Baroque Art Research Paper

Baroque

1) Rococo was a style preeminently evident in small works such as furniture, utensils, and small sculptures. Rococo is the last style of the French monarchies and was carefree and playful. Rococo art centered on romance and love and emphasized tonality, softness and rich colors. Rococo art contrasted Baroque art as it tended to avoid heroic events and religious iconography and emphasized Hedonism. The word Rococo derives from Rocaille, which means shell, and Rococo art used curvaceous, swirling forms. Watteau’s “Return from Cythera” features well drawn figures that show slow movement from difficult and unusual angles, to show poised and refined albums. Watteau’s choice of colors are bright and show the iridescence of materials.
Napoleon approached David and offered him the position of First Painter of the Empire and commissioned David to paint depictions of Napoleon’s pageantries. Napoleonic architecture also served as an excellent vehicle for consolidating authority and to embrace a more streamlined classicism. Ingres’ “Grande Odalisque” is a painting of a traditional nude with a rather startling mix of elements. Ingres’ subject went back to Titian and Giorgione, the female head is in the style of Raphael, the proportions and cool color scheme are reflections of Mannerist painters, and the painting of a member of a Turkish harem is a concession to the Romantic taste for the exotic. The mix of these themes was significant in it’s transience between Neoclassicism and the rising Romanticism. Romanticism emerged from a desire for freedom, all freedoms, and those who affiliated with freedom believed that the path to freedom was through imagination. Romanticism was an interest in the medieval period and in the sublime. The Romantic vision stretched to the nightmarish qualities of the Middle Ages and calculative art turned to intuitive art and subjective emotions. Fuseli and Blake are often classified as Romantic artists as they painted the macabre and the oddly perverse. They painted the nightmarish visions of their own imaginations, classic Romantic
Goya showed the emotionalism of the event by making the wall of soldiers anonymous faces and by painting the cowering and horrified expressions of the Spanish peasants, one man throwing his arms out in a cruciform gesture. The significance in this painting lies in Goya’s choice for dramatic lighting and his extended timeframe. Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa” is a depiction of an actual historic event, though he abandoned the idealism of Neoclassicism and invoked the theatricality of Romanticism. The sheer size of this painting adds to the significance of this painting. The emotions and tragedy of this painting are Romantic, though the accuracy is impressive. Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People” captures the passion and energy of the French Revolution and shows the urgency of the struggle. Delacroix included a recognizable Parisian landmark (Notre Dame) to the specify the locale and event to balance contemporary historical fact with poetic