Baroque (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what the Baroque is, its characteristics and its main exponents. Also, what the painting, music, architecture and literature of this period were like.

What is Baroque?

The Baroque was a period in the history of culture in the West which spanned the 17th and early 18th centuries and marked a change in the way art was conceived. It had an impact on numerous areas of culture and knowledge such as fine arts (architecture, painting, sculpture), letters (literature, poetry), and philosophy).

The baroque style was characterized by overloaded ornamentation the exaggerated expression of passions, exuberance, elaborate detail, pomp and contrast. It arose in a time of tensions after the Protestant Reformation, the Counter-Reformation and the rise of absolutist monarchies, and occurred both in Western Europe and in its colonies in Latin America, starting in the 17th century, after the Renaissance.

In the year 1527, a violent event known as the Sack of Rome. This event triggered a shake-up of the humanist values that had flourished during the Renaissance, and gave rise to a new way of understanding life and art. The artistic response was a current known as mannerismwhich challenged classical values and lasted until the first years of the 17th century, when the Baroque appeared.

While Renaissance art was inspired by classical harmony: symmetry, balance and proportion, the Baroque proposed the opposite: excessiveness, asymmetry, exaggeration, drama, ostentation and distortion of forms.

The origin of the Baroque dates back to the Italian period known as Sixteenand its name for a long time was used in a derogatory way to refer to an art that was overloaded, capricious, deceptive, imperfect and even in bad taste.

After the 19th century, the term “baroque” was revalued and It is currently used not only to refer to this period but as an adjective to refer to artistic manifestations that are not governed by the aesthetic forms of classicism.

What does “baroque” mean?

The name “baroque,” according to some theories, comes from the Portuguese word used for pearls that had some deformity or irregularity. Hence, initially the name was used to refer to a certain overloaded, bombastic and excessive artistic style. Subsequently, This term was used to refer to a “degenerate” form of the Renaissance and, finally, it ended up being considered the negation of the classic.

See also: Plastic arts

Characteristics of the Baroque

The Baroque radically changed the way of making art and thinking about culture. Some of its main features were:

1. He opposed the artistic forms and values of the Renaissance

The Renaissance covered themes such as love and beauty and was characterized by rescuing classical culture, anthropocentrism, the search for perfection, symmetry and idealistic representations. The Baroque, on the contrary, was colored by pessimism, anguish and affliction, states that were reflected in dramatic and exaggerated works.

2. It placed the center on subjectivity and individual emotion

Instead of representing ideals (such as goodness, beauty or perfection), the Baroque sought to reflect passions and subjective situations to awaken intense emotions. He placed emphasis on energetic forms, exuberance, asymmetry, contrast and dramatic effects obtained through detail, chiaroscuro, texture or poetic resources.

3. He exalted the values of religion and monarchy

The absolutist monarchies and the Catholic Church were great patrons of the Baroque, which is why their artistic expressions functioned as a means of propaganda against the growing threat of Protestantism. With this objective, large palaces, churches and cathedrals were built that sought to exalt national and religious references.

4. He produced ostentatious and complex works

The Baroque was characterized by focusing on details and generating exuberant, suggestive pieces full of ornaments. The Baroque is usually related to the Latin word horror vacuous (fear of emptiness), which consists of completely filling a surface with decoration or figures, without leaving any empty space.

5. It represented a total cultural change

The Baroque was not just a movement, but a different way of conceiving and making art. It spread throughout the European continent and its colonies and had exponents in all artistic fields and disciplines, from painting to music, through sculpture, architecture and literature.

Baroque painting

The painting was one of the most developed artistic expressions and of greater diversity during the Baroque.

On the one hand, The religious painting carried out by Catholicism stood out who sought to propagate and defend his faith against the threat of the Lutheran Reformation (which marked the beginning of Protestantism).

The painting promoted by the Protestant bourgeoisie, for its part, was characterized by the production of landscapes and scenes of daily life, in addition to religious, historical and mythological themes.

Some of the main representatives of the Baroque in painting were: Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) in Spain, Rembrandt (1606-1669) in the Netherlands and Michelangelo Caravaggio (1571-1610) in Italy.

The main features that characterized baroque painting were:

He used contrasts and plays of light and shadows (chiaroscuro). The greatest practitioners of this technique are known as tenebrists and its greatest exponent was the Italian Michelangelo Caravaggio.
He sought realism in the detail of everyday aspects, combined with dramatic or symbolic elements.
He used movement and asymmetry through foreshortening, open and diagonal compositions.
He prioritized warm and bright colors.
To achieve faithful depth effects, he used techniques such as sfumate (imperceptible transition between colors by delicately superimposing them) and perspective.

Baroque Literature

baroque literature It was very determined by the Catholic counter-reformation and absolutist values. Social discontent and pessimism were reflected in the literary works produced from the 17th century onwards. Baroque authors dealt with themes such as dreams, hopelessness, lies and pessimism and moved away from Renaissance themes, such as love and beauty.

Baroque texts were characterized by being ornate and using poetic or literary resources such as metaphors, ellipses or adjectives, which sought to awaken intense emotions.

One of the most important literary currents of this period was the Spanish Golden Age, with representatives such as Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645), Lope de Vega (1562-1635), Luis de Góngora (1561-1627) and Tirso de Molina (1579-1648).

