight, from which the rays of light snatch out the expressive gestures of the characters, contrastingly writing out their specificity. The followers and imitators of Caravaggio, who were at first called caravaggists, and the current itself caravaggism, adopted the riot of feelings and the characteristic manner of Caravaggio, as well as his naturalism in depicting people and events. Bologna academicism, opposed to Caravaggism, was represented by Annibale Carracci and Guido Reni.

IN Italian painting baroque eras developed different genres, but mostly they were allegories, a mythological genre. Pietro da Cortona, Andrea del Pozzo, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and the Carracci brothers succeeded in this direction. became famous Venetian school, where the genre of veduta, or urban landscape, gained great popularity. The most celebrated author of such works is D. A. Canaletto. No less famous are Francesco Guardi and Bernardo Bellotto. Canaletto and Guardi painted views of Venice, while Bellotto (a student of Canaletto) worked in Germany. He owns many views of Dresden and other places. Salvator Rosa (Neapolitan school) and Alessandro Magnasco painted fantastic landscapes. Architectural views belong to the latter, and it is very close to it. french artist Hubert Robert, who worked at a time when interest flared up in antiquity, in Roman ruins. In their works ruins, arches, colonnades, ancient temples are presented, but in a somewhat fantastic form, with exaggerations. Heroic canvases were painted by Domenichino, and picturesque parables by Domenico Fetti.

In France

In France, baroque features are inherent in the ceremonial portraits of Iasent Rigaud. His most famous work is the portrait of Louis XIV. The work of Simon Vouet and Charles Lebrun, court painters who worked in the genre of ceremonial portrait, is characterized as "baroque classicism". The real transformation of baroque into classicism is observed in the canvases of Nicolas Poussin.

In Spain

A more rigid, strict embodiment was given to the Baroque style in Spain, embodied in the works of such masters as Velasquez, Ribera and Zurbaran. They adhered to the principles of realism. By that time, Spain was experiencing its "Golden Age" in art, while being in economic and political decline.

The art of Spain is characterized by decorativeness, capriciousness, sophistication of forms, the dualism of the ideal and the real, the bodily and the ascetic, piling up and stinginess, the sublime and the ridiculous. Representatives include:

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See what "Baroque in painting" is in other dictionaries:

- (Italian barocco “vicious”, “loose”, “excessive”, port. perola barroca “irregular pearl” (literally “pearl with vice”); there are other assumptions about the origin of this word) ... ... Wikipedia

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- (presumably: from the Portuguese perola barroca a pearl of a bizarre shape or from the Latin baroco a mnemonic designation of one of the types of syllogism in scholastic logic) the dominant style in European art late 16th mid 18th centuries Big soviet encyclopedia

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IN different time different meanings were put into the term "baroque". At first, it had an offensive connotation, implying absurdity, absurdity (perhaps it goes back to the Portuguese word for an ugly pearl). This style dominated European art between Mannerism and Rococo, that is, from about 1600 to the beginning of the 18th century. Baroque inherited dynamism and deep emotionality from Mannerism, and solidity and pomp from the Renaissance: the features of both styles harmoniously merged into one single whole.

Baroque art is characterized by bold contrasts of scale, light and shadow, color, a combination of reality and fantasy. Particularly noteworthy is the Baroque fusion various arts in a single ensemble, a greater degree of interpenetration of architecture, sculpture, painting and decorative arts. This desire for a synthesis of the arts is a fundamental feature of the Baroque.

Baroque painting is characterized by dynamism, “flatness” and pomp of forms, the most characteristic features of the Baroque are catchy flamboyance and dynamism. The contradictory combination of heightened emotionality, sensuality with lush decorativeness gives the works of the Baroque masters a theatrical spectacle.

The painting was dominated by monumental decorative compositions on religious or mythological themes, ceremonial portraits designed to decorate interiors.
A religious composition typical of the Baroque shows saints or the Madonna surrounded by angels in a whirlwind of billowing draperies and curling clouds. Scenes from classical mythology, popular in this era, were portrayed in an equally exaggerated manner. Not all Baroque art was, however, opulent and radiant - the dark drama of artists like Caravaggio also belongs to this style.

"Look at this face; it is art
Carelessly depicted on canvas
Like an echo of an unearthly thought,
Not quite dead, not quite alive..."
M.Yu. Lermontov. "Portrait".
The new style, established by the end of the 16th century in the art of Europe, and called Baroque(Italian barocco - strange, bizarre), characterized by splendor, grandiosity, reaching pomposity, an abundance of external effects and details, decorativeness and "splendor" of forms. This was already reflected in the work of the one I mentioned earlier (in the part "Late Renaissance") Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio(1571-1610), whom art critics often classify as different styles, including the Baroque, as its largest representative, the founder of realism in painting.

