;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Art 360 Final Term Paper at the start of the Renaissance. Neo-Platonic thought reigned in art and literature. During an age of Annibale Carracci and break-through science and technology, artists of the succeeding Baroque age became ever more interested the Palazzo Farnese in the macroscopic spaces of the celestial world. The Julianna Ziegler ceiling of the Palazzo Farnese is the perfect example of the Baroque period,with its dramatically curving, There are two basic challenges which are ever- Michelangelo-inspired Þgures, and expertly crafted present to the artist. The Þrst is to transform a blank three-dimensional illusions. Neo-Platonic ideals seem empty ground into an illusionistic representation of to resonate from within the frescos throughout the reality by incorporating light and space. The second vault. challenge is to maintain a unique signature style while From the Bolognese academy, the Þrst combining former artistic discoveries with the artistÕs signiÞcant academy of its kind in the history of own imagination and ingenuity. western art, arose some of the earliest of Baroque Beginning around the turn of the 17th century, masters: the Carracci.1 The premise of this academy the world of art began to change dramatically. was that the basis of any academic philosophy of art Weary of the once innovative ideals of the Early could be taught. The materials of instruction must Renaissance, artists had already reached the pinnacle be the traditions, the antique and the Renaissance, in of their experimental ideas in the High Renaissance. addition to the study of anatomy and drawing from Mannerism, with its stretched proportions and life.2 The academy taught a style which combined neglect of the laws of space, was discarded by Venetian color with Florentine attention to drawing forward-thinking artists with the exception of and design. The Bolognese painters strived to borrowing the exaggeration in movement from combine the perfection of nature with the imagination, the forms it produced. Artists were anxious for which resulted in an exaggerated, yet believable, ideal something new and innovative, a style that would that surpasses the norm. As an unfortunate result, surpass in aesthetics those preceding it. With the they were often viewed as academics that seemed Baroque period, arose a new style which mastered the to believe that the development of the correct style epiphany of illusion. of painting was synthetic. This was, in fact, exactly Illusion has played a critical part in the world of what Caravaggio disdained and the reason why he representational art since virtually the beginning of sometimes drew criticism from other painters of the artistic existence. In the caves of Lascaux, prehistoric period.3 paintings depicting bulls were painted onto natural The brothers Annibale and Agostino rock reliefs in order to appear three-dimensional. Carracci united their talents with their cousin Ancient Roman architects compensated for the optical Ludovico and founded their own school. This, in illusion of a sinking structure in such a massive turn, was responsible for the enduring careers of building as the Parthenon by creating tapered many emerging artists of the time.4 They supported columns and a slightly bowed base. Other more an artistic ideal which combined mannerism with recent, yet still ancient examples, can be found in the naturalism, and employed a warmer, more naturalistic perspective paintings decorating the villas of Pompeii, coloration in exchange for the softer, or bright, pastel Boscoreale and Herculaneum prior to the invention hues of Mannerism. Central Italian High Renaissance of linear perspective. These ruins discovered only paintings seem cold, and even remote, in comparison within the past century are rare examples of an 1 Helen Gardener, GardenerÕs Art Through the Ages, Sixth early attempt towards perspective. They were not Edition (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta: Harcourt even available to the artists of the Renaissance and Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1975), p.593. Baroque, yet with their interest in Humanism and Neo 2 Erwin Christensen, The History of Western Art, Fifth Edition Platonism, they illustrated selections from classical (New York: The New American Library, 1963), p.230. literature. 3 Giogio Bonsanit, Caravaggio (Vicenza, Italy: Scala Books, 1984), p.3. Although illusionistic space seemed of little 4 T.H. Fokker, ÒThe Origin of Baroque Painting,Ó The Art importance compared to symbolic iconography Bulletin, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1933), p. 299-309. during the Middle Ages, its popularity reappeared ���� to CarracciÕs lively palette.5 architecture, rather than as a mere background accent Patrons of the arts seemed to support in a painting. Such an example can be seen in the their favorite artists, no matter the cost. Annibale 15th century painting Birth of the Virgin by his teacher, Carracci was summoned from Bologna by Duke Ghirlandaio. Ranuccio Farnese in around 1597 to decorate the Annibale was indeed strongly inßuenced by Palazzo Farnese in fresco. He worked in fresco until Michelangelo. Given the choice, it could be said that 1604, while enlisting artists including Agostino and Michelangelo was a superior master of portraiture, as Domenchino in 1603, after the stucco work was some of CarracciÕs faces seem to be a little strained, completed. Through observation, there seems to be and even cartoonish, such as in the most well known a parallel with Raphael who was summoned from fresco of The Triumph of Bacchus. 