Baroque Art: Andrea Pozzo and Frans Hals - Essay Example

Baroque Art Baroque began in Italy, and it later spread to Germany, France, Spain and Netherlands. Baroque was the word used by critics for the art of an era from the late 1500s up to the end of 1700s. Baroque entails a wide variety of artists, and styles, and it was connected with the holy apprehensions in the Western Christianity. There was separation on Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. In reaction to the Protestant reorganization of the early sixteen century, the Roman Catholic Church had got on board in the 1550s on a course of restoration called the Counter-Reformation. For the campaign, the Catholic church used this art of outstanding display (Earls 150). This content illustrates how Dutch and Italian art signify the Baroque trends. The Dutch artists of Holland chose a moderate realism that revealed the Protestant Reformation. The Italian artists regularly formed dramatic and energetic holy works to adore the Catholic Church and serve the counter restoration. Dutch art is insightful of the Protestant Reformation. Frans Hals was the foremost painter in the seventeenth century Haalem, a city in Dutch whose affluence developed from brewing beer and making extravagance fabrics. Even though Hals painted various scenes of every day’s life, he was essentially a portraitist. His outstanding group portraits of the public guards and administrators of helpful foundations, all of which are in the Netherlands, are particularly famous (Earls 180). To avoid flattery, Hals illustrated his sitters with a dynamic honesty that called for their strong, informal tastes. Winning political freedom from Spain in 1648 and the liberty to devotion in the new protestant belief, the Dutch Republic was as well immensely rich from overseas trade. Dutch burghers, even as they took considerable pride in material ownership, they were still socially traditional, most holding to a reserved and an uncomplicated lifestyle. Some of his paintings illustrated the various strata in the society (Earls 220). By firm religious rule, the early Protestants dressed in only black and white outfits, despite the cost of the fabrics. Hals revolved the bare clothing to an advantage, making use of the neutral outfits to begin his sitters’ complexions beside light tan or dark gray environment. To evaluate Hals’ varying styles, it is useful to look carefully at fine points, like lace collars, that he handled in a different way during his progress. Two features of hands, separated by almost twenty years, indicate a development in Hals’ technique. A previous work, an aged woman’s hand gripping a prayer book, is formed with brushstrokes that track and describe the contours, curving around every finger and emphasizing her ring. The book is also exhausted clearly, together with its tooled, golden decorations (Earls 300). A male’s gloved hand grasping another glove, decorated much later, reads as strokes of untainted, solid paint when closely seen. The brushwork is hastened and uneven, signifying the solid outlines of the fingers and the floppiness of the bare glove but not enlightening any details. Various last works of Hals’ are much unstructured in the managing of paint as to show the aspect of abstract. Italian art is the art of the Catholic Counter reorganization. Fra Andrea Pozzo was one of the Italian artists of the Baroque period. He was a painter, an architect and a stage stylist. He was a bright quadratura (illusionistic technique) known for his extravagant frescoes whose work was greatly celebrated. He was known for the beautification of the S Ignazio church in Rome. His architecture and carvings had the effect of stunning fantasy and were amongst the high spots of Baroque church art (Earls 250). He generated his most celebrated work for the Society of Jesus because he was a Jesuit lay brother. This connection was indispensable to his commencement of art and to his sensitive knowledge of the artist’s task as influential in proclaiming the faith and inspiring religious fervor. The techniques he used were those of Counter restoration expression, as characterized in Ignatius Loyola’s Spirited Exercises. Andrea’s architectural works are diverse, and his unusual combination of different sources led to bold trials with both space and composition. His thoughts were extended by his extremely successful two-volume article, Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum. He was supported to go on with his painting by his Jesuit masters because this was perceived as his gift from God. He then started making religious decorations for several places in the city and through this, he gained popularity. Several critics concur that Pozzo’s early works provide only a suggestion of his later achievements (Earls 330). However, they portrayed enough assurance to provoke Gian Paolo Olivia, the Father-General of the Jesuit Society of Jesus, to request Pozzo to visit Rome to do custom-made artwork for him in Rome. The request was supported by Carlo Marati, who was a famous painter in Rome. Marati immensely admired Pozzo’s work. In Rome, he was given a countless task of ornaments which include altarpiece art work, altar plans and festive designs. He was also given several large-scale architectural art works. He quickly gained fame in the Jesuit order, both in Italy and abroad. He was not well known in the secular Roman world despite his public eye (Earls 331). Pozzo’s art work had various meanings and significance. He painted his art work in a way that everyone who entered the church was amazed by its beauty and the three-dimensional effect. On the huge, plane ceiling of St. Ignatius Church, Pozzo painted a mural of the missionary strength of the Jesuit Society. This was deliberated to celebrate two centuries of Jesuit discoverers and missionaries. The result was tromp l’oil; when staring up at the cupola, viewers can perceive what appear like pillars holding up a ceiling. Pozzo painted windows between the pillars. At the center of this, besides the ceiling, as it were, that God, Jesus and Ignatius are suspended. Because he illustrated his illusional technique, most of the people who went to the church were not able to tell whether the ceiling was just an optical fantasy, or real cupola (Earls 331). Conclusion The two artists of the Baroque period illustrated the diverse styles. For instance; the Dutch artist Frans Hals uses the dynamic technique in order to reflect the Protestant Reformation. He successfully achieves this after changing the black and white clothing worn by the early Protestants, to the tan clothing that attracted them, and they had to change. The Italian artist Fra Andrea Pozzo uses his delusional technique in order to bring out the three-dimensional effect on paintings that appeared to be real (Earls 331). This is in the flat ceiling of St. Ignatius Church, which had a mural in which God, Jesus and Ignatius suspended. The difference in religion and the environment in their surrounding contributed to the insights about their artistic works. The contrast in these artistic works reveals that environment can influence a person’s thought and provoke them to formulate ideas in artistic work. Work cited Earls Irene. Baroque Art: A Typical Dictionary. New York: Greenwood Press, 1996. Print. Read More