Chapter 14:
THE BAROQUE AGE
Glamour and Grandiosity
1600 – 1715
For Catholics, then, the Baroque style was meant to renew
interest in the church, by teaching the religion in a more secular style. This originated in
GIAN LORENZO BERNINI, “The Ecstasy of Saint Therese”
1647-52
In
Nicolas Poussin
“Bacchanal before a Statue of Pan”
1631-33
Protestant
areas of Northern and Western Europe, and especially the
"Sketch of the painting from the Great Hall of Cleveniers Doelen, in which the young Heer van Purmerlandt, as captain, orders his lieutenant, the Heer van Vlaerderdingen, to march the company out.” by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642 (Erroniously renamed “The Night Watch.”)
Before we examine the three periods in more detail, we need to consider the historical period in which they were produced.
Prior to the Reformation, the Pope was the supreme ruler of Christian Europe. Any king who dared to defy the church was subject to excommunication, which meant eternal damnation.
Conflict between the king and church can easily be illustrated in the story of Henry II and Thomas Beckett (1162-1170), dramatized by Jean Anouilh in 1959.
With the rise of the Reformation and Counter-reformation,
religious wars and Intolerance raged throughout
The Thirty Years' War (1618 and 1648),
fought primarily between Catholics and Protestants helped map out
One of the worst incidents of the Catholic-Protestant animosity was the St. Bartholomew Massacre, August 23-24, 1572.
The
Huguenots were French Protestants who were members of the Reformed
Church which was established in 1550 by John Calvin. Henry of
Navarre, a Huguenot, was to marry Marguerite de Valois
(daughter of Catherine de Medici), when thousands of Huguenots converged on
More than 8 000, including Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, leader and
spokesman of the Huguenots, were murdered.
This historical incident was portrayed in a very important film in 1916, by David Wark Griffith, the most important artist in motion picture history.
D. W.
Griffith, who never realized his film was racially offensive, threw everything he had into his next film, an even greater artistic achievement called Intolerance, a film that focused on prejudice in four periods of history. The film intercut between the four stories with varying pace, building to a climax that was far too sophisticated for its 1916 audience to appreciate, and the film was not a commercial success.
We also meet the beautiful Brown Eyes, her boyfriend, Prosper Latour, and a lecherous mercenary soldier who does not seem to have good intentions.
The evil Catherine, not wanting her daughter to marry a Protestant, stirs up the Catholics, reminding them of The Michelade in Nîmes, 1567, when a Protestant majority overthrew the Catholic town council, and a hundred Catholics died.
Catherine
and her Catholic friends persuade the king to sign the order to exterminate the
Huguenots, while Brown Eyes and Prosper get engaged.
That
night, soldiers mark the homes of Protestants with chalk X’s as they prepare
for the massacre.
Morning. Bells ring for St. Bartholomew's Day. The massacre begins!
WILL PROSPER ARRIVE IN TIME TO SAVE BROWN EYES FROM A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH IN THE ARMS OF THE EVIL MERCENARY?
With the religious wars, the church eventually lost power, and the way was soon paved for absolutists, monarchs who claimed absolute power in their countries, as the “divine right” of kings.
Having studied Machiavelli, these rulers decided to shape the world in their own way.
These new kings, like the Baroque itself, surrounded themselves with wealth and opulence, perhaps as a way to dazzle their followers into accepting them as divinely inspired.
Louis XIV of
Leopold I of
Fredrich I of
Peter Alexeyevich Romanov ,
Peter the Great of
William III and Mary II of
Remembering that Baroque art was influenced by the middle class, new awareness of a round world, scientific achievement, and travelers from all over the world, let us first look to The Florid Baroque in Rome and Spain, where Catholicism was still in power and the Popes tried to tighten up control of Mannerist artists by requiring artists to keep their work religiously themed.
Titian’s Manneristic Mary Magdalene and his Baroque version
Titian’s willingness to cover up the Magdalene was not followed by many artists who understood the popular trend of excess in all things, including debauchery.
Nicolas Poussin:
“Midas and Bacchus”
1629-30
Shortly
after the council at
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), one of the greatest artists who
ever lived, was chosen to be chief architect and sculptor of the new
For those
of you who liked The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown’s earlier novel, set in
Let us consider the Baroque passion and opulence in some of Bernini’s works.
