1. Baroque Art
Baroque is an art style that was widely circulated in the 17th century. There are different opinions about the origin of its name. One says it comes from Portuguese or Spanish, meaning out-of-round beads; another says it comes from Italian, which has strange, weird or inferentially wrong meanings. . In general, this name had a derogatory connotation at the time. It was the name given to an art style of the previous century by classical art theorists in the 18th century. Classicists believed that Baroque was a degenerate and disintegrated art. It was only later that Baroque art was given a more fair evaluation. Baroque art was produced in the second half of the 16th century, and its heyday was in the 17th century. In the 18th century, except for Northern and Central Europe, it gradually declined.
Barlow art was first produced in Italy. It is undoubtedly related to the Counter Reformation. Rome was the center of church power at that time, so it is not surprising that it rose in Rome. It can be said that Bagoc art Although it was not invented by religion, it serves the church and is used by religion. The church is its most powerful pillar. To summarize
Baroque art has the following characteristics: firstly, it has luxurious characteristics, it has both religious characteristics and hedonistic color; secondly, it is a kind of passion
Art, which breaks the tranquility and harmony of reason, has a strong romantic color, and places great emphasis on the rich imagination of the artist; third, it strongly emphasizes movement, movement and change
It can be said to be Baroque The soul of art; the fourth is that it pays great attention to the sense of space and three-dimensionality of the work; the fifth is its comprehensiveness, Baroque art emphasizes the synthesis of art forms
For example, in architecture, it pays attention to architecture, sculpture, and painting. In addition, Baroque art also absorbed some factors and imaginations in literature, drama, music and other fields. Sixthly, it has a strong religious color, and religious themes play a dominant role in Baroque art. Status; Seventh, most Baroque artists tend to stay away from life and times
For example, in some ceiling paintings, the human image becomes insignificant, just like some patterns. Of course, some active Baroque art masters are not included in this example, such as Rubens and Bernini, whose works and lives still maintain a close connection.
Important painter: Rubens Caravaggio Velasquez
2. Rococo art
The meaning of "Rococo" is " Shell-shaped", derived from (French rocaille).
Also known as "Louis XV style", it refers to the art advocated during the reign of French King Louis XV (1715-1774).
It is characterized by: subtle, light, gorgeous and complicated decoration; using C-shaped, S-shaped or swirl-shaped curves and light and soft colors. It influenced all European countries in the 18th century and served the decadent feudal aristocracy.
In the process of its formation, it was influenced by the arts and crafts of the Qing Dynasty in China, and its performance was particularly significant in garden layout, interior decoration, silk fabrics, porcelain, lacquerware, etc.
In terms of architecture, the Hotel de Soubise (Hotel de Soubise) in Paris, France and the Potsdam Palace in Germany are represented.
Representative French figures in painting include
Antoine Watteau (1684-1721),
Francois Boucher (1703-1770), < /p>
Jean-Honore' fragonard (1732-1806) is the representative.
3. Academic Art
In the late Italian Renaissance, while art was experiencing an obvious decline, it was also impacted by Baroque art. In order to defend the artistic achievements of the Renaissance and oppose the replacement of classical art by Baroque art and the trend of secularization, many "academies" appeared in Europe with official support, among which the most influential
The Carrazzi Academy was founded in Bologna in 1580 by the Carrazzi family, an Italian art family. Because it was built in Bologna, it is also called Bologna College.
In terms of teaching apprentices, these colleges attach great importance to basic skills training and have extremely strict requirements. It not only requires that the formal laws of ancient works and the art of Renaissance masters be regarded as eternal norms that cannot be surpassed, but also opposes the pursuit of form in Baroque art. However, due to his own stubbornness and opposition to innovation, he ended up embarking on a routine path that was divorced from social life and lacked vitality.
Therefore, academicism means rigor and standardization, and it also means being conservative. Academicism began in Italy at the end of the 16th century and became popular in Britain, France, Russia and other countries in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among them, the French academicism had the greatest power and influence because of its official attention.
The norms that the academic school attaches importance to include the norms of subject matter, techniques and artistic language. Due to the excessive emphasis on norms, the result is stylization.
The academic school rejects all vulgar artistic language, requires nobility, dignity, gentleness, opposes intense personality expression, and emphasizes reason and independence. The word "Academy
" originally meant "regular" and meant to take the right path and not take the wrong path. How to take the right path, from the perspective of academics, is to value tradition and learn from tradition, so academics
oppose all reforms. The academic school attaches great importance to basic skills training, emphasizes sketching, belittles the role of color in plastic arts, and excludes the role of emotion in art.
These characteristics have both positive and negative impacts on students.
4. Caravaggio
was born in a poor farming family in Lombardy. Unfortunately, his father died at an early age. Before the age of 17, he did not receive any formal education. He has been helping the family with work since he was a child, and is one of the many young and poor bricklayers in the local area. The work of a bricklayer is very hard and there is no future at all. Caravaggio was very confused. At this time, one of his distant relatives discovered that he had a talent for painting and suggested that he learn painting. If he could succeed in learning, he could make a living by this craft. This relative's words made Caravaggio's heart agitate and he began to imagine his future.
This young man who could only eat two meals a day had a dream. He would rely on his own efforts to change his miserable fate. When he was 11 years old, his family moved to Milan, which gave him the opportunity to study painting. Soon, after being introduced, he came to the studio of Simon Petrzano, who was said to be a disciple of Titian, and became an apprentice. Simon Peterzano is a representative painter of local Mannerist art. From this teacher, he learned some basic techniques of painting, and also had a certain understanding of the Mannerist art that the teacher was passionate about. But it was not Mannerist art that had a major impact on the formation of Caravaggio's artistic style, but the works of the masters of the Renaissance and the real life in his hometown of Lombardy. At the age of 17, he came to Rome alone and studied under the painter Alpino. He began to practice this "craft" that fascinated him by copying the works of past masters. Caravaggio had keen observation and outstanding talents. He was able to understand by analogy and understood the essence of depicting the human body from Michelangelo's sculptural lines. The perspective method most commonly used by Leonardo da Vinci also gave him great inspiration.
