Baroque is a term widely used to describe the artistic progression since the Mannerist movement at the end of the sixteenth century towards a more dynamic and exaggerated style in the seventeenth century and finally the French and German implementation of the Rococo style. This era instigated the preliminary stages of Neoclassicism which began around 1760. This rich artistic period is defined by three successive movements: the opposition between Classicism and Baroque during the seventeenth century, followed by the emergence of the Rococo style that pushed the Baroque genre to the height of its development, and finally the progressive return to a more exacting technique, influencing the first impulses of Neoclassicism.
The formal division between Baroque and Classicism took place when two diverging stylistic standards emerged in Rome at the very end of the seventeenth century. The Classic style was founded by Annibale Carracci and his brother Agnosto and cousin Ludovico when they completed the décor for the Camerino and the gallery in the Farnese Palace around 1600. Their movement was largely followed by the Catholic hierarchy because it adhered to the declared principles of the Council of Trent, which outlined the necessity of a simple and direct art that also provided a didactic function. The diffusion of their style was explained by Carracci’s artistic foundation at the Accademia degli incamminati, a school where he learned both to draw, and to study different philosophical and aesthetic theories. The doctrine of this academy can be summarised in three main points: the return to the study of nature, the study of the great masters of the past and the study of antiquity. All of these requirements were found necessary in the search for the beau idéal. Among Carracci’s most loyal students and successors are the artists Guido Reni, Albano and Domenichino. This academy, therefore, laid the first foundations of the entire classical movement that would later develop in France with the support of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture founded in 1648, and then later spread throughout Europe.
The origins of the Baroque style are less evident. Perhaps it was inspired by the powerful masterpieces of Michelangelo, and that it did not completely reject Carracci’s innovations. But, the artist that had the strongest influence over this movement was, no doubt, Caravaggio at the turn of the seventeenth century with his dynamic compositions, his sometimes bitter realism and his mastery of light and dark techniques that allowed him to paint the crucial moment of a precise event. Unlike Carracci, he was not supported by the papacy who found his realism too crude and did not have any students though numerous followers. To understand the diffusion of his art, it is necessary to remember that a voyage to Rome was obligatory, for those who wished to be a famous painter, and directly observe the master painters. This transmission can also be seen through reinterpretations of his works (The Fortune-Teller, The Cardsharps, The Lute Player…) by his admirers, notably Bartolomeo Manfredi who invented the “recipe” of Caravaggism in his Manfrediana Methodus: a manifesto that was very successful throughout Europe and led to the creation of many different regional styles. Therefore, we can distinguish Caravaggism from Utrecht (Van Honthorst, Ter Breugghen…), French Caravaggism (Nicolas Tournier, Valentin de Boulogne…) or even the Peintres de la Réalité (Le Nain brothers, Georges de La Tour…).
From then on, what were the formal characteristics that we can use to distinguish Baroque and Classical? Heinrich Wölfflin (1864-1945), a Swiss art historian, cited in his 1915 study Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe (Principles of Art History), the different stylistic evolutions that appeared during the seventeenth century. These principles can be epitomized in the five following points:
1. Linear to painterly compositions: a change in the emphasis of the arrangement and technique of the composition thereby focusing more on colour, light and shadow relationships in addition to exploring depth.
2. Plane to recession: the composition in strata parallel to the picture plane.
3. Closed to open form: the transformation from a composition that is a self contained entity which everywhere points back to itself (tectonic) to a composition containing energies and angles or lines of motion which everywhere reach out beyond the composition (a-tectonic).
4. Multiplicity to unity: the manner in which classic art achieves its unity by making the parts independent while Baroque abolishes the uniform independence of the parts to obtain an overall unified painting.
5. Absolute clarity to relative clarity of the subject.
Therefore, the portraits by Philippe de Champaigne or Pierre Mignard (nos. 521, 524, 526) are considered classical structures, whereas those by Diego Velásquez (nos. 440, 445, 497, 499) or Peter Paul Rubens (nos. 432, 434, 435, 438, 442, 446, 474, 477) are more characteristic of the Baroque movement.
Art historians are still divided when analysing the concept of the Rococo movement. Is it an autonomous style as Philippe Minguet described (Esthétique du Rococo, 1966) or is it the late expression of Baroque as theorized by Wölfflin? However these specialist debates may conclude that this movement spread throughout France after the death of Louis XIV in 1715, in response to the austerity at the end of his reign influenced by his wife, Madame de Maintenon. Rococo especially influenced architecture, interior design and the decorative arts. In painting as well as sculpture this style focuses on the curved line, called an arabesque. The Rococo colour palette veers toward pastel tones: delicate pinks, greens, blues and yellows. Artists focus on gallant and frivolous subjects and take pleasure in depicting detail and go as far to readily embellish these components of the composition. The most emblematic portraitists of the Rococo movement are Watteau, Boucher (nos. 565, 569), Fragonard (nos. 573, 592), Tiepolo and Nattier (nos. 533, 534, 560).
At the end of the reign of Louis XV and under the later Louis XVI, this opulent and exalted style progressively weakened, particularly under the influence of the Age of Enlightenment. Voltaire deems the style too superficial, almost ridiculous and completely contrary to the rational mindset. Tastes eventually evolve towards more serious, orderly and intelligent compositions. The premises of Neoclassicism are equally influenced by the beginnings of archaeology, notably the excavations and identification of Herculaneum and Pompeii in 1763. Also, the theories of the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), and above all his dissertation Gedanken über die Nachahmung der Griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst (Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture), in 1755, receive international recognition. He instigates the notion of “Noble simplicity and calm grandeur,” of ancient art, words resonate in the ears and minds of European artists until the end of the Napoleon’s empire.