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CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE BAROQUE IN ITALY AND SPAIN
Google Earth Coordinates:
Aerial view of St. Peter’s, Vatican City
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome
Video Links:
Basilica of St. Peter’s, Virtual Tour by Virtualsweden
Designing St. Peter’s
Painting in Italy
Key Images
Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, p. 664, 19.1
Caravaggio, The Calling of St. Matthew, p. 665, 19.2
Caravaggio, The Conversion of St. Paul, p. 666, 19.3
Primary Source: Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-ca. 1653), from a letter to Don Antonio
Ruffo, p. 669
Around 1600, Rome became the center of Baroque artistic activity.
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Although his career was very short, Caravaggio developed a new style of painting
that would forever change the course of Western Art. This style included the use of
Annibale Carracci introduced a classicism, based on the art of the High Renaissance,
into Baroque Art.
Illusionistic ceiling paintings were a favorite device of Baroque secular and religious
architecture.
Architecture in Italy
Key Images
Carlo Maderno, Façade of
Bernini, Baldacchino
Pier Tommaso Campani and Francesco Trevisani, Nocturnal Clock, p. 678, 19.16
St. Peter s (19.14) was completed during the Baroque period. Carlo Maderno s design
for the façade followed an earlier design by Michelangelo. After Maderno s death,
Gialorenzo Bernini continued the project, designing the exterior elliptical arch
(suggesting the enfolding arms of the Church) and the piazza. With Bernini s
Baldacchino as the focal point inside the cathedral, St. Peter s expressed the
theatricality of the Baroque period.
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Key Images
Stefano Maderno, Santa Cecilia, p. 685, 19.29
Materials and Techniques:
Bernini s David expresses the theatricality of the period. This work was not meant to
stand alone as others, such as Donatello s David (19.30), had before. Instead the
Painting in Spain
Key Images
Juan Sánchez Cotán, Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber, p. 690, 19.33
Jusepe de Ribera, The Club-Footed Boy, p. 690, 19.34
Primary Source: Antonio Palomino (1655-1726), from El Museo Pictórica y Escala
Optica: On Velázquez, p. 695
The Spanish court preferred to commission foreign artists over native artists. This
Key Terms/Places/Names
Caravaggio
naturalism
tenebrism
quadratura
quadric riportati
baldacchino
King Philip IV and Queen Maria Anna
Discussion Questions
1. How did Bernini transform the new St. Peter s (19.14) from a High Renaissance
building into a Baroque experience?
2. What was the impact of Caravaggio s work on the work of Artemisia Gentileschi?
3. Basing your response on Artemisia Gentileschi s letter to Don Antonio Ruffo
(p. 669), what obstacles did Artemisia Gentileschi have to overcome to work as a
painter during this period?
6. In what ways does Bernini s David (19.30) differ from Michelangelo s David
(16.13)?
7. What was the impact of illusionistic ceiling paintings during the Baroque period?
Resources
Books
Bazin, Germain. Baroque and Rococo Art. New York: Praeger, 1969.
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Domingues Ortiz, Antonio, Alfonso E. Perez Sanchez, and Julian Gallego. Velazquez.
New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989.
DVDs
Landmarks of Western Art: The Baroque A Journey of Art History across the Ages.
(2006). Kultur Video. 50 min.
Velazquez The Painter of Painters. (2002). Image Entertainment. 56 min.