Studies in Baroque Art

Catalog description

Selected topics in the painting, sculpture, and architecture of seventeenth-century Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, and Spain. ART H 429 Studies in Baroque Art (3) (IL)This course addresses aspects of European art of the seventeenth century, a rich and complex period in which illusionism and powerful visual effects in the arts reached maturity. Baroque painters went beyond the realism of their Renaissance predecessors to explore both the sensuous aspects of the medium of oil painting and their own increasingly subjective vision. In all the visual arts Baroque masters explored space, mass, and form with a heretofore unheard of freedom and drama. Lectures and discussion in the course may focus on painting, sculpture and/or architecture, in Italy, Flanders, France, Holland, and/or Spain. The course may include selected artists such as Bernini, Borromini, Caravaggio, A. Gentileschi, Poussin, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, and/or Vermeer. The style and meaning of Baroque art may be studied within its political and cultural setting. For example, new approaches in the visual arts in Italy, and particularly in Rome, may be explored in relation to the rise of the counter reformation. The Spanish war in the Netherlands, and the Dutch struggle for freedom, may be connected with the art of Flanders and Holland. Attendant developments in other fields such as natural philosophy (science) and literature may be related to the visual arts. For example, the use of the camera obscura may be discussed with the art of Jan Vermeer and the poetry of Giambattista Marino may be related to the art of Nicolas Poussin. Aesthetic, critical, interpretive, and theoretical ideas of major artists and writers of the seventeenth century as well as of today's art and cultural historians may be considered. The emergence of new genres such as landscape and still-life may be examined, as well as the continuing themes of mythology, portraiture, and religion. Course objectives may include students' understanding of the national and regional development of styles and schools within seventeenth-century art, the particular approaches to style and meaning by major artists of the period, the analysis of symbolism and meaning within art works of the period; the interrelationship between the art of the period and other disciplines such as natural philosophy and literature, and particular ways in which seventeenth-century art relates to the politics of particular countries, regions, and patrons. This course may serve as an elective for undergraduate students interested in the visual arts and art history, and for graduate students seeking a deeper exposure to art history. Evaluation may be accomplished through a combination of exams, quizzes, term papers, special projects, and participation in class discussion. Special facilities include a darkened room with dimmable spot lighting, computer, computer projector, and a large projection screen.