Visual Analysis #2

Assignment: write a brief (400-500 words) paper on a single image from the chapter “The Baroque in Northern Europe”.

This is, again, not a research paper, and I’m not interested in learning more about the artist or the meaning of the work. Instead, I want you to look closely, visually investigate, and breakdown this work. I want you to describe the work in terms of composition, color palette, content, technique, and so forth.

I want you to make a visual description based on the chronological progression of similar art objects works that we have witnessed throughout this course. If you want to throw in a work from earlier for comparison that is fine.

As per my suggestion in the first analysis, you may want to imagine the role of a technical writer for a textbook for blind people or the visually impaired. Image’s visual language has to be transformed into a written one, before one can begin to express any interpretations, maybe even allowing the reader make their own interpretations. The goal is an objective description of the work.

Example: The rock face upon which the painting can be found has a convex form. This curvature echoes the shape of the circular contour of the image painted on it. A bison is painted in red ochre, composed mostly of simple, linear elements.

Naturally, you don’t have to use these types of adjectives. But you get the point. Try and stay away from subjective terms like “beautiful”, as this is interpretation. If you want, after you’ve done the description, you can go ahead and add your interpretation. If you want, but that’s optional.

lease use the following format: Times New Roman font, size 12, double-spaced, and standard margin sizes

Italy 70 5

thereby invoking the past to reinforce the primacy of the Church of Rome in the 17th century. At the top of the vine- entwined columns, four colossal angels stand guard at the upper corners of the canopy. Forming the canopy’s apex are four serpentine brackets that elevate the orb and the cross. Since the time of Constantine (fig. 7-79, right; com- pare fig. 9-2), the orb and the cross had served as symbols of the Church’s triumph. The baldacchino also fea- tures numerous bees, symbols of Urban VIII’s family, the Barberini. Bernini’s design thus effectively gives visual form to the triumph of Christianity and to the papal claim to supremacy in formu- lating Church doctrine.

The construction of the baldac- chino was itself a remarkable feat. Each of the bronze columns consists of five sections cast from wood models using the lost-wax process (see “Hollow-Cast- ing,” page 127). Although Bernini did some of the work himself, including cleaning and repairing the wax molds and doing the final cleaning and chasing (engraving and embossing) of the bronze casts, he contracted out much of the project to experienced bronze-cast- ers and sculptors. The superstructure is predominantly cast bronze, although some of the sculptural elements are brass or wood. The enormous scale of the baldacchino required a consid- erable amount of bronze. On Urban VIII’s orders, workmen dismantled the portico of the ancient Roman temple

of all gods, the Pantheon (fig. 7-49), to acquire the bronze for the baldacchino—an ideologically appropriate act, given the Church’s rejection of polytheism.

The concepts of triumph and grandeur permeate every aspect of the 17th-century design of Saint Peter’s. Suggesting a great and solemn procession, the main axis of the complex traverses the piazza (marked by the central obelisk; fig. 24-4) and enters Mader- no’s nave. It comes to a temporary halt at the altar beneath Bernini’s baldacchino (fig. 24-5), but it continues on toward its climactic destination at another great altar in the apse.

and provides a dramatic, compelling presence at the crossing, visu- ally bridging the marble floor and the lofty vaults and dome above. Its columns also serve as a frame for the elaborate sculpture repre- senting the throne of Saint Peter (the Cathedra Petri) at the far end of the nave (fig. 24-5, rear).

On a symbolic level, the baldacchino’s decorative elements speak to the power of the Catholic Church and of Pope Urban VIII. Partially fluted and wreathed with vines, the structure’s four spi- ral columns are Baroque versions of the comparable columns of the ancient baldacchino over the same spot in Old Saint Peter’s,

24-5 Gianlorenzo Bernini, baldac- chino (looking west), Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1624–1633.

Bernini’s baldacchino serves both functional and symbolic purposes. It marks Saint Peter’s tomb and the high altar, and it visually bridges the marble floor and the lofty vaults and dome above.

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