“The Ecstasy of Saint Therese”
1647-52
“David”
1623-24
Fontana della Barcaccia
1627-28
Fountain of the Four Rivers
1648-51
The very lush “Baldacchino”
(1624) Created for Pope Urban VIII, represents a macroscopic seal uniting the Old Testament wisdom of Solomon, the Christian tradition of Constantine, and the rebirth of a triumphal church.
“The Rape of Proserpina”
1621-22
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) was an extremely popular artist, but his personal life was lost in drugs and alcohol, debauchery, countless fights and even murders.
His “Bacchus” (1596) reflects Caravaggio’s sense of reality on canvas. Clearly this is an arrogant boy posing as a god. But look at the lifelike chiaroscuro, the lighting, and the perfect fruit and glassware.
“The Death of the Virgin” (1606) (a recent film suggests he actually used a dead prostitute as a model.)
“The Calling of Saint Matthew” (1599-1600)
“The Entombment”
1602-03
Caravaggio's most distinguished aspect of his
paintings is his refusal to portray the human individual as sublime, beautiful
and heroic. His figures are bowed, bent, cowering, reclining or stooped. The self
confident and the statuesque have been replaced by humility and subjection.
“St. Francis” (1606), the first person to experience stigmatization, may well be partially inspired by Hamlet.
Caravaggio’s more secular works show people as they are, with dramatic lighting and a hint of the debauchery for which he was so well known.
“The Fortune Teller”
1596-97
An inexperienced, wealthy boy clearly has something on his mind . . .
. . . So much so that he never notices the fortune teller’s other three fingers which are stealing his ring.
“The Lute Player” (1596) Note the androgynous look in his boys.
“The Musicians”
(1595-96)
“The Conversion on the Way to
(1600), is the painting about the light of God shining on
Caravaggio’s work clearly influenced that of Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1652/1653), the first really great female artist.
“Judith Beheading Holofernes” (1612-21)
Artemisia Gentileschi was discriminated against because of her sex. When female artists were only allowed to paint nude women and portraits, she dared to paint major historical and religious scenarios.
Self portrait 1630
She studied with Cosimo Quorli, who tried to rape her but failed, so he stole one of her painting instead. Later, he helped painter Agostino Tassi into her apartment when her father was away, who presumably raped her for both of them. The trial lasted for seven months in 1612, and received considerable publicity.
During the
trial, Artemisia was tortured with the sibille,
thumbscrews, involving cords of rope tied around her hands and pulled tightly,
in order to "prove" that she was telling the truth. During the
torture, which of course seriously injured her hands, she was repeatedly asked
whether or not Tassi had raped her, and she continually
responded, "it is true, it is true."
Agostino stated, "Never have I had carnal relations
nor tried to have it with the said Artemisia."
“Susannah and the
Elders” (1610)
In this Biblical
story, Susannah, bathing in her garden, is approached by two elders who
threaten to accuse her of adultery if she does not sleep with them. She refuses
and is falsely accused by them, but her innocence is proved and prevents her
from being stoned.
“Judith and her
maidservant”
(c. 1612-1613) after the murder
“Self-Portrait as a
Female Martyr”
(c. 1615)
“Corisca and the Satyr” (1630–35)
The satyr get her wig, but she escapes
“Jael
and Sisera” (1620) another Biblical misogynist gets
his.
Cleopatra’s death
“Las Meninas” (detail)
1656-57
Diego Velásquez (1599-1660)
A master of the realistic style
Caravaggio pioneered, Velázquez' artwork was a model for the realist and
impressionist painters, in particular Édouard Manet. Since that time, more modern artists, including
Édouard Manet, “A Bar at
the Folies Bergere” (1882)
“The Triumph of Bacchus” c. 1629
Spanish painting does not generally
have the drinking scenes so familiar in Flemish and Netherlandish
painting. Drunkenness was regarded in
Velázquez’ true skill
was in portraiture, creating very realistic faces of people for the court.
“Democritus”
1628-29
“Philip IV in Armor”
c. 1628
“Infanta
Doña María, Queen of
“Pope Innocent X” c. 1650
“Prince Baltasar Carlos as a Hunter” 1635-36
Pieter Pauwel Rubens (1577-1640) a very popular Flemish painter
who also admired Caravaggio (and fleshy women)
“Bacchus”
1638-40
“Diana and her Nymphs Surprised by the Fauns” 1638-40
“The Judgment of
“The Consequences of
War” 1637-38
“Peace and War” 1630
“Landscape with Cows”
c. 1636
The Village Fête
(1635-38) after Bruegel
“The Little Fur”
(Helen Fourment, the Second Wife to the Artist)
c. 1638
In
Seeing a certain
“weakness” in among the aristocrats in
Richelieu organized L'Académie française in 1635,
which controlled Art
This meant artists in
Nicolas Poussin (1594– 1665) was the founder and greatest
practitioner of 17th century French classical painting. His work embodies the
virtues of clarity, logic, and order.
