Bibliography

BATTERBERRY, Ariane Ruskin & Michael BATTERBERRY (1977) Fashion, The Mirror of History (New York: Greenwich House)

BAZIN, Germain (1964) Baroque and Rococo (London: Thames and Hudson)

BENNET OATES, Phyllis (1981) The Story of Western Furniture (London: Herbert Press)

BERNINI, Gian Lorenzo (2013) ‘Bust of Louis XIV’ in Web Gallery of Art <http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/bernini/gianlore/sculptur/1640/therese1.html> [accessed 29 May 2010]

BERNINI, Gian Lorenzo (2013) ‘Ecstasy of St. Teresa’ in Web Gallery of Art <http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/bernini/gianlore/sculptur/1640/therese1.html> [accessed 29 May 2013]

BUSSAGLI, Mario (2004) Italian Art (Firenze: Giunti Editore)

BUSSAGLI Mario & Mattia Reiche (2009) Baroque and Rococo (New York: Sterling Publishing Company)

CLAUS, Karl H. & Victoria Charles (2009) Baroque Art (New York: Parkstone International)

CLARK, Kenneth (1969) Civilisation, A Personal View (London: British Broadcasting Corporation)

DOWNES, Kerry (2013) ‘Baroque’ in Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online <http://www.oxfordartonline.com> [accessed 29 May 2013]

FAHY, Everett (2003) ‘Velasquez (1599-1660)’ in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History The Metropolitan Museum of Art <http://www.metmuseum.org> [accessed 29 May 2013]

FICHNER-RATHUS, Lois (2011) Foundations of Art and Design (Connecticut: Cengage Learning)

GORSLINE, Douglas (1953) A History of Fashion: A Visual Survey of Costume from Ancient Times (London: Fitzhouse Books)

GARDNER, Helen, et al. (2006) Gardner’s Art Through The Ages: The Western Perspective vol.2 (Connecticut: Cengage Learning)

KERNODLE, George R. (1989) The Theatre in History (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press)

KLEINER, Fred S. (2010) Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: A Global History (Connecticut: Cengage Learning)

KOSTOF, Spiro (1985) A History of Architecture: settings and rituals (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

LUCIE-SMITH, Edward (1979) Furniture: A Concise History (London: Thames and Hudson)

MOUNTFORD, E.W. (2013) ‘Interior of the Old Bailey’ in British Broadcasting Company News <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/in_pictures_the_old_bailey_at_100/html/5.stm[accessed 29 May 2013]

MOUNTFORD, E.W. (2013) ‘Exterior of the Old Bailey' in British Broadcasting Company News <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/in_pictures_the_old_bailey_at_100/html/1.stm[accessed 29 May 2013]ZIRPOLO, Lilian H. (2010) ‘Town hall of Amsterdam’ in Dictionary of Baroque Art and Architecture (Maryland: Rowman&Littlefield)

MUNGER, Jeffrey (2003) ‘French Silver in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’ in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art <http://www.metmuseum.org> [accessed 29 May 2013]

MUNGER, Jeffrey & Alice Cooney Frenlinghuysen (2003) ‘East and West: Chinese export porcelain’ in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art <http://www.metmusem.org> [accessed 29 May 2013]

NORMAN, Larry F. (2001) ‘The Theatrical Baroque: European Plays, Painting and Poetry, 1575-1725’  < http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/10701023/

ORREY, Leslie (1972) Opera, A Concise History (London: Thames and Hudson)

PALMER, Alison Lee (2009) ‘Jacob van Campen’ in The A to Z of Architecture (Maryland: Scarecrow Press)

SCHAMA, Simon (2010) Power of Art: Bernini Directed by Clare Beavan (London: British Broadcasting Company)

SERVICE, Alastair (2013) ‘Baroque revival’ in Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online.<http://www.oxfordartonline.com> [accessed 29 May 2013]

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (2006a) ‘The Supper at Emmaus’ in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art <http://www.metmuseum.org> [accessed 29 May 2013]

THE METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM OF ART (2006b) ‘Dish [Chinese for the European market]’ in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art [accessed 29 May 2013]

THE METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM OF ART (2006c) ‘Plate’ in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art [accessed 29 May 2013]

THE METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM OF ART (2006d) ‘Fork and spoon [French; Paris]’ in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art [accessed 29 May 2013]

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (2008) ‘Ludovico Carracci: The Lamentation’ in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art <http://www.metmusem.org> [accessed 29 May 2013]

VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM (2009) ‘Baroque: The First Global Style’ <http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/the-baroque/ [accessed 27 May 2013]

VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM (2009b) ‘Ceramics for the baroque court’ < http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/ceramics-for-the-baroque-court>[accessed 27 May 2013]

WHINNEY, Margaret (1992) Sculpture in Britain: 1530-1830 (Connecticut: Yale University Press)

WATKIN, David (2010) A History of Western Architecture (London: Laurence King Publishing)

Baroque revival

A notable revival of the baroque style in architecture took place between 1885 and World War I in Great Britain. Used particularly for government, municipal and commercial building, it expressed Britain’s confidence in being a major world power. (Service 2013)

The style was also known as English Renaissance as it was inspired by English Baroque architecture from 1700-20 by such artists as Christopher Wren, John Vanbrugh, Nicholas Hawksmoor and Thomas Archer. (Service 2013)

Examples of the baroque revival in Britain and in her colonies include the Old Bailey (1900-1906), the Central Criminal court by E.W. Mountford (ex.35;ex.36), in London ;country houses Chesters, and Bryanston (1899) by N. Shaw in Dorset (1889); the Victoria Memorial (1903-1921) by W. Emerson in India and the Legislative Building (1906-1912) by A.M Jeffers in Edmonton, Canada. (Service 2013)

                             (Example 35 ‘Exterior of the Old Bailey’ E.W. Mountford)

                                                           (Mountford 2013)

                              (Example 35 ‘Interior of the Old Bailey’ E.W. Mountford)

                                                            (Mountford 2013)

Baroque in the Theatre

The trend for extravagance also reigned in the theatre where elaborate costumes and headdress (ex.32) were used along with impressive machinery (Orrey 1972:39). The baroque stage was characterised by ‘lightweight changing forms and dynamic transformation’. (Kernodle 1989: 431)

  

                        (Example 32 ‘A scene from Lully’s Thesée’ Carlo Vigarini)

                                                         (Orrey 1972:39)

An important innovation in baroque stage machinery were flat wings (ex.33) which  permitted up to fifteen scene changes as opposed to only two to three which were possible with the previously used angle wings (ex.34). The scene changes could also be made considerably faster - in two to three seconds before an audience’s eyes. (Kernodle 1989: 429)

                                                 (Example 33 ‘Angle wings’)

                                                        (Kostof 1985:522)

                                                     (Example 34 ‘Flat wings’)

                                                           (Kostof 1985:522)

Similarly, the backdrop was changeable as now it was put together of two sets of half-shutters, held in by grooves, which could be slid to the sides. (Kernodle 1989: 429) 

The new machinery permitted interplay of heaven and earth in which messengers descended from heaven and choruses of angels and images of palaces and thrones were lowered in front of the scenery. (Kernodle 1989: 429)

Baroque in Fashion

Early seventeenth century men’s clothing included a tight one piece doublet with short skirts and tightly cut sleeves along with padded and puffed breeches. Boots were made of delicate materials, had coloured linings and the hats were particularly noteworthy due to their lavish decoration. In women’s clothing the ruff and bodice were ‘cut away to reveal the bosom’ and in men’s fashion it had given place to a ‘casual, wide, falling collar of linen or lace over the shoulders’. (Gorsline 1953:65-66)

However, the Puritan style of clothing adhered to a very austere style of attire which was assembled of a ‘black wide-brimmed, high-crowned felt hat, a sombre coat, which slightly relieved at the neckline by the wide, plain collar of the shirt, and woollen stockings’. There was little difference in women’s clothing apart from the dark gown which revealed a stiff underskirt. (Gorsline 1953:66)

The ruff, having disappeared from the wardrobe of the cavaliers and their ladies, remained in Puritan and Dutch burgher fashion as an expression of ‘moral conservatism through fossilized fashion’. (A. R. Batterberry & M. Batterberry 1977: 140)

Post-restoration fashions are documented in Van Dyck’s paintings and demonstrate French influence such as ‘rows of looped ribbons to the rhinegrave breeches, drooping ruffles at the knees and plumes to the hats’. The military influence in men’s clothing had subsided and boots were displaced by shoes with stiff bows. (Gorsline 1953:67)

Men also wore the periwig (ex.31) which got gradually longer and cascaded in curls over the shoulders or even below by the end of the century. This was replaced by the ramillies wig by the early 18^th century. (A. R. Batterberry & M. Batterberry 1977)

                                                    (Example 31 Periwig)

                                   (A. R. Batterberry & M. Batterberry 1977: 142)

In women’s clothing an important change was the drawing up of the overskirt which would reveal the ‘full underskirt in front while the overskirt became a sort of bustle draped behind.’ (Gorsline 1953:67)

