Baroque
The English word baroque comes directly from the French. Some scholars state that the French word originated from the Portuguese term 'a flawed pearl', pointing to the Latin 'wart'. Other sources suggest a Medieval Latin term used in logic as the most likely source. In the 16th century the Medieval Latin word moved beyond scholastic logic and came into use to characterise anything that seemed absurdly complex. The French philosopher (1533, 1592) helped to give the term the meaning 'bizarre, uselessly complicated'. An example from 1531 uses the term to describe pearls in an inventory of Charles V of France's treasures. Later, the word appears in a 1694 edition of Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française which describes baroque as "only used for pearls that are imperfectly round". A 1728 Portuguese dictionary similarly describes it as relating to a "coarse and uneven pearl". By the mid-19th century art critics and historians had adopted the term baroque as a way to ridicule post-Renaissance art. This was the sense of the word as used in 1855 by the leading art historian Jacob Burckhardt who wrote that baroque artists "despised and abused detail" because they lacked "respect for tradition". In 1888 the art historian Heinrich Wölfflin published the first serious academic work on the style Renaissance und Barock which described the differences between the painting sculpture and architecture of the Renaissance and the Baroque.
The Baroque style of architecture was a result of doctrines adopted by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in 1545, 1563. The Council of Trent decided instead to appeal to a more popular audience and declared that the arts should communicate religious themes with direct and emotional involvement. The first building in Rome to have a Baroque façade was the Church of the Gesù in 1584. It was plain by later Baroque standards but marked a break with the traditional Renaissance façades that preceded it. In Rome in 1605 Paul V became the first of series of popes who commissioned basilicas and church buildings designed to inspire emotion and awe through a proliferation of forms. Among the most influential monuments of the Early Baroque were the façade of St. Peter's Basilica (1606, 1619) and the new nave and loggia which connected the façade to Michelangelo's dome. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed a new quadruple colonnade around St. Peter's Square from 1656 to 1667. Another major innovator of the Italian High Baroque was Francesco Borromini whose major work was the Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane or Saint Charles of the Four Fountains from 1634 to 1646. The sense of movement is given not by the decoration but by the walls themselves which undulate and by concave and convex elements including an oval tower and balcony inserted into a concave traverse. The Dresden Frauenkirche serves as a prominent example of Lutheran Baroque art which was completed in 1743 after being commissioned by the Lutheran city council of Dresden.
Baroque painters worked deliberately to set themselves apart from the painters of the Renaissance and the Mannerism period after it. In their palette they used intense and warm colours and particularly made use of the primary colours red blue and yellow frequently putting all three in close proximity. They avoided the even lighting of Renaissance painting and used strong contrasts of light and darkness on certain parts of the picture to direct attention to the central actions or figures. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio shocked his contemporaries with his realistic approach to the human figure painted directly from life and dramatically spotlit against a dark background. Peter Paul Rubens was the most important painter of the Flemish Baroque style. His highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasised movement colour and sensuality which followed the immediate dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. The dominant figure in baroque sculpture was Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Under the patronage of Pope Urban VIII he made a remarkable series of monumental statues of saints and figures whose faces and gestures vividly expressed their emotions. When he visited Paris in 1665 Bernini addressed the students at the academy of painting and sculpture. He advised the students to work from classical models rather than from nature. He told the students "When I had trouble with my first statue I consulted the Antinous like an oracle".
The term Baroque is also used to designate the style of music composed during a period that overlaps with that of Baroque art. In an anonymous satirical review of the première in October 1733 of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie printed in the Mercure de France in May 1734 the critic implied that the novelty of this opera was "du barocque" complaining that the music lacked coherent melody. Common use of the term for the music of the period began only in 1919 by Curt Sachs and it was not until 1940 that it was first used in English in an article published by Manfred Bukofzer. The baroque was a period of musical experimentation and innovation which explains the amount of ornaments and improvisation performed by the musicians. New forms were invented including the concerto and sinfonia. Opera was born in Italy at the end of the 16th century with Jacopo Peri's mostly lost Dafne produced in Florence in 1598. In 1669 the poet Pierre Perrin opened an academy of opera in Paris the first opera theatre in France open to the public and premiered Pomone the first grand opera in French. Several new instruments including the piano were introduced during this period. The invention of the piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655, 1731) of Padua Italy who was employed by Ferdinando de' Medici Grand Prince of Tuscany as the Keeper of the Instruments.
