Discovering the humanities 3rd by henry m sayre 2016 chapter 10

Discovering the Humanities
THIRD EDITION

CHAPTER

10

The Counter-Reformation
and the Baroque:
Emotion, Inquiry, and
Absolute Power

Discovering the Humanities, Third Edition
Henry M. Sayre

Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010
by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates
All Rights Reserved


Learning Objectives
1. Explain Mannerism and how it arose
out of the Counter-Reformation.
2. Describe how the Baroque style
manifested itself in the art, music, and
literature of the era.
3. Discuss the vernacular Baroque style
that developed in the North.
4. Define absolutism and discuss how it
impacted the arts.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Summer. 1563.
Oil on limewood. 26-3/8” × 20”.
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Erich Lessing/akg-images. [Fig. 10.1]


The Early Counter-Reformation and
Mannerism
• The Baroque was a compromise
between religious propriety and an
especially exuberant style of art that
had arisen in Italy in the last half of the
sixteenth century: Mannerism.


The empire of Charles V. ca. 1521.
[Fig. Map 10.1]


The Council of Trent and Catholic
Reform of the Arts
• Under the urging of Charles V and
Francis I, Pope Paul III convened the
Council of Trent in 1545 to confront
their common enemy, the Protestant
challenge.
• The Council of Trent's injunction against
luxury and its assertion of the principle
of simple piety were directly translated
to the arts.

The Council of Trent and Catholic
Reform of the Arts
• Members of the clergy wrote treatises
on art.
• The treatises called explicitly for direct
treatment of subjects, unencumbered
by anything "sensuous," from
brushwork to light effects.


The Council of Trent and Catholic
Reform of the Arts
• The function of music in the liturgy was
to serve the text, and thus the text
should be clear and intelligible to the
congregation.
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's (ca.
1525–154) Missa Papae Marcelli ("Mass
for Pope Marcellus") carries out the
requirements of the Council of Trent.


The Council of Trent and Catholic
Reform of the Arts
• The voices in the Credo section of the
Missa Papae Marcelli displays
counterpoint, in which voices imitate
the main melody in succession, and

homophony, in which the subordinate
voices accompany the melody in
unison.
• Melisma is the use of many notes per
syllable.


The Rise of Mannerism
• The edicts of the Council of Trent did
not constrain Michelangelo.
• He introduced a different, more
inventive direction in sixteenth-century
art.
• Michelangelo's new style resulted in
distorted, artificial poses, mysterious or
obscure settings, and often elongated
proportions.


Michelangelo, Pietà. 1547–53.
Marble, height 89”.
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence. © Photo Scala, Florence. [Fig. 10.2]


Michelangelo. Last Judgment. 1534–41.
Fresco. 48' × 44'.
Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome. Foto Musei Vaticani. [Fig. 10.3]


Michelangelo, Last Judgment. 1534–41. Detail.

Fresco. 48’ × 44’.
Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome. Foto Musei Vaticani. Photograph: A. Braccetti/P. Zigrossi.
[Fig. 10.4]


Correggio. Jupiter and Io. Early 1530s.
Oil on canvas. 69" × 29-1/2".
Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, Austria. [Fig. 10.5]


The Rise of Mannerism
• Many had found the nudity in
Michelangelo's Last Judgment
inappropriate for religious painting.
• Outside a religious context, however,
this lack of decorum was acceptable.


The Rise of Mannerism
• In the private galleries of the princely
courts throughout Europe, a more
lascivious imagery thrived.
• Corregio's (ca. 1494–1534) Jupiter and
Io presents unabashed sensuality
combined with a somewhat bizarre
juxtaposition of the main figure.


Titian. The Rape of Europa. 1559–62.
Oil on canvas. 5' 9-1/4" × 7' 8-1/4".

© Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA, USA/The Bridgeman Art Library.
[Fig. 10.6]


The Rise of Mannerism
• Titian (ca. 1488–1576) adds lush
brushwork that mirrors the sensuality of
the image in The Rape of Europa.
• Like the Mannerists, the later Titian
draws attention to his own virtuosity
and skill, to the presence of his socalled hand, or stylistic signature
through brushwork, in the composition.


Parmigianino. The Madonna with the Long Neck. ca. 1535.
Oil on panel, 7’1” × 4’4”.
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. © Studio Fotografico Quattrone, Florence. [Fig. 10.7]


Veronese and the Italian Inquisition
• Pope Paul III initiated a Roman
Inquisition in 1542.
• The Roman Inquisition was an official
inquiry into possible heresy.


Veronese. Feast in the House of Levi.
1573. Oil on canvas. 18' 2" × 42'.
Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice. © Cameraphoto Arte, Venice. [Fig. 10.8]

Veronese and the Italian Inquisition
• When Veronese was called before the
Inquisition in 1573 concerning his Last
Supper painted for a Dominican
monastery in Venice, the tribunal gave
him three months to "improve and
correct" his painting.
• Veronese accommodated the tribunal
by changing the title to Feast in the
House of Levi.


The Spanish Inquisition
• The Spanish Inquisition also prosecuted
the Spanish mystics Teresa of Ávila
(1515–1582) and Juan de la Cruz (1542–
1591).
• The moral strictures of the Inquisition
and the mysticism of the alumbrados
are recognizable in the art of El Greco
(1541–1614).


Document:
Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter I
by Miguel Cervantes

El Greco. Resurrection. 1597–1604.
Oil on canvas. 9'1/4" × 4'2".

Museo del Prado, Madrid. akg-images/Erich Lessing.
[Fig. 10.9]


The Spanish Inquisition
• El Greco used painting to convey an
intensely expressive spirituality.
• His art united the aspirations of the
Counter-Reformation and the
inventiveness of the Mannerist style, as
they would come to be in the Baroque
art of the seventeenth century.