How Baroque Art and Architecture Reflect the Ideals of the Catholic Reformation

Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647-52)
By Giovanni Bernini.
Cornaro Chapel,
Santa Maria della Vittoria.

EVOLUTION OF VISUAL Fine art
For details of art movements
and styles, run into: History of Art.
For chronological details, see:
History of Fine art Timeline.

What is Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation Art?

The term "Catholic Counter-Reformation art" describes the more stringent, doctrinal fashion of Christian art which was developed during the menstruum c.1560-1700, in response to Martin Luther'due south revolt against Rome (1517) and the Protestant Reformation art which followed. This stricter way of Cosmic Biblical art - launched past the Council of Trent (1545-63) - was designed to highlight the theological differences betwixt Catholicism and Protestantism, by focusing on the mysteries of the faith, too as the roles of the Virgin Mary and the Saints. It was supposed to revitalize Cosmic congregations across Europe, thus minimizing the effects of the Protestant revolt. To inject momentum into its campaign, the Roman Church building - aided by the newly-formed Jesuit order, as well as wealthy pious individuals - began commissioning new architecture, works of altarpiece art (mostly large-calibration oil paintings), inspirational church fresco paintings, and major pieces of ecclesiastical sculpture and wood carving. Staunch supporters of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and its religious art included Italy, Spain and its colonies of Flanders and Naples, likewise every bit southern Deutschland. Its leading exponents were therefore Italian Bizarre artists similar Caravaggio, Pietro da Cortona, Bernini, and Andrea Pozzo; the schoolhouse of Spanish Painting, such as El Greco, Ribera and Francisco de Zurbaran; and the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens.

History: The Reformation; The Decline in Spirituality of Art

Two important factors shaped the art of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, during the 16th and 17th centuries. Starting time, a growth in the level of corruption within the Roman Catholic Church, from the Pope down. It was this abuse (specifically the auction of indulgences to finance the renovation of St Peter'southward in Rome), overseen past Pope Leo X (1513-21), that caused Luther to launch his Protestant rebellion.

The 2d cistron was artistic though information technology, too, reflected a similar spiritual decline. During the 15th century, Early Renaissance painting commissioned by the Church or its Christian followers, gradually became less and less religious. The Tornabuoni Chapel frescoes (1485–xc), for example, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, seem to exist more focused on the details of conservative metropolis life than on their bodily subjects, the Life of the Virgin and that of John the Baptist. Besides, secular priorities began to intrude: the influential Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), for instance, became increasingly involved with the rich Gonzaga family in Mantua, while even the devout Botticelli (1445-1510) spent time painting a number of infidel works for the powerful Medici family in Florence: see, for example, Primavera 1482, and The Nascence of Venus 1485, both marked by substantial nudity. The activity of the fiery Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98) - culminating in his Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497 - was a clear indication of the lack of Christian devotion also as the growing decadence of the time. The situation was further exacerbated during the era of Loftier Renaissance painting, as Humanism (characteristically expressed in the male and female nude) became an important feature of Renaissance aesthetics: as demonstrated in the marble statue of David by Michelangelo (1501-four), and the ignudi in the Genesis fresco (1508-12) on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, past the same creative person. Worse was to follow, as the High Renaissance gave way to the optical pretensions of Mannerist painting, during the 1520s and 30s: as exemplified past works like the Deposition Altarpiece (1526-viii) in the Capponi Chapel, Florence, by Pontormo (1494-1557). This not-traditional approach to art did not get down well with either Protestants or the more bourgeois factions in Rome. Another contentious work was Nuptials Banquet at Cana (1563) by Veronese.

The Council of Trent

To rebuild conviction in the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church, after the twin shocks of the Protestant Reformation (1517) and the Sack of Rome (1527), a campaign of reform was necessary. The impetus for such reform emanated from the Guild of Jesus (the Jesuits), founded by South. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), and from the 19th Ecumenical Council (the Council of Trent), initiated past Pope Paul 3 (1534–1549), which held 25 sessions between 1545 and 1563. Reformers believed strongly in the educational and inspirational power of visual art, and promoted a number of guidelines to exist followed in the production of religious paintings and sculpture. These formed the basis for what became known as Cosmic Counter-Reformation Art.

