Famous Baroque Art Pieces

Saint Charles at the Four Fountains

• Designed by the architect Francesco Borromini
• Seems elastic
• Effect of movement
• Lots of lights and darks

Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

• Designed and completed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the leading sculptor of his day
• Depicts St. Theresa’s vision in which an angel pierced her heart with a golden arrow
• Movement and emotion- central aspects of baroque art

DAVID

• life-size marble sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
• example of sculpture in the round- viewer must move around the work to see it completely
• Implied movement (coiled stance)
• Very theatrical

The Conversion of St. Paul

• By Caravaggio
  • The moment St. Paul receives his message from god
  • Great example of chiaroscuro
  • Dramatic movement and emotion

Judith and the Maid Servant with the Head of Holofernes

• By Gentileschi
  • Judith beheading the General Holofernes
  • She seduces him with wine and good looks and then chops off his head…
  • Chiaroscuro – Drama, movement, emotion

The Raising of the Cross

• By Rubens
• A TRYPTYCH
• Flowing movement
• Pyramidal configuration

The Night Watch

• Rembrandt
• Rembrandt painted everyday events, historical subjects and landscapes
• Light, shadow and atmosphere
• Movement and drama- captures a moment in time

The Love Letter

• Genre painting by Vermeer
• A servant maid handing a letter to a young woman with a lute
• Curtain creates the impression this is a private scene
• Painting on wall suggests the letter is form a sailor at sea
• Vermeer used a ‘camera obscura’

Las Meninas

• a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age
• We see what the king and queen would have seen
• Blurred figures imply movement
• Captures a moment in time