Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
persecuting Counter-Reformation heresy and the powerful popes of the day saw baroque
art as an ideal propaganda tool. They eagerly championed the likes of Caravaggio, Gian
Lorenzo Bernini, Domenichino, Pietro da Cortona and Alessandro Algardi.
Not surprisingly, much baroque art has a religious theme and you'll often find depic-
tions of martyrdoms, ecstasies and miracles. The use of coloured marble, gold leaf and or-
namental church settings are further trademarks.
The most famous decorative artists of the 13th century were the Cosmati. This Roman family revolution-
ised the art of mosaic-making by slicing up ancient columns of coloured marble into circular slabs,
which they then used to create intricate patterns.
Caravaggio
One of the key painters of the period was Caravaggio (1573−1610), the Milan-born
enfant
terrible
of Rome's art world. A controversial and often violent character, he arrived in
Rome around 1590 and immediately set about rewriting the artistic rule books. While his
peers and Catholic patrons sought to glorify and overwhelm, he painted nature as he saw
it. He had no time for 'ideal beauty' and caused uproar with his lifelike portrayal of
hitherto sacrosanct subjects - his barefoot depiction of the Virgin Mary in the
Madonna
dei Pellegrini
(Madonna of the Pilgrims) in the Chiesa di Sant'Agostino is typical of his
audacious approach.
Caravaggio took his trademark
chiaroscuro
, a technique involving the bold contrast of light and dark, to its
extreme limits, giving rise to tenebrism, a style characterised by brightly lit figures set against solid dark
backgrounds.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
But while Caravaggio shocked his patrons, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598−1680) delighted
them with his stunning sculptures. More than anyone else before or since, Bernini was
able to capture a moment, freezing emotions and conveying a sense of dramatic action.
His depiction of
Santa Teresa traffita dall'amore di Dio
(Ecstasy of St Teresa) in the Ch-
iesa di Santa Maria della Vittoria does just that, blending realism, eroticism and theatrical
spirituality in a work that is widely considered one of the greatest of the baroque period.
Further evidence of his genius is on show at the Museo e Galleria Borghese, where you
can marvel at his ability to make stone-cold marble seem soft as flesh in the
Ratto di