It is believed that it was he who first applied in his work the technique used in color woodcuts - "chiaroscuro" (Italian - chiaroscuro) - the technique of "distributing colors of different brightness or shades of the same color, allowing you to perceive the depicted object as voluminous." In the language of art history there is even the term "caravagism" - the style of the Baroque era, which is characterized by the technique of "chiaroscuro" and emphasized realism.

Features of the Baroque style, as a propagandist, actively capturing the viewer, are usually associated with the strengthening of absolutist monarchies, with the Counter-Reformation, and therefore it has its own pronounced national characteristics V different countries Europe. In Holland, for example, where Protestantism is widespread and the Italian influence was not so strong, the Baroque has a more modest expression, it has more intimacy and less splendor (if the portraits are not made by order of high-ranking nobles), but a very life-affirming beginning. The pinnacle of the development of art in the 17th century Holland creativity is definitely Rembrandt van Rijn(1606-1669), painter, master of drawing and etching, unsurpassed portrait painter.

If in group portraits, which were widespread in Holland, and in custom-made portraits of nobles, the artist carefully conveyed facial features, clothes, jewelry, then in self-portraits and portraits of people close to him, Rembrandt deviated from artistic canons and experimented in search of psychological expressiveness, used a free manner of painting , colorful range and play of chiaroscuro.

I wrote about his relationship with the Jewish community of Amsterdam and numerous portraits of Jewish sages, old people and children (), here I will give one of those portraits, which is a pearl of world painting.

Rembrandt is attracted by images ordinary people, old people, women and children, more and more often he focuses on the face and hands snatched out of the darkness by soft diffused light, the hot red-brown palette enhances emotional expressiveness, warming them with a warm human feeling.

The influence of Rembrandt's work not only on the Dutch, but also on world art huge. His unsurpassed skill, humanism and democracy, interest in man, his experiences and inner world had an impact on the subsequent development of all realistic art.
A student and follower of Rembrandt, who lived short life, but managed to leave his mark on art, Karel Fabricius (1622-1654)

deeply assimilated the creative method of the great teacher, but retained his free style of writing, colder colors and the original technique of highlighting dark figures of the foreground against a light background full of air. It can be said that Fabricius was the most brilliant of Rembrandt's students, but he changed the teacher's manner of writing light on a dark background and instead painted dark objects on a light one. He tragically died in a gunpowder depot explosion in Delft while working on one of his portraits.
Now it's your turn creative manner Fabricius influenced Jan Vermeer of Delft (1632–1675).
"Pearl, flash, drama and quintessence of the "golden Dutch age". Short-lived, little written, late discovered..." (Loseva.http://www.aif.ru/culture/person/1012671)

Most of his works can rather be called genre scenes, but their essence is generalized genre portraits, in which special attention is paid to state of mind characters, the general lyrical mood of the whole scene, the careful writing out of details, the use of natural light, the lively expressiveness of the entire composition.

Many of his works depict women at various household chores, he had the opportunity to observe his own wife, constantly busy at home and raising their many children (she gave birth to 15 children, of whom four died). Usually the action in his genre portraits takes place at the window, the images of women are full of charm and peace, and the play of shades and colorful highlights inspire the world of people and give them inner significance.

Vermeer's work was not appreciated during his lifetime and was almost forgotten until the second half of the 19th century.
Another outstanding Dutch artist who worked in Haarlem (Amsterdam) and became famous in the second half of his life as a brilliant portrait painter was Frans Hals(Hals, between 1581 and 1583-1666). He "radically reformed the group portrait, breaking with conventional systems of composition, introducing elements life situations, providing a direct link between the picture and the viewer "(Sedova T.A. "Frans Hals". Great Soviet Encyclopedia)

In the work of Khals one can see almost all representatives of society - from wealthy citizens and senior officers to the social lower classes, portrayed by the artist as ordinary living people, embodying an inexhaustible vital energy people.

Often his portraits give the impression of a snatched and instantly fixed life moment, so they reproduce the living naturalness and unique individuality of their models, sometimes even unexpectedly resembling the style of the Impressionists.

