Characteristics of Baroque Art and Sculpture

Characteristics of Baroque Architecture

• In Baroque architecture, the concepts of volume and symmetry are replaced by dynamism and theatricality. The product of this new way of designing space is a building of gigantic proportions which, rather than the accuracy of geometry, prioritizes overlapping planes and volumes. This approach aims to achieve various optical effects and color contrasts, as well as dramatic lighting, both on the facades and in the interior design. We must also note the interest in movement and the significant role of decoration.
• The anthropomorphic proportions of the Renaissance were transformed, leading to the use of duplicate columns and the giant order, continuously exploring new two-story facades. Early Baroque architects, such as Maderno, followed the model of the facade of the Church of the Gesù in Rome, designed by Giacomo della Porta.
• From 1630, floor plans began to become oval and elliptical, and often smaller, which soon became one of the typical architectural features of the Baroque. This is evident in the churches of Bernini and Borromini, where rounded forms replaced angular ones, and walls seem to bend from the inside out and vice versa, in a succession of concave and convex forms, giving the whole a strong dynamism.
• With respect to palace architecture, the Baroque palace is typically organized on three floors. Instead of concentrating on a single square block, as in the Renaissance, it seems to extend endlessly in various wings across the landscape, in an infinite repetition of columns and windows. The most emblematic example is the Palace of Versailles, designed by the French architect Mansart.

Characteristics of Baroque Sculpture

• Baroque statues played an important role in architectural decoration, both internally and externally.
• Unlike the axially balanced Renaissance sculptures, Baroque figures seem to live, perched on their stone bases, ready to leave them at any moment.
• Faces express suffering, with tight lips or open to moan; muscles are tense and throbbing veins appear under the skin; hair and beards, often unkempt, capture a specific mood.
• Movement becomes a real obsession for the Baroque sculptor, always capturing figures in action, through open compositions in which clothing and limbs are projected violently outward. In these works, symmetry disappears, skewed lines and foreshortening dominate, and folds, lighting contrasts, and multiple views are emphasized.
• Angels and archangels, saints and virgins, pagan gods and mythical heroes are displayed everywhere, waving in water sources or looking out from their niches in walls, or supporting a beam, or placed on the altar.
• The materials that best expressed these feelings were white marble and bronze.