The Baroque period was a golden age for theatre in France and Spain. Playwrights included Corneille Racine and Molière in France and Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderón de la Barca in Spain. During the Baroque period the art and style of the theatre evolved rapidly alongside the development of opera and of ballet. The design of newer and larger theatres the invention the use of more elaborate machinery the wider use of the proscenium arch which framed the stage and hid the machinery from the audience encouraged more scenic effects and spectacle. Lope de Vega introduced through his Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo (1609) the new comedy. He established a new dramatic formula that broke the three Aristotle unities of the Italian school of poetry mixing tragic and comic elements showing different types of verses and stanzas upon what is represented. Tirso de Molina is best known for two works The Convicted Suspicions and The Trickster of Seville one of the first versions of the Don Juan myth. Upon his arrival to Madrid Cosimo Lotti brought to the Spanish court the most advanced theatrical techniques of Europe. His techniques and mechanic knowledge were applied in palace exhibitions called "Fiestas" and in lavish exhibitions of rivers or artificial fountains called "Naumaquias".
Due to the colonization of the Americas by European countries the Baroque naturally moved to the New World finding especially favorable ground in the regions dominated by Spain and Portugal both countries being centralized and irreducibly Catholic monarchies. European artists migrated to America and made school and along with the widespread penetration of Catholic missionaries many of whom were skilled artists created a multiform Baroque often influenced by popular taste. The Criollo and indigenous crafters did much to give this Baroque unique features. The main centres of American Baroque cultivation that are still standing are Mexico Peru Brazil Cuba Ecuador Colombia Bolivia Guatemala Nicaragua Puerto Rico and Panama. Of particular note is the so-called "Missionary Baroque" developed in the framework of the Spanish reductions in areas extending from Mexico and southwestern portions of current-day United States to as far south as Argentina and Chile. Indigenous settlements organized by Spanish Catholic missionaries in order to convert them to the Christian faith formed a hybrid Baroque influenced by Native culture where flourished Criollos and many indigenous artisans and musicians even literate some of great ability and talent of their own. In Peru the constructions mostly developed in the cities of Lima Cusco Arequipa and Trujillo since 1650 show original characteristics that are advanced even to the European Baroque.
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Common questions
What is the origin of the word Baroque?
The English word baroque comes directly from the French. Some scholars state that the French word originated from the Portuguese term 'a flawed pearl', pointing to the Latin 'wart'. Other sources suggest a Medieval Latin term used in logic as the most likely source.
When did the Council of Trent establish doctrines for Baroque architecture?
The Baroque style of architecture was a result of doctrines adopted by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in 1545 and 1563. The Council of Trent decided instead to appeal to a more popular audience and declared that the arts should communicate religious themes with direct and emotional involvement.
Who designed the quadruple colonnade around St. Peter's Square between 1656 and 1667?
Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed a new quadruple colonnade around St. Peter's Square from 1656 to 1667. He also created a remarkable series of monumental statues of saints and figures whose faces and gestures vividly expressed their emotions under the patronage of Pope Urban VIII.
In what year did Curt Sachs begin common use of the term Baroque for music?
Common use of the term for the music of the period began only in 1919 by Curt Sachs. It was not until 1940 that it was first used in English in an article published by Manfred Bukofzer.
Which countries were main centers of American Baroque cultivation?
The main centres of American Baroque cultivation that are still standing are Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and Panama. Of particular note is the so-called 'Missionary Baroque' developed in areas extending from Mexico and southwestern portions of current-day United States to as far south as Argentina and Chile.