Baroque Art in Europe: Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture
1. Baroque Architecture and Painting in Europe
1.1 French Classicism: Versailles as an Image of Power
French Baroque architecture was more connected to classical precedents than Italian Baroque. The establishment of the Academy of Architecture promoted the study of Vitruvius and the analysis of antiquity. Academies were an attempt to unify and control artistic production. Following this interpretation of classicism, the Church of the Invalides in Paris, designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, was erected. It features two distinct parts: the lower orders overlap, and the upper part boasts a large dome over a drum. The building is sober, serene, and balanced. Civil architecture reached an unusual development during the reign of Louis XIV.
Palace of Versailles
Versailles was a private palace that combined a city palace with gardens. French gardens were conceived as a rational and ordered management of nature. André Le Nôtre designed the gardens of Versailles. The work follows the strict rules of French classicism. Its facades are organized in three levels, corresponding to the service area (basement), the main hall (ground floor), and the intimate rooms (upper floor). The facade has a first body as a large base, completed by a third level of small decorated windows. The projection of certain parts of the wall with columns is one of the few concessions to Baroque ostentation. Although the interior rooms are ostentatiously decorated, they break the coldness of classicism to enroll in the Baroque line of ostentation.
1.2 The Development of Painting: The Netherlands
After the Reformation, the Netherlands were divided into two areas with different characters: Flanders and Holland, leading to two very distinct modes of painting. Flanders, under Spanish rule, remained Catholic. Large canvases on religious themes for churches abounded. Portraits tried to convey a solemn image of the subject. In Holland, a bourgeois republic and Protestant, church painting disappeared, and religious paintings became common in homes. The small-scale portrait became the most important genre, practiced both individually and collectively. Other popular themes included landscapes and still lifes.
1.2.1 In Flanders: Peter Paul Rubens
Rubens’ life was dedicated to diplomacy and painting. His training with Mannerist masters explains the exaggerated corpulence of his figures, but his stay in Italy opened new paths with the study of Venetian and Italian painting: the anatomical studies of Michelangelo, the warm Venetian colors, and Caravaggio’s lighting. His painting is not evolutionary. His designs are based on the rhythm of the curve, and the dynamism of his agile figures makes him the Baroque painter par excellence. The female nude is his favorite subject, soft and fleshy, the so-called Nordic Rubens type. He was an extraordinary virtuoso with an exceptional technical domain. He worked on religious themes, such as The Descent from the Cross, although his favorite genre was mythological, with works such as The Rape of Proserpine or The Three Graces. He also explored history painting.
1.2.2 In the Netherlands: Rembrandt van Rijn
Rembrandt was a versatile painter who dealt with various genres: landscape, portrait, interiors, and mythology. His sketchy brushstroke is evident in works like his Self-Portrait but becomes thinner when working on commissions. In The Night Watch, he transforms the typical static representation of a community to create a street scene based on the images of the members of the clothiers’ guild. In The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, the simplicity of the room and the sobriety of their garments emphasize the study of the psychological portrait of a large group.
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp
Professor Dr. Tulp gave a public lecture that he wished to record through a painting commissioned to Rembrandt. The medical assistants are not just anyone; it is believed that this strange and enigmatic material underwent several alterations that deviate from the artist’s original idea. The artist reveals himself as an excellent teacher of composition, using the body of an executed man as the center of attention in the work. The attention seems to be generated by the treatment of light, like a large lamp that simulates illuminating the viewers in a somewhat tenebrist environment. The study is individualized portraiture.
2. Architecture and Sculpture in Spain
2.1 Architecture
During the first half of the 17th century, buildings followed the Herrerian style. Although stone and marble were used, materials tended to be poor, hidden by decoration; it was an architecture of appearance. Regarding the type of buildings, the Society of Jesus spread the type of church plan called Jesuit.
2.1.1 The First Baroque
In Castile, architecture conformed to the enormous influence of the Escorial. Juan Gómez de Mora stands out, whose work can be seen in the Jesuit Clergy of Salamanca. His floor plan follows the guidelines of the Escorial. In Madrid, he designed the Plaza Mayor. Among all his works, the Casa de la Panadería is the main element, although transformed. In the same line, the Cárcel de la Corte and the Ayuntamiento were built.
