Baroque Art

The Characteristics of Baroque Art:

Light

• There is usually one source of light, known as tenebrism, in Baroque art. The contrasting light and dark, such as in shadows, bring drama to the works. Both have an effect on the emotions and the intensity of the piece. One illustration of this concept is "Judith and Maidservant with Head of Holofernes" by Artemisia Gentileschi. In the piece, Judith saves her people by having a banquet to intoxicate and then behead General Holofernes.

Realism and Naturalism

• Realism is an important aspect of Baroque art. Rubens embraced reality in his art. In "Saint George and the Dragon," Saint George is muscular with a suit of armor that appears as it did in everyday life. His horse is depicted as feisty and strong. Naturalism was also seen in Baroque art through the use of normal details unique to daily life. Caravaggio employed this technique in his work by showing local places such as taverns and peasants. He places the viewer in the painting through applying things as part of both the foreground and central space. Facial expressions highlight the subjects' moods or emotions. Artists would sometimes put themselves in the painting as part of the shadows. For example, Diego Velazquez is seen in the left of his painting "Las Meninas."

Lines

• Lines help to convey motion and were often featured in Baroque pieces. Foreshortening -- reducing the length of lines in drawing to give an illusion of extension in space -- contributes to the feeling of motion. Whether asymmetric, vertical or horizontal, this technique can fool the eye and give space to the piece. Works follow an "S" shape in composition. For example, in "The Conversion of Saint Paul" by Caravaggio, diagonal lines show drama. Lines also go through diffusion in Baroque art with curved figures and horizontal layers.

Time

• Many artists using the Baroque style were aware of time and used it to convey the strength of nature as well as how time was a part of life's process. An older man symbolizing time was included in a great deal of pieces to illustrate that time comes for all. The positioning of people in each work gives the feeling of time moving forwards and backwards.

  
  

  The artist confronts the interactive media. As for Botticelli, condemned to imitate a classical painting of which no examples survived, there are no models --  save the idea of art itself, and that is a concept in crisis. Much of what is made builds deliberately not on the past but on the future: a future-directed art which derives its imagery from utopian or dystopian science-fiction, and which, in sealing the image of the future, seeks to control it in the name of the present. And what else does the future contain? Death. Though decked in the archaisms which Freud associates with regression, the sci-fi game that dominates the interactive media is built in the  denial of mortality. The crisis of interactive arts concerns the difficulty of making a shift from a future for the self to a future for others -- a future over which, by definition, we now can have no control.

  An art of surrender, and a chaotic art. It seems then no accident that so many artists derive such inspiration from the Baroque, an art of sublime submission and creative dementia. If it is true that the arts of forgetting condemn us to the repetition of history, still, in this instance, we could wish to believe that it was the first Baroque that lived out its crisis of signification as tragedy, and the new Baroque of the digital media that has a chance to work through, with hope, the dialectics of submission and futurity.

  The Baroque is legible as the expression of an absolute state confronted with the crisis of its own mode of signification. As John Beverley observes, the Spanish baroque was, like postmodernism today, at once a technique of power of a dominant class in a period of reaction and a figuration of the limits of that power (Beverley 1993:64). In that configuration, the arts add layer on layer to the web of allegorical significances, and simultaneously discover the vortex of instability at the heart of allegory itself. Humanism sought to recover; the Baroque to discover, but the arts of discovery bring on crises of overproduction (the economic disaster created by flooding European markets with American gold), which in turn generate vertiginous inwardnesses revealing more of the Devils bargain than those contracted wished to see (in Spain the emergence of narratives of the conquistadors brutality and retreat of the emergent mercantile bourgeoisie into pseudo-aristocracy as a result [cf Nerlich 1987]). From the troubled triumph of the absolutist state to the troubling security of the administered society, the Baroque recurs in the heart of both the 17th and the 20th centuries, their churches, our communications, as the rage to control. This rage is not angry but viral: replicating its order as excrescence and ornament on the body of its host, but in doing so breaking open the integrity of the host -- a crisis of permeability

  
  

  Baroque art and architecture – extravagant in concept, exuberant in spirit, elaborate in detail – flourished in the 17ths’ century Europe and through the ages has continued to stir us with its vitality and dynamism, its mood of barely suppressed passion. In the architecture of St. Peters in Rome, St. Paul’s in London and Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, in the works of Michelangelo, Bernini and Rubens, the Baroque spirit still lives today to inspire us. The Baroque style is still used today as inspiration when it comes to decorating a home in a rich manner. This style is well known for being dramatic and opulent, characteristics which can transform a simple home into something flamboyant. Many people choose to decorate their living space with a baroque style, and there are a variety of ideas that you can incorporate; ideas like using baroque style patterns to enrich cushion covers, linen, upholstery, curtaining and much more! The interior design business wasn’t the only one inspired by the Baroque movement. Now graphic artists can add Baroque flair to almost any design project with elements like lush florals, rosettes as a repeating motif in a frieze and many more ornaments with a clear Baroque influence. Baroque designs can be used by artists to enhance various items, because the ornaments specific to this style have the great capacity of making an art work look richer.It’s not an unknown fact that often in modern graphic design the inspiration comes from art styles from the past. If you have the right skills, you can combine past and present design and create amazing modern art work. The Baroque Style is represented by beautiful and rich decorations that can perfectly combine with the styles designers who love to ornate their work with flowers and swirls.

