Introduction
Systematicity is an inevitable element of the development of painting and any style, despite being revolutionary, has been born, developed or declined in a completely independent and unaffected manner. Such a thing is not seen in history, although in some period the climax of painting development But when it is reached, it is visible in some people in a happy state; In some periods, continuous changes are seen taking place in it, while in some periods, a deadlock appears to have arisen in its development.
Baroque art or the seventeenth century—which is considered the great century of European painting—cannot be separated from the Renaissance (or Renaissance) period.
The new ideas related to art that were born in Florence in the beginning of the fifteenth century were the same ideas which were modified and adopted a stronger form in the next hundred years.
The revival in Italy provided the rest of Europe with social and religious values and a new outlook on life. The feeling of nationalism became stronger and it acted as a major inspiration in the political and other activities of the seventeenth century.
Despite basic similarities, regional characteristics emerged in the arts of countries like Italy, Spain, France, England, Holland etc. Due to the strong monarchy, well-organized village life and city life became available.
With scientific progress, the importance of industries along with agricultural life in the economy increased. By the end of the sixteenth century, the great artists of the Renaissance and the traditionalist artists had died.
There was a lot of difference in the art style of the Renaissance. But the main source of whatever changes took place was the art of the Renaissance.
The deliberate eccentricity of formalism had excluded art from the experience of the common people. It had become necessary to free creative talent from the routine oppression of later formalism.
To bring life back into art, it was necessary to break the wall between spiritual and sensory experiences and to create harmony between art and nature.
Baroque artists did this by believing in the power of art to express the spiritual experience of the visible material world.
His new style freed art from traditional conventions and made it a carrier of human emotions.
J.B. Ghubo’s statement “The first function of painting is to delight the audience.” Applies appropriately to Baroque art.
This is the main reason due to which fine arts got prosperity and glory and the seventeenth century is considered a great century in the cultural history of Europe in terms of art, music, science and philosophy.
This being so, the word ‘Baroque’ was initially used in a pejorative sense. The word appears to be a corruption of the Portuguese word ‘baroco’ which means.
The word Baroque became especially popular in the 18th century and in the dictionary of Francesco Militsia, published in 1977, the definition of the word ‘Baroque’ is ‘extremely absurd’. In 1888, Heinrich Wölfflin tried to remove the pejorative connotation of the word ‘Baroque’ by publishing a book named ‘Resurrection and Baroque’.
By doing a comparative study of Renaissance art and Baroque art, he has given the following differences between them – (1) Linearity and color dominance, (2) Flatness and depth, (3) Bounded shape and free shape, (4) Clarity and ambiguity, (5) ) Diversity and unity.
Although not completely convincing, Wölfflin was quite successful in changing attitudes towards Baroque art with this analysis.
Modern historians like Germain Bazain also see different elements within Baroque art and do not consider the idea of an indivisible Baroque art style as logical, hence in the study of this style, the individual characteristics of the artist and the personal impact of the artwork are given a prominent place. All general characteristics will have to be considered in their respective and contextual form.
There is no doubt that at some time and place artists try to create something new with thought and planning, and sometimes the newly created art remains unaffected by external elements.
Therefore, it is difficult to definitively propose or draw any conclusion in the history of art. The use of the word ‘Baroque’ in the non-prestigious sense has become obsolete and now it mainly has two meanings; In the first sense, it is pointed towards the stream of European art which ended following the ancient classical art, in the second sense, it is pointed towards the new perspectives of newly created art about which different scholars have expressed their opinions. .
According to one opinion, the goal of Renaissance art was balance and stability, whereas the goal of Baroque art was harmonic composition and movement. The art of the Renaissance was essentially linear, whereas the visualization of density with the help of shadow and light was the main objective of Baroque art.
Werner Weiswack, Emile Malle and Louis Roe consider Baroque art to be the result of the religious counter-reformation movement started by the Council of Trent and integral to Jesuit art.
On the contrary, some scholars do not consider it logical to consider Baroque art as integral to Jesuit art. V.L. According to the early modern thinkers like Tapiya, the multicolored art consisting of such diverse philosophies could not have emerged due to the encouragement of only one Jesuit religious sect.
In fact, there were three inspirations that encouraged Baroque art, the most important of which was the Catholic Church, which saw art as a means of propagating religion and making prayer worship attractive.
The second inspiration was social development and scientific progress due to which there was a considerable change in the outlook of the artists.
The third stimulus that directly encouraged Baroque art was the strong and powerful monarchy which had now become largely independent from the hegemony of Christianity.
Now the Jesuits definitely understood that the Protestant movement could not be stopped. They started a program to attract worshipers by making religious art humanistic and lifelike in order to propagate the Catholic religion.
Under this, he immediately recognized and encouraged the ability of art to awaken natural human emotions and the psychological impact of its inherent sensual beauty.
As a result, the new powerful, dynamic and beautiful art style that emerged became known as Baroque art and proved to be very helpful in the religious programs of the Catholic Church.
