{Baroque Sculpture [continued (4)]}[8th May 1991]

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[continued]

‘In the statue of St. Longinus in St. Peter's in Rome, Bernini created the characteristic formula of Baroque sculpture by throwing the draperies into a violent turmoil,* the complicated and broken involutions of which are not rationally explained by the figure's real bodily movement but seem paroxysmally informed by the miracle itself.

The passion with which he continued his sculptured figures, capturing the most transitory states of mind, reached its apogee in the representation of the ecstasy of St. Teresa** in the Cornaro Chapel, Sta. Maria della Vittoria, Rome (1645-52[ce])*** and in the figure of the expiring Ludovica Albertoni (Figure 62)**** in the Altieri Chapel, S. Francesco a Ripa, Rome (c.1674[ce]).# The former is generally considered the masterpiece of Baroque religious sculpture and shows how Bernini could organize the arts of architecture, painting & sculpture in an overwhelming assault on the senses that depicts the resistance of the intellect.#* This ambitious plan was typical of the mature Bernini, whose spiritual and artistic aspirations exceeded the scope of his early secular salon statues.

His later works were largely religious and unprecedentedly vast in scale, as in the dazzling “Cathedra Petri”, which covers the whole end of St. Peter's in Rome with a teeming multitude of figures.

#**

*?cf the Byzantine ‘Agitated’ Style of the 1180’s

ref VIII: [[Redbook8:281][19910221:1142i]{Byzantine Art [continued (6):] Byzantine Agitated Style}[21st February 1991],] 281

(& Romanesque, ref VIII: [[Redbook8:312][19910306:0930s]{Romanesque Art [continued (16)}[6th March 1991],] 312)

**See illus[tration,] E[ncyclopaedia of] V[isual] A[rt]

[A representation of this work must be seen; it is key to this writer’s understanding of the Baroque, as energy breaking#*** out through form]

***64G~1648[ce]

****See illus[tration,] E[ncyclopaedia] B[ritannica] 27:99

#64r~|S~1672[ce]

#*NB G~

#** – [From] Encyclopaedia Britannica 27:98-100

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#***[Or sometimes, as this writer initially misremembered it, bursting]

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{Baroque Sculpture [continued (3)]}[8th May 1991]

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‘Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the greatest sculptor of the 17th & 18th centuries,* established the sculptural principles for those two centuries in a series of youthful works of unrivalled virtuosity, as** the “Apollo & Daphne”. Stone was now completely emancipated from stoniness by open form and by an astonishing illusion of flesh, hair, cloth, and other textures, pictorial effects that had earlier been attempted only in painting. These qualities made what his contemporaries called his “speaking portraits” seem unprecedentedly alive; portrait sculpture for two centuries was a variation of those innovations.

***

*2048G~1536|GR~1664|R~1792[ce]

**[sic]

*** – [From] Encyclopaedia Britannica 27:98-100

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‘No field was more congenial to the spirit of Baroque art than sculpture carried out on a conspicuous scale. The Baroque artist achieved dramatic pictorial unity by abolishing the traditional limits separating painting, sculpture & architecture.* The solid masses of sculpture & even of architecture were made to move in space by means of such motive forms as undulations; sculpture was transformed by such painter’s devices as richly varied illusionistic textures, coloured materials, & irregularly dappling light effects.
**

*{cf the modern interest (eg early 19^th century [ce]) in unifying Art, Literature and Music)}

** – [From] Encyclopaedia Britannica 27:98-100

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{Baroque Sculpture}[8th May 1991]

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‘ITALY – Early and High Baroque. At the beginning of the 17th century [ce],* sculpture in all of Italy, with the exception of Florence, was at a low ebb; and the dry, frankly propagandist nature of the decoration of the Borghese Sistine chapels in Sta. Maria Maggiore, Rome, reveals this only too clearly.

With Stefano Maderno and Camillo Mariani a slightly more imaginative interpretation of the demands of the Council of Trent is to be found, while certain aspects of the work of Pietro Bernini (1562-1629[ce]) were to have considerable influence on his son Gian Lorenzo.

The first breath of the new Baroque spirit, however, is to be found in the immense vitality of the equestrian monuments in Piacenza (1612-25[ce])** by Francesco Mochi; and a comparable frenzy of vigour is the keynote of the fresco “Aurora” by Guercino in the Casino Ludovisi, Rome (1621-23[ce]). The forms are pierced & opened up, and the momentary, unstable poses, with draperies fluttering and tails lashing, give a vivid movement that releases the figures from the Mannerist spell.

***

*64C1600|S~1608|M~1616[ce]

**{??64g~\M~1616[ce]

(but see X: [] 3:

– the Baroque lasted c[irca] 128 years

c[irca]1600-c[irca]1715[ce])}

[!?]

*** – [From] Encyclopaedia Britannica 27:98-100

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[Baroque & Rococo – Austria][7th May 1991]

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[continued]

‘Painting in Austria flourished, & Franz Anton Maulbertsch must be counted the greatest painter of the 18th century in central Europe. The vast majority of his brilliant fresco cycles are* relatively inaccessible in Bohemia, Moravia & northern Hungary. But the mystical intensity of his religious scenes & the joyous abandon of his secular subjects form a triumphant closing chapter to the 18th-century art of central Europe. His last frescoes at Strahov, Prague (1791[ce]), reveal, nevertheless, the impact of Neo-classicism that descended in the last decades on all Austrian painters, including Troger's pupil Martin Knoller.

**

*were?

**– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:] 358

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{Portraiture, Landscape and ‘Marines’ in Protestant England [continued (3)]}[7th May 1991]

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[continued]

‘The evolution of British oil painting during the second half of the 18th century* is to a great extent paralleled by the extraordinary flowering of English watercolours.’

**

*(?***)2048R~1792[ce]

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:] 358

***[‘Aquarius’ star sign is represented here in the ms]

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{Portraiture, Landscape and ‘Marines’ in Protestant England [continued]}[7th May 1991]

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[continued]

The express connection* of Protestantism with portraiture, landscape** & ‘marines’ in art, including religious & mythological subjects, is fascinating.

Does this represent one ‘stream’ of the (perhaps) two main streams passing round the circle at this late stage?

*[See last previous ts journal entry]

**{cf [[Redbook9:198-200][19910428:0955l]{Utopian Landscapes}[28th April 1991],] 198-200;

X: [] 50-51}

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{Portraiture, Landscape and ‘Marines’ in Protestant England}[7th May 1991]

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*

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* – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:] 357

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{The Baroque Period [continued (22)] (Late Baroque and Rococo [continued (5)]}[7th May 1991]

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*

* – ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:] 356-7

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