Baroque in the Decorative Arts and Furniture

Exoticism was very popular in the decorative arts. Links to the Far East and Asia had already been created in the early sixteenth century and they were strenghted during the following century when items started being made specifically for export to Europe. (Munger & Cooney Frelinghuysen 2003) In pottery, the Chinese influenced blue and white design (ex.23) was the main trend until the end of the seventeenth century when the popularity of porcelain decorated with coats of arms (ex.24) prompted the use of polychrome. (Munger & Cooney Frelinghuysen 2003) European centres of pottery were situated in Nevers, Rouen and Delft. (Victoria and Albert Museum 2013b)

                               (Example 23 ‘Dish [Chinese for the European Market’)

                                      (The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2006b)

                                                     (Example 24 ‘Plate’)

                                       (The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2006c)

Silver objects were of high value in France, England as well as in the Netherlands. In the case of France and the Netherlands they were made in the baroque (ex.25;ex.26) style rather than in the classical which dominated in architecture (and painting in France). (Bazin 1964: 102)

                                     (Example 25 ‘Silver dish’ Paulus van Vianen)

                                                       (Bazin 1964:103)

  

                                        (Example 26 Fork and Spoon 1683-84)

                                       (The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2006d)

As the value of silver lay in the metal rather than the craftsmanship silver often reflected the latest style – objects which were thought to be out of date were often melted and transformed into something more fashionable’. (Munger 2003)

A taste for exoticism also reigned in furniture. Exotic wood such as ebony was used widely and its popularity was clearly expressed in France where cabinet makers were called – ebenistes. (Benett Oates 1981: 84)

Marquetry, a technique which spread to England and France from the Dutch, was very popular in Baroque furniture. In its traditional form it involves cutting out irregular pieces of wood in different colours (often even ivory or mother of pearl) and fitting them together like a jig-saw puzzle to build up a pictorial design (Bennett Oates 1981:85) In France the technique was employed by Andre Charles Boulle to create a distinctly French type of furniture decorated with brass and tortoiseshell marquetry (ex.27). This type of furniture also made use of  ‘elaborate gilt bronze mounts’ which in addition to adding aesthetic value aided with keeping the materials fixed to the carcase. (Bennett Oates 1981: 91)

                                      (Example 27 Cabinet by Andre Charles Boulle)

                                                      (Lucie-Smith 1979:76)

Even though in England the baroque style of furniture was slow to catch on due to the shortage of money and Puritan ‘dislike of ostentation’ during Cromwell’s Protectorate, the richness of baroque style was eagerly adopted after the restoration. (Bennett Oates 1981: 94-97) The exuberance of the baroque is fully expressed in the chair and bed designs of Daniel Marot (ex.28;ex.29) (Bennett Oates 1981: 94)

                                           (Example 28 ‘Bed by Daniel Marot’)

         

                                                    (Bennett Oates 1981: 96)

                                             (Example 29 ‘Chair by Daniel Marot’)

                  

                                                     (Bennett-Oates 1981:96)

In Italian furniture design, which was dominant, during the most part of the seventeenth century, elaborately carved chairs (ex.30) and extravagant beds characterise the style in addition to marble console tables and mirrors which were true prestige pieces.  (Bennett Oates 1981:79)

                                (Example 30 ‘Sculptured armchair by Andrea Brustolon’)

                                                  (Lucie-Smith 1979: 89)

Baroque in Architecture

Movement and drama in baroque architecture was achieved by ‘facades full of movement’, ‘twisted columns’ and ‘grounds plans consisting of rounds and ovals’. (Victoria and Albert Museum 2009)

Bernini’s architectural designs for St.Peter’s in Rome abound in dramatic proclamations of the church’s glory. His baldacchino (ex. 16) which is located over the tomb of St.Peter features twisted columns and at twenty-nine meters, is of extravagant height, symbolising the ‘authority and splendour’ or the Catholic Church. (Watkin 2010: 283)

                                   (Example 16 ‘Baldacchino’ Gian Lorenzo Bernini)

                                                       (Kleiner 2010: 652)

Bernini’s colonnades (ex.17) which form an oval piazza in front of St.Peter’s are characterised by ‘swinging movement’. (Watkin 2010: 284) According to the artist himself they are designed to ‘receive Catholics in a maternal gesture in order to confirm their belief, heretics in order to reunite them with the church, and infidels in order to reveal to them the true Faith.’ (Watkin 2010: 284)

                                   (Example 17 ‘An aerial view of St. Peter’s, Rome) 

                                                        (Kleiner 2010:651)