“The Triumph of Pan”
1636
“The Rape of the
Sabine Women” 1634-35
“Rebecca at the Well”
c. 1648
“The Judgment of
Solomon” 1649
“Stormy Landscape
with Pyramus and Thisbe”
1651
“Winter” 1660-64
When Louis XIV came to power in
1643, he continued the classicism of Richelieu, and like the Pope, decided to
impress his people with the splendor and beauty of French architecture, so he
rebuilt the
The Hall of Mirrors
The center for trade in northern
Europe was
The Dutch soon had The Restrained Baroque. The middle class were getting wealthier, so
they needed paintings to decorate their affluent, new homes. These people were lay people so their
interest was in secular, not religious art.
They were primarily Calvinists, however, so
mythological images were “restrained,” often with moral messages.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was the best of the Dutch
painters, incorporating the dramatic use of lighting with honest portraits of
human emotion.
“Portrait of the
Artist at His Easel” 1660
“In “The Night Watch” (1642), not
only is the company dramatically lit, but they are marching toward the viewer,
right out of the picture.
“The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp”
1632
“Abraham
and Isaac” 1634 shows tremendous drama with light.
“The Feast of Belshazzar” c. 1635 reminds us of the wonders discovered by
travelers.
“The Mill” c. 1650 (light,
splendor, decoration in a landscape)
“David and Uriah” (1665) David’s great sin gives us a lesson.
“Bathsheba at Her
Another great Dutch painter
of the time was Johannes Vermeer
or Jan Vermeer (baptized October
31, 1632, died December 15, 1675)
“The Art of Painting”
1665-67
“The Milkmaid” c. 1658
“The Astronomer”
c. 1668
“Lady Seated at a
Virginal” c. 1673
“Girl with a
c. 1665, also called “The Mona Lisa of the North”
Meanwhile, in
Charles’ ideas were too
Catholic for the English Protestants, so eventually civil war began, pitting
the Royalists against the Parliamentarians.
Eventually, the monarchy was thrown
out and
Or perhaps a
Theocracy might be a better word, as Puritans took power in
Charles II, whose father had been
executed, returned
from exile in 1661. This period of
history was called The
Restoration. Unlike the other monarchs, Charles’ power was
not absolute. English monarchs would
forever more be subject to the authority of parliament.
England’s chief court
artist during the reign of Charles I was Sir Anthony van Dyck
(1599 –1641), who pretty much followed the styles of Caravaggio, Rembrandt,
Velázquez, and Reubens.
“Portrait of Joost de Hertoghe”
1635
“St. George and the
Dragon”
“Double Portrait of
the Painter Frans Snyders
and his Wife” c. 1621
“Crowning with
Thorns”
1618-20
Sir Christopher James
Wren, (1632–1723) was an English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the
greatest English architect of his time, did a lot of work rebuilding London
after the great fire of 1666.
St. Stephen's Walbrook 1672 to 1687
BAROQUE LITERATURE is
pretty similar to the artwork. Milton’s Paradise
Lost, has the same angels flying around as many of the grand paintings;
authors often chose exotic settings for their works, as society became more
conscious of foreign lands; but the most popular literature of the Baroque was
the theatre, where grandiose decoration abounded, both onstage and off, and
where people could show off their own finery and attire . . .FOPS
. . . Both onstage and off.
People would deliberately arrive late, would stand around the stage,
anything to draw attention to themselves.
One of
Neoclassical rules established by
the Academie Francaise :
1. Anything which
happens on stage must be able to happen in real life.
2. Every drama must
preach a moral lesson by showing that good will be
rewarded and that evil will be punished.
3. There could be no
mixing of dramatic styles (a play was either a comedy or tragedy, but not a
tragicomedy. )
4. A play must
observe the three unities (time, place and action).
5. A drama must be
divided into five acts.
Le Cid,
his most famous tragedy
Within 24 hours, we
meet El Cid, in love with Chimene . .
. . . Whose father
has an argument and is insulted by Chimene’s father.
El Cid must try to
recapture his father’s honor . . .
. . . Only to suffer Chimene’s wrath . . .
. . . and, with the help of
. . . finally winning the love of Chimene.
