Baroque and Rococo art: characteristics and historical context

Baroque Art

The following is a list of the top five works of Baroque art to be discussed at the lecture.

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

Rape of the Sabine Women, 1634-1635. Oil on canvas, 154 x 209 cm. Located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

Arrival of Marie de Medici at Marseilles, 1622-1625. Oil on canvas, 5'1" x 3'9." Located at the Musee du Louvre, Paris.

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-c. 1652/1653)

Judith Slaying Holofernes, c. 1612-1621. Oil on canvas, 6'6" x 5'4." Located at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (1599-1660)

Los Barrochos (the Drinkers), c. 1629. Oil on canvas, 165 cm x 188 cm. Located at the Prado Museum, Spain.

Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)

David, 1623. Marble, 5'7." Located in the Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Baroque art is well-known for its dramatic depictions of scenes, its blatant use of detailed interpretation, and its use of color and light. The bigger the impression that the work makes on the audience, the better. And so it is only fitting that the following works come out as the best of the realm of Baroque art of the 16th and 17th centuries. I have stuck mainly to the oil on canvas paintings that grace the Baroque period, but Bernini's David is also worth noting as a brilliant piece of Baroque work.

Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women portrays the chaos in the streets as the men of Rome take the women of the Sabine families as their wives. Similarly, another artistic depiction of this can be found in a marble sculpture by Giambologna (1529-1608), though the oil painting itself gives a more violent and moving scenery. Every piece of canvas has been filled with movement, from the laments of the grandmothers and the infants, to the hurried agonies of the women themselves as they are whisked away.

Different from this scene is Rubens' Arrival of Marie de Medici at Marseilles, which shows a more triumphant entrance than that of Poussin's piece. Again, the piece does not shirk on color, spreading the artwork to give Marie de Medici a glorious entrance. The dark golds and the light blues, and even the deep red carpet on the plank give this painting vivid movement.

Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes moves on to the violent once again, though unlike the Rape of the Sabine Women, the colors are much darker, the action even more dramatic and ominous. This is quite a graphic scene, as it is a still of Judith cutting Holofernes' head off with a short sword. Meanwhile, her maid assists in the execution. The shading and the light make this painting breathe with life, almost like a photograph taken just as the crime was taking place.

We stray from the violent and return to a more humorous piece; Velazquez's Los Barrochos. Two of the drunks are looking straight at the viewer, perhaps inviting them to come join them or smiling impishly because they are in possession of what the viewer does not have. Either way, the merry scene shows a beautiful use of colors and movement. The men are celebrating, and the drinks are certainly not running out anytime soon.