Caravaggio's Seven Acts of Mercy
BACKGROUND The seventeenth century marked the birth of modern science and saw the gradual expansion of European colonial empires. These changes will affect not just the development of the arts, like other great historical events, such as the Counter-Reformation and the consolidation of national states in the work of great monarchs like Louis XIV. The studies and the dissemination of the writings of Galileo explain the precision almost "mathematics" with many of the figurative works of the period, and the affirmation of the Copernican system, which deprives man of the centrality in the universe from the Ptolemaic system until riservatagli then firmly established, resulted in the triumph of landscape painting, in which the human presence is reduced and eventually disappear. The founding of the colonies and the consequent development of new businesses also led many to describe places and exotic cultures hitherto sconosciuti.Le disputes and religious movements deeply influenced baroque art. The Catholic Church became one of the most ardent patrons and the Counter contributed to the birth of an art emotional, dramatic and naturalistic, as evidenced by a clear desire for disclosure of fede.Lo ostentation, the desire to impress, the taste for subtlety and the paradox often took art to a dramatization of situations and episodes of exacerbation and psychological characteristics, and when these trends were not strongly opposed from the opposite and equally strong need for order and stability. The world was perceived as a theater in which the individual, driven to act according to logic and rationality of sensible evidence, however, live with the knowledge that their fate is placed in the inscrutable divine grace.
CHARACTERISTICS OF BAROQUE STYLE: movement, energy and tension are among the main characteristics of Baroque art, strong contrasts of light and shadow accentuate the dramatic effect of paintings, sculptures and architectural works. In the paintings, frescoes, reliefs and statues in Baroque style, there are also elements that often suggest a projection into the surrounding space, indistinct and infinite, thanks to careful volumetric rendering and perspective. The natural tendency is another key component of Baroque art, the human figures portrayed are not stereotypes, but individuals, each well-characterized. The artists of this period were fascinated by the intimate mechanisms of the mind and the feverish passions of the soul, which wanted to portray through the physiognomic characteristics of their subjects. A sense of deep spirituality is present in many works, notably in representations of ecstasy, or miraculous apparitions martyrs, especially the work of artists from Catholic countries like Italy, Spain and France. The intensity, immediacy, The attention to detail make this still one of the baroque style more engaging for the viewer in the whole of Western art.
BAROQUE PAINTING AND SCULPTURE IN ITALY : The roots of the Baroque are to be found in Italian art of the late sixteenth century. As a reaction to Mannerism - characterized dall'inquieto attempt to overcome the issues of tradition by emphasizing the uneven and the asymmetry and the use of color contrasts - many artists were motivated by a desire to return to a classical order. The school that developed around Carracci (Annibale, Agostino and Ludovico), for example, attempted to free art from its complications mannered recovering the principles of clarity, monumentality, and balance their early Renaissance. With the ceiling frescoes in the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese (1597-1601), Annibale Carracci marked a milestone in the development of the current "classical" baroque. This stylistic approach characterized the work of painters like Guido Reni, Domenichino, Francesco Albani , and sculptors such as Alexander Algardi , formed in the studio of the Carracci and later moved to the city of the popes also came Roma.Nella Caravaggio , which became in a short time the main rival of Annibale Carracci and the guiding spirit of an entire school of baroque artists, more oriented to naturalism. Formed on themes and motifs of Lombard painting of the fifteenth and sixteenth century, Caravaggio developed a personal and dramatic style of expression, focusing on strong contrasts of light and shadows of human figures live, "authentic" in their characterization that draws on reality and everyday life, emerge with overwhelming force by the light and shade, revealing their intimate verità.Roma became the center of Baroque painting and many foreign artists, like the French Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, Urbe elected to the seat of his activities. During the first two decades seventeenth century naturalism found in the great interpreters skilled painters as Caravaggio, who worked in Rome, Naples and northern Italy: include among others Orazio Gentileschi and his daughter