Fransesco Borromini’s architecture is more dramatic, introducing a multiplicity of curves and countercurves, such as on the facade (ex.18) of his San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane as well as displaying great complexity in the distribution of spaces. The latter is expressed in the ground plan (Ex.19) for San Carlo which can be read as a convex Greek cross due to the four chapels pushing out from the main oval. (Kostof 1985: 514-515)

                  (Example 18 ‘Façade of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane’ Francesco Borromini) 

                                                           (Kostof 1985:519)

           (Example 19 ‘Ground plan of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane’ Francesco Borromini)

                                                               (Watkin 2010:287)

Another innovation was how Borromini had achieved the ‘sinuosity of the church’s outline’. At the time a common device to create a sense of ‘baroque plasticity’ was the manipulation of columns and pilasters attached to the plane of the wall. Borromini, however, twisted the plane of the wall itself. (Kostof 1985: 514)

French architectural style was dominated by classical forms, reflecting the philosophical and intellectual trend which ‘valued reason above fervour’. (Kostof 1985: 532) French churches are characterised by their ‘static rectilinear composition, the absence of those curves and counter curves that are so beloved of Rome.’ (Kostof 1985: 532) In secular architecture the classical forms reflected the grandeur achieved through the authoritarian state. Buildings such as Claude Perrault’s facade of the Louvre (ex.20) declare a triumph of the logical solutions imposed by Colbert on French contemporary life.  (Clark 1696: 156)

                                (Example 20 ‘Façade of the Louvre’ Claude Perrault)

                                                                 

                                                        (Clark 1969:156)

In England, as in France, architecture also incorporated some classical elements. This was especially noticeable in buildings by Inigo Jones (ex.21). However, in the architecture of Sir Christopher Wren, who had met Bernini in Paris in 1665, the Baroque style is explicitly expressed. (Bazin 1964: 154-156) His St.Paul’s Cathedral in London (ex.22) imitates St Peter’s in Rome with its vast dome and colonnade. Meanwhile the colonnade for Greenwich Hospital imitates Bernini’s before St.Peter’s. Further baroque tendencies in St.Paul’s are displayed in the ‘heavily decorated choir stalls’. (Bazin 1964: 161)

                                    (Example 21 ‘The Queen’s House’ Inigo Jones)

                                                       (Bazin 1964:155)

                               (Example 22 ‘St Paul’s Cathedral’ Sir Christopher Wren)

                                                         (Bazin 1964:159) 

Classical trends also reigned in the Netherlands where Inigo Jones was a great influence. (Zirpolo 2010:507) Jacob van Campen who is credited with introducing the Baroque classicism style to the Netherlands examined Italian architecture of Vitruvius and Palladio during his stay in Rome from 1616-1624 and as a result produced buildings such as Mauritshuis and the town hall of Amsterdam which with their five part facade division, triangular pediments, ionic columns and classical entablatures express clear classical ideals. (Palmer 2009: 63)

Baroque in Painting and Sculpture

As mentioned earlier, movement, action and the expression of extreme passions were among the distinctive characteristics of the baroque style. Movement in painting and sculpture was expressed by compositions which were organised around ‘unstable’ diagonal lines rather than the classical triangle or pyramid as in the renaissance. (Rathus 2011: 278) Orazio Gentileschi’s ‘The Martyrs St Cecilia, St Valerian and St Tiburzio with an Angel’  (ex. 1) is dominated by a spiral movement, meanwhile Paul Peter Rubens’  ‘The Battle of the Amazons’(ex.2) demonstrates a whirlwind composition. (Bazin 1964) In sculpture the practice can be seen in Bernini’s ‘Apollo and Daphne’ (ex. 3) and Francesco Mochi’s ‘St.Veronica’ (ex.4). 

(Example 1 ‘The Martyrs St Cecilia, St Valerian and St Tiburzio with an Angel’ Orazio Gentileschi)

                                                         (Bazin 1964: 37)

   (Example 2 ‘The Battle of the Amazons’ Peter Paul Rubens)

(Bazin 1964: 64)

 (Example 3 ‘Apollo and Daphne’ Gian Lorenzo Bernini)

 

   (Claus & Charles 2009: 26)         

  (Example 4 ‘St.Veronica’ Francesco Mochi)  

(Claus & Charles 2009: 27)

