BAROQUE-ROCOCO

Upon successful completion of the course, students will: - apply the correct art history and art theory terminology and methodology, relevant to the Baroque and the Rococo) - recognize the typological and morphological characteristics of the Baroque and Rococo art works - define the historical, social, political and economic factors that shaped 17th- and 18th-century art - be able to research, analyze and synthesize bibliographical data and information gathered through the use of New Technologies and will be able to employ an interdisciplinary approach to their work - have developed skills for independent and group work - promote free, creative and inductive reasoning The course’s learning objectives will be achieved through classroom lectures, dialogic discussion, practical exercises, and written assignments. The use of audio-visual material, multimedia sources and digital databases will ensure that the students will be up-to-date with all available research tools and will guarantee their active involvement in the educational process.

1. Introduction to 17th-century art. Timeline and geography. Basic concepts. Historical, social and cultural context: The Courts of Europe and the Rise of the Bourgeoisie. Rationalism. Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Propaganda fidae: art, the Catholic Church and the New World. Art and Protestantism. Art in the service of absolute monarchy. Aesthetic Principles of the Baroque: anticlassical tendencies, Points of convergence and divergence with Mannerism. The importance of Michelangelo. Wölfflin’s principles of Baroque art: painterliness, recession, unity, open form and relative clarity. 2. Staged space and dramatic expression in Italian Baroque. Questions of composition in architecture, landscape architecture and sculpture. Synthesis of the arts: the participation of sculpture and painting in the architectural work. Magnificence and luxury. The quadratura. Theatricality in sculptural compositions. Important architects and sculptors and emblematic works in Italy: Giacomo della Porta, Carlo Maderno, Pietro da Cortona, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Francesco Borromini, Carlo Rainaldi, Pietro Longhena, Francesco Mochi, Nicola Salvi. 3. Light, expression and gesture in Italian Baroque painting. The Carracci family. Domenichino, Guido Reni, Elisabetta Sirani. Dramatic expression and naturalism: the case of Caravaggio. Caravaggisti and Tenebristi within and outside of Italy: Bartolomeo Manfredi, Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, School of Utrecht, Le Nain brothers, Georges de La Tour. 4. The Spanish "golden" age. Baroque in the service of Catholicism and absolute monarchy in the Empire "where the sun never sets". Conditions of creation and development, important artistic centers, relations with Italy. The golden age of painting: Diego Rodriguez da Silva y Velásquez, Jusepe de Ribera (Lo Spagnoletto), Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Estaban Murillo. Architecture: Fernando De Casas y Novoa, Francisco Hurtado Izquierdo, the Churriguera family, Narciso de Tomé, Leonardo de Figueroa. Important works in the Iberian Peninsula and in Latin America (Mexico, Peru, Chile, Ecuador). Sculpture: Alonso Cano, Juan Martínez Montañés, Gregorio Fernández. 5. The Dutch and Flemish "golden" age. Painting in Catholic Flanders and in Protestant Netherlands. Flanders and Antwerp. Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Peter Snyders, Jacob Jordaens. Subject matters, patrons and artistic mobility in Europe. Art centers in the Netherlands: Amsterdam, Haarlem, Delft. Art trade and patronage of the Dutch merchants. The hierarchy of genres and the flourishing of landscape, still life, genre, tronie and group portraiture in Protestant painting: stylistic features and interpretation. The work of Rembrandt van Rijn. Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan van Goyen, Meindert Hobbema, Willem Kalf, Pieter Claesz., Rachel Ruysch, Maria van Oostervijk, Clara Peeters. Pictorial illusionism in practice and theory: van Hoogstraten's treatise (1678). The formation of cabinets of curiosities during the 17th century, through the study of selected still life paintings: naturalia, mirabilia, artificialia. 6. Classicism and grand style in France during the 17th century. Art in the service of the Sun King (Louis XIV of France). Founding of the Royal Academies of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Creation of Royal Factories. Baroque and Classicist architecture in France: Salomon de Brosse, François Mansart, Jacques Lemercier, Louis Le Vau, Jules Hardouin-Mansart. The "controversy of the ancients and the moderns": the case of Claude Perrault. Versailles as a model of palace architecture. André Le Nôtre and French landscape architecture. Vauban and military engineering. Formalist approaches of Antiquity and Raphaelian standards in painting: the grand style: Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Simon Vouet, Eustache Le Sueur, Charles Le Brun. Baroque sculpture: Pierre Puget, François Girardon, Guillaume Coustou. 7. Echoes and Revivals. Baroque Art in England: The Rise of Portraiture: William Dobson, George Jamesone, Godfrey Kneller, Peter Lely, John Michael Wright. English architecture in the 17th century: Baroque (Christopher Wren, John Vanbrugh, Nicholas Hawksmoor) and Palladianism (Inigo Jones, John Webb). Architectural classicism and the interest in Renaissance architecture. Baroque echoes in the first half of the 18th century: late Baroque architecture in Germany (Fischer vol Erlach, Jakob Prandtauer, Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, Christophe Dientzenhofer, Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann) and Russia (under Peter I and Elizabeth I), neo-Palladianism in England (publication of Vitruvius Britannicus, English translation of Vitruvius, works by Richard Boyle 3rd Earl Burlington, William Kent, John Vardy). 8. Rococo, the art of intimacy. Etymology of the terms rocaille/rococo. French Regency (1715-1723) and the birth of Rococo. Reaction to Baroque: light and playful character, asymmetry and fluidity of forms. Aristocracy and artistic patronage. Private entertainment and the principles of comfort and intimacy in architecture. Typology of the hôtel particulier and the maison de plaisance. 9. Fêtes galantes and petite manière. Rococo painting in France: subject matter and aesthetic principles. The birth of a new painting genre: the fête galante and Antoine Watteau. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Lemoyne, François Boucher, Jean-François de Troy, Charles-Joseph Natoire, Nicolas Lancret, Jean-Baptiste Van Loo, Jean Pillement, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Jean-Siméon Chardin. The spread of Rococo outside of France: painting in Italy (Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Pietro Longhi, Rosalba Carriera) and England (William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough). Analysis of aesthetic principles through the comparison of similarly themed works from the Baroque and Rococo. 10. Exoticism and decorativeness. Commerce and cultural exchanges between Europe and China. Import of materials and art works. Chinoiseries, turqueries and arabesques. The importance of the decorative arts. The role of the architect-decorator: Gilles-Marie Oppenord, Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, Germain Boffrand, Nicolas Pineau, Jacques de Lajoue. Decorative sculpture: Edmé Bouchardon, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Claude Michel, Etienne Falconnet. Circulation and dissemination of decorative motifs through engravings. Goldsmithing and porcelain works. The role of the European Royal Factories. Prussian and Russian Rococo. The first reactions against the Rococo. 11.-13. Presentation of written assignments.

Absolute monarchy, Reformation, Counter-Reformation, propaganda fidae, rationalism, baroque, quadratura, illusionism, painterliness, recession, unity, open form and relative clarity, dramatic expression, naturalism, chiaroscuro, tenebrism, still life, genre, cabinet of curiosities, controversy of the ancients and the moderns, grand style, classicism, neo-palladianism, rococo, hôtel particulier, maison de plaisance, petite manière, fête galante, architect-decorator, chinoiserie, turquerie, arabesque

23-01-2024