Characteristics of Catholic Counter-Reformation Art

Reformers starting time stressed the demand to distinguish the one true Church from the breakaway group of Protestant churches. Artists should therefore focus on the distinctive aspects of Catholic dogma, including: The Immaculate Formulation, The Annunciation of the Virgin, The Transfiguration of Christ, and others. Also, any explicit portrayal of Christ'due south suffering and agony on the Cross was deemed to be particularly uplifting, and too served to illustrate the atypical Cosmic version of Transubstantiation in the Eucharist. The roles of the Virgin Mary, the Saints and the Sacraments were likewise a distinctive feature of Catholicism and were to exist illustrated accordingly. Second, reformers stipulated that Biblical painting should be straight and compelling in its narrative presentation, and should be rendered in a clear, authentic fashion,without unnecessary or imaginary embellishments. Third, reformers - in item, pious individuals such as Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cantankerous, Francis de Sales and Philip Neri - insisted that Catholic art should encourage piety: thus artists should paint and sculpt scenes of appropriate spiritual intensity. Fourth, every bit to how paintings and statues were to be executed, reformers stressed the importance of making them as understandable and as relevant to ordinary people, as possible. Using these techniques, Catholic art was to gainsay the spread of Protestantism throughout Europe, especially in areas like France, southern Deutschland, kingdom of the netherlands, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary. For an example of a 16th century Mannerist painter who changed his mode of painting to comply with the Quango of Trent, see: Federico Barocci (1526-1612).

Notation: Afterwards, major religious works like The Last Judgment fresco (1536-61) past Michelangelo, and The Terminal Supper (renamed Feast in the House of Levi (1573) by Paolo Veronese, were censured past the Catholic authorities: the former for its nudity, for depicting Christ without a beard, and for including the pagan effigy of Charon; the latter for its inclusion of drunken Germans, midgets and other inappropriate figures, besides as over-extravagant costumes.

The Baroque Art Motility

Following the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church building - along with its new religious orders, such as the Barnabites, Capuchins, Discalced Carmelites, Jesuits, Theatines, and Ursulines - increased its patronage of the arts across much of Europe. Out of this campaign of Counter-Reformation fine art emerged the anti-Mannerist Bolognese School (1590-1630) - led by Annibale Carracci along with brother Agostino Carracci (1557-1602) and cousin Ludovico Carracci (1555-1619) - and so the international movement we know as Baroque art, a way which lasted until 1700 or afterwards. A typically powerful and dramatic style, it influenced all the arts, giving rise to Bizarre architecture, equally well as Baroque painting and sculpure: indeed, projects often involved a combination of all these disciplines.

Cosmic Art in Italy

Baroque architects in Italy produced numerous textbook examples of Catholic architecture, notably the Basilica and surroundings of Saint Peter'due south Basilica (c.1506-1667), and the Church of the Gesu (1568-84), in Rome; while Counter-Reformation painters became noted for their classical approach, as exemplified in the works of Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) and in belatedly 16th century Venetian Altarpieces, notably those past Titian (c.1485/8-1576) and Tintoretto (1518-94). The textbook example of Counter-Reformation Baroque sculpture was The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647-52) by Bernini (1598-1680), in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. After Bernini, Rome's greatest Catholic artist was Carlo Maratta (1625-1713).

The nearly 'real' Catholic fine art, all the same, was created by the wayward genius Caravaggio (1571-1610), whose religious effigy painting was so natural and lifelike - and thus instantly understandable past ordinary churchgoers - that it served as the quintessential example of Cosmic Counter-Reformation painting. (Run across, for example, Supper at Emmaus 1601-2, National Gallery, London.) In fact, Caravaggio'south utilise of street people equally models for his sacred figures, led to such realism that he was criticised past conservatives for showing insufficient respect to the Virgin Mary.