Artemisia, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Batts, French Valentin de Boulogne , Dutch and English Gerrit van Honthorst Jusepe de Ribera. Although after 1630 the baroque naturalism was already experiencing a decline in Italy, it continued to enjoy great success throughout the rest of Europe until the end of the thirties of the seventeenth century secolo.Intorno established himself in the fresco style stationery that is an unmistakable feature of the period, mainly in Rome. The ceiling of palaces and churches in Rome was painted with bold architectural features and prospective breakthroughs infinity of heaven, peopled with mythological or historical figures in the sacred books in the blue and yellow of sunlight floating on white clouds or buildings overlooking the classical represented. Examples of this illustrious taste for spatial illusionism are the Assumption of the Virgin (1625-1627) by Giovanni Lanfranco at the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome and the Triumph of Divine Providence by Pietro da Cortona's fresco on the ceiling hall of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome (1633-1639), the great triumph of the name of Jesus (1672-1683) of Baciccia in the church of Jesus in Rome. As for the sculpture, the first notable example of "back to nature" is offered by the Santa Cecilia by Stefano Maderno (1600, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome), portrayed the saint in death, caught in the same position in which abandoned its body was found in the church of Trastevere.Fu Gian Lorenzo Bernini , however, to dominate the Baroque sculpture in Rome, already with his first marble groups, such as the Rape of Proserpine and Apollo and Daphne (1621-22, 1622-1624, Galleria Borghese, Rome), demonstrated an extraordinary ability to create effects of realistic dramatic tension, thanks to the strong contrasts of chiaroscuro and attention to detail anatomy. His Ecstasy of St Teresa (1645-1652, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome) is a masterpiece of expressive performance, characterized by a strong sensuality, and composition plastic, which is an articulate theatrical orchestration another hallmark of the Baroque. Artist beloved by the Pope, Bernini for St. Peter the imposing bronze canopy (1624-1633) on the high altar and the Chair of St. Peter (1657-1666), beautiful evidence of the magnificence and munificence of the Roman Catholic Church, which thundered against the supporters of the Reformation.
ARCHITETTURA BAROCCA IN ITALIA: Scultore di riconosciuta grandezza (ricordiamo ancora tra le sue opere la Fontana dei fiumi in piazza Navona a Roma, 1648-1651), Bernini fu anche un importante e autorevole architetto. Oltre al colonnato che abbraccia la piazza San Pietro (1656-1667), progettò Palazzo Ludovisi (ora Palazzo Montecitorio) e Palazzo Chigi, e alcune chiese, tra cui Sant’Andrea al Quirinale (1658-1670).Fra i maggiori interpreti del primo barocco vi fu inoltre Carlo Maderno, che tra il 1606 e il 1612 costruì il prolungamento della navata e la facciata della basilica di San Pietro, e Francesco Borromini, autore tra l’altro del progetto per la chiesa di San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1638-1641), to elliptical, with an elegant facade concave-convex. Francesco Maria Baldassarre Longhena Richini and represented the Baroque architecture in northern Italy. The first worked in Milan: he is the church of San Giuseppe (1607-1630), Palazzo di Brera, Palazzo Durini and curved facade of the College of Switzerland. The latter became famous for the church of Santa Maria della Salute (begun in 1631), richly decorated, overlooking the Grand Canal. Particularly impressive is the work of Guarino Guarini in Turin: its Chapel of the Holy Shroud (1667-1690, partly damaged by fire in 1997) stands out for its bold and intricate geometry forme.Anche in Naples, Lecce and the baroque architecture in Sicily had considerable development. In Naples, you can admire the facade of Santa Maria della Sapienza (begun in 1638), the cloister of the Certosa di San Martino (1623-1631) and the spire of San Gennaro (begun in 1631); in Lecce are fine examples of Baroque consisting of the cathedral (1659-1670) and the Basilica of Santa Croce (begun in 1548), while among the masterpieces of the late baroque Sicilian must cite at least the splendid buildings of note, including the church of San Francesco to the Immaculate, the Monastery of the Holy Saviour and the Duomo (severely damaged in a crash in 1996).
baroque music: baroque music The term is used to classify the music composed during the period of spread of baroque art. The main Baroque composers who are now being considered Bach, Handel and Antonio Vivaldi . Use of the term Baroque music is reported, however, a fairly recent development, and is traceable only to a publication by the musicologist Curt Sachs 1919.La Baroque music is characterized by the use of escape and often very fast and difficult passages .