This picture is most likely not a portrait in the proper sense of the word, but an allegory that speaks of the inevitability of death and the transience of life, but it is so alive, it conveys movement through the gesture of an outstretched hand, which creates the complete impression of a portrait of a particular young man. Hals became famous for his energetic style of writing, using rapid brushwork to capture fleeting, momentary gestures and facial expressions. The later works of Hals are made in a mean color scheme built on contrasts of black and white tones. Van Gogh said that Hals had "27 shades of black".
A few words about another cheerful and witty Dutch painter who painted mostly genre scenes, many of which can be considered genre portraits. Jan Steen(circa 1626-1679) depicted scenes from the life of the middle class, describing them with coarse folk humor, sometimes even reaching satire, but always good-natured and masterfully executed.

Heyday Flemish baroque falls on the 1st floor. XVII century, its outstanding representative is the great Peter Paul Rubens(1577-1640), painter, graphic artist, architect-decorator, designer of theatrical performances, a talented diplomat who spoke several languages, a humanist scientist. He devoted himself to painting early, visited Italy in his youth and adopted in many ways the manner of Caravaggio, but retained a love for national artistic traditions.

Rubens painted a large number of ceremonial portraits commissioned by the European aristocracy, including royalty, but even in them, with exceptional skill and sensual persuasiveness, he recreated the physical appearance and character traits of the model. But especially virtuoso, lyrical, written with big love and sincerity intimate portraits of people close to him.

Interesting are the works in which the search for the artist is visible, the desire to convey different poses, emotions, facial expressions, to achieve exceptional mastery in the transfer of the finest gradations of light and color, in the richness of colorful shades, sustained in an emotionally rich brown range.

The work of Rubens had a huge impact on the development European painting, especially the Flemish, and above all on its
students who formed a whole school of followers, of which the most talented was by far his assistant Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641).

Having adopted the "juicy" painting style of Rubens, already in his youth he turned to the portrait, giving the heroes of his paintings a more refined, more elegant, more spiritual and noble appearance. At the same time, he painted many ceremonial portraits, including equestrian ones, in which he paid great attention to posture, posture, gestures, he managed to combine in a ceremonial portrait "the solemn representativeness of the image with an individual psychological characteristic."

Van Dyck spent the last 10 years of his life in England at the court of King Charles I among aristocrats, courtiers and members of their families. It is interesting to watch how the artist's palette changes, becoming instead of a warm and lively reddish-brown, more and more cold bluish-silver.

The work of Van Dyck, the types of aristocratic intellectual portrait developed and brought to perfection by him later had a great influence on the development of English portraiture.
Another outstanding artist Flemish school Jacob Jordaens(1593-1678) reflected in his work the characteristic features of the Flemish baroque - a fresh, bright, sensual perception of life, joyful optimism, the bodies of his models breathe health, their movements are impetuous, powerful figures, in general, power and internal energy are more important for the artist than beauty and grace .

Jordanes wrote very quickly, his legacy is great, although less than that of Rubens - about 700 paintings in almost all museums in the world. He loved large paintings, and even preferred to make portraits in accordance with the growth of a person, with great realism, without hiding the flaws of faces and figures.

And although he did not achieve significant recognition as a portrait painter, he was well able to display characters, was an observant artist and left us numerous testimonies of his era, a whole gallery of characteristic folk types.
"Golden Age" Spanish painting is the 17th century, the flowering of painting did not coincide with the period of the highest economic and political power of Spain and came a little later. Reactive internal and foreign policy Spanish kings, ruinous wars, constant religious persecution, the weakness of the bourgeoisie led Spain to lose its power by the end of the 16th century. For Spanish art was characterized by the predominance of traditions not classical, but medieval, Gothic, as well as the great influence of Moorish art in connection with the centuries-old domination of the Arabs in Spain. The most famous painter of the Spanish Baroque was Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez (1599-1660).

It is interesting that Velasquez, the most typical Spaniard, who was born in a family of Portuguese Jews who converted to Christianity, has almost no works on religious subjects, and those that he chooses are interpreted by him as genre scenes. His portraiture was greatly influenced by life at the royal court, she taught him to reveal the depths of the human character, hiding under the mask of cold etiquette, the richness of clothes, the splendor of poses, clothes, horses and landscape.

With great warmth, sympathy and impartiality, the artist painted a whole series of portraits of court jesters and dwarfs, here the features of his creative method- a deep comprehension of life in all its richness and inconsistency of its manifestations.

One of recent works Velasquez - "Las Meninas" - in fact is group portrait. Standing at the easel, the artist himself (and this is the only reliable self-portrait of Velasquez) paints the king and queen, whose reflection the audience sees in the mirror. On foreground Infanta Margherita is depicted, the artist placed the figure of the chancellor in the doorway of the chamber. In the picture, everything is permeated with air, modeled with a thousand different color shades, strokes of different directions, density, size and shape.

