General summary
Baroque art It is an artistic style that represents in his works exaggerated emotion and clear representation of the details with the greatest possible realistic effect, on a kind of illusory theatrical scenario. Its content can be easily interpreted. It uses exuberance of fully interconnected artistic elements, and a dynamic representation aimed at producing intense drama through the artistic work. In general, Baroque art is performed in monumental size.
These characteristics are mainly applied to: sculpture, painting, architecture, ceramics, jewelry, furniture textiles and also to other cultural manifestations such as: literature, dance, theater and music that were the source of inspiration for plastic expressions.
The word “baroque” has a resonance and current application that extend beyond being a simple and linear nomenclature applied to name a style, term or period. The term “baroque” It can be used today by art and public historians in general, referring to works of art, crafts or design that have excessive ornamentation or great complexity of lines, figures and diversity of artistic elements. The Baroque word derives from the Portuguese word “baroque”, referring to an “irregular or imperfect pearl.”
The Church and the aristocracy during the Cinquecento (1500-1600) followed the evolution of mannerism in the last period of the Renaissance and welcomed the Baroque art in the new century (1600). In the city of Rome, Italy, where this Baroque art began, they realize enough the bourgeoisie and the clergy of the effectiveness of the new style to communicate their messages to the spectators so that they gradually commission new works of art to support its ideological and religious platform.
In the historical answer, important events occur as a result of different points of view about faith among Catholics and Protestants in a period in which there is a predominance of absolute monarchies, all of them make the best possible use of this new style as a propaganda, supporting artists to carry out works that attract viewers and feel like themselves characters in the artistic work in the artistic work complicity Through different elements of the plastic, they absorb the observer’s attention through a lot of drama, causing them to feel totally identified with what is shown since it is very easy to capture.
The main theme of the Baroque style was the triumph of faith and around it all artistic expression moves towards the euphoric and rimbombant representation using a waterfall of elements; That although they appear to be a chaotic amalgam, they fit however all its elements among themselves perfectly. With this they manage to raise this religious concept of triumph to their highest expression, thus influencing other non -religious aspects in the daily life of a convulsed society, with many contrasts, in which people’s minority are incredibly rich; while most people drowns in extreme poverty.
It is not strange, therefore they would like to evade their sad reality, contemplating imaginary and pleasant, dramatic scenes, aimed at rewarding honor, glory and the triumph of light over darkness.
This new grandiloquent and super emotional artistic tendency extended to most of Europe and subsequently to the United States as well. Although it is fair to say that in the architecture at the beginning, sometimes it was avoided in favor of more classicist trends, mostly in regard to the facade of buildings, since the new convulsive and curved lines produced an uncomfortable sensation in some of the people commissioned by the new palaces and was not completely welcomed for a while in some regions.
The influence of Baroque art It covers the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but remains strong in the nineteenth century when, abundant construction using baroque architecture in America is still done in this style, although with more eclecticism due to the influence of other artistic styles and particular native tastes.
Those who made their entrance to Palacios and Baroque cathedrals were speechless from the moment they reached the main staircase, and were passing through a dynamic, expectant warm, of artistic elements in crescheando, to culminate in a kind of fulminating theater scene with the crowded representation of several “beautiful art” in the rooms, most of them with gigantic proportions of overwhelming sensation. The once impressive balance and moderate balance of classicism is broken here in favor of a convulsive way that emphasizes the characters of the characters in the scenes and emphasizes the dynamics of the movement as never before had been achieved before.
The variety of elements used plus its eccentric redundancy applying details were also applied to literature, music, theater and dance in that period, artistic manifestations of whom the plastic was constantly nourished as an inexhaustible source of inspiration and imagination. In this baroque time the opera was born and developed reaching its highest glory, because with this apotheosis of artistic elements at the same time in a theatrical scene, nothing was impossible. This versatile artistic manifestation blooms and in fact triumphs flatly and even monarchs and the aristocracy actively participates, being very popular among the general population as well.
In it Baroque art The trend of unstable compositions prevails, artists try to get away from symmetry, altering the classic relationship between the AX and the figures in painting. Dynamic compositions with a lot of scenic drama, expressive faces, exacerbated physical gestures, (as in a theatrical scenario as mentioned before).
The use of light was also very important, the leading element many times in a painting. For example, the high contrast between the light and the absence of it, and the rhythm obtained in the composition, facilitate the accentuation of the main characters underlining their importance.
To the so -called “tenebrism”; (Pictoric style of the paint that uses very pronounced clearing and deep and violent contrasts of light and darkness), as well as “naturalism”, another pictorial style was added during the baroque period, the size of wood from which the Spanish imagery stands out, as well as various themes such as the portrait of wineries and stores, known in Spanish as “still lifes.”
These are made with such exquisite details and fidelity to the originals, which feels as if these portrained objects are real and it is possible to touch, smell and taste them. All were carried out in response to expressing the central purpose “esse est peripi” (being is being perceived). Although “still lifes” have an apparently non -religious theme, this is brilliantly hidden when they represent the events of daily life. Somehow religious references are always there to fulfill the purpose of propaganda.
Baroque art is also a colorful style in which a burst of vibrant colors floods the artistic work, which attracts attention, at the same time that they mark the cadence and rhythm that the eyes of the spectators must follow. The color was also used to accentuate the main characters of the scenes. Crossing the color could frame the compositions more effectively, using free brushstrokes and centrifugal structures.
That feeling of realistic perception also applies to sculptures; Around which the architectural environment was designed and built in Baroque art, it is not possible to separate them, since they are closely related to the space in which they are in buildings, they cannot be understood or appreciated isolated from their original destination, in which they reach as planned, the transcendent and tangible sense, almost as if they had life, but as part of the whole.
The correlation between different plastic elements of expression used in baroque buildings, respond to a concept in which all elements of the whole function as a unit, despite having different artistic elements. Each of them, however, is interconnected being support from each other. The same applies to Baroque art with ceramics, glass works, textiles, goldsmiths and furniture.
Note: In other subsequent articles, according to the artistic manifestation of the important elements of Baroque art, as well as the main artists in each region will be presented.