10 Upon close his home in Florence, 187 miles south of Bologna to inspection, Carracci used a series of hatching to aid in Rome, less than a century earlier to paint the ceiling of the development of a chiaroscuro effect in each image. the Vatican library and the Villa Farnesina in 1518. It is It seems that Michelangelo painted with broader 626 miles from Bologna to Rome, and 427 miles from brushstrokes, while CarracciÕs seem sometimes Florence to Rome. Therefore, this would have meant a so tight that they appear to be overworked. On a tremendous trip for each of them.6 positive note, such a technique might project a more Annibale took on the project with the distinct image to the viewers below. ambition to not only match the intensity of illusion Michelangelo was not Annibale CarracciÕs only in MichelangeloÕs Sistine Chapel, but to surpass it.7 inßuence. He was also impacted by the works of Whether he succeeded is a matter of opinion. By Raphael, as well as Titian and other Renaissance investigating pictures of CarracciÕs layers of images, artists, and, of course, by the sculpture of the Greeks one begins to become perplexed and even dizzy in and Romans. Like Michelangelo, he was strongly the attempt to interpret the illusionistic from the inßuenced by the discovery of the ancient Hellenistic truly three dimensional. Many of the frescoes have statue of the Laocoon.11 In fact, AnnibaleÕs work in the illusion of framed panel paintings. Quadratura,8 the Palazzo Farnese is declared by Giovanni Pietro realistically painted architectural framework, has been Bellori in 1672 to have earned him the credit of the fashioned so convincingly it would be unlikely the sole redeemer of classical Roman painting Òafter viewer could discern between the wrought and the an almost unbelievable decline following the death real. The artiÞcial and unseen light sources Annibale of Raphael.Ó12 Less than a century prior, Raphael used are truly unmatched in their dramatic and and other High Renaissance artists like Sodoma theatrical results. and Peruzzi had completed the frescoes of what is The two dimensional Òstatues,Ó painted in the now known as the Villa Farnesina. Bought later grisaille technique, appear to be weathered or even by the Farnese family, this building is connected to broken. When one comes to the conclusion that a the Palazzo Farnese, now the French Embassy by particular sculpture is truly three dimensional, oneÕs a bridge over the Tiber River. Annibale, therefore, depth perception is again questioned upon seeing the had convenient access to instant inspiration from the nude Þgures of ignudi twisting around to look down masters of the High Renaissance. Among its many upon us in the foreground.9 These are satirical salutes frescoes, the Farnesina exhibits PeruzziÕs Aquarius, an to MichelangeloÕs ignudi of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. image depicting the Þgures of a man and an eagle.13 Still, Michelangelo has earned the credit he deserves This image, unusual to High Renaissance standards in successfully introducing a new and wonderful style in its rigidity, is comparable to CarracciÕs provocative to inßuence and astonish artists for centuries. He yet graceful image of The Rape of Ganymede by JupiterÕs was the Þrst to use the grisille technique to offer the Eagle. Carracci extracted the soft beauty and grace of illusion of architecture, where there truly could be the elegant facial features of the creations of Raphael 5 Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1066-1750, and combined them with the weighty musculature of Sixth Edition, (Yale University Press, 1999), p.27. 10 Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1066-1750, 6 Google Maps, Example: Bologna to Florence, Tele Atlas, Sixth Edition, (Yale University Press, 1999), p.35. (Accessed February 1, and April 4, 2008) http://maps.google. 11 Carl Goldstein, Visual Fact over Verbal Fiction: A Study of com/maps the Carracci and the Criticism, Theory, and Practice of the Art 7 John Rupert Martin, Farnese Gallery (Princeton, New Jersey: in the Renaissance and Baroque Italy (New York: The Press Princeton University Press, 1965), p.117. Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1988), p.290. 8 Arthur K. McComb, Baroque Painters of Italy; an Introductory 12 Charles Dempsey, Annibale Carracci: The Farnese Gallery, Historical Survey (New York: Russell & Russell, 1968), p.19. Rome (New York: George Braziller Inc., 1995), p. 8. 9 Charles Dempsey, Annibale Carracci: The Farnese Gallery, 13 Frederick Hartt and David G.