Run into likewise: Classicism and Naturalism in Italian 17th Century Painting.

The masters of spiritual inspiration were the artists who produced the awesome illusionist landscape paintings - known every bit quadratura - on the walls and ceilings of Bizarre churches. The finest of these trompe l'oeil paintings include: Assumption of the Virgin (Parma Cathedral) (1526-30) by Correggio - see the Parma School of painting; The Triumph of the Proper name of Jesus (1584, Church of the Gesu) by Giovanni Battista Gaulli; Allegory of Divine Providence (1633-9, Palazzo Barberini) by Pietro da Cortona; and The Apotheosis of St Ignatius (1691-4, San Ignazio, Rome) by Andrea Pozzo. Compare these inspirational works with the muted, even austere, church interiors created by Protestant artists similar Pieter Saenredam (1597-1665) and Emanuel de Witte (1615-92).

Catholic Art in Spain and Naples

If Italy was the brain of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, its center was Spain, the most pious state in Europe. Under the ultra-devout Rex Philip Two (1527-98), painters and sculptors of the Spanish Baroque produced some of the about spiritually intense illustrations of Catholic doctrine. The greatest of them was El Greco (1541-1614), whose masterpieces include The Disrobing of Christ (1577, Toledo Cathedral); The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586, Church of San Tome, Toledo); Christ driving the Traders from the Temple (1600, National Gallery, London); The Rise of the Virgin Mary (1607-13, Due south Cruz Museum, Toledo); and The Adoration of the Shepherds (1613, Prado, Madrid). Other Spanish Baroque artists included: Velazquez (1599-1660) - if only for his masterpiece Christ on the Cross (c.1632, Prado) - Zurbaran (1598-1664); Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618-1682) and Juan de Valdes Leal (1622-1690).

In the Castilian colony of Naples, the Catholic Neapolitan Schoolhouse of Painting (1600-56) was led past a serial of devout artists such as: Battistello Caracciolo (1578-1635), Jusepe Ribera (1591-1652), Guido Reni (1575-1642) and Lanfranco (1582-1647). After the plague of 1654-55, the Neapolitan Baroque was represented by masters similar Mattia Preti (1613-99) and Luca Giordano (1634-1705); both had studied Caravaggio in Naples and both had absorbed the legacy of Venetian painting from the cinquecento, notably the work of Paolo Veronese (1528-88).

Spanish sculptors who contributed to the Catholic Counter-Reformation included: Juan de Juni (1506-77); Jeronimo Hernandez (1540-86); Pablo de Rojas (1549-1611); Andres de Ocampo (1555-1623); Juan Martinez Montanes (1568-1649); Gregorio Fernandez (1576-1636); Alonso Cano (1601-67); and Pedro Roldan (1624-99).

Catholic Fine art in Flanders

Unlike their Dutch rivals to the n, the Catholic Flemish painters of the Castilian Netherlands (Flemish region was a Castilian colony) continued to paint large-calibration religious canvases, for ecclesiastical clients. Flemish painting of the belatedly 16th and 17th centuries was dominated past Rubens (1577-1640) and his leading pupil Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641). Amid Rubens' many masterpieces of Catholic fine art are: Samson and Delilah (1610, National Gallery, London); Massacre of the Innocents (1611, Private Drove); Descent from the Cross (Rubens) (1612-14, Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp); Christ Risen (1616, Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence); Christ on the Cantankerous (1620, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp); and The Assumption of the Virgin (1626, National Gallery of Fine art, Washington DC).

Counter-Reformation art spread throughout Catholic Europe and then into the overseas Spanish Catholic colonies of Asia and the Americas. Championed by the Jesuits and Franciscans, information technology inspired overseas groups such as the Cuzco Schoolhouse, the Quito School, and Chilote Schoolhouse of Cosmic imagery.

Catholic Counter-Reformation paintings and sculpture can be seen in some of the all-time art museums in the world.

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Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/catholic.htm

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