Baroque

BAROQUE

The word “baroque” comes from the Italian word barocco which means “irregular” or “curved”. This Latin word was used by Portuguese jewellers for pearls of irregular shapes (barucca).In the first half of the 19th century, the term “baroque” was used by French Classicists as a name for the period of the 17th and 18th century. They did not consider art which originated in this period to be of a high quality. They thought it was really ugly so they used this derogative term.
Nevertheless, at the end of the 19th century people changed their mind. They started to like Baroque art and they even started to imitate it (Neo-baroque)

The style originated in Italy and quickly spread around Europe as well as European colonies.
(it is said that South America Indians started to believe in the Christian God when they saw the monumental churches missionaries built).

Baroque came after the Renaissance style and it comes back to religious themes. The most important thing is to celebrate the God and its power. Art wanted to shock, to frighten, to make a viewer think about the sense of life and about the finality of each life. Curves and ovals were the favourite shapes. Baroque town planning was also very important – it linked the buildings with their environment so that it formed a unified whole.

It is very difficult to characterize Baroque. It was full of emotions and authors played with illusions.  There were cruel wars in some parts of Europe, on the other hand, there were countries whose emperors lived very rich lives. Rich people could afford everything, poor people were really poor. A lot of artists realized that life had two sides – happiness as well as unhappiness.
So that’s why you can admire a still- life depicting beautiful fruit but you have to notice a worm in a beautiful apple. Or you can see a picture depicting a celebration full of happy smiling people and a skeleton symbolizing the Death somewhere in the corner of the picture. People should be aware of the fact that life is so short.

Baroque is very dynamic and emotional. Imagine a Baroque church. It is usually richly decorated, you can see monumental statues of saints and angels. However, the saints are usually depicted in a very dramatic way – they suffer or have visions. You can read deep emotions from their faces.


It is also very difficult to characterize the Baroque painting. There were many streams. Each painter had its own personal style.

Personalities:
Early Baroque architecture is represented by  Giacomo della Porta, Vignola and Carlo Maderno. The most important architects were Gian Lorenzo Bernini (he was not only an architect but also a painter and sculptor), Francesco Borromini and Guarino Guarini.                                       The Dientzenhofer family( father Kryštof and son Kilian Ignac )was very famous in our country as well as Jan Blažej Santini (he built many churches in our country- the most famous is his Zelená hora near Žďár nad Sázavou which was included on the Word Heritage of UNESCO in December 1994.

Talking about painters we should mention these masters: Caravaggio, Diego Velázquez, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt van Rijn, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Pietro Da Cortona, Andrea Pozzo. Karla Škréta, Petr Brandl and Václav Vavřinec Reiner were the most importatant representatives of Czech Baroque.
 Gian Lorenzo Bernini is considerd to be one of the most significant sculptors.He influenced the appearence of Baroque statues because almost all sculptors were influenced by him. Matyáš Bernard Braun was not an exception.  The second famous Czech Baroque sculptor was Ferdinand Maxmilián Brokoff who represented rather classical style.
We can’t forget to mention music. One of the most significant composers was Johann Sebastian Bach. Another one was Antonio Vivaldi or  Georg Friedrich Händel.
Buildings: Versailles (France), Schonbrunn (Vienna), Kuks, Křtiny, Zelená hora and so on (add your own examples)

In the  mid 18th  century a new decorative style, Rococo, originated. It came out of Baroque but it was even more decorated. The name was derived from the frequently used ornament called Rocaille.

1 Can you explain the word Baroque?
2 What was specific for town planning?
3 Find some information about one sculptor, one architect and one painter.
4 What are the typical Baroque features? Can you characterize the historical period?
5 Is Baroque rather rational or emotional?
6 Which style do you like more? Baroque or Renaissance? Why?