During class on Monday, March 11th, we continued our studies on Italian Baroque Art. For the majority of the beginning of class, Professor Plesch focused on Italian sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. Bernini served as a member of the Borghese family and fulfilled the Basilica of St. Peters and the beautification system in Rome. We looked at a few of Bernini’s works, including David, a life size portrayal of David from the biblical text, David and Goliath. Bernini astonishingly completed the sculpture in a span of seven months (a short period of time for a detailed sculptor of that size). The sculptor conveys realism, as David stands in an athletic position, holding an intense focus as he throws a stone. Given this work was commissioned by Scipione Borghese, a former Cardinal in Italy, I ponder the question of how much direction the cardinals or popes gave the artists when asking them to commission a work for them?
We continued our study of Bernini, noting his The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, representing a complex depiction of vision and coextensive space, along with his Baldacchino and Piazza before St. Peter’s. Each of Bernini’s sculptures that we focused on depict an intense representation and an in-depth portrayal of space and religious motive sought through various church’s ideals and cardinal or pope motives. Following our studies on Bernini, we focused on a few other artists at the time, including Giovanni Battista Gauli, Francesco Borromini, Juan Sánchez Cotán, Jusepe de Ribera (“Lo Spagnoletto”), Francisco de Zurbarán, and lastly Diego Velázquez. Giovanni Battista Gauli incorporated a usage of mixed media works and a representation of the Jesuit order, specifically we saw this through his Triumph of the Name of Jesus. Francesco Borromini’s San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane draws multiple geometrical and complex illusions to the eye, exemplifying vast differences to Juan Sánchez Cotán’s Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber. Cotán paints a simple and managed work. The work seems to be much more tame than that of Borromini’s San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. Lastly, we studied three more works during this class period: Jusepe de Ribera’s The Club-Footed Boy, Francisco de Zurbarán’s St. Serapion, and finally Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas. The Club-Footed Boy depicts a young beggar, but the young boy is almost laughing, sending the message that light-heartedness is the only way to overcome lack of rights, meagerness, or just hardships. The low horizon allows the reader to look up at the figure, perhaps alluding to the ability for the lower class to gain equality to the middle or upper classes. Finally, Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas is one of the grandest spectacles of art in the world, as it conveys “A theory of painting.” This painting nicely wrapped up our class of tricky, dynamic, and clever works we focused on in this class period.