The Baroque Era
The Baroque era was a period in the art history when the Baroque art and architecture prevailed in the European and some of its protectorate’s art world all through the 1600’s to mid 1700’s. This form of art rose primarily because of the protestant reformation struggles that triggered the Catholic Counter Reformation Movement, aimed at averting the spread of Protestantism.
Historically, the period is commonly referred as the common European art style of the Mannerist and the Rococo Eras. The Baroque art had unique stylistic features that included dynamic movements, energy, and unconcealed strong feelings hence, the significance of this form of art all throughout its existence.
Other artistic features that were common in this art include a great sense of space, and realistic reflection of perspective, and realism; features whose main goal was to reflect the inner functioning of the mind and obsession of the human soul. Because of its historical significance in the world of art and contributions to development of the European art, expressions of the Baroque art are prevalent in almost all European nations and most of its colonies (Sullivan, 2000, p.1).
Considering this, the Baroque Era is one of the most significant periods in the world of art, as it bore a new world of art dominated by both religious and iconoclastic artistic representations, as a result of the new discoveries, and effects of the reformation and counter-reformation campaigns of different religious groups.
Origins of the Baroque Art
With the increasing human conscious about their world in the 17th century, there arose a need for a representational form of art, which could account for the new discoveries and demands that arose in the European society. To accommodate and account for such changes and discoveries, a new and unique form of art rose, as most artists endeavored to represent this new changes and demands in their form of art hence, the rising of the Baroque art.
Three main factors that led to the rise of the Baroque art include the religious struggles that were prevalent among Christian societies, scientific advances, and the growth of powerful absolutist monarchies. As research studies show, although all these factors greatly influenced the rise of Baroque art, the greatest influence came from the then prevalent religious tensions among Christians.
Because of these, religion played a primary role of determining most features of the Baroque art. There were great influences from the Roman Catholic’s Counter Reformation movements of the 17th and 18th century, in its struggle to prevent the spread of protestant faith. Prior to the Protestants’ reformation campaign of 1400’s to 1500’s, the catholic enjoyed the autonomy of controlling the European art world hence, majority of the artistic work were religious representations.
However, with the emergence of the reformation campaign, majority of leaders stated to encourage the inclusion of iconoclastic artistic works. This marked the onset of the Counter-Reformation campaigns to oppose such new emerging ideologies, which had great support from some European prominent leaders.
In its Counter Reformation campaign, the church used emotional, pragmatic, and theatrical art as a methodology of winning the faith of more individuals, leading to the rise of more new Baroque art designs. As time progressed and the struggle heightened, such art designs spread to protestant territories, for example, the Bernini and Rubens hence, leading to the rise of the Baroque art in more European countries and its colonies (Held and Posner, 1972, pp. 3-17).
In addition to religion, the many effects of scientific discoveries of the time, for example, the evolution of the press, advances in astronomy, emergence of scientific literature, and economic growth, provided individuals with enough incentives to spend on exotic houses and homes. This greatly promoted the rise of the art as most individuals of the middle and upper class wanted exotic house and home designs to fit their standards.
On the other hand, to represent the new social class of individuals that had emerged, for example, absolutists’ monarchies, calls for formation a new form of art increased, leading to the rise of the Baroque art. As research studies show, the Baroque art was highly representational, had exaggerated decorations, created high sense movement and tension, features that represented the power in these new rising absolutist monarchies (Held and Posner, 1972, pp. 9-27).
The Effects of Counter Reformation on Baroque Art
To win the hearts of more individuals in their Counter Reformation Campaign, the Catholic Church used a form of art that, whose main subject matter was that of grandiose visions, martyrdom, and intense emotion rendering.
Such artistic developments and representations led to the rising of the Baroque art, as the practice became common among painters, and other artisans, for example, sculptors and architects. One primary reason that enabled the Catholic Church to succeed in their endeavor of promoting the spread of the Baroque art is the nature of influence and autonomy it enjoyed over people and the world of art.
Therefore, because of this autonomy, majority of individuals believed representations in most church artistic works hence, greatly influencing the spread of the Baroque art in Europe and its colonies. Generally, the greatest contribution of Counter Reformation to the world of Baroque art was the inclusion of artistic features that could invoke in people deep emotions and strong thoughts, necessary to make them detest the protestant faith (Baldwin, 2008, pp. 3-13).
Paintings of the Baroque Era
Although many forms of art characterized the Baroque era, paintings were the most common form of art during this era. Primary characteristics of paintings of this era included rich color, great theater, and the use of intense shadows as the main stylistic features.
The paintings also coined movement with actions, as a means of invoking in its audience strong emotions and excitement, rather than calm rationality. In addition, artists of this era also depicted aspects of naturalism, dynamic movement, and space in their paintings. Generally, most Baroque paintings were a representation of most church related events or figures and historical events (Sullivan, 2000, p.1.)
In conclusion, the Baroque Era is one of the most significant periods in the world of art, because through the many scientific discoveries of the time, and effects of the reformation and counter-reformation, new artistic ideas were born in the world of art.
Reference List
Baldiwin, R. (2008). The impact of counter-Reformation on Art: Baroque Art in Catholic Europe (Italy, France, Belgium). Connecticut College. Web.
Held, J. S. & Posner, D. (1972). 17th and 18th century art; baroque painting, sculpture, architecture. New York: H.N. Abrams.
Sullivan, J. E. (2000). Baroque Art and Architecture. Web.