Syllabus-Baroque Italy



AH 131 Art & Architecture of the Italian Baroque

Prof. Philip Jacks office hours T, Th 1–2 PM

Course outline

Whereas the term “Baroque” traditionally defined a style antithetical to the principles of the Renaissance and classical antiquity, the art of the 17th century is actually far more diverse, both in its sources and artistic aims. The Italian Baroque was born out of the religious fervor in Rome during the aftermath of the Council of Trent and the Counter-Reform movement within the Catholic church. Its leading exponents — such as the Carracci and Caravaggio — while revolutionary in their approach to painting, still owed much to the monumental style of Titian, Raphael and Michelangelo. Cardinals and popes played a critical role as patrons, not only as arbiters of taste, but also in fostering artistic genius, most notably in the case of Bernini, whose career spanned six pontificates, and his arch-rival, the temperamental architect Francesco Borromini. Inasmuch as the unity of painting, sculpture and architecture, known by the German word Gesamtkunstwerk, reached its most supreme expression during the 17th century, this course will give particular attention to how the media were designed to interact within the aesthetic experience. Beginning in Rome, where the Baroque germinated, we will consider how buildings defined the urban space. We then travel to Naples (Gentileschi and the Caravaggisti), Florence (Pietro da Cortona), Venice (Longhena), and Turin (Guarini).

Course requirements

Three in-class quizzes, each 75 minutes, with slide identification and analysis. There are no make-ups for quizzes except for medical emergencies (notification by doctor in advance). Attendance is required: more than three unexcused absences for the term may affect your final grade. Slideshows from each lecture can be reviewed at:

mdid.art.gwu.edu

Required texts (in Bookstore)

Howard Hibbard, Caravaggio (Harper Icon Ed.)

Howard Hibbard, Bernini (Penguin)

Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architcture in Italy 1600–1750 (Pelican History of Art), rev. Joseph Connors and Jennifer Montagu (Yale University Press), 3 vols.

Jennifer Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture (Yale University Press)

Articles denoted with an asterisk* are required reading and can be downloaded from website: gwu.edu/~art/Temporary_SL/resources.html

P r e l i m i n a r y S y l l a b u s

Sep 2 Baroque: Origins of a Term

Wölfflin’s theory of Kunstwollen; definition of Renaissance and Baroque as stylistic periods.

Sep 4 Rome in the Counter-Reform

Council of Trent on religious images; founding of the Jesuits and the Gesù; Sixtus V, Domenico Fontana, and stellar plan of Rome; Sistine Chapel in S. Maria Maggiore.

Reading: *Torgil Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. I: pp. 3-39.

Sep 9 The Completion of St. Peter’s Greek-cross plan of Bramante, successive projects by Raphael, Peruzzi and Sangallo; dome and tribunes of Michelangelo and Della Porta; nave, pronaos and façade by Carlo Maderno.

Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. I, pp. 1–18; pp. 75–84.

Sep 11 The Carracci and the Reform of Painting

Bolognese Academy (Accademia degli Incamminati) of Ludovico and Annibale Carracci; Camerino and Galleria of Palazzo Farnese; Pieter Aertsen and genre painting.

Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. I, pp. 27–40.

Sep 16 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio – Early Roman Years

Origins in northern luminismo and first patrons in Rome (Cardinal Francesco del Monte, Vincenzo Giustiniani).

Reading: Hibbard, Caravaggio, Chs. 1–2: pp. 1–88.

Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. I, pp. 19–26.

Sep 18 Caravaggio – The Light of Tenebrism

Contarelli and Cerasi Chapels, other altarpieces before flight from Rome.

Reading: Hibbard, Caravaggio, Chs. 3–6: 91–163.

Sep 23 Caravaggio – Artistic Renegade Late paintings in Naples, Syracuse, Messina, and Malta.

Reading: Hibbard, Caravaggio, Chs. 7–9: 164–245.

Sep 25 The Roman Art Market

Guido Reni, Domenichino, Guercino, Salvator Rosa, Pieter van Laer and the Dutch Bamboccianti.

