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‘The lyrical landscapes of the French painter Claude Lorrain, redolent of the poetry of Ovid & Virgil, are among the final expressions of High Baroque Classicism; & they exerted a continual influence throughout the 18th century [ce], particularly in England (see Plate 17).

However, even in Rome itself a number of painters of importance succeeded in remaining more or less independent of the two main camps. Sassoferrato (1609-85[ce]), for example, painted in such an anachronistic style that he has been mistaken for a follower of Raphael.

*

*– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:] 353

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“Despite the continued triumph of High Baroque illusionism & theatricality in the hands of Bernini* and Pietro da Cortona from the 1630s,** the forces of classicism, now headed by the painter Andrea Sacchi and the Flemish-born sculptor François Duquesnoy, came into the ascendant in the 1640s[ce]*** after the death of Pope Urban VIII; and for the remainder of the century the Baroque versus **** Classicism controversy raged in the Academy in Rome.

Sacchi and the classicists, including the Frenchman Nicolas Poussin, held that a scene must be depicted with a bare minimum of figures, each with its own clearly defined role, and compared the composition to that of a tragedy# in literature.

But Pietro da Cortona & the Baroque camp held that the right parallel was the epic poem# in which subsidiary episodes were added to give richness & variety to the whole & hence the decorative richness & profusion of their great fresco cycles.

#*

*64A~1632[ce]

**64J~{u~}1640|G~{m}1648[ce]

64R~{s~}1656|C1664[ce]

64M~1680|A~1696

****{NB

(Splitting)

(See [[Redbook9:290][19910507:0915#]{The Baroque Period [continued (#)]}[7th May 1991],] 290 [foot of ms page]}

[& see eg [Redbook9:240][19910501:0800tt]{The Renaissance (again) [continued (6)]}{– Multiplication of Options}[1^st May 1991]]

#{NB}

There is a direct conflict here with my perception of C[ircles] A[nalysis] and S[ynthesis] fit:

– but the fact is that I don’t yet have a clear idea of the placing of literary genres on the C[ircles] A[nalysis] and S[ynthesis] pattern.

(ref VIII: [[Redbook8:229-234][19910206:1545b]{The History of Western Literature}[6th February 1991]ff,] 229ff,

[[Redbook8:239][19910208:1520]{Greek Literature [– Epic Narrative]}[8th February 1991]ff,] 239ff.

{(See later?

eg X [], XI []?}

#* – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:] 353

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‘The little church of Sta. Bibiana in Rome harbours three of the key works which ushered in the High Baroque, all executed in 1624-26[ce]. * Gian Lorenzo Bernini's facade and the marble figures of Sta. Bibiana over the altar inside are fine examples of the height of the Baroque. Pietro da Cortona painted a fresco of “Sta. Bibiana Refusing to Sacrifice to Idols” (1624-26) on the side wall of the nave, and the rich exuberance of the composition is a prelude to the gigantic “Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power”, which he was to paint on the vault of the Great Hall of the Palazzo Barberini, Rome (1633-39). Cortona continued with this style of monumental painting for the remainder of his career, & it was destined to become the model for the international grand decorative style epitomized by those executed at the palace of Versailles in France.

**

*[From this point on, hand typing of the main ms handwritten text is largely superseded by direct conversion of handwriting to type using a smartphone camera and app followed by manual correction and editing. Currently, most marginal and foot notes are still hand-typed. Although typing the ms into the ts by hand (which could for most extracts have been superseded long ago by optical character recognition of the printed source texts) enables a better understanding of source texts and ms additions, in the end the time involved, the strain on eyesight, and particularly the dramatic improvement to handwriting reading software (presumably AI driven) have made this change irresistible.]

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:] 353

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‘Just as the first decade tended to be dominated by the Caravaggist painters, the second decade in Rome was the heyday of the Bolognese Classicist painters headed by Guido Reni (see Plate 13),* Domenichino, and Francesco Albani, all of whom had been pupils of the Caracci.** All the works so far mentioned belong to that first phase of the Baroque known as the early Baroque, and the crucial developments that brought the High Baroque into being took place in the third decade.’

***

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*** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:] 353

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*‘The third important painter active in Rome during the first decade was the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, who became a court painter to the Duke of Mantua in 1600[ce].

[Rubens] came under the influence of Raphael and Titian, as well as that of Caravaggio, during a journey to Spain in 1603[ce]. The rich colours and strong dramatic chiaroscuro of his altarpieces for Sta. Maria in Vallicella (Chieso Nuova), Rome (1606-07[ce]), reveal his contribution to the evolution of Italian Baroque painting.’

**

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** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:353] [Single paragraph]

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*‘Parallel with Caravaggio’s was the activity of Annibale Carracci in Rome. During his years in Bologna, the Carracci family had pioneered a synthesis of the traditionally opposed Renaissance concepts of “disegno” (“drawing”) and “colore” (“colour”); and in 1595[ce] Annibale took to Roma his mature style in which the plasticity of the Central Italian tradition is wedded to the Venetian colouristic tradition. The decoration of the vault of the gallery in the Palazzio Farnese, Rome (1597-1604[ce]), marks not only the high point in Annibale’s career but also the beginning of the long series of Baroque ceiling decorations.

**

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** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:353] [Single paragraph]

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‘Michelangelo da Caravaggio, better known as Merisi Caravaggio, emerged from the Milanese ambience during the penultimate decade of the 16^th century [ce] and was active in Rome by c[irca]1595[ce].* His earliest paintings were conspicuous for the almost enamel-like brilliance of the colours, the strong chiaroscuro (dramatic contrast between light and dark) called tenebrism, and the extraordinary virtuosity with which all the details are rendered.

But this harsh realism was replaced by a much more powerful mature style in his paintings for S. Luigi dei Francesci, Rome, begun 1597[ce]** and Sta. Maria del Poplolo, Rome, c[irca]1601[ce]** (See Plate 13).*** His selection of plebeian models for the most important characters in his religious pictures caused great controversy, but the utter sincerity of the figures and the intensity of dramatic feeling are characteristic of the Baroque.

Although Caravaggio had no direct pupils, Caravaggism was the dominant new force in Rome during the first decade of the 17^th century and subsequently had enormous influence outside Italy.’

***

(+ Caracci# and Rubens#*)

*ie 1580-1590[ce]

64G~1584|C1600[ce]

**64C1600[ce]

***[Not reproduced in the ms or the ts]

****– E[ncyclopaedia] B[ritannica] 25:353 [Single paragraph]

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