Figures in painting and art looked as if ‘they had been stopped in mid-action’, (Victoria and Albert Museum 2009) as can be seen in Bernini’s ‘Apollo and Daphne’ (ex.3), which captures the moment of Daphne’s last cry before being turned into a laurel tree, or in his ‘Ecstasy of St. Teresa’ (ex.5), depicting the moment in which ‘the body of the Saint becomes suddenly lifeless at the inrush of the Holy Spirit’. (Bazin 1964: 26) Even more so, according to Simon Schama, Bernini aimed to capture his sitters as they appeared just before or after they spoke. (Schama 2010)

                                              (Example 5 ‘Ecstasy of St.Teresa’)

                                                           (Bernini 2013)

In portrait busts vitality is expressed by a slightly turned head such as appears in the bust of Louis XIV by Bernini (ex.6), Charles II by John Bushnell (ex.7) and Sir Christopher Wren by Edward Pierce (ex.8), Grande Condé by Antoine Coysevox (ex.9). Out of the latter two British artists it was John Bushnell who was the pioneering exhibitor of clear baroque direction in British sculpture. (Whinney 1992: 105)

                                 (Example 6 ‘Bust of Louis XIV’ Gian Lorenzo Bernini)  

                                                            (Bernini 2013)

                                       

                                             (Example 7 ‘Charles II’ John Bushnell) 

                                                       (Whinney 1992:102)

                                    (Example 8 ‘Sir Christopher Wren’ Edward Pierce)

                                           

                                                      (Whinney 1992: 104)

                                   (Example 9 ‘Grande Condé’ Antoine Coysevox)

                                                                   

  (Bazin 1964: 130)

Bernini’s sculptures ‘Ecstasy of St Teresa’ (ex.5) and his ‘Damned soul’ (ex.9) follow the baroque aesthetic of portraying emotions at their extremes. It is thought that in order to capture the right expression for the sculpture, Bernini ‘scorched his own arm in a naked flame’ as the sculpture is a self-portrait. (Schama 2010) Even though Classical traditions dominated sculpture in seventeenth-century France, Pierre Puget’s ‘Milo of Crotona’ (ex.10) realises that trend by depicting the ageing athlete, whose hand is caught in a tree, being eaten by a lion - a ‘symbol of the agony of helpless strength’. (Bazin 1964:127) Indeed, according to French academic principles during the baroque, art was meant to express the essential moment of the ‘change of fortune’ of the hero as it clearly does in Puget’s sculpture. (Norman 2001)

                                    (Example 9 ‘Damned soul’ Gian Lorenzo Bernini)

                                                       (Bussagli 2004: 371)

                                       (Example 10 ‘Milo of Crotona’ Pierre Puget)

                                                       (Bazin 1964:127)

Another characteristic of baroque art was the idea of ‘integrating subject into space’. (Bazin 1964: 65) This practice of creating compositions with the figures being life-size or larger than life, on a scale proportionate to the painting size – was characteristic of Italian baroque but is also manifested in the style of the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. A notable example is his sequence of twenty one large-scale paintings depicting the life of Marie de Medicis. (Bazin 1964: 68)

During the baroque period in painting chiaroscuro technique gave way to tenebrism, characteristically used by Caravaggio, which displayed sharp rather than graduated contrasts of light. Lending an air of drama and mystery to the paintings this technique of light and shade emulated theatrical spotlighting (ex.11; ex.12). (Fichner-Rathus 2011: 278)

                                  (Example 11 ‘Calling of St.Matthew’ Caravaggio) 

                                                       (Kleiner 2010: 539)

       (Example 12 ‘Judith Slaying Holofernes’ Artemisia Gentileschi)

                                                                    

                                                  (Gardner, et al. 2006: 584)

Renaissance idealization had already been began to be questioned in the works of Ludovico Carracci, ‘The Lamentation’ (ex.13) which shocked sixteenth century critics with its directness. The works of Caravaggio and Velasquez (ex.14) are in a similar style, also painted from posed models to achieve an ‘intense feeling of reality’. (Fahy 2003)

                                (Example 13 ‘The Lamentation’ Ludovico Carracci)

                                       
                                         (The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2008)

                      (Example 14 ‘The Supper at Emmaus’ Diego Rodrigo de Sylva y Velasquez)

                                        (The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2006a)

The ‘predilection for illusion’ mentioned earlier, was expressed in baroque ceiling paintings which gave the spectator ‘a feeling of being overhung by a whole world of flying figures, that hover an soar in an imaginary place, or through the open sky’. The genre among which’s exhibitors are Domenichino, Lanfranco and Pietro da Cortona came to its apogee in the art of Padre Andrea Pozzo (ex.15) (Bazin 1964:39)

                           (Example 15 ‘The Glory of Saint Ignatius’ Padre Andrea Pozzo) 

                                                               (Bazin 1964:41)