Discovering the Humanities THIRD EDITION CHAPTER 10 The Counter-Reformation and the Baroque: Emotion, Inquiry, and Absolute Power Discovering the Humanities, Third Edition Henry M Sayre Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc or its affiliates All Rights Reserved Learning Objectives Explain Mannerism and how it arose out of the Counter-Reformation Describe how the Baroque style manifested itself in the art, music, and literature of the era Discuss the vernacular Baroque style that developed in the North Define absolutism and discuss how it impacted the arts Giuseppe Arcimboldo Summer 1563 Oil on limewood 26-3/8” × 20” Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Erich Lessing/akg-images [Fig 10.1] The Early Counter-Reformation and Mannerism • The Baroque was a compromise between religious propriety and an especially exuberant style of art that had arisen in Italy in the last half of the sixteenth century: Mannerism The empire of Charles V ca 1521 [Fig Map 10.1] The Council of Trent and Catholic Reform of the Arts • Under the urging of Charles V and Francis I, Pope Paul III convened the Council of Trent in 1545 to confront their common enemy, the Protestant challenge • The Council of Trent's injunction against luxury and its assertion of the principle of simple piety were directly translated to the arts The Council of Trent and Catholic Reform of the Arts • Members of the clergy wrote treatises on art • The treatises called explicitly for direct treatment of subjects, unencumbered by anything "sensuous," from brushwork to light effects The Council of Trent and Catholic Reform of the Arts • The function of music in the liturgy was to serve the text, and thus the text should be clear and intelligible to the congregation • Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's (ca 1525–154) Missa Papae Marcelli ("Mass for Pope Marcellus") carries out the requirements of the Council of Trent The Council of Trent and Catholic Reform of the Arts • The voices in the Credo section of the Missa Papae Marcelli displays counterpoint, in which voices imitate the main melody in succession, and homophony, in which the subordinate voices accompany the melody in unison • Melisma is the use of many notes per syllable The Rise of Mannerism • The edicts of the Council of Trent did not constrain Michelangelo • He introduced a different, more inventive direction in sixteenth-century art • Michelangelo's new style resulted in distorted, artificial poses, mysterious or obscure settings, and often elongated proportions Music and Dance at the Court of Louis XIV • The most important of the new dance forms was the minuet, an elegant triple-time dance of moderate tempo Theater at the French Court • With the appointment of Cardinal Richelieu as his minister of state in 1629, Louis XIII inaugurated a great tradition of French theater that culminated with the establishment of the Comộdie Franỗaise in 1680 Theater at the French Court • The plays by Pierre Corneille (1606– 1684) embrace the Baroque love for elaborate moral and emotional range and possibility Theater at the French Court • In his comedies, Molière spared no one from his ridicule, attacking religious hypocrisy, misers, hypochondriacs, pretentious doctors, aging men who marry younger women, and all social parasites His works include Les Précieuses Ridicules ("The Pretentious Ladies") and Tartuffe ("The Hypocrite") The Court Arts of England and Spain • The arts in England were dramatically affected by tensions between the absolutist monarchy of the English Stuarts and the much more conservative Protestant population • Throughout the seventeenth century, the English monarchy sought to assert its absolute authority, but ultimately did not manage to so The Court Arts of England and Spain • After the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the English Parliament enacted a Bill of Rights endorsing religious tolerance and prohibiting the king from annulling parliamentary law • Constitutional monarchy was reestablished in Britain, and the divine right of kings permanently suspended Anthony Van Dyck in England • The tension between the Catholicleaning English monarchy and the Puritan-oriented Parliament was exacerbated by the flamboyant style of the court, which offended more austere Puritan tastes Anthony Van Dyck in England • The Flemish artist Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641), who had worked in Rubens's workshop in Antwerp, embodies the court style • In his Portrait of Charles I Hunting, he portrays Charles as a Cavalier, as royalist supporters were known Anthony Van Dyck in England • Van Dyck's great talent was portraiture flattering his subjects by elongating their feature and portraying them from below to increase their stature Document: Tartuffe, Act I by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (Molière) Document: "To Blossoms" and "To Daffodils" by Robert Herrick Anthony Van Dyck Portrait of Charles I Hunting 1635 Oil on canvas 8' × 6'11" Musée du Louvre, Paris Inv 1236 © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Christian Jean [Fig 10.31] Diego Velázquez in Spain • Philip IV of Spain strove to rival the other great courts of Europe by employing the greatest painters of the day, including Peter Paul Rubens • The young court painter Diego Velázquez (1599–1660), already deeply influenced by Caravaggio, visited Rubens at work Closer Look: Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas Document: La Respuesta by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Diego Velázquez Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor) 1656 Oil on canvas 10'3/4" × 9'3/4" Museo del Prado, Madrid © Photo Scala, Florence [Fig 10.32] Diego Velázquez in Spain • Velázquez's Las Meninas is a life-size group portrait and his last great royal commission • It elevates the portrait to a level of complexity almost unmatched in the history of art Continuity & Change • Products of Baroque breakthroughs in empirical reasoning constituted a socalled Scientific Revolution that transformed the Western mind • Still, the Baroque age does embody a certain tension between reason and emotion, decorum and excess, clearly defined in the contest between the poussinistes and the rubenistes Henri Testelin Jean-Baptiste Colbert Presenting the Members of the Royal Academy of Science to Louis XIV ca 1667 Oil on canvas © Chateau de Versailles, France/Lauros/Giraudon/Bridgeman Images [Fig 10.33] ... Catholic Reform of the Arts • The voices in the Credo section of the Missa Papae Marcelli displays counterpoint, in which voices imitate the main melody in succession, and homophony, in which the subordinate... subordinate voices accompany the melody in unison • Melisma is the use of many notes per syllable The Rise of Mannerism • The edicts of the Council of Trent did not constrain Michelangelo • He introduced... Bridgeman Art Library [Fig 10. 6] The Rise of Mannerism • Titian (ca 1488–1576) adds lush brushwork that mirrors the sensuality of the image in The Rape of Europa • Like the Mannerists, the later