Equinoxe
Not a pod person
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2005
- Posts
- 13,356
I'm feeling Baroque
Also, didactic. So, I am in the mood to share some Baroque era art.
Michelangelo Amerighi da Caravaggio:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/The_Conversion_on_the_Way_to_Damasc.jpg
In The Conversion on the Way to Damascus, there is a very different concept of the interaction of the divine from that we would see in earlier depictions, there is no stately anthropomorphic deity who appears before Saul, “Why persecutest thou me?” There is just the contrast between the darkness and the light, the darkness of heathenism and the light of God.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Rape_of_Proserpine.jpg
Bernini was a favourite of Pope Urban VIII and a wonderful sculptor, his works very vivid and expressive, as in the faces of Pluto and Proserpine in his Rape of Proserpine from 1622. We see the different countenances of the characters, the fear of Proserpine in her attempt to flee and the desire, even it appears joy (detail), on the face of Pluto as he takes her.
Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velázquez:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Portrait_of_Philip_IV.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Self_portrait.jpg
In his Portrait of Philip IV from 1653 we see the characteristics of the King, the famous distortions of the face, the Hapsburg lip, held to be the product of several generations of inbreeding. We see the weakness in his empty eyes, it suits Spain's decline so stark and prominent then. Yet, in Velázquez's Self-Portrait, we see the artist, stern and demanding, dark, he is distant but intriguing, his eyes piercing.
Artemisia Gentileschi:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Judith_And_Her_Maidservant.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Susanna_And_The_Elders.jpg
Both Biblical subjects, Judith and Her Maidservant and Susanna and the Elders have rather different themes, the first depicts Judith after she has slain Holofernes, as she and her maidservant escape, her hand on the maid's shoulder as if in reassurance, as they look behind them fleeing with his severed head in the basket. Susanna and the Elders is different, it's subject is more vulnerable, as she is confronted with the two men, her disgust visible – a feeling perhaps even familiar to the artist herself from her own life.
P.S. The titles of the works are links to larger versions of the images as is the word "detail."
Subsequent threads in this series can be found here:
I'm in the mood for a Renaissance
Isn't it Romantic?
Impression, soleil levant
It's quite Classical at the Academies
A Byzantine Web of Gothic Horror and Romanesque Decadence
Also, didactic. So, I am in the mood to share some Baroque era art.
Michelangelo Amerighi da Caravaggio:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/The_Conversion_on_the_Way_to_Damasc.jpg
In The Conversion on the Way to Damascus, there is a very different concept of the interaction of the divine from that we would see in earlier depictions, there is no stately anthropomorphic deity who appears before Saul, “Why persecutest thou me?” There is just the contrast between the darkness and the light, the darkness of heathenism and the light of God.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Rape_of_Proserpine.jpg
Bernini was a favourite of Pope Urban VIII and a wonderful sculptor, his works very vivid and expressive, as in the faces of Pluto and Proserpine in his Rape of Proserpine from 1622. We see the different countenances of the characters, the fear of Proserpine in her attempt to flee and the desire, even it appears joy (detail), on the face of Pluto as he takes her.
Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velázquez:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Portrait_of_Philip_IV.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Self_portrait.jpg
In his Portrait of Philip IV from 1653 we see the characteristics of the King, the famous distortions of the face, the Hapsburg lip, held to be the product of several generations of inbreeding. We see the weakness in his empty eyes, it suits Spain's decline so stark and prominent then. Yet, in Velázquez's Self-Portrait, we see the artist, stern and demanding, dark, he is distant but intriguing, his eyes piercing.
Artemisia Gentileschi:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Judith_And_Her_Maidservant.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Susanna_And_The_Elders.jpg
Both Biblical subjects, Judith and Her Maidservant and Susanna and the Elders have rather different themes, the first depicts Judith after she has slain Holofernes, as she and her maidservant escape, her hand on the maid's shoulder as if in reassurance, as they look behind them fleeing with his severed head in the basket. Susanna and the Elders is different, it's subject is more vulnerable, as she is confronted with the two men, her disgust visible – a feeling perhaps even familiar to the artist herself from her own life.
P.S. The titles of the works are links to larger versions of the images as is the word "detail."
Subsequent threads in this series can be found here:
I'm in the mood for a Renaissance
Isn't it Romantic?
Impression, soleil levant
It's quite Classical at the Academies
A Byzantine Web of Gothic Horror and Romanesque Decadence
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