The Carracci Brothers in Rome
In 1582, the brothers Annibale and Agostino Carracci, with their cousin Ludovico, created the first painting academy in Rome. In 1600 the Loves of the Gods, was unveiled: a fresco executed by the Carracci on the ceiling of the Palazzo Farnese’s gallery. Its composition, based on the principle of quadri riportati (carried frames), takes the viewer into successive levels of illusion, and had a tremendous impact at the time.
Caravaggio: Devil and Genius
Our epoch is fascinated with Caravaggio; he is often presented as a troublemaker and a homosexual, a “free spirit” of his time. The tenebrous realism of his paintings contributed to the construction of the myth. But in looking at Caravaggio’s works we discover the real genius: he used empirical observation to depict his subjects. Divine revelation is not invoked by the supernatural, but by human experience.
Bernini : Stone into Flesh
Mythological creatures cavorting in water, saints transverberating in an ecstasy of draperies, marble nymphs metamorphosing in front of our own eyes: Bernini’s contribution to that second population of Rome made of marble and stone does not stop marvelling us. Bernini’s sculptures reflect his conception of the visual arts: unity is the result of variety and harmony of proportions is achieved by movement.
Pietro Da Cortona and the Barberini
Amongst other commissions Pietro da Cortona executed for the Barberini, were designs for tapestries and
ceremonial costumes; illustrations for a botanical book; and the Triumph of Divine Providence, the fresco on
the ceiling of the gran salone of the Palazzo Barberini. Pietro went one step further than the Carracci: in this
fresco, monumental allegorical figures ascend into a limitless sky, a quintessentially Baroque spectacle.
Borromini: Genius of the Baroque
It was in late-antique buildings that Borromini found inspiration for breaking with the conventions of his times: he infused walls with concave-convex rhythms, crowned a dome lantern with a spiral ramp evoking a Babylonian ziggurat, and transformed cherubs into pilasters. Nevertheless, behind this seeming extravagance lay sound intellectual principles. His designs evolved from series of complex geometrical manipulations.