2.1.2 The Ornamental Development
Old and rigorous forms were replaced by a language that incorporated more decorative elements, such as floral motifs and scrolls. The architect Alonso Cano stands out, who built the facade of the Cathedral of Granada. The Basilica del Pilar of Zaragoza, finished by Ventura Rodríguez, combined the geometric severity of its floor plan with the interior decoration and the great impact of its domes.
2.1.3 The Eighteenth Century
In this century, Baroque connected with Rococo. In Madrid, Pedro de Ribera was in charge of developing various works in the capital, such as the Toledo Bridge and the facade of the Hospicio de San Fernando. In Salamanca, the Churriguera brothers designed the Plaza Mayor, incorporating decorative elements based on curves. In Galicia, the main reference is the construction of the Obradoiro facade of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. In Valencia, the Palacio del Marqués de Dos Aguas is a paradigmatic example of a regional style that reaches a kind of horror vacui, crowding human, animal, and vegetal elements. In Toledo, Narciso Tomé manages to transcend the limits of the material to make the cold stone of the Cathedral transparent, transforming it into an organic entity that seems to writhe before the viewer. The columns themselves are provided with a fleshy epidermis. To the whole, we must add the idea of a transparent stage, which transforms natural light into a mystical light of faith. In Spain, there was also a constructive classicism, whose most important work is the Royal Palace of Madrid.
2.2 Sculpture
The main theme was religious, representing images of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints. The most common works were altarpieces and pasos. The altarpieces were decorated with images in the round, which could be carried in procession. The pasos were composed of individual figures or arranged in groups, designed to be seen from multiple perspectives. The technique was based on carving wood, then polychromed and varnished, trying to make the images look real. The style echoed popular sentiment, achieving images of great religious fervor. The images were the focus of attention in the processions; the multiplicity of perspectives forced the study of contrapposto, violent expressiveness, and drama. The regional outbreaks are concentrated in Castile and Andalusia.
2.2.1 In Castile: Gregorio Fernández
Initially, Fernández was influenced by Mannerism. His uniqueness stems from his anatomical studies, which he likes to dress with abundant streams of blood. Fernández was also marked by the creation of iconographic types that were later propagated: the Immaculate Conception, the Dead Christ, or the Ecce Homo. Pietà is a display of technical virtuosity in the treatment of the body, resigned in the expression of pain.
Pietà
It was made for the Church of Sorrows of Valladolid and represents a group formed by the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and the two thieves, along with Saint John and Mary Magdalene. The structure is pyramidal, of great physical stability. The folds are still angular, of Flemish influence; however, the anatomy of Christ is more realistic, while the expression becomes the dominant note of the group. The mastery of polychromy contributes to the drama of the scene, increasing the realism.
The author tried to transfer the theme of the altarpiece to the relief, as in the Carmelite Convent of Valladolid, where the figures are practically in the round. In the Baptism of Christ, the angular treatment of the folds persists, which is called “Metnal fold.”
2.2.2 In Andalusia: Juan Martínez Montañés
Montañés worked in Seville, initially influenced by Mannerist circles. His art is more serene and balanced than that of Fernández. One of his most successful works was the Christ of Clemency in the Cathedral of Seville, which has an elongated anatomy where blood is dosed. For the church of San Isidoro del Campo, he made an altarpiece, in which his Saint Jerome stands out. He repeated the theme of the Immaculate Conception, creating a typology that he and his workshop reproduced in several pieces for Spain and America. The most important is the Immaculate Conception in Seville, of exquisite beauty and exaggerated Gypsy folds in the mantle.
3. The Golden Age of Spanish Painting: Ribera, Zurbarán, Velázquez, and Murillo
3.1 Introduction
The poverty of means, in a country in crisis, influenced the use of materials such as oil in painting. Spanish painting was a tenebrist art, based on the study of specific types with high degrees of mysticism. It was the triumph of reality, both beautiful and horrible. Religious themes included the representation of many lives of saints. Portraiture was abundant in the royal and aristocratic spheres. Spanish painting was an art of great stillness and serenity. Although a galaxy of painters populated the century, only a minority reached a unique category.
3.2 Tenebrist Naturalism: Ribera and Zurbarán
3.2.1 Jusepe de Ribera
Ribera’s training is uncertain. He put his services at the disposal of the ideas of the Council of Trent, which explains the abundance of his production of religious themes. His Martyrdom of Saint Philip stands out, with the saint placed diagonally in the center of the large Baroque painting. As a counterpoint, he cultivated genre painting, especially that which represents anatomical pathologies, such as The Bearded Woman of Abruzzi, in a tenebrist tone, or The Clubfoot, a raw representation of a crippled beggar child. In this work, we can appreciate how the author abandons his initial tenebrism to penetrate the paths of his own style.
