Art Embodied: Baroque era

 And it's back to the Louvre this week to study Baroque painting!

This week I focused on the human figure in art during the Baroque period, an era in art history that kicked off around 1600 and remained popular throughout the century. The movement kicked off when the Catholic Church realized it's popularity rating was at an all-time low, thanks to the Renaissance's emphasis on rationality and humanism. To spark interest in religion and to inspire some good old-fashioned emotional drama that always gets the folks running to church, religious institutions adopted a new strategy, Baroque art.

The goal of much of Baroque art was to capture the spectator's eye and infuse them with emotional empathy in a religious context. For this reason the movement is frequently paired with the Counter Reformation that resulted in the Catholic Revival during the 17th century. Art created during this time is often theatrical in subject matter, with saturated colors and high contrast between shadows and lights. Renaissance art was rational, humanistic, naturalistic — but Baroque Art? Enter Drama Queen. The painting 'Pieta avec saint Francois et Sainte Marie-Madeleine,' painted by Annibale Carracci around 1605 and shown in the photo below, is pretty classic-Baroque, with high-contrast lighting, a theatrical composition with diagonal lines to heighten drama, and religious subject matter.

The human figure was an integral subject matter in Baroque art because it was inherently relatable and was conducive to eliciting emotional empathy in the viewer. Realism was valued — accurate depiction of the human form was considered a given. Thanks to the flurry of anatomical study launched in the century prior, artists now had access to texts and dissection theaters. Anatomical study was not only valued, it was considered a necessity. An increasingly intricate understanding of anatomy and newfound goals to depict the human form realistically in motion are illustrated by paintings such as the ones of Hercules, below. These two pieces are part of a four-work set painted by Bolognese artist Guido Reni in 1620 depicting the adventures of Hercules based off of vignettes from Ovide's Metamorphoses. The piece on the left is titled 'Hercule terrassant l'Hydre de Lerne', and to the right is 'Hercule sur le bucher.'

The Baroque-era paintings below are also good examples of anatomically-realistic human forms. These paintings are starkly different from Medievaldepictions of Christ, when the symbolism took absolute precedence over the art itself. Here, however, we can see that the accuracy of the image as well as it's emotional impact, motivated the work of the artist. Directly below is  'La Vierge pleurant le Christ mort,' painted by Bernardine Gatti from 1528-1530 for the church San Domenico de Cremone.

Also featuring the physical body of Christ, 'Le Christ mort couche sur son linceul', was created by Philippe de Champaigne in 1654 and displays an equal anatomical proximity to reality.

A string of continuity you'll find in all of these Baroque-era paintings is dramatic lighting. The harsh illumination in Baroque paintings created high contrast shadows and light patches on the human form. A solid understanding of the interior structures of the body, primarily the bones and skeletal muscles, was increasingly helpful for the Baroque artist. This 'high-contrast' aspect of Baroque art is especially evident in pieces such as this one painted by Daniel Seiter in 1685, titled 'Diane aupres du cadavre d'Orion'.

As I walked through the halls of the Louvre this week I was especially struck by depictions of the human figure in movement. The high-drama subject matter gave artists the license to really experiment with different postures, and as a result many of the paintings are very animated. Fortunately the increasing number of anatomical texts such as Vesalius' De Humani Corpus Fabrica were just the resources artists needed to understand how the human form responded to movement.

Looking back on my last several weeks of study, it is pretty incredible to consider what a large shift occured in terms of representing the human figure. To illustrate this point, check out the following two paintings, both depictions of the crucifixion of Christ.

This first painting, 'La Crucifixion du Parlement' was painted by Matitre de Dreux Bude in 1450 for the Grant Chamber of the Parisian Parliament. The figure is in traditional Renaissance style, with naturalistic lighting, attention to detail, and anatomical realism.

This Renaissance-era piece in in stark contrast to this other Crucifixion painting, made a century later during the height of the Baroque Era. The piece below is titled 'Le Christ en croix,' and was painted by Simon Vouet, who lived from 1590-1649. Comparing the two torsos, the Baroque-era painting appears much more natural. The surface of the skin looks more fleshy, and the slight curve in Christ's trunk is an example of subtle but realistically-depicted movement. Baroque art built upon the naturalistic and anatomically-accurate principles established during the Renaissance. Baroque artists applied the new wealth of anatomical connaissance to their depictions of the human figure, and deftly portrayed the human body as a moving, animated entity.

Inspired by the anatomical accuracy of painting launched during the Renaissance, I have begun my own anatomy studies using the text 'Classic Human Anatomy: The Artist's Guide to Form, Function, and Movement'. I tell myself 'just keep sketching, just keep sketching'....

Over and out, next week we'll get classy with the Neoclassical Era!