Reading: *Francis Haskell, Painters and Patrons: A Study in the Relations between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque (London, 1963), excerpt.

Sep 30 ROSH HASHANA – NO CLASS

Oct 2 Caravaggisti in Naples

Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Mattia Preti, G. B. Caracciolo, Jusepe de Ribera (lo Spagnoletto), and the decoration of the Certosa di San Martino.

Reading: *Mary Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi (Princeton, 1989), “Judith,” pp. 278–336. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. I, pp. 41–57.

Oct 7 QUIZ 1

Oct 9 YOM KIPPUR – NO CLASS

Oct 14 Gianlorenzo Bernini: Formation of a Prodigy

Commissions from Paul V Borghese, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, Gregory XIV Ludovisi.

Reading: Hibbard, Bernini, pp. 23–67.

Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture, pp. 1–19.

Oct 16 Bernini and Algardi: The Artifice of Sculpture

Baldacchino, crossing and Cathedra Petri in St. Peter’s, S. Bibiana; Cornaro Chapel in S. Maria della Vittoria.

Reading: Hibbard, Bernini, pp. 68–141.

Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture, pp. 21–47, pp. 70–75.

Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. II, 85–98.

Oct 21 The Sculptor-Impresario

Papal tombs of Urban VIII Barberini, Alexander VII Chigi; Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona; Chigi Chapel in S. Maria del Popolo.

Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture, pp. 99–125.

Reading: Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. II, pp. 5–19.

Oct 23 Collections and Restoration of Classical Statuary

Bernini, Algardi, Buzzi, Boselli and Baroque restoration of ancient statuary.

Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture, Ch. VII: 151–172.

Oct 28 Bernini the Architect

Piazza S. Pietro, Sant’ Andrea al Quirinale, Ariccia, Castel Gandolfo. Reading: Hibbard, Bernini, pp. 142–84.

Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. II, pp. 23–38.

Oct 30 Bernini at the Court of Louis XIV and Late Oeuvre East colonnade of the Louvre; equestrian portrait of Louis XIV; Chapel of Ludovica Albertoni in S. Francesca a Ripa.

Reading: Hibbard, pp. 185–228.

Nov 4 REVIEW

Nov 6 QUIZ 2

Nov 11 Francesco Borromini

Origins in Lugano, Milanese influences; Palazzo Barberini, S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, S. Ivo alla Sapienza, Oratory of the Filippini.

Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. II, 39–62.

Nov 13 Borromini the Urbanist

Sant’Agnese in Agone, Collegio di Propaganda Fide, Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, Palazzo Carpegna, Palazzo Spada.

Reading: *Joseph Connors, “Borromini and Roman Urbanism,” AA Files 2 (1982): 11-21.

Nov 18 Pietro da Cortona

S. Maria della Pace, SS. Luca e Martina, Villa Doria-Pamfili; decoration of Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

Reading: Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. Ii, pp. 63–83.

Reading: Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture, Ch. 4: 77–98.

Nov 20 The City as Theater: Currents in Late-17th Century Rome

Carlo Rainaldi, Carlo Fontana, Martino Longhi, Giovanni Battista Soria.

Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. II, pp. 99–110.

Nov 25 Baroque Architecture in Florence, Milan and Venice

Francesco Maria Ricchini, Baldassare Longhena, Matteo Nigetti.

Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. II, pp. 110–120.

Nov 27 NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING

Dec 2 Architectura obliqua: An Architecture of the Spirit

Guarino Guarini in Turin (Santa Sindone, San Lorenzo, Palazzo Carignano). Filippo Juvarra (Stupinigi) and Bernardo Vittone (Turin).

Reading:. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. III, pp. 29–51.

Dec 4 Academicism and Historicism in 18th-Century Rome

Filippo Raguzzini (Sant’Ignazio), Francesco De Sanctis (Spanish Steps), Alessandro Galilei (San Giovanni in Laterano), Ferdinando Fuga (S. Maria Maggiore), Nicola Salvi (Fontana di Trevi).

Reading: Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, vol. III, pp. 5–17.

Dec 9 QUIZ 3 (Make-up day, designated Thursday)

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