We explain what the Baroque is, the themes it covers and what its different arts are like. In addition, we explain what its characteristics and authors are.
Baroque was an intermediate moment between Mannerism and Rococo.
What is Baroque?
On the one hand, the baroque It was a period in the history of culture in the Westwhich spanned the 17th and early 18th centuries, with variations depending on the historical process of each country. Furthermore, it was an artistic style engendered by the paradigm shifts of the time, which had repercussions on painting, sculpture, architecture, music and literature.
In historical terms, the baroque was born in a time of religious and political tensions: between Catholic and Protestant countries, between absolute and parliamentary monarchies. It took place in Western Europe and its American colonies. In artistic terms, it constituted an intermediate moment between Mannerism and Rococo.
See also: Neoclassicism.
Origin of the Baroque
For a long time, the Baroque referred to the ornate, deceptive and capricious.
Baroque Born in Italy during the period known as SeicentoInitially the name was used to refer to a certain artistic style that was ornate, grandiloquent, excessive.
For a long time It was used in a derogatory mannerto refer to something overloaded, capricious, deceptive.
According to some theories, the name comes from the Portuguese word for pearls that exhibited some deformity or irregularity (“barruecas” in Spanish).
After the 19th century, the term was revalued and since then it has been used to refer to this period and also to any other artistic manifestation that contradicts the values of classicism.
History of the Baroque
The Baroque is usually divided into three different periods:
- Primitive (1580 to 1630)
- Full (1630 to 1680)
- Late (1680 to 1750)
Over these 170 years, art has gained in refinement and ornamentation, cultivating a taste for the anecdotal, the surprising, for the effective and for illusionsThese characteristics are often interpreted as a cruder confrontation between the artist’s vision and the reality that surrounds him.
In later periods, the Baroque was seen as a “degenerate” form of the Renaissance. Today it is considered the symbolic and artistic negation of the classical: where the latter was masculine, rational and Apollonian, the Baroque He set out to be feminine, irrational and Dionysian. Opposite ways of conceiving art and culture.
Baroque themes
The Baroque emphasized the everyday aspect of life.
- Emphasis on reality. He paid attention to the mundane aspect of life: the everyday, the ephemeral. This produced a “vulgarization” or secularization of the religious imaginary in Catholic countries, especially those that were fanatical.
- Grandiloquent vision. He exalted the national and the religious, considering them expressions of political power. Thus, during that period, monumental, lavish, ornate works were produced, with a certain propagandistic content in favour of the aristocracy and the clergy, generally.
- Image culture. He aspired to generate the total work of art, which would demonstrate the dominant power (in this case the clergy and the monarchy), but not directly, but rather using deceptions and artifices that can be summed up in the phrase theater of the world: “The world is a theater.”
Baroque painting
Rubens represents nature giving way to the religious spirit of the scene.
Painting was one of the most favoured artistic expressions in the Baroque period and the one that exhibited the greatest diversity in its different geographical manifestations. Its styles, however, can be classified into two main trends. Each of these trends was closer to another style, although always differentiating themselves:
- Naturalism. A style based on the observation and reproduction of nature, allowing for moral or aesthetic guidelines from the artist, as well as very free interpretations of the painted object. It is the heir to the tenebrism (taste for chiaroscuro) of Caravaggio, which is why it is also known as “Caravaggism”.
- Classicism. A style opposite to naturalism and its influences, it was a realist style that followed a more rational conception, in which drawing predominated over the magic of colour. His works were closed and without the abrupt diagonals typical of the Baroque.
More in: Baroque painting.
Baroque literature
In Baroque theatre, satirical comedies based on biblical passages abounded.
Baroque literature was largely determined by the Catholic Counter-ReformationThis arose in opposition to Lutheranism and Protestantism, as well as to the absolutist values of the monarchical governments of the time.
That’s why, A depressed and pessimistic view of the world predominates in herin which everything is vain, illusory or a dream, and the vital attitudes are doubt, disillusionment and prudence. This literature mainly cultivated the genres of:
- The novel. With Don Quixote as an example and greatest exponent, this genre gave rise to modernity and polyphony, the possibility of satire and mockery, using a language rich in rhetorical figures, as well as mythological allusions. The picaresque novel had its heyday in the Baroque period.
- Bucolic poetry. This is pastoral poetry, cultivated earlier in ancient Rome, which came back to life in the Baroque. Pastoral loves and the representations of rural life of the common people become central and popular in it.
- Theater. Theatre and drama, especially in Spain during the Golden Age, reached one of its highest known peaks in the Baroque period. There were many satirical comedies, sacramental plays or dramatisations of biblical passages, but also comedies full of disguises, veiled eroticism and much satire.
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture was characterized by optical illusions.
During the Baroque period, architecture took on much more dynamic formsA profound sense of theatricality and staging was cultivated, as well as exuberant and abundant decoration.
They were preferred Concave and convex shapes instead of the rigidity and linearity of classicism. Great importance was given to urban planning, as kings and popes wanted to control the transformation of public spaces in cities. Optical games and the perspective of the spectator or passer-by are also abundant.
Baroque sculpture
Baroque sculpture was strongly linked to religion.
During the Baroque period, sculpture behaved in a similar way to architecture, especially because together They decorated public spaces, palaces and religious buildingsThis means that sculpture had a dynamic, expressive, ornamental and extremely varied personality in the different European countries.
In general terms it was presented in two variants:
Baroque music
Baroque music ends with the death of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Music was an important expression of the Baroque style, becoming over time the quintessential style of academic music in EuropeThis baroque musical style spans from the opera around 1600 until the death in 1750 of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Baroque music It is characterized by the use of tonesof the basso continuo and the creation of its own musical forms, such as the sonata, the concerto and the opera, together with forms influenced by the church, such as the mass or the requiem. In all of them improvisation had an important space reserved for it, to serve as ornamentation for the piece.
Latin American Baroque
Latin American Baroque It had its climax in the 18th centurysince it was an inheritance brought to the American continent by the Spanish conquerors and colonizers.
Unlike its European roots, Latin American baroque happily mixed with indigenous and African elementsThe result was a cultural trend that, while it obeyed the abundance and waste typical of the Baroque, did so using a cultural and imaginary tradition that was unique in the world.
Baroque authors and artists
A partial list of major Baroque composers includes:
Literature
- Miguel de Cervantes
- Calderon de la Barca
- Lope de Vega
- Tirso de Molina
- Luis de Gongora
- Francisco de Quevedo
- Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz
- John Donne
- William Shakespeare
- Laurence Sterne
Paint
- Caravaggio
- Peter Paul Rubens
- Diego Velasquez
- Rembrandt
- Johannes Vermeer
Music
Sculpture
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini
- Juan Martinez Montanes
- Giacomo Serpotta
- Alonso Cano
- Peter of Mena
Architecture
- Fernando de Casas Novoa
- Guarino Guarini
- Peter of Ribera
- Francesco Borromini