Week 4 Alaina Fontenot

Unfortunately our last days in Rome have finally approached us. On our last day of class, we looked almost exclusively at Baroque art and focused on what that period was, why it came to be, and what are signifiers of the period. Baroque art has an intense emphasis on emotion and evoking emotion from the viewer. Italian Baroque art, in particular, was constructed to give the Catholic viewers a closer emotional connection to the religion and the theatricality of the artworks served to give a better understanding of the stories being told. A checklist for considering what is and is not Italian Baroque art is as follows: emotionally intense, capturing a moment in time, dynamic, the use of diagonals in the composition, energy and movement, closeness to the subject, realism, interrupted contours, and strategic use of light. 

A prime example of a full Baroque production can be seen in the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria. Bernini expertly captured the St. Teresa’s account of her deeply moving spiritual vision of being stabbed with a burning arrow by a beautiful, small angel. The physical pain and euphoria St. Teresa is experiencing is depicted beautifully in a split second. His skill as a sculptor can be seen in his ability to transform the medium of stone into a variety of textures: the feathers of the angel’s wings and the gauzy fabric he is draped in, and her heavy, nun-ish garb. Bernini, being an architect as well as an artist, pulled out all of the theatrical stops in constructing this chapel. He designed the altar with a ceiling painting of a dove of the holy spirit, casting down light onto St. Teresa and her vision. In addition, he added a hidden window to give more illumination to the sculpture and add to the theatricality of the scene. There are also two relief sculptures on either side of the altar portraying people seated in theater boxes, really pushing the idea of this being a production and making the viewers feel more like they’re watching something magnificent unfold. 

Another sculpture that we were lucky to see this week was the Farnese Hercules. While this is not a Baroque sculpture, rather it was discovered by members of the Farnese family that were prominent during this time, the sculpture does evoke the kind of emotion that is characteristic of the period. Hercules himself is portrayed as this massive, super masculine creature. He is reminiscent of the Hellenistic and Classical Roman sculptures that portray an idealized human form. The emotion present in his face, though, of utter exhaustion, is a foreshadowing almost of the empathetic nature of the Baroque. He is depicted leaning the entire right side of his enormous body onto a lion pellet that is draped over his large club. Another aspect of the sculpture that differs slightly from the classic Classical style is that the viewer must move around the sculpture to really understand the full story. His left hand is wrapped around his back holding three apples; these apples along with the lion pellet are representative of the 12 Labors of the story of Hercules. 

An example of Italian Baroque architecture is the stunning Santa Carlo alle Quattro Fontane designed by Borromini, a contemporary of Bernini. This specific church is so remarkable because of the seemingly effortless symmetry that is felt upon entering. It is sleek and white, and while there are many well thought out, contemplative, mathematical calculations that went into building this church, the overwhelming feeling of peace cohesiveness cannot be denied. Every aspect of the building has its own place. Every coffer, every geometric shape in the ceiling, every cherub has it’s own defined space.