Baroque Period Art

There are many famous painters from the Baroque period.

The ones I chosen to write about are Rembrandt, Rubens and Rosa. Each had a different style of painting; Rembrandt painted with a more gentle feeling and emotion than any other painter of his time. Rubens painted with an air of pure drama in every brush stroke he made. Rosa scenes are known for their picturesquely wild, romantic qualities. Despite having different painting styles, each one painted a variety of different artworks throughout their lives from landscapes to portraits to even satire paintings.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is one of the greatest painters and printmakers in both European art history and Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.His wife modeled for many of his paintings and etchings. In the painting, “Saskia as Flora”, Rembrandts new bride modeled as the Roman goddess of flowers, springtime and fertility. She is wearing a satin, oriental gown with a crown of flowers in her hair.

In her right hand, Flora is holding a stick intertwined with flowers. It is believed he painted this painting just after he married Saskia.Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter. He had an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality.

He is best known for his He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.Rubens also had his wife model for a few of his paintings. He married his second wife, Helena Fourment on December 6, 1630, when he was fifty-three and she was sixteen. One famous painting he made is entitled “Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment and Their Son Peter Paul”. In this painting, Rubens is shown standing in a garden with his wife and son in the foreground. In the background there is a parrot which is a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

This suggests ideal motherhood, while the fountain, caryatid, and garden setting imply fertility. The garden setting for the painting is similar to Rubens's own garden in Antwerp, where he visited often with Helena.Salvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker. He is known as being an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romantic painter. Even though he didn’t use his wife as a model for many of his paintings, he did use her in one of his most famous works of art “L’Umana Fragilta”.

In this painting, his wife, Lucrezia, is shown sitting in a chair holding an infant, which is believed to be their son. The child writes, on a sheet offered by a winged, skeletal figure of mortality, "Conception is sinful; Birth a Punishment; Life, Hard Labour; Death Inevitable." In the background there are boys blowing bubbles and lighting candles, and the Roman god Terminus in the shadows. Rosa most likely painted this as a reminder of his baby son who died shortly beforehand due to an outbreak of plague in Naples.All three of these painters have used family members as models for their artwork. Some, such as Rembrandt, painted portraits of his wife many times.

The paintings they made expressed their feelings to not only the model but also about society at the time. That feeling resonated through in how the painting was made, the colors used and the background chosen. The artist decides whether to make happy painting or one of sadness and grief. When Rembrandt painted “Saskia as Flora” he was showing how he felt about his new wife and her beauty showed through in the painting. Rubens was also in love with his wife when he her standing with him and his son in the garden.

Rosa, on the other hand, was grieving the death of his newborn son when he painted the gloomy “L’Umana Fragilta”. That painting is dark and sad, showing death coming to take his son.Despite their reasons for making those paintings, each artist was able to express their feelings and allow the public to see some of their private moments. Many feel that by showing a bit of their private moments, we, the public, get to see a personal side of the artist.

This gives us a peak into the mind of some of the great painters of the world.Although he is recognized for his Italian Renaissance painting, Peter Paul Rubens enjoyed painting portraits of his family. He made an oil painting of his first wife entitled “Isabella Brandt”. This painting shows a woman wearing a dark gown with her arms across her chest. She is holding a small, dark colored pillow in her left hand and a small box in her right hand.

The box is being held opened slightly with her pointer finger. Isabella has a slight smile on her face, wide eyes and rosy cheeks.Just like Rubens, Rembrandt loved his wife and painted her portrait many times. He also created paintings of many other people such as the couple in his painting entitled “The Jewish Bride”. This painting shows a man with his left arm wrapped around the shoulders of a young woman while his right hand rests on her breast.

The woman touches the man’s right hand with the fingers of her left hand. They are standing in a darkened room and stare straight ahead as if lost in thought. It was originally thought to be a painting of a Jewish father bestowing a necklace upon his daughter on her wedding day; however that interpretation is no longer believed to be true. The identity of the couple remains a mystery even though some believe that this may be a painting of Rembrandt’s son Titus and his bride.

Many painters like to create an air of mystery with their paintings. This allows the public to look at the work of art and decipher it in their own way, giving each picture a different viewpoint depending who is looking at it. Some artists use the canvas as a means of expressing their thoughts about a particular item or political movement. Others use the canvas to recreate history and leave a lasting impression showing what has happened in the world.

Salvator Rosa is one of those artists who like to show his personality as an intellectual artist. He also had an interest in the study of the cryptic origin of things and the mysteries of the occult. Witchcraft is also one of the great themes of Renaissance and baroque art. Because of these interests many of his paintings were of classical mythology and philosophy known for their stoicism.One such painting, "Streghe ed incantesimi" (Witches at their Incantations) shows people casting spell while a man is hanging from a tree.

In the background there is a skeletal monster that resembles a dinosaur skeleton. It is rising up over horrid figures, such as a naked witch mixing soup, a knight with a flaming brand, a shrouded figure, and a skeleton being made to sign a document.Rembrandt, Rosa and Rubens each had a different style of painting and different subject matter but each made a lasting contribution to society through their artwork. Through their paintings they showed their feelings, political affiliations, beliefs and their private lives. By looking at their paintings and reading their biographies, viewers will be able to get a better understanding of the artists. They may even look at the artwork in an entirely new way.