The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (37 page)

 
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Baroque
.

A term used in the literature of the arts with both historical and critical meanings and as both an adjective and a noun. The word has a long, complex, and controversial history (it possibly derives from a Portuguese word for a misshapen pearl, and until the late 19th cent. it was used mainly as a synonym for ‘absurd’ or ‘grotesque’), but in English it is now current with three principal meanings. Primarily, it designates the dominant style of European art between
Mannerism
and
Rococo
. This style originated in Rome and is associated with the Catholic Counter-Reformation, its salient characteristics—overt rhetoric and dynamic movement—being well suited to expressing the self-confidence and proselytizing spirit of the reinvigorated Catholic Church. It is by no means exclusively associated with religious art, however, and aspects of the Baroque can be seen even in works that have nothing to do with emotional display—for example in the dynamic lines of certain Dutch still-life paintings. Secondly, it is used as a general label for the period when this style flourished, broadly speaking, the 17th cent. and in certain areas much of the 18th cent. Hence such phrases as ‘the age of Baroque’, ‘Baroque politics’, ‘Baroque science’, and so on. Thirdly, the term ‘Baroque’ (often written without the initial capital) is applied to art of any time or place that shows the qualities of vigorous movement and emotional intensity associated with Baroque art in its primary meaning. Much
Hellenistic
sculpture could therefore be described as ‘baroque’. The older meaning of the word, as a synonym for ‘capricious’, ‘overwrought’, or ‘florid’, still has some currency, but not in serious criticism.
Caravaggio
and Annibale
Carracci
are the two great figures who stand at the head of the Baroque tradition, bringing a new solidity and weightiness to Italian painting, which in the late 16th cent. had generally been artificial and often convoluted in style. In doing so they looked back to some extent to the dignified and harmonious art of the High
Renaissance
, but Annibale's work has an exuberance that is completely his own, and Caravaggio created figures with an unprecedented sense of sheer physical presence. From the Mannerist style the Baroque inherited movement and fervent emotion, and from the Renaissance style solidity and grandeur, fusing the two influences into a new and dynamic whole. The supreme genius of Baroque art was Gianlorenzo
Bernini
, an artist of boundless energy and the utmost virtuosity, whose work—imbued with total spiritual conviction—dominates the period sometimes called the ‘High Baroque’ (
c.
1625–75). Slightly later, Andrea
Pozzo
marks the culmination in Italy of the Baroque tendency towards overwhelmingly grandiose display.
In the 17th cent. Rome was the artistic capital of Europe, and the Baroque style soon spread outwards from it, undergoing modification in each of the countries to which it migrated, as it encountered different tastes and outlooks and merged with local traditions. In some areas it became more extravagant (notably in the fervent religious atmosphere of Spain and Latin America) and in others it was toned down to suit more conservative tastes. In Catholic Flanders it had one of its finest flowerings in the work of
Rubens
, but in neighbouring Holland, a predominantly Protestant country, the Baroque made comparatively slight inroads; nor did it ever take firm root in England. In France the Baroque found its greatest expression in the service of the monarchy rather than the church. Louis XIV realized the importance of the arts as a propaganda medium in promoting the idea of his regal glory, and his palace at Versailles—with its grandiose combination of architecture, sculpture, painting, decoration, and (not least) the art of the gardener—represents one of the supreme examples of the Baroque fusion of the arts to create an overwhelmingly impressive whole. (The German term
Gesamtkunstwerk
—‘total work of art’—has been applied to this ideal.) In France, as in other countries, the Baroque style merged imperceptibly with the Rococo style that followed it.

 
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(1902–81).
American art historian and administrator. He became the first Director of the
Museum of Modern Art
in New York in 1929 and remained associated with the museum until his retirement in 1967. He built up the museum's collections to become the finest in the world in their field, organized more than 100 exhibitions, and wrote several books that are still considered standard works, among them monographs on
Picasso
(1946) and
Matisse
(1951).

 
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(1732?–84).
Irish landscape painter in oils and watercolour. He came to London in 1762 and quickly made a reputation as a painter of views and
panoramas
and was a foundation member of the
Royal Academy
. Though he sometimes imitated the classical manner of his rival Richard
Wilson
(who described Barret's foliage as ‘spinach and eggs’), his natural gift was for topographical landscape. His most famous work in his day was a panorama of the Lake District painted in
distemper
on the walls of a room at Norbury Park in Surrey (
c.
1780; still
in situ
). He initially had a successful career, but he had an improvident nature and became bankrupt. Barrett had three painter sons,
George Jun.
,
James
, and
Joseph
, and his daughter
Mary
was a
miniaturist
.

 
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(1741–1806).
Irish history painter. The statesman Edmund Burke brought him to London in 1764 and provided money for him to travel to Italy (1766–71). The work of the great masters of the
Renaissance
had an overwhelming effect on Barry, and he was the only British painter who adhered consistently to
Reynolds's
precepts for history painting in the
Grand Manner
. His scheme of large decorative paintings on
The Progress of Human Culture
(1777–83), for the Great Room of the Society of Arts, London, is the most grandiose achievement of this kind by any artist of the British School, but its weak draughtsmanship and flabby rhetoric show that his ambitions far outstripped his talent. Barry was elected Professor of Painting at the
Royal Academy
in 1782, but after a series of quarrels was expelled in 1799. His truculent nature and uncompromising belief in his own genius come out in his numerous self-portraits.