3.2.2 Francisco de Zurbarán
Zurbarán belonged to the same generation as Ribera but developed a distinct style based on tenebrism. He is the best interpreter of the ideas of the Counter-Reformation, achieving the most intense expression of a mysticism that is, however, poor in the composition of theatrical scenes. Zurbarán created a painting with minimal variations throughout his career, out of the darkness of lighting, configuring a painting especially valuable for its expressive power. He painted religious orders. The Life of Saint Bonaventure, commissioned by the convent of the same name in Seville, is a clear example of the attempt to exude religious mysticism in his painting. In The Exposition of the Body of Saint Bonaventure, he uses the diagonal as a key element of the composition. The Carthusian Refectory is an exponent of his simplicity in composition, one of his few works that focuses on a more volumetric treatment of objects and people.
3.3 The Evolutionary Painting of Velázquez
His work was far superior to that of his contemporaries. Velázquez was born in Seville, where he trained in Pacheco’s workshop. He became a painter to Philip IV. His production is abundant. His technique in the use of oil is prodigious, progressing from a fine brushstroke to another more loose. His style varies strongly from his first Sevillian works, still tenebrist, until the full development of his palette. His compositions have no movement. The painter’s work evolved through several stages:
3.3.1 Seville Stage (until 1623)
He trained with Pacheco, from whom he learned the technique and tenebrist tonality. He worked on religious themes and produced works of great interest in the genre. A good example of this style is Old Woman Frying Eggs, which loosely combines the genre scene with the still life. The fine brushwork determines a suggestion in the figures that stand out violently against the dark background.
3.3.2 First Madrid Stage
King Philip IV appointed him royal painter. He painted a series of portraits of the king and people of the court, such as Democritus and The Jester Calabacillas. His most important work is The Triumph of Bacchus, which blends mythology with popular scenes full of contrasts.
3.3.3 First Trip to Italy
He came into contact with great masters, assimilating all their resources to deepen his evolution. The fluidity of his painting is enhanced, leaving behind the remains of tenebrism, studying the nude and aerial perspective. The Forge of Vulcan summarizes all his achievements, mixing the mythological and the everyday, highlighting the anatomical study of the nude.
3.3.4 Second Madrid Stage
He continued to paint unique religious themes, such as Christ Crucified, but his portraits of the royal family and the buffoon Pablillos de Valladolid are noteworthy. He began the decoration of the Hall of Realms in the Palacio del Buen Retiro. His famous portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares is totally loose in the use of impasto to define the character and expression of the figure. He also painted hunting scenes and a series of buffoons.
3.3.5 Second Trip to Italy
He traveled on behalf of the king. There he painted the Portrait of Pope Innocent X, of deep psychological insight, and View of the Villa Medici, where the impressionistic technique appears fully formulated. Of singular importance is The Toilet of Venus, with the introduction of the female nude; her position with her back turned and her face reflected in the mirror generates a point of mystery in the composition.
3.3.6 Final Period (1651-1660)
He reached the zenith of his art with a painting where pink and ivory tones abound. He mainly painted portraits, but his masterpiece is undoubtedly Las Meninas. In it, he transcends the theme of the portrait to give us a new interpretation of painting, as the figures take the place of the painter and contemplate the sublime monarchs. We must also add the treatment of light. His last major work, The Spinners, was a prodigy, becoming an essential synthesis of his mature style. The mythological scene merges perfectly with the genre scene, and the canvas reaches the maximum development of his “impressionistic” brushstroke.
3.4 Other Andalusian Painters: Murillo
Murillo’s art focused on filtering reality through a delicate and idealized interpretation of natural forms, bringing religious scenes closer to the style experienced by the people. His evolution led him to develop a mature art of great luminosity and vaporous figures. In Boys Eating Grapes and Melon, we observe a genre scene; extremely poor children and beggars in rags are painted through the filter of idealization, endowing them with childish grace. This same grace, but with greater moral stature and dignity of presence, is used to compose religious scenes such as The Good Shepherd. Another of his favorite themes was that of the Immaculate Conception, with pompous wind-blown cloths and idealized Andalusian beauty, placed on a nimbus of angels with evanescent backgrounds.