His most famous work is Phaedre, the classical story about the wife of
Theseus, who falls in love with Hippolytus, her stepson. When he rejects her incestuous demand, the
maid tells Theseus he’s been chasing her about and Theseus is punished by death.
The story is full of passion and
guilt. It’s been often retold, including
Desire Under the Elms by American playwright
Eugene O’Neill.
Among Moliere’s famous plays are
Affected
Young Ladies (1659).
The
School for Husbands (1661).
The
School for Wives (1662).
Tartuffe
(1664, 1667, 1669).
Don
Juan (1665).
The
Misanthrope (1666).
A Doctor Despite
Himself (1666).
Amphitryon
(1668).
The
Miser (1668).
Tartuffe had several dates
listed because it took several years to get by the censors. The story involves a fraudulent Christian who
uses religion to further his own financial and sexual plans. Let’s examine the play more closely in its
brilliant English adaptation by Richard Wilbur.
Orgon, Head of the Family
Madmae Parnell, His mother
Dorine, Clever tricky servant right out of Roman
comedy
Elmire, His wife
Damis, their son
Mariane, their daughter
Valere, her fiancé
Cleante, Elmire’s brother
Tartuffe
Monsieur Loyale
Officer
Madame Pernelle admonishes the family for not supporting Orgon in his fondness for Tartuffe.
Doreen tells Cleante that she thinks Tartuffe has eyes for Elmire.
Orgon demonstrates his affection for Tartuffe.
A debate on religious
frauds
Orgon wants his daughter to marry Tartuffe.
We finally meet
Tartuffe.
Orgon deeds his house to Tartuffe.
Madame Pernell doesn’t belief the truth.
An eviction
The King steps in.
John Milton
(1608-1674) was a Puritan, whose material often dealt with sin and
salvation. He was a genius who had a
tremendous influence on his own and later societies. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein drew
heavily from
Pandemonium, where
Satan and the other fallen angels plan their revenge . . .
Seeing that God has
created a new universe, Satan decides to visit it, perhaps getting his revenge
there.
Satan’s children, Sin
and Death, unlock the gates of Hell so he can escape
and travel to the new universe.
Satan struggles
through Chaos.
Satan tricks the
angel Uriel into guiding him to
Satan lands on top of
Mt. Niphates, from where he can see
Uriel warns Gabriel and the sentry angels at the
gate of
Satan envies Adam and
Eve
Satan invades Eve’s
dream
Scouts sent by
Gabriel removed Satan from Eve’s dream and chase him away from
Adam awakens to find
Eve in a restless sleep, turning and crying.
The angel Gabriel
warns Adam and Eve of their danger . . .
Gabriel tells them
about a big celebration in Heaven to honor God’s son, being anointed as a man.
Satan’s envy of the
attention given to the messiah makes him think of sin, which he sees as lust
for a woman.
Satan rouses his
followers to join him in a war against God.
WAR IN HEAVEN!
The Angel Michael meets Satan in single combat.
Michael kicks Satan’s
butt.
On the third day of
the war, the Messiah throws Satan and his evil followers into a fiery lake in
hell.
But Satan arises from
the burning lake . . .
. . . and with the other fallen angels, creates his kingdom in
hell.
Meanwhile, Satan
comes back to
The next morning,
Adam warns Eve not to wander off alone.
When Satan sees Eve in
the garden, he is momentarily stunned by her beauty.
Satan, as a snake,
tempts Eve, who finally succumbs.
She then gives the
fruit to Adam.
Adam and Eve attempt
to cover their shame with fig leaves.
God passes judgment,
mercifully delaying their sentence of death.
In Heaven, the
Messiah offers himself as the redeemer of humankind.
God turns all the
fallen angels into serpents to punish them.
Sin and Death build a
road to their new home, the Earth.
As Adam and Eve are
making up, Michael comes to
Michael shows Adam
the future consequences of his sin.
A fiery sword is
placed at the gates of
. . . and Adam and Eve are expelled from
The Baroque produced
stories of travel and adventure in foreign lands. One author who wrote about travel was Aphra
Behn (1640-1689), one of the first women authors.
Behn was an
interesting person—first English professional writer, who had a lot of
influence on the development of the modern novel, world traveler, playwright,
adventuress, noted bi-sexual feminist, and a spy for Charles II in his war
against the Dutch.
It was she, not Harriet Beecher
Stowe, who wrote the first anti-slavery story.