Renaissance Art

The Renaissance popularity of Humanism and classical readings, combined with the availability of literature such as Dante's Divine Comedy, led to an interest in mythology, pagan and secular themes. Humanism emphasized the importance of education and knowledge, as well as the potential of the individual and civic responsibility. So in the Renaissance, we might see a civic mural like Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Peaceful City, a secular mural like Raphael's School of Athens with its themes of philosophy and science, or Boticelli's lyrical, mythological Birth of Venus. Formally, Renaissance art is characterized by naturalism, the use of expressive gesture, linear perspective, atmospheric perspective, and chiaroscuro. In painting, figures are placed in a three-dimensional, believable space, and their posture and gesture is part of a complex formal arrangement. Compare, for example, Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks, 1483 to Cimabue's Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1280-1290. The gestures of Cimabue's figures are varied and angled to make a pleasing formal arrangement and to lead the eye to the Madonna and child, but they are not naturalistic. There is the beginning of perspective in the work, but not is a sense that makes the space look real. 

The Renaissance, translated as "rebirth," was a time that is considered by many scholars to be the beginning of modern history. It was in this era that European artists started becoming interested in the world around them as well as more aware of their surroundings. Consequently, much of the art created at this time became affected by this new "realistic" style. Whether it's in sculptures, paintings, or even architecture, the art became more focused on a real life feel that centered the spotlight on nature as well as depicting people's feelings. As a cultural movement, it encompassed a revival of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform. Traditionally, this intellectual transformation has resulted in the Renaissance being viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art.

The Renaissance came into being through the humanists and their ideas.
The impact of humanism on the arts was enormous. The subject matter of painting prior to the Renaissance was primarily religious: it was concerned not with the naturalistic portrayal of human life, but primarily with provoking a religious reaction in the viewer. Painters were not interested in making a picture "realistic" they did not use perspective. The more important figures in the painting were frequently made larger than all the others, and often the element of landscape was omitted completely.
During the Renaissance, all that changed. The period was characterized by a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman design and included an emphasis on human beings and the environment. The feature of Italian Renaissance that distinguishes it from preceding eras is the extent and depth of its devotion to Classical Antiquity. Renaissance art demonstrates how the search for the idealization of form itself can be a spiritual exercise, summoning up for the viewer a sense of the perfection of God via the perfection of the idealized human figure or the proportions of a building. The rediscovery of classical art that glorified human beauty and emphasized individual differences had a profound effect on painters of the Renaissance. 

Christian Art

Early Christian art survives from dates near the origins of Christianity. The oldest surviving Christian paintings are from the site at Megiddo, dated to around the year 70, and the oldest Christian sculptures are from sarcophagi, dating to the beginning of the 2nd century. The largest groups of Early Christian paintings come from the tombs in the Catacombs of Rome, and show the evolution of the depiction of Jesus, a process not complete until the 6th century, since when the conventional appearance of Jesus in art has remained remarkably consistent. Until the adoption of Christianity by Constantine Christian art derived its style and much of its iconography from popular Roman art, but from this point grand Christian buildings built under imperial patronage brought a need for Christian versions of Roman elite and official art, of which mosaics in churches in Rome are the most prominent surviving examples. Christian art was caught up in, but did not originate, the shift in style away from the classical tradition inherited from Ancient Greek art to a less realist and otherworldly hieratic style, the start of medieval art.

Christian art is sacred art produced in an attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity, though other definitions are possible. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of religious image, and there have been major periods of iconoclasm within Christianity. Images of Jesus and narrative scenes from the Life of Christ are the most common subjects, and scenes from the Old Testament play a part in the art of most denominations. Images of the Virgin Mary and saints are much rarer in Protestant art than that of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

My Reaction about the dominant style and its subject matter is " I'm amazed". I not only amazed by the art itself but what message it wants to convey. Usually paintings in this era is more realistic and its all about the great gospel. In every medium, they show the story behind the life of Christ. The era has influenced me when it comes to my style. Sometimes, I tend to do some mosaics which started in this era of art. But i'm too busy now, so that i can't do any mosaics anymore. I guess i could do if it is a must.

Ancient and Classical Arts

Ancient art refers to the many types of art that produced by the advanced cultures of ancient societies with some form of writing, such as those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia,Persia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The art of pre-literate societies is normally referred to as Prehistoric art and is not covered here. Clear and simple lines combined with simple shapes and flat areas of color helped to create a sense of order and balance in the art of ancient Egypt.

Classical art dates back to as early as 500 B.C. during the rise of the Greek Empire. The Greeks celebrated the human figure through sculpture in highly naturalistic detail. This is one of the eras defining qualities. After the Romans conquered the Greeks they still regarded Greek culture and art as superior to any other. The Romans imported thousands of original Greek artworks and had them copied in even greater numbers. In fact, much of what we know about Greek art, we only know through Roman copies. Ancient architecture in Greece and Rome are also considered classical works of art including: The Pantheon, The Parthenon, The Arch of Constantine, and the Column of Trajan.

My most striking impressions about the Ancient and Classical Art are about the fact that they're actually not to art but they made art for communication. It may be accidental...but I believe that it is on purpose. I believe that these two different eras of art really influenced me in my style of art. It may not be the same as it should be but you can still see the very foundation of it. During those times, i also have been interested in their artistic style and subject matter. For example, the Stongehenge it started the things how architecture should be. And in the classical art era, the Architecture became more complex each part of it is made wonderfully and all functional. It is easy to create artworks inspired of these eras. Because, This things are the foundation. We might not know that we're inspired by it. But it is really there. And I think it's very impossible to create a more complex figures if we did not know how to create its foundation.