Baroque and Rococo HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012) Baroque Characteristics of Baroque Architecture • Architecture of theatre • A strong movement in 17th & 18th centuries • Elaborate ornaments and exuberant • e.g. Beauty & The Beast • Interplay of natural lighting, lighting & shadow • spatially complex composition HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012) Baroque Characteristics of Baroque Architecture • Blurred physical boundaries between building elements • Hiding of structural features • Expansive curvaceous form – swirling movements to create dynamic movements • Plasticity of materials • Sense of mass, complex interplay of geometry Santa Maria Della Pace by Cortona • Combination of architecture, painting & sculpture HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012) Baroque Characteristics of Baroque Art • Expressive, playing with emotion • Free/fluidity – dynamic composition • Play with tone and • Contrast – light and shadow with the intention to capture the emotion and motion (contrapposto) • Engagement of viewer and picture HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012) David by Bernini & Prometheus by Nicolas Sebastian Adam HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012) Baroque Gian Lorenzo Bernini • Magisterial command of the site • Sense of theatre • Curve & dramatic lighting • Emotional approach – faith HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012) HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012) Rococo Rococo was a very playful and decorative style of art that started in France around 1700 before spreading throughout Europe. Pastel colours were frequently used and subjects tended to be related to the leisure pastimes and love scenes of rich people. • Derived from the word “rocaille” which means misshapen pearl in French Vivid colours were replaced by pastel shades; diffuse light flooded the building volume; and violent surface relief was replaced by smooth flowing masses with emphasis only at isolated points. Churches and palaces still exhibited an integration of the three arts, but the building structure was lightened to render interiors graceful and ethereal. Interior and exterior space retained none of the bravado and dominance of the Baroque but entertained and captured the imagination by intricacy and subtlety. HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012) Rococo Characteristics • 1720s – light curvilinear decoration • Colour scheme lightened, mirror surfaces multiplied & angles softened • Ornament – natural forms, branches, garlands, acanthus • Abstract sinuosity – scrolis, interlace & arabesques • Elegant, lighthearted, gay Residence at Wurzbug by manner Johann Baltasar Neumann HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012) Rococo • Spread to Germany & Austria • Evanescent of Late Baroque – dynamism & geometric complexity of the 17th century Italian architecture & post Louis XIV France • Official style of architecture – dignity & solemn grandeur of the new France Country Pilgrimage Church by Johann Baltasar Neumann HISTORY & CULTURE 1 (90012).