Baroque paint.
General characteristics.
Painting in Baroque art had a very important role in religious propaganda, both of the Catholic faith and the Protestant. The so -called counter -reform movement was the most benefit of this artistic style. It was also used by the bourgeois class, the aristocracy and especially by the absolute monarchies. Demanding kings and princes possessing exuberant financial flow and megalomaniac tendencies of absolute power exhibitionists, ordered to decorate their palaces with gigantic murals, portraits and landscapes.
During the flowering period of Baroque art, numerous artists reach renowned following the guidelines that were developed by schools of differentiated paintings, mostly according to their geographical situation and pictorial trend.
The influence of the Italian school definitely has an impact on the different regions of Europe later; According to the geographical situation in which influence, the painters developed their own imprint but based on the distinctive characteristics of the Italian baroque painting, in which the influence of caraviggism and an observation to the classic past in the case of neoclassicism.
Both naturalism and neoclassicism as well as the painters that correspond to the decorative baroque produced beautiful works that were welcomed not only in the different regions of Europe but also in remote places such as the Americas and the Antilles.
General characteristics of painting in Baroque art.
• In the baroque works the application of color, light and contrasts are organized in the scenes so that the drama of the story that is told to reach its greatest effectiveness carrying the message to the public directly and understandable.
• Space illusionism is used in fresh and monumental oil paintings, so that they produce a sense of integration of the viewer in the scene, since the dimensions of these paintings contribute to the effect of feeling participant, because human figures reach dimensions of a common human.
• The use of geometry to group characters or important elements to highlight was used abundantly. The figures are grouped in the form of triangle or circle concatenating a sequence of elements aimed at focusing attention on symbology, propaganda message or important figure. We find, for example, separated scenes by diagonal referring to dreams of dreams in contrast to reality.
• The religious propaganda effect using so much dramatic visual grandiloquence, with color explosion and atiboring of figures and locations described in the frescoes of ceilings and walls produces a direct effect that remains in the spectators, reaffirming the message of faith, political or power, as the case.
• There is a certain inclination towards the warm range such as ocher, brown, reddish especially in the early period of Baroque art, progressively painters introduce softer ranges, with uniform luminescence, less contrasting.
• Color in many cases is used to emphasize symbologies such as the blue color of the virgin mantle.
• The color application predominates, paying only secondary attention to the line and the drawing, looking for aerial perspectives and depth plans.
• In baroque painting, the theatrical effect is possible focusing attention on the scene or characters that are of interest to highlight, either by default or excess light, shadow management, warmth or coldness of the used palette.
• The light towards highlighting the tactile reality of the objects and is in the still lifes and natural nature that this stands out. The esse is percipi doctrine (being is perceived) finds ways of graphic representation in these baroque works. Some painters like Caravaggio and the naturalists made a great prominence of light by closing the light diaphragms and plunging the rest of the paint in the dark.
• Italian and flamenco schools seek dynamism, cross and oblique light, unstable movement and centrifugal tension. However, some schools such as Spanish and French opted for ordered compositions, with static attitudes that have a lot to do with classical statute.
• Baroque painting address many genres, among them we find: ecclesiastics, still lifes, lifting naturalness, gender or customs issues that address scenes of daily life, historical, landscapes, fresh, imagery, also mythological, in fact all possible genres. The courtly portrait leaves important samples of the heroic, family or political character represented contributing to reinforce the propaganda. The iconography of religious and courtly painting reached culminating moments during the Baroque.
Note: Details of baroque painting by regions, schools and other distinctive characteristics, are treated in other articles on the issue of information and for their best understanding.