Golden Age: Between Clash and Commemoration

Beyond the Italian Peninsula : The Flemish. Dutch and Spanish (how they are united with Caravaggio, etc)

Moment of artistic innovation but this age is also tied to colonialism(funded much of this art).

Peter Paul Rubens

  • noticeable transition in the style from traditional Northern European —> much more infused with the study of figure: drama, intensity, (carefully articulated)musculature

  • changing the conversation for painting, religious painting in case of ex 2

  • diagonal cutting into work —> energized and more dynamic composition

The Raising of the Cross

  • scene of the crucifixion, christ supported by an entourage of figures

  • compared to Grunewald :

    • G: balanced work, relatively unremarkable landscape(dark and so describes the sobriety of the moment) stiff. withered figure.

    • R: Our eye wants to move through these panels with much more energy, a really dynamic body of figures cascades through a set of diagonals. greater array of reactions to the moment.

  • musculature as a central component : upper part of central panel.

    • the influence of Italian art is tangible : musculature suggests a study of classical sculptures

    • he is thinking about ideas of tenebrism : absorbing it, making it his own :

      • playing with theatricality

      • sense of tension

      • not stable positions : we are seeing a moment

Henry IV Receiving the Portrait of Marie de’ Medici

Patron message via symbolism and dramatics

A theatrical revelation

  • Marie presented by Gods: match destined by the heavens, an ideal union

  • The woman: France herself supports this marriage. also references the strategy of these relationships

Arrival of Marie de’ Medici at Marseilles

Marie has a spectacular costume , another figure echoing the personification of France

Symbolism

  • rest of composition washed in classical references

Rembrandt

The Company of Frans Banning Cocq (Night Watch)

Patron Message

  • network of individuals part of a private militia led by Frans : showing the status of the group

Natural representation

  • striving for a more natural representation : we are seeing a chaotic scene, a snapshot, not an organized group portrait

Drama : closer to tenebrism

  • enigmatic girl

  • deep plunge into shadow

Pieter Claes

Vanitas Still life with the ‘Spinario’

  • study of materiality

  • element of vanitas still life

  • playing with illumination

  • natural array in composition

—> speaks tp continuity of some of these elements

Vanitas

  • still life scenes with symbols of death (momento mori) as a reminder of its inevitability

  • promote ethical and moral behaviors

Spain

Context:

  • had control of southern half of Italian peninsula which creates more of a facilitated exchange between these artists

Jusepe de Ribera Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew

sense of ultimate moment of tragedy: his final pleading

  • B looking at us in a really direct and intense manner as he is being skinned alive. his left hand.

  • playing with intense abrupt contrast between highlight and shadow : Tenebrism

    • again, plunging into shadow enhances our attention to the subject and this pivotal moment within the composition

Emphasis on Naturalism

  • contorted body, twisted unnatural posture

  • there is no reverence to the way this saint is showed : dirty, bruised, scraggly beard, face showing signs of age

  • Saint in the guise of a real figure (as apposed to the glorified representations we find elsewhere)

Francisco Zurbaran, Saint Serration

really intense use of Tenebrism

a quietude to underscore the reality of the moment - life is leaving the figure

Diego Velazquez

The Drinkers

  • figure representation of Bacchus

  • Velazquez leaves viewer to interpret what is happening: an actual meeting of these figures?

comparison to Caravaggio thinking about the idea of naturalism (C’s Bacchus has the tan of a working class individual and dirty hands. reminding the viewer of the reality that his models are real figures in the guise of Gods - he found people in real life and solicited them to pose)

Las Meninas

  • not quite clear what’s happening but raises questions about the status of the viewer and status of the artist

  • V is painting the king and queen (we see this subject in the mirror)

    • showing himself in the act of painting

    • princess seems to be the subject but upon looking under all these layers it exalts V’s role as an artist.

    • the V: seeking recognition for accomplishments as an artist.

  • theatricality again as a mode of engagement

    • in a non-religious work the theatricality is inspired by the lack of focus, the allusiveness of this scene.

Phillip IV of Spain (“Fraga” Portrait)

  • subject benefitted from wealth of conquest : opulence of the painting gives us a sense of that

  • influence of Italian baroque painting