The main literary genres of the Baroque were:

the novel. This genre had a great development during the Baroque. Satire was used to postulate social criticism. In addition, religious themes, love and honor were also frequent; as well as the use of rhetorical figures and mythological allusions. The picaresque novel had a great boom in this period.
poetry. Within poetry there were two main currents. Culteranism, whose greatest exponent was Luis de Góngora, focused on the aesthetics of language. Conceptism, for its part, was dedicated to the link between words and concepts and was developed by authors such as Francisco de Quevedo.
The theater. Theater reached one of its highest points in the Baroque, with comedies, dramas and autos sacramentales. It distanced itself from the Renaissance style and norms and was characterized by the complexity of its themes. In this period, spaces were created especially for performing theatrical works.

baroque architecture

baroque architecture It was greatly influenced by the political and religious context of the 17th century. On the one hand, the Lutheran Reformation brought about a Counter-Reformation that sought, through the construction of churches and cathedrals, to show Catholic authority and its greatness. This is how emblems such as the basilica and St. Peter's Square in the Vatican were built.

Baroque music

Baroque music featured exponents such as Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). As in other disciplines, music during the Baroque was concerned with the intense expression of passions.

The date of death of the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach in 1750 is marked as the end of the musical baroque.

Some contributions of this movement were:

Musical forms developed such as the sonata, the cantata and the opera.
Polyphony became more complex which consists of the simultaneous sound of several melodic voices.
Counterpoint was perfected the harmonic combination of several independent melodies.
The tonal system was created the basis of all Western music until the beginning of the 20th century (and which is still used in many genres today).
The basso continuo was established an instrumental accompaniment technique in which a low and melodic instrument functions as a bass and harmonic instruments improvise, on that basis, a harmony.
Opera emerged a sung show that uses resources from various disciplines. The work Daphne (with libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini and music by Jacobo Peri), premiered in 1598, is considered the first opera.

Authors and representatives of the Baroque

Representatives of the Baroque in literature

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). He was a Spanish novelist of the Golden Age and is considered one of the most important authors of the Spanish language. He is the author of the first modern novel: The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote of La Mancha.
Luis de Góngora (1561-1627). He was a Spanish poet of the Golden Age and main representative of culteranism. His production includes romances, sonnets, lyrics and major poems, such as Solitudes.
Lope de Vega Carpio (1562-1635). He was a Spanish poet and playwright of the Golden Age. He is recognized for his vast work, which includes comedies, sonnets and poems. Fuenteovejuna and The manger dog They are two of his most recognized works.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616). He was an English poet and playwright, considered one of the most important authors of universal literature. He wrote poetry, comedies and dramas, such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth.
John Donne (1572-1631). He was an English poet and Anglican priest and one of the exponents of metaphysical poetry. He wrote sermons, essays and poems, such as Devotions and mourning for death.
Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645). He was a writer from the Spanish Golden Age recognized for both his poetry and his prose. His main works are Buscón's life and Dreams and speeches of truths that reveal abuses, vices and deceptions in all professions and states of the world.
Tirso de Molina (1583-1648). He was a playwright and poet of the Spanish Golden Age. He stood out in the writing of autos sacramentales (religious works) and comedies such as The mocker of Seville.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681). He was a Spanish poet and playwright and one of the main representatives of the Golden Age. His most important work is life is dream.
John Milton (1608-1674). He was an English poet, author of poems, essays and sonnets. His most recognized work is the poem The lost paradise.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695). She was a Mexican writer and one of the main exponents of the American baroque. Within his work, sonnets, Christmas carols and romances stand out.

You may be interested: Artistic Expression

Representatives of the Baroque in painting and sculpture

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). He was an Italian painter and one of the main exponents of tenebrism. His most important works are The vocation of Saint Matthew, The disciples of Emmaus and Daffodil.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). He was a German painter who was a member of the Flemish school. He was a prolific artist of whom a large number of sketches and works are preserved, among which stand out The descent from the cross, The three graces and The judgment of Paris.
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654). She was an Italian painter whose works stand out for starring women. His most recognized paintings are Judith beheading Holofernes, Susanna and the old men, and Lucretia.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). He was an Italian sculptor and painter considered a reference in baroque sculpture. Some of his most emblematic works are Apollo and Daphne, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa and The Abduction of Proserpina.
Diego Velázquez (1599-1660). He was the main representative of baroque painting in Spain. He was chamber painter to King Philip IV and painted religious works, mythological works, portraits and landscapes. Among his most important works are Las Meninas, Mirror Venus and The triumph of Bacchus.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). He was one of the main representatives of baroque painting in Holland. He stood out in the use of chiaroscuro and some of his most important works are The night watch, The return of the prodigal son and The storm on the Sea of Galilee.
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). He was a Dutch painter known for his everyday scenes, portraits and landscapes. His most recognized works are The girl with the pearl, Girl reading a letter and The art of painting.

Representatives of the Baroque in music

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). He was an Italian composer and violinist who produced operas, cantatas and concertos. Some of his works are The four seasons, Magnificat and Glory RV 589.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). He was a German musician, considered one of the most outstanding composers in history. He was an organist, violinist and author of preludes, concertos, sonatas and secular and religious cantatas. His most recognized works are Passion according to Matthew, Brandenburg Concerts and Toccata and fugue in D minor.
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759). He was a German composer and one of the most influential musicians of the Baroque period. He stood out in the production of operas and also produced cantatas, oratorios and serenades. Among his most important works are The Messiah, Rinaldo and aquatic music.

Renaissance
Neoclassicism

References

Castria, F., & Stefano Zuffi. (1999). baroque painting.‌ Elect.
Eco, Umberto (2004). History of beauty. Lumen.
Fleming, W., Blengio, R., & José Emilio González. (1986). Art, music and ideas. Interamerican.
Honour, H., & Fleming, J. (2004). World art history. Akal.
Souriau, Étienne (1998). Dictionary of Aesthetics. Akal.