The influence of Velasquez on all subsequent Spanish and world art is enormous, he inspired generations of artists, from romantics to Cezanne and Matisse.
Another artist who left his mark on the art of the Spanish Baroque era is Francisco Zurbaran(1598-ca. 1664), comes from a peasant family with deep religious foundations. Therefore, his work is mostly based on religious subjects, among his works there are many images of saints, prophets, monks and priests, he writes a lot for temples and monasteries. Sometimes in religious subjects he depicts his friends, acquaintances or even himself in the form of saints or biblical heroes.

In the middle of the 17th century, changes were taking place in Spanish Baroque painting, which the aging Zurbaran could no longer match, he began to lose his popularity and actually died in poverty.
The changes in Spanish painting mentioned above occur as a result of the influence of creativity. Bartolome Esteban Murillo(1618-1682), one of the greatest painters of religious themes, in whose paintings the canonical subjects are, as it were, everyday scenes from the lives of the most ordinary people. The artist created a whole series of paintings, with good-natured humor, imbued with lyricism and kindness, depicting the life of the Sevillian children of the slums.

After the death of Murillo, the Spanish school of painting practically ceased to exist, and although outstanding masters appeared from time to time (which we will talk about in the next part), one can speak of the Spanish school as a phenomenon in art only in relation to the 17th century.
I will mention one more Italian artist - Guido Reni(1575-1642), who studied the painting of Raphael and Caravaggio in Rome and became mature years de facto head of the Roman Baroque school. Most of his works are devoted to religious subjects, and in the portraits there is a certain deliberate effeminacy, pretentious grace of poses, refined beauty, as if his heroes are characters in a baroque melodrama.

And one more in this galaxy of creators of the Baroque era - French artist Mathieu Lennen(1607 - 1677), the youngest of three artist brothers. Many works are attributed to different brothers, sometimes it is impossible to establish authorship with certainty. But gradually the name Lennenov began to be associated only with the work of the youngest of them, Mathieu, who essentially belonged to a different generation and in his genre and portrait works depended on new tastes.

Finishing the topic portrait painting baroque era", the dominant style in Europe in the late 16th and early 18th centuries, I will quote Somerset Maugham's words: "Baroque is a tragic, massive, mystical style. It is spontaneous. It requires depth and insight ... ". On my own, I will only dare to say that baroque is not my favorite style, it tires me ...
In the next part we will talk about Rococo. To be continued.

And, as always, a video clip accompanied by baroque music.

True admirers and connoisseurs of beauty at all times used paintings to decorate living quarters. Well-chosen, they can fully demonstrate refined taste the owner of the house, his extraordinary perception and refined understanding of beauty. Masterfully painted pictures are the most spectacular method of decorating a home.

The question naturally arises as to which style of painting is most suitable for decorating the interior? Connoisseurs say that the most suitable option would be the baroque style. In painting, he is known as the most popular of the styles that reigned in Europe for almost two centuries (from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 18th). The birthplace of baroque is sunny Italy.

The very name of the style is interesting - Baroque, which is of Portuguese origin. That is how the Portuguese called the priceless gifts of the sea - pearls that had irregular shape, namely - bizarre. in painting, it was originally designated somewhat derisively, and its name was associated precisely with the word "bizarre". But this did not become an obstacle to the rapid growth of his popularity throughout Europe.

What distinguishes baroque in painting?

The main features of the style include its solemnity, majesty, the ability to express the enjoyment of life and its fullness. Baroque is distinguished in painting by its expressiveness, contrast, extraordinary fantasy. Baroque is characterized by a pronounced play of light and shadow, color and shade.

What else distinguishes this beautiful, bright painting? Artists writing in the Baroque style strove to create monumental works. Their creations are full of dynamism, and the richness of carefully painted scenery strikes the imagination of even dedicated connoisseurs of painting.

Baroque in painting most often has a mythological or religious theme. But you can often find portraits of representatives of the aristocracy, surprisingly beautiful and magnificent.

Revered as one of the founders of the Baroque style in painting, the famous Caravaggio preferred to create paintings that have a solid character, filled with gloomy calm and depth. But his followers preferred to create works that are brighter, filled with color and light. Over time, some distance from religious topics also began to be traced.

No less - the Dutchman Rembrandt and Rubens living in Flanders - brought a touch of the national color of their countries to the Baroque style in painting. They were able to create works enriched with the culture and traditions of their peoples.

Studying the works of artists writing in the Baroque style, one can also notice that the development of the style was influenced by the religious environment. A more pompous character and a pronounced solemn style are inherent in artists from Catholic countries (Italy and Spain). Works of supporters Protestant Church are distinguished by greater restraint of feelings, modesty and severity.