CATHOLICISM IN BAROQUE ART
Italy is world renowned for its Catholic art, and nothing can compare to the Baroque art found in duomi across the country, especially in Rome, arguably the site of the pinnacle of the Baroque movement.
The Baroque movement was happening during the 17th century, and saw artistic geniuses Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Francesco Borromini, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini take to the stage through different artistic mediums, creating artwork that would change Italy’s artistic culture, and its landscape. Architecture began to be shaped to physically connect with people, such as St Peter’s Square (Rome), with the colonnade designed by Bernini to encircle visitors and replicate a giant pair of arms giving a divine embrace, hence creating an interactive artwork that gave visitors a sensory experience of God. Buildings also became more bulged and high-rising, with churches featuring giant domes filled with intricate and intensely expressive painting and architecture, aimed at inspiring a sense of awe at the wonder and hugeness of God. This is perfectly shown in the dome in Borromini’s almost sculptural Church of San Carlo in Rome, and in the mesmerising ceiling painting church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, also in Rome, painted by Jesuit lay brother, Andrea Pozzo, from 1865.
Painting styles changed radically too; whereas the Renaissance is characteristic of formality, reverence and structured depictions of society and biblical scenes, Baroque painting became much more targeted towards that emotional experience and causing a stir. Caravaggio was one of the first
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Francesco Borromini, 1646 (Wiki Commons).
St Peter's Square (Rome), Gian Lorenzo Bernini, (above and below), (Wikipedia).
ARTE E CULTURA
ARTE E CULTURA