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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 20 general entries.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Baroque Art
| What historical event was a major influence on religious art during and after the Baroque period? | Baroque Art
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The Council of Trent. The Council of Trent (1545-1563), formed during the Counter Reformation to reestablish the authority of the Catholic Church, also reaffirmed the validity of religious images, within certain guidelines: they had to be accurate, clear, decorous, and a stimulus to piety. These restrictions played a major role in the choice and depiction of religious subjects in subsequent art.
| What female artist painted several versions of the apocryphal story of Judith and Holofernes, emphasizing the woman's active role in the story? | Baroque Art
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Artemisia Gentileschi. From the book of Judith, the story is about the town of Bethulia, which is being besieged by the Assyrians, who are led by Holofernes. Judith, a young woman of Bethulia, goes to the enemy camp, succeeds in getting Holofernes drunk, and decapitates him, saving Bethulia. Instead of depicting Judith as a beautiful but rather meek female (as was the tradition in Italian art), Gentileschi's Judith is strong and capable.
| What French-born Italian artist often painted tenebrist, candlelight scenes, including several of the Repentant Magdalene? | Baroque Art
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Georges La Tour. La Tour often employed tenebrism, or a strong contrast between light and dark used for dramatic effect, in his paintings.
| Which Italian artist designed and built the Baldacchino in St. Peter's Basilica? | Baroque Art
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Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The iconography of the Baldacchino was designed to link the current pope, Urban VIII, to the first pope, St. Peter, who received his authority directly from Christ. Linking the two popes served to emphasize the authority of the Catholic church through tradition.
| Which Dutch artist is known for the numerous and naturalistically rendered self-portraits he painted throughout the course of his life? | Baroque Art
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Rembrandt van Rijn. Rembrandt's earlier self-portraits tend to emphasize his material wealth and good fortune, while his later self-portraits are more introspective and personal.
| Which Spanish artist was court painter to Philip IV and the Habsburg family, producing such works as Las Meninas for the royal family? | Baroque Art
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Diego Velazquez. Velazquez painted a la prima, or without preparatory drawings. As a result, pentimenti, visible corrections he made to his work on the canvas, are often noticeable in his paintings.
| What Italian artist popularized the use of chiaroscuro in Baroque art? | Baroque Art
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Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Caravaggio's innovative use of chiaroscuro, or modeling of figures in light and dark to produce a three dimensional effect, lead several other painters, such as LaTour and Artemisia Gentileschi, to use 'caravaggesque' techniques.
| What Dutch artist is known for his quiet paintings of solitary, contemplative figures in interior settings? | Baroque Art
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| Which painting is Caravaggio's only signed work? | Baroque Art
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The Beheading of St. John the Baptist. "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist" was painted for the Cathedral in Malta in 1608 after Caravaggio had fled Rome. His signature is written in the blood flowing from the neck of the Baptist.
| Which painting by Nicolas Poussin is one of the only paintings by a French artist to have hung in St. Peter's? | Baroque Art
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The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus. Nicolas Poussin, though French by birth, spent nearly all his life in Rome. He was invited to return to France by Cardinal Richelieu, which he did for a brief period. But his style of painting was more popular with Italian patrons and he soon returned. His classicizing style would later be an inspiration to Jacques Louis-David.
| What perspective device did Vermeer probably employ when executing his paintings? | Baroque Art
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Camera Obscura. Vermeer's critics often accuse him of having to rely completely on the camera obscura to create his paintings. They imagine him simply copying the image projected onto the canvas. This is, however, rather unfair. The image from the camera obscura would not only be upside down and reversed, but fuzzy. It would still take considerable skill to create a painting from the projected image.
| What makes Diego Velazquez's "Venus at Her Mirror" (usually known as the "Rokeby Venus" c. 1645) a very unique painting in Spanish Baroque art? | Baroque Art
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It depicts a nude female. The Spanish were quite religious and nudity in art was completely frowned upon. There are only a couple of other works from the time that depict nude females. Velazquez's gorgeous painting is also interesting in that the image shown in the mirror is not quite accurate. A recreation done by a modern artist demonstrated that the mirror would actually be reflecting a slightly less decorous part of her anatomy.
| Artemisia Gentileschi, the daughter of the Caravaggisti Orazio Gentileschi, began painting at a very young age. Her earliest work, dated 1610, depicted which Biblical subject? | Baroque Art
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Susanna and the Elders. This breathtaking painting is one of the most realistic female nudes ever depicted in the 17th century. Susanna is seen as a strong figure who does not hide her body, but turns away from the old men in a dramatic pose. A 1997 movie was based on the life of Artemisia. Unfortunately, the film twisted the truth and portrayed the artist as a lovesick girl who had an affair with Agostino Tassi. Artemisia was, in fact, raped by Tassi and charges were only brought against him after he stole property from her father. He was found guilty, but never actually punished.
| Peter Paul Rubens, the Flemish master, had a large studio of assistants, many of whom specialized in a particular field. Who was his most well-known animal painter? | Baroque Art
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Frans Snyders. Two such examples of Rubens and Synders collaborations are "Philomenes Recognized by the Old Woman" (c.1610) and "Diana Returning from the Chase" (1616-1617). And in all of my classes on Baroque art, professors always cited the famous "Prometheus Bound" and "Daniel in the Lions' Den" as collarborations as well.
| Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who was certainly one of the greatest sculptors who ever lived, created two nearly identical marble portrait busts of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (c. 1632). Why was the second one made? | Baroque Art
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Flaw in the marble in the first not visible until nearly finished. Though Bernini's skill with marble was truly amazing, he was also a gifted architect, painter, and draughtsman. His busts of the Cardinal both examples of a speaking likeness. When standing next to either of these great works, one almost feels as if the sculpture is alive and the Cardinal is about to open his mouth and speak!
| Caravaggio's "Amor Vincit Omnia" (c. 1601) features a nude adolescent in a pose that is a reference to which work of Renaissance art? | Baroque Art
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Victory by Michelangelo. Caravaggio's real name was Michelangelo Merisi. He constantly attempted to prove the superiority of his art to the his namesake, by quoting poses and gestures. Another famous example is Christ in Caravaggio's "Calling of St. Matthew." His pointing finger is a reference to "God Creating Adam" from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.
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