Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
paranoid) wrote down all his measurements in cipher so that his rivals couldn't
steal his building plans. Through the work of Brunelleschi and his peers, archi-
tects were, for the first time, considered to be artists.
BAROQUE & ROCOCO PERIOD (LATE 16TH TO 18TH C.)
Think of Donald Trump decorating Las Vegas, and you'll have a good idea of the
spirit of baroque and rococo art. More is always better. If you're going to paint
one angel on the ceiling, might as well add 10, cover them in gold, and surround
with 2 dozen roses, frolicking doves, unicorns, and the Roman Fifth army. Puffy
clouds in blue skies were painted on ceilings across the country. This era coincided
with the decadence and decline of Italy's major families, such as the Medicis,
whose heirs spent their inheritance on gold-encrusted bird baths rather than on
sponsoring innovative artists. But despite the tawdriness that marked the era,
some fine artists and artworks have survived the years with their reputation some-
what intact.
Rather than excess gold and decoration,
Caravaggio
painted with an excess of
darkness. His noted
chiaroscuro
technique combined shadow with dramatic
sources of light within his compositions. The destitute were his subject matter, a
reflection of his own upbringing as a street urchin. The Vatican Museums display
his famous 1604
Deposition
painting, while the Uffizi devotes almost an entire
gallery to his works.
Gianlorenzo Bernini
represents the pinnacle of baroque sculpture and archi-
tecture. His dramatic, twisting, contorting statues represent some of the spirit of
the era, a flurry of activity that never really moved anywhere. Nevertheless, his stat-
ues of
Apollo and Daphne
and
The Rape of Persephone
(works from the 1620s) are
worth seeing in Rome's Galleria Borghese. Bernini's architectural achievements
include the colonnade of St. Peter's Square in Rome, as well as the interior setting
of St. Peter's Basilica, which contains the tombs of Urban VIII and Alexander VII.
For baroque aficionados, a visit to the Sicilian town of Noto, near Syracuse, is
a must. The city was rebuilt after an earthquake in an all-baroque format, with
the entire city center designed in the style of the era in 1693.
THE MODERN ERA (1800-PRESENT)
Art's modern age in Italy began with the neoclassical movement, whose spare,
white-marble buildings and undecorated columns represented a backlash against
the artistic fluffery of the baroque era. The 19th century featured the expansion of
archaeological digs (discovering Pompeii, among others), and reignited an interest
in the classical era. The unification of Italy in the late 1800s catalyzed a desire to
return to the glory of Roman architecture, embodied by the excessive Vittorio
Emanuele monument in Rome; it also culminated in Mussolini's “glory through
marble” fascist architecture of Stadio Olimpico and other hulking monuments.
Italy's modern-art era pales in comparison with the Renaissance. But Amado
Modigliani
represents a triumph of early-20th-century art with his innovative
portrait and figure painting and sculptures featuring elongated forms. Milan's
Brera Picture Gallery and Rome's National Gallery of Modern Art display a good
selection of his works, alongside those of his peers like the naturalist Giovanni
Fattori and the modernist Gino Severini.