But he has a completely different experience and approach to life than the two masters. It is said that he was bullied by local bullies for a long time in his hometown. In order to defend himself and maintain his dignity, he always wore a sharp knife. When an evil person causes trouble, he will fight back vigorously. He often drew his sword to help when encountering injustices on the road, showing a heroic spirit. In several armed fights, he committed murders. In order to avoid disaster, Caravaggio had to travel far away from home and lived a wandering life in Naples, the Maltese Islands, Syracuse, Messina and Malemo, staying with tramps all day long.
The special experience determined Caravaggio’s unique aesthetic orientation and world view. Throughout his life, he tried his best to express the living conditions of the people at the lowest level and the hardship and bravery of those who suffered the same fate as him in fighting against their fate.
Whether it is a religious theme or a character in myths and legends, there should be shadows of characters in real life. Saints must appear as ordinary people in order to be accepted by the public. There is no distinction between God and man, and religious themes are secularized. This is the essence of Caravaggio's realist art.
Therefore, in many of his works, especially those early works, he tried his best to depict the rural villagers, cart drivers, workers and vagrants he was familiar with.
We can speculate about his mood when he was creating and his works from works such as "Child with a Fruit Basket", "Bacchus", "Escape to Egypt", "Girl Playing the Mandolin" and "The Soothsayer". Creative concept.
........................"Female Diviner"...................... .....
"Don't draw things that don't exist in life." This was Caravaggio's unswerving principle. He insisted on using characters existing in life as models for his paintings. He wants to truly record reality with his brush. He indeed continued to work hard for his artistic ideals and finally achieved success. Art history tells us that the success of Caravaggio's realist art beyond classical art is the true origin of European realist art. This was Caravaggio's great contribution to art, but he also paid a high price for it. Because he often painted some respected sages as traffickers and pawns, he was criticized many times. Those "academic" artists tried their best to ridicule, saying that Caravaggio simply did not understand what art was, because the characters in his paintings had no beauty at all, and this humble guy could not transcend his origin and class consciousness. limitations. Later, the criticism of Caravaggio's work turned into a vicious personal attack.
Caravaggio's works not only received criticism from the art world, but also encountered resistance from orderers. In 1590, he was invited to paint the famous altarpiece "The Apostle Matthew and the Angel" for the St. Louis de France Church. In the painting, the apostle Matthew appears as a farmer, which is very different from the image of Matthew in traditional paintings. The orderer could not tolerate such a vulgar and despicable Matthew and categorically refused to accept the painting. In desperation, Caravaggio had to paint a new painting.
Later, another excellent altarpiece of the same nature as his "Entombment", which he completed in one year in 1606, suffered the same fate. This altarpiece called "The Death of the Virgin" was specially made for the church of Santa Maria della Scala. The Virgin Mary is in the center of the painting. The dead Madonna looked like an ordinary peasant woman, with a pale face, disheveled hair, and a pair of rough, bare feet. It seems that he suffered a lot during his life and suffered a lot when he died. The people weeping around her were villagers, not the Pope, the Holy Child, angels, saints and apostles. There is no beautification or pretense in the whole picture, and it is just like an ordinary scene at a rural funeral. The person who died seems to be the hard-working but kind and loving aunt next door. She does not have the warm, radiant and sacred feeling left by the statue of Madonna Raphael at all. Our Lady is no longer the embodiment of perfect womanhood. No one has seen such a Virgin, and no one believes that the Virgin would die in such a scene. Naturally, the orderer insisted on returning the product on the grounds that it was disrespectful to the Virgin Mary.
Due to Caravaggio's stubbornness and refusal to give up his creative principles, many of his works were rejected by orderers.
Looking at Caravaggio's works from an artistic perspective, you will find that some of them are indeed too straightforward, almost cruel, and lose the implicitness and beauty that art should have. For example, his works such as "Simon Receives John's Head" and "Boy Bitten by a Lizard" give people this feeling. But despite his flaws, Caravaggio's artistic achievements are still a peak that people look up to.
In front of the "three mountains" of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, and in Italy where Mannerism was prevalent in the 17th century, Caravaggio did not follow the popular trend or follow conventions, but went his own way. He showed his banner of realism. Although he was repeatedly besieged, he never looked back. He found a unique way and blazed his own path of realist painting.
Not only that, Caravaggio also made significant contributions to the expression of painting. He is good at creating a strong contrast relationship and using light to highlight the main parts of the picture. This is the expression method known as Caravaggio's "dark painting style". The most representative work is his famous "Divination". This method was later inherited and developed by painters such as Rembrandt and Velazquez. At the same time, Caravaggio was also a pioneer in European still life painting. After absorbing some of the processing techniques of miniature painting, he created a unique processing method. It is hard to imagine that Caravaggio, who had a violent personality, could remain as quiet as a virgin after entering a creative state.
If you have carefully appreciated his "A Basket of Fruits", you will be surprised to find another side of Caravaggio's character. He actually meticulously painted the dead leaves and insect eyes. You can imagine his state of mind when painting. He must be as meticulous and patient as women doing embroidery. In his still life paintings, objects always present extremely strong textures. Caravaggio reached a height that no one can match to this day.