It was only in the sixteenth century that art became free from the narrowness of formalism and now it became more public-oriented instead of remaining only for the minority elite class like formalist art.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the period of inventions, and the goal of these inventions was – new territories under geography, God under soul and prosperity under society.
The colonial expansion of Catholic religious countries like Spain, Portugal and France provided new opportunities for spreading religion and brought liberalism in Baroque art.
Those countries became prosperous due to the colonial expansion of non-Catholic countries like England and Holland. With territorial expansion the narrowness of thoughts started reducing.
The study of the lifestyles of the new people and their languages, cultures and customs began. Scientific development gained momentum, especially in studies related to subjects like mathematics and astronomy. Self-confidence in humans increased and the importance of humanistic approach in the philosophy of life increased.
Introduction to the infinite and astonishing vastness of space increased interest in the scientific study of nature. The revolutionary change in science that began with the principles of scientists of extraordinary talent like Galileo and Newton laid the foundation of the world’s current amazing scientific structure.
All these things had an unprecedented impact on the art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With the knowledge of interdependence of nature and man, the external form of art changed and it became more natural.
In the revival period, human beings were considered everything and were depicted clearly and superiorly and the depiction of nature in the background was vague and mere name.
In Baroque art, such paintings started to be seen in which nature was given prime importance and was depicted in the depths of eternal solitude and in which small and insubstantial human figures were present with the aim of giving a touch of humanity.
This becomes clear when we compare Leonardo’s painting ‘Mona Lisa’ and Giorgione’s painting ‘Van Vihar’ with the visual paintings of Poussin (Nicolas Poussin / Nicolas Poussin), Claude Lorre and Raistal.
Rembrandt has depicted the dark recesses of depth with skill and expressive sensibilities. We can see the flourishing of this skill in the outdoor recesses and indoor recesses visible through the windows painted by Dutch painters.
In short, along with fine art, the importance of leisure in paintings increased. As the importance of holidays increased, there were revolutionary changes in the composition system.
While painting, instead of considering each object and figure independently, the painter started paying attention to the combination by thinking about its place in the overall effect of the picture.
Instead of looking like a fragment of a huge mural, the picture itself now looked like a complete and limited scene. The idea of motion and radiation became necessary in the picture and the harmonic basic lines emerged in the composition.
The development of Baroque art received considerable support from the monarchy and the middle class. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, dynastic powers were established in England, Spain and France, in which the middle class, troubled by the feudal class, which wanted peace and order for trade and business, helped in making them powerful.
It was natural for the newly awarded shelter to have an impact on artistic expression. Due to the patronage of the middle class, the dominance of rational classicism and naturalism in the aesthetic aspect of art increased – examples of which are the art of Pusan, La Nen and La Tour – although in strong monarchical countries, art mixed with aristocratic and religious elements was more prevalent – which The art of Rubens is an excellent example.
In Holland, where the middle class was powerful, great emphasis was given to naturalism in art and in the subjects of paintings, mostly the life and external scenes of the middle class got a prominent place.
Rome was mainly the center of Baroque art, born in Rome. In seventeenth century Europe, it became quite popular to go to Rome to study art further.
Almost all the famous painters of the seventeenth century came to Rome for further study either through their patron king or through the Academy of Arts, where they could study from the works of the painters Carracci and Domenico as well as Raphael and Michelangelo.
For this reason Rubens, Vue. The works of artists from different countries of Europe like Claude Lorrain, Poussin (Nicolas Poussin), Velasquez etc. were also visible there and artists of different talents had study material available there as per their interest.
From a broad perspective, we can count the following major Baroque painters in different countries of Europe.
In Italy, Guido Reni and La Franco worked in the Caracci tradition. After that, the painter Caravadgio, who was rich in supernatural talent, and later the Baroque painters like Guecino Cavalino, Fetti, Giordano etc. created art.
In France, Vue, Poussin (Nicolas Poussin), Lorraine and Le Vue followed Ray Refaille and Caracci, but the Hanne brothers and Georges de La Tour considered Caravadjyo’s style more appropriate.
Philippe Champagne and other realist painters considered Dutch art as ideal and followed it. In Flanders, Rubens, Jordaens and Van Dyck painted subjects related to Catholic religion.
In Holland, where the Protestant sect was more dominant, real life was depicted a lot, which we can see in the person portraits of Frans Hals, the interior scenes of Vermeer and the nature scenes of Ryssdal.
Apart from these, Holland had world famous painters like Rembrandt who created various types of art like personality portrait, self portrait, religious painting, nature painting, etc.
Ribera, Thurbarán, Murillo and Volasquez earned special fame in Spain. Thus Baroque art became very influential throughout Europe.
Baroque art of Italy
Domenico
Baroque art of Spain
Diego Velazquez
French Baroque Art
Dutch Baroque Art
Baroque art of Flanders
