Renaissance - The Baroque Era

 

The Nightwatch (1642)

Description: This painting was made by Rembrandt van Rijn in 1642 and Rembrandt is still considered one of the greatest artists in history. The dark impressions in this art work got it the name "The Nightwatch" after it was first planned to be named "The company of captain Frans Banning Cocq and lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch. This is a giant painting, measuring 11.91 ft x 14.34 ft, That is one of the reasons for its fame, and other ones is that it is coherent, dynamic and incredibly realistic. I get this realistic feeling and dynamic feeling because of Rembrandt use of lights and shadows, especially the light on two of the characters in the painting. This is not only one of Rembrandt's, but also one of the most famous painting in the Dutch Golden Age. Personally, I would love to own an art piéce from Rembrandt and especially this one. After now learning about humanism, the different renaissance, and the dutch era I feel like I have more knowledge to the eras which makes me wanting to own an art piece even more. 

Analysis: During the Baroque era, many artists made their paintings more vibrant and colorful and this is something that we can see in the Nightwatch. We can see the light colors in the two of the characters is the total opposite to the rest of the painting. This contrast helps those two characters receiving more attention. This painting, as many others during the Baroque era, was closely linked to the Catholic church. This style were encouraged by the catholic church and it was decided that at the Council of Trent that these art pieces should give a message about religious themes and direct emotional involvement as an answer to the protestant reformation. This helped the Baroque style to grow, and it also became popular in royal courts around Europe. This style symbolized new monarchies and power which made it popular to royal people during this time and this is how many art pieces during this style can be connected to royalty and how much the royal influence meant for the growth for the paintings. 

We can also see some connection between the renaissance and Baroque era and this is through the Medici family. The Medici family started to become famous during the renaissance era and had big influences in the catholic church, but became even bigger and more influential when the Medici family got married into the royal family during the Baroque era. A reason like this ties these two eras together. 

If I were to compare this work to a work during the renaissance I would say that "The Nightwatch" and "The Pieta" have both some similarities and differences. A big similarity is the major exposure it got to the world and how well-known both art pieces got. Michelangelo's "The Pieta" got famous right as it was carved while "The Nightwatch" by Rembrandt got some help from the council of trent and the push of royalty seeing this Baroque style as a sign of wealth. 

Sources: 

Hsparhawk, “Baroque Era: The Influence of Royalty.” Mermaid Tails, 29 Sept. 2016, https://sparhawkbysea.wordpress.com/2016/09/29/baroque-era-the-influence-of-royalty/.

Boundless. “Boundless Art History.” Lumen, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/the-baroque-period/.

Anirudh. “10 Most Famous Paintings of the Baroque Period.” Learnodo Newtonic, 1 Mar. 2021, https://learnodo-newtonic.com/famous-baroque-paintings.





Comments

  1. Garrett POctober 13, 2021 at 1:48 AM

    Hi Filip,

    Just at first glance it is obvious that the piece you chose shows power to the individual in the front with the colours and positioning focusing on him. The piece appeals to me since I am very into history and this piece looks to show individuals carrying weapons and looking ready to battle. The contrasts of colour also catches my eye since it shows how the use of dark colours and light colours can bring out a point in the painting in such a powerful way. The connection this painting has to the baroque era is clear as you mentioned since it was common in this era to contrast between dark and light colours. This is a painting I would have in my house because of the different elements that make the characters and colours pop.

    Great post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AdelineOctober 13, 2021 at 9:02 PM

    Hi Filip, 
    I think the painting you chose for the Baroque era blog was a great choice! I believe during the Baroque era many artists chose to use dark tones rather than bright tones like the artists throughout the Renaissance did. This painting looks like it could have a  powerful backstory with a  meaning. This painting connects with the Baroque theme from the color tones you mentioned. I personally would not want to own this but I would own the Pieta painting. 

    ReplyDelete
  3. Markuss KomulsOctober 14, 2021 at 9:18 AM

    Hello Filip,

    This is a great painting that you chose and I like how the artist used color contrast of the two main characters. The way the light is at these main characters shows that they are powerful and of importance. I think that you did a good job on choosing this painting to the reference of baroque because just by looking at it you can tell it is a painting of this time. This artwork is rich and shows intense light and dark shadows just like many baroque time paintings. After reading the post I like how you mentioned monarchies and power and I think you were spot on. You made great points of similarities and differences of baroque and renaissance. I would love to own this painting! Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownDecember 22, 2021 at 3:11 AM

    What appeals to me is the light tones and the dark tones. The light is placed on some individuals versus the others in the background are in the dark tones. Showing us who the painting is about. I like this painting because it shows the style of clothing the subjects wore in that time period.
    This represents the Baroque Era because of the humanism of the Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem Van Ruytenburch. I feel like the petition of Martin Luther is not recognized as it should be. Maybe, without him we would still be buying our ways out of sin as if it was an alternative.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Pieta by Michelangelo

Image
  The Pieta                This is one of the greatest art work's by the famous artist Michelangelo and it was made during the Italian Renaissance during the years 1498-1500. Michelangelo created this art work after the cardinal Jean de Billheres asked him to create a sculpture that would go into the side chapel at Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. He created it by, according to himself, one of the greatest Carrara marble block he ever worked with and has been used by ancient Roman builders and was priced to be one of the best materials to use during the Renaissance.              The Pieta itself shows the Virgin Mary who is holding up the dead body of Jesus Christ after his death and his removal from the cross. For me, this art piece reflects sadness in Virgin Mary by the shape and structure of her head. A slight down-tilted head makes me think of sadness and devastation and with knowing of what the art represents I can imagine that the emotions I am feeling are "correct&
Read more

Classical era - The French and American Revolution

Image
       During the 1700s, revolutions in both America and Europe happened which has influenced our lives greatly today. We can often get a good insight and some clues of how the people and lives were lived during the time the art was created with some analysis. The revolutions happened because of similar reasons such as economic struggles, monarchy, and unequal rights. A revolutionary war happened as a consequence of this as we can see in the first painting The Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumball in 1786.      John Trumball is the artist behind The Battle of Bunker Hill that occurred in June 1775 and was both the first major battle of the revolutionary war and the first of a series of paintings that John Trumball did of major events during the American Revolution. The battle occurred two months after the opening battles but was the first major one where the British troops wanted to win Boston after the patriot troops had succeeded in their patriotic siege of Boston. This was the resp
Read more

Preferences and Perspectives - The Romantic Era

Image
    The Romantic era started around 1780 and ended around 1830. During this era, the artists started to show a sense of emotions, something that was not really done before where reason and order were the most important means to understand the world. This was a reaction against the Neoclassical era where many of the romantic artists emphasized the individual's connection to the nature and a more idealized past than before. The two different styles that I have choosen for this blog post to do some research about is heroism and nationalism. The individual's connection to the past was a big thing during the romantic era and artists were starting to creating an idealized past with actual events that happened. A good example of this is the painting Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix and if you want to read more about that painting, you can visit my last blog post here.  The artists were trying to express a more sense and more emotions with the paintings and a lot of the e
Read more