Italian Baroque art

movement late 16th-mid-18th century Italy Europe

Italian Baroque art - painting, sculpture, and related media made from the end of the sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century - is the originating core of the Baroque. Its engine was the Counter-Reformation: the Council of Trent (1545-63) asked art to state biblical truths clearly, powerfully, and with decorum, and Roman churches needed images that would overwhelm and persuade. Two men set the terms. Caravaggio answered with tenebrism - figures of ordinary, even coarse humanity cut out of darkness - while Annibale Carracci built a naturalistic illusionism of saturated color and atmospheric light, crowned by the Palazzo Farnese ceiling. The seventeenth century split between these poles: the 'epic' exuberance of Pietro da Cortona's vast ceilings and a classical current under Andrea Sacchi and Guido Reni. Late Baroque painters like Gaulli, Pozzo, and Tiepolo pushed illusionistic spectacle to its limit.

Two women pin down a man on a bed. With one hand, Judith holds his head; with the other, she slices his throat with a long sword. The intens
Two women pin down a man on a bed. With one hand, Judith holds his head; with the other, she slices his throat with a long sword. The intensPublic domain (credit: Artemisia Gentileschi) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Tenebrism and stark contrasts between partially lit figures and dark grounds
  • Unidealized, contemporary-looking figures - dirty feet and all - in sacred scenes
  • Illusionistic ceiling frescoes (quadratura) opening rooms onto sky and heaven
  • Abundant, swirling 'epic' compositions crowded with figures and movement
  • Pure, saturated color and atmospheric light used to model form naturally
  • Sculpture caught at the dramatic instant of a narrative, in richly worked marble

Key figures

  • Caravaggio (1571-1610) — Originator of tenebrism whose stark light and ordinary saints defined early Baroque painting
  • Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) — Bolognese reformer whose Palazzo Farnese ceiling fused naturalism with classical design
  • Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) — Principal painter of the Roman High Baroque, master of vast illusionistic ceilings
  • Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) — Leading sculptor of the age, fusing marble, drama, and architecture for the papacy
  • Guido Reni (1575-1642) — Leading classicizing painter, pursuing ideal harmony in calm, softly modeled figures

Example works

Sources

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