ART

BAROQUE PERIOD: HISTORY AND STYLE

Baroque period was the time when arts painting, music, architecture and literature were greatly
affected. It covered the period between 1600-1750. The highlights in cultural and historical
developments during the period were: Puritans reached New England (1620); beheading of Charles I
(1649); restoration of Charles II as King and England (1662); and the discovery of the Laws of Gravity by
Sir Isaac Newton.
In 1500s and 1600s, affluent and powerful European monarchs built elaborate palaces to display the
opulence of their state. The palace of Versailles was built with elaborate architectural ornamentation.
Baroque art had become the medium for spreading the message of counter reformation. The master of
the three arts during the period was Giovanni Bernini. He worked for years to finish the basilica. His
masterpiece is The Baldacchino, the tower above the high altar in saint peters basilica.
Baroque architecture is characterized by heavy sculptural embellishments and rich ornamentation.
Nature was incorporated but presented in formal arrangements.
Baroque paintings has a large-scale forms filled with colors which show strong feelings. The leading
painter during the period was Caravaggio. His painting, the Calling of St. Matthew, reflected his violent
nature. Famous painters were Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt van Rijn and Diego Velasquez.
Sculpture during the Baroque period was characterized by movement, quality and the use of different
materials in one single work. One material was used to stimulate another material. Many baroque
sculptures are set within elaborate architectural setting.
Music during the Baroque period was filled with complex details and contrast. Opera music developed
during the baroque period. The great baroque composers include Johann Sebastian Back, Claudio
Monteverdi, Alessandro Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi.

CLASSICAL PERIOD: HISTORY AND STYLE

Classical period commenced in 1750. The period was marked by change of styles in art. Art borrowed
the classic style from Greece and Rome and worked with simple but elegant lines. The highlights of the
period in its cultural and historical development embraced the American Declaration of Independence
(1776), the Fall of Bastille (1789), the Execution of Louis XVI (1793) and the publication of the Lyrical
Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge (1798).
Classicism involves the idea of the best. The period in which art or society reaches its peak is called
classical.

Art in the classical period celebrated the masterpiece Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova. In painting,
Jacques-Louis Davids work, the Oath of the Horatii exhibits his severe and uncompromising style.
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, painted Napoleon Euthroved and Grande Odalisque.
In America, the principles of Neoclassicissm in architecture was embodied by Thomas Jefferson. His own
home, Monticello, is a good example of his Classical style.
Haratio Greenough was commissioned by the US Congress to erect a marble statue of George
Washington in a grand manner.
Music during the Classical period meant art music. Music historian used the term to emphasize the
specific period and style in music history around 1750-1825. The greatest masters were Ludwig van
Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Joseph Haydn and Christopher Willibald Gluck.
Classical music was written for religious services, opera, ballet and concerts. It involved music for group
of instruments (symphony orchestras for voice) and music for both voices and instrmetns.

ROMANTIC PERIOD: HISTORY AND STYLE

Romanticism was the period during the early to mid-19th century. The cultural and historical
development during the period highlighted the proclamation of Napoleon as Emperor (1804), the
invention of the first working steam engine (1814), the Revolution (1848) which overthrew Louis
Philippe, King of France and the recognition of Beethoven for his Eroica Symphony (1804).
Romanticism is founded on the assumption that the object of life and art is to grasp all directly,
spontaneously and freely. It emphasized imagination and emotion over reason and order.
In architecture, the romantic movement was marked by revivals of historical styles like Gothic.
In painting, romanticism focused on peoples longing to return to nature, and on the insignificance of
humanity in relation to natures vastness.
John Constable, a great English Romantic landscape painter of the 18th century painted Salisbury
Cathedral. His landscape tends to focus on English country life. The cathedral is framed by trees that
echo its Gothic vertical spires. Humanity, like the cathedral, is at one with nature.
Romantic paintings show dramatic scenes from nature. The work of Caspar David Friedrich shows two
persons watching the crimson sky by the sea in Moonrise Over the Sea 1822.

MODERN ART

Impressionism as a style in painting evolved in France in the 1860s. the group of painters called
Impressionists studied changes in light and color caused by weather conditions, times of day and
seasons. They painted mostly outdoors. They painted quickly to capture atmosphere and mood at
different times of the day.
Claude Monet was the outstanding painter of the French Impressionism. In May 1874, the
Impressionists held an art show in Paris. Their works were laughed at, criticized and rejected. A critic
who disapproved of Monets landscape declared that it was impressionistic; the edges were not clear
and the technique as sloppy. In response, Monet entitled one of his landscapes, Impression Sunrise. The
impressionists avoided using black paint because it seldom seen in nature. Other Impressionists were
Pierre-August Renoir, Edouard Manet, Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas.
Post-Impressionism developed in the late 19th century. Paul Cezanne was a post-Impressionist who had
great influence in Modern Art. He used form and color to express the way he felt about nature. Unlike
the Impressionists, Cezanne employed prominent brush strokes and clear outlines.
Expressionism flourished in the early 1900s. The artists of this movement were interested in the
expressive possibilities of color to create mood and action. They gave form to their strong inner feelings.
Expression art includes both deep despair and intense joy. The imagery may be dark and painful or
bright and pleasurable. Vincent Van Gogh was a joyful expressionist. His painting, Starry Night, presents
heavenly bodies in swirling brush strokes and energetic vivid colors.
Edvard Munchs painting, The Scream, represents the darker side of Expressionism. The image in the
picture shows intense anxiety, fear and insanity.