1566. revolts against Spanish despots begin

John Calvin (1536) Institutes of the Christian Religion

-Purpose of churchgoing: to praise God

-embellishments such as ornate architecture, statuary, professional choirs and orchestras are distractions to that purpose.
 
 

Painting

Shunned categories of painting

1. history scenes, since they recalled oppressive aristocratic authorities
2. traditional Roman Catholic scenes, since they were either theologically erroneous or distracting to message

Embraced categories of painting

1. Landscapes
2. Genre scenes
3. Still-life
4. Portraiture

The Painters

Rembrandt van Rijn

1)-group pictures

-Sortie of …

-foreshortened hand, weaponry

-characters in depth

-play on light

-emphasis on movement, energy, propulsion (coming forward)

2)-individualism; introspection

-Self-portraits

3)-religious subjects

-victory of Christ and contemplation over glory of the Church

-interpretation of Protestant conception of Scripture
 
 
 
 

Frans Hals

-comic

-focus on character over situation; relate subject to ourselves; compare ourselves with them

-brushwork brings instant image
 
 

Jakob van Ruisdael

-The Jewish Cemetery® reminds us of death, but also of tolerance of Dutch
 
 

Jan Vermeer

-most highly regarded of "little Dutch masters"

-raises ordinary act to religious significance

-Rembrandt emphasizes internal light; Vermeer emphasizes external light

View of Deft

Officer and Laughing Girl

Art of Painting
 
 

Music

Sweelinck

-organist

-worked in more permissive Dutch tradition

Bach

-organist, composer for St. Thomas’s Lutheran Church in Leipzig

-music was "deeply rooted in the soil of German Reformation"

-Lutherans were more liberal with respect to music

-What is a cantata?
 
 

-St. Matthew Passion, an oratorio, grows out of a cantata

-chorus: mob, then body of faithful Christians

-Sample:
 
 

Ideas

Domesticity

Contributing factors:

1. colder Northern climate
2. history of struggle against Spanish crown and French meddling
3. Protestant movement emphasizes individuality

1. "Rome doesn’t own me" (political)
2. "The pope doesn’t own me" (religious)

Domesticity and the Arts

• Art is of the household
• Art is in the household
• Landscapes were brought to the household
• Music, books, conversation took place in home

Dynamics of the Baroque

-oppositions that cannot be reconciled were made to coexist

-Rationalism vs. Mysticism

-Catholicism ("universal") vs. Protestantism

-religious orthodoxy vs. freedom of thought (not only in Catholicism!!)

-Absolute monarchy vs. republican commonwealth

-free exchange of ideas (printing press) vs. their suppression

-bold scientific thinking vs. religious renewal

Newton’s Principia and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress published within 2 years of each other
 
 

-expansion of Space and Time
 
 

1. Astronomy


-space is much bigger, perhaps infinite

2. Architecture


-increasing space (Pozzo, Gherardi 15.19)

3. Painting


-light conveys grandiosity of infinity

-gradations of light convey infinity as well

4. Music

-adding new bass and soprano instruments to attain new frequencies

-doubling instruments to increase volume