Oroonoko is an African prince who
loves the beautiful Imoinda. Unfortunately, his grandfather, the king, wants
Imoinda also. Imoinda is eventually sold as a slave and is taken to
Behn’s trip to
As is the practice with all slaves,
Oroonoko is renamed Caesar. Oroonoko soon finds out that Imoinda is a slave on
the same plantation, but her slave name is now Clemene. They get back together
and soon Imoinda finds out that she is pregnant. Oroonoko tries to free his
family because he does not want his children born into slavery. He starts a
slave revolt but is betrayed and badly beaten when he is caught.
Oroonoko decides that he would
rather see his family die quickly from his own hand than die the slow death of
slavery so he kills Clemene and the unborn child. He is about to kill himself
but decides to first have his revenge on those who would not give him his
freedom.
note: When
this story was turned into a stage play, Imoinda’s race had inexplicably
changed from Negro to Caucasian and Oroonoko had become a white actor in
blackface, which is something we’ll discuss when we get to music in the 19th century.
Eventually Oroonoko is caught and
suffers a cruel and inhuman death.
Behn’s final words:
“Thus died this great man, worthy of a better fate, and a more sublime wit than
mine to write his praise: yet, I hope, the reputation of my pen is considerable
enough to make his glorious name to survive all the ages, with that of the
brave, the beautiful, and the constant Imoinda.”
Mainstream Baroque was grandiose to
the extreme, and in music, it was only natural that lavish sets and virtuoso
performances should be combined with ballet in magnificent theatres, and so Opera was born.
Just to briefly explain what opera is, we turn to Mozart . . .
To illustrate this, here is a scene
from Les Miserables, in which:
Convict Jean Valjean decides to move
away because officer Javert is getting close; his daughter, Cossette, doesn’t
want to leave her lover, Marius; Eponine realizes that Marius will never love
her; Enjolrais wants Marius to join him in a revolution; Javert plans to join
the revolution as a spy; Thenardier and his wife plan to rob the dead bodies
after the fight; and the poor people of Paris envision a new world after the
revolution.
“One Day More” from Les
Miserables by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg
Claudio Monteverdi
(1567 - 1643) went on from madrigals to improve a cappella music and eventually
to opera.
“Orfeo’s
Lament” from L’Orfeo (1607)
Italian Jean-Baptiste
de Lully, 1632 –1687), brought opera to the French court of Louis XIV. A friend to Moliere, his operas were light
hearted and passionate.
“Chanson d’Arlequin”
Lully’s life was quite
interesting. A noted libertine, he was
always getting into trouble. Although he
fathered ten legitimate children with his wife, his many love affairs with boys
and women earned him renown as a sodomite. He died by accidentally hitting his toe while
beating out time with his staff, and died from a gangrene infection.
A familiar Lully
melody
The greatest of the Baroque
composers were the Germans Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and George Frederic
Handel (1685-1759); and Italian Antonio Lucio Vivaldi
(1678-1741).
Dr. Alan U.
Kennington, Australian professor of Mathematics, has suggested that Bach’s
style had much to do with the perfection of the clock and the study of
celestial mechanics. Bach worked within
a strict meter and developed variations within that time period much like a
jazz musician does today.
Allegro from the 5th
The first movement of
the 3rd
Bach is most famous for perfecting
the FUGUE, which begins with a theme stated by one of the voices playing alone.
A second voice then enters and plays the same theme, though usually beginning
on a different degree of the scale, while the first voice continues on with a
contrapuntal accompaniment. The whole
thing works like “Row Row Row
Your Boat.”
Handel’s most famous
composition is the Oratorio (staged performance, rather than dramatic) Messiah.
Here is part of the
familiar work as it was used in George Stevens’ film, The Greatest Story
Ever Told.
Vivaldi studied for
priesthood, and became a prolific composer as well. He wrote over 500 concertos (solo instrument
with orchestra), 46 operas, and 73 sonatas (works for solo instruments). His
most famous work is 1723's The Four Seasons, where he attempted to capture all
the moods of the four seasons without the use of percussion to dramatize the
effects he sought to portray.
Spring, first
movement
Many singers gave
their all for opera in those days. The male heroic lead would often be written
for a castrato singer (in the operas of Handel for example).
Spotlight on Farinelli
1705-1782
Barbershops, which
got those red and white poles for bloodletting, also performed castrations.
When such operas are performed
today, a woman takes these roles. However, some Baroque operas with parts for
castrati are so complex and difficult that they cannot be performed today.
Alessandro Moreschi
And on that high
pitched note, we end our notes on Chapter 14.