musical forms: The German sacred cantata . The concept of "sung sacred 'is foreign to the universe of formal Johann Sebastian Bach : in fact the term was coined only in the nineteenth century to describe briefly the eighteenth-century liturgical compositions, on the biblical text, sung by choir and soloists. Generally "The Kirchenkantaten" to start with a Bach chorale tune in a non-polyphonic, continue with a series of arias, recitatives and concerted and culminating in a choral developed in contrapuntal form. The concerto grosso The Genesis of the concerto grosso be found in the practice of so-called trio sonata da chiesa widespread especially in Bologna in the mid-seventeenth century, but the model formale più evoluto viene messo a punto a Roma, verso la fine del Seicento, da Arcangelo Corelli .I dodici Concerti dell'op.6 corrispondono alla fase "matura" del concerto grosso:un gruppo di solisti (nel caso di Corelli due violini e un violoncello)chiamato "concertino" o "soli" si contrappone all'intero corpo dell'orchestra, chiamato "grosso" o "tutti". Non una contrapposizione generica basata sulla semplice contrasto di sonorità, ma una rigorosa divisione del lavoro di carattere formale:al "grosso" spetta l'esposizione del ritornello, al concertino gli episodi solistici, secondo la successione di parti e movimenti tipica della sonata a tre che verrà poi ripresa dal concerto solistico. La suite: Le origini della suite si confondono inevitabilmente con la pratica antichissima di accompagnare e sostenere la danza con un numero più o meno elevato di voci o di strumenti, ma il termine "suite" appare per la prima volta in una raccolta pubblicata dal compositore francese Philippe Attaignant nel 1529. La pratica di codificare in modo rigoroso la denominazione e la successione delle diverse danze è però molto posteriore e avviene, in sostanza quando la suite diventa un "seguito" di danze puramente immaginarie. Si deve a Jakob Froberger , allievo di Frescobaldi, la riduzione della suite alle sue quattro danze "di base" (ALLEMANDA, CORRENTE, SARABANDA e GIGA) e sarà questo il modello base that will follow for some of its executive suites by JS Bach's English Suite, in fact, are divided into eight dances. The Canon: The fee is the simplest, the oldest, the most rigorous form of polyphonic writing created by the western classical music. Its specific character and dominant is given by continuous imitation between the parties (or items) that constitute it. After the first item deals with the very same reason, however, coming at a certain distance from the first. This creates a form of imitation or duplication that usually creates a sense of extreme density and cohesion between the parties. Once the first item is reached in the second, in fact, has to develop their own melodic path independent (a "response") that can not fail to take account of intervallic and harmonic relationships with the subject of the second item. The number of entries in a fee can not be made, theoretically, limits. The Choir: Originally the term "choir" usually indicates monodic singing unaccompanied by the Christian liturgy. After the Reformation Lutheran is the word to indicate, however, in Italian, the chant, which is also monadic, just the Protestant liturgy. The musical heart of the reform consists of a new body of monophonic songs, often very simple melody and concentration. The texts belong alla lingua della liturgia riformata, il tedesco, e abbandonano per sempre il vetusto latino dei padri della chiesa romana. I nuovi "corali" possono essere intonati "choralitier", ossia in forma monofonica, oppure "figuraliter" ossia in forma polifonica, grazie alla semplice armonizzazione della linea vocale di base. Di questa prassi, in uso sin dalla metà del Cinquecento, si avvarranno nei secoli successivi tutti i compositori tedeschi di fede luterana, ivi compreso, naturalmente, J.S. Bach. La sonata barocca: Il modello originario appare a Venezia verso la fine del Cinquecento, grazie agli organisti e ai violinisti che prestano servizio presso la Cappella della Basilica di San Marco, ma l'idea di una forma strumentale totally independent from the vocal music takes hold, however, another great musical center of Italy of the time: the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna. It is here that the warp of the sonata contrapuntal Renaissance melts hidden in his two polarities: on the one hand, the basso continuo, the other the upper parts of the free play of improvisation. Thus was born the prototype of the "trio sonata", whose workforce is the continuous and two melodic instruments. From the second half of the seventeenth century trio sonata is divided into two complementary ways: first, the "church sonata", originally intended to replace the missing parts of the liturgy and thus voice characterized by strict contrapuntal writing, the other, the sonata da camera ", originally addressed to entertainment and then marked by rhythmic and melodic writing is typical of dance forms.
