Baroque Art
(ca. 1600 - c. 1730)

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The baroque style is characterized by an emphasis on unity among the arts. With technical brilliance, the baroque artist achieved a remarkable harmony wherein painting, sculpture, and architecture were brought together in new spatial relationships, both real and illusionary, often with spectacular visual effects. Although the restrained and classical works created by most French and English artists look very different from the exuberant works favored in central and southern Europe and in the New World, both trends in baroque art tend to engage the viewer, both physically and emotionally. In painting and sculpture this was achieved by means of highly developed naturalistic illusionism, usually heightened by dramatic lighting effects, creating an unequaled sense of theatricality, energy, and movement of forms. Architecture, departing from the classical canon revived during the Renaissance, took on the fluid, plastic aspects of sculpture. 

• France 1966.  Georges de la Tour 

• Italy 1973. Caravaggio.

Baroque naturalism developed with artists such as Valentin de Boulogne, who had lived in Italy, and with those who had contact with Flemish realism, such as the Le Nain brothers and Philippe de Champaigne. Of greatest importance for the history of French Baroque painting is the classicism of Nicolas Poussin. Although he lived in Rome for most of his creative life, Poussin's impact -- and that of his fellow expatriate Claude Lorrain -- in his own land was enormous. Late in the century classicism was combined with a High Baroque manner, as in Charles Lebrun's frescoes at the Palace of Versailles. In the late Baroque paintings of Antoine Coypel, the pervasive influence of Rubens is strongly apparent, especially in those for the Royal Chapel at Versailles. 

• France 1994. Nicolas Poussin. Moses and the Daughters of Jethro. The stamp is engraved by the French engraver Pierre Albuisson. 

• France 1973.  Charles Le Brun 

• France 1980.  Louis Le Nain

• Burundi 1965. Nicolas Poussin. 

A little known Dutch Baroque painter, who deserves being mentioned here, is Carel Fabritius (1622-1654). whose few remaining works show him to have been the most gifted of the artists who studied under Rembrandt. His short career was spent in Delft, where he joined the painters' guild in 1652; his career was cut short by the explosion of Delft's gunpowder factory in 1654, in which much of his work was destroyed and he was killed. His earliest existing work,  "Raising of Lazarus" (c. 1643, National Museum, Warsaw), is reminiscent of Rembrandt's work in composition and gesture but lacks the master's psychological depth. 

At the occasion of Siemens' 125th anniversary Siemens Nederland is the main sponsor of a special exhibition of the works of Carel Fabritius in the Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague, in the period 25th September 2004 - 9th January 2005.  On 24th September 2004 the Dutch TPG/POST has issued a wonderful sheet of 10 stamps, showing 10 paintings by Carel Fabritius.  

The layout of each stamp in the sheet is quite interesting.  It shows all ten paintings lined up one after another behind the foreground painting, so that the viewer can have a sense of all ten paintings at once, yet keeping focus on the one in the foreground.  Click on the sheet to see it full screen (151 Kb).  The link will open in a new window.  Many thanks to Mr. Jan Doggen (The Netherlands) for providing the scan. 

• The Netherlands 2004.  Sheet of paintings by Carel Fabritius.  The paintings are (from top, left to right):

Baroque art crosses vast regional divides. It may seem confusing, for example, to label two such different artists as Rembrandt and Bernini as Baroque; yet despite differences, their work has certain Baroque elements in common, such as a preoccupation with the dramatic potential of light.

The development of Baroque style, in all its various forms, must be seen in its historical context.  The 17th century could be called the first modern age. Human awareness of the world was continuously expanding.  Many scientific discoveries influenced art; Galileo's investigations of the planets, for example, account for astronomical accuracy in many paintings of the time.  By 1530, the Polish astronomer Copernicus had committed to writing his belief that the planets did not revolve around the Earth; his work was published in 1543, but only fully accepted after 1600.  The realization that the Earth was not at the centre of the universe coincided in art with the rise of pure landscape painting devoid of human figures.  The active trade and colonization on the part of many European nations accounted for numerous portrayals of places and peoples that were exotic to Europeans. 

• Spain 1960.  Two ordinary postcards of Murillo's paintings, franked with similar stamps in monochrome colour.

Religion determined many aspects of Baroque art.  The Roman Catholic Church was a highly influential patron, and the Counter Reformation, launched to combat the spread of Protestantism, enlisted emotional, realistic, and dramatic art as a means of propagating the faith.  The simplicity sought by Protestantism in countries such as the Netherlands and northern Germany likewise explains the severity of the architectural styles in those areas. 

• Italy 1985. A very nice se-tenant set of three stamps, issued for the World Exhibition in Rome 1985.  

  • Church of Santa Maria della Pace, Rome

  • The Exhibition Logo

  • Church of Santa Agnese in Agona, Rome 

• Italy 1985. Idem, First Day Cover, with the cachet saying Arte Barocca. 

Political situations also influenced art.  The absolute monarchies of France and Spain led to the creation of works that, in their size and splendour, reflected the majesty of Louis XIV and Philip IV. 

Within Sculpture, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), the single most important artistic talent of the Italian baroque. Although most significant as a sculptor, he was also highly gifted as an architect; painter; draftsman; designer of stage sets, fireworks displays, funeral trappings, and playwright. 

Similar stamps with face values of 170, 250, and 350 Lire were issued in the same set, but with other of Bernini's works in St. Peter's displayed in the golden circle to the right of his portrait. 

• Italy 1980. Bernini. Apollo and Daphne. 

• Monaco 1998. Bernini. The Horse Rider Sculpture and Architecture of St. Peter's Square, Rome. 

Bernini was the first sculptor to realize the dramatic potential of light in a sculptural complex. This was even more fully realized in his famous masterpiece Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1645-1652, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome), in which the sun's rays, coming from an unseen source, illuminate the swooning saint and the smiling angel about to pierce her heart with a golden arrow. Bernini's numerous busts also carry an analogous sense of persuasive dramatic realism, whether they are allegorical busts such as the Damned Soul and Blessed Soul (both 1619, Palazzo di Spagna, Rome), or portraits such as those of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1632, Galleria Borghese) or Louis XIV of France (1665, Palace of Versailles). 

Bernini remained a vital and active artist virtually up to his death. His final work, Bust of the Savior (Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia), presents a withdrawn and restrained image of Christ indicative of what is now known to have been Bernini's calm and resigned attitude toward death.

Sources and links:

• Microsoft Encarta 2002.

• E.H. Gombrich: "The Story of Art" (Danish Edition) ISBN 87-01-769921-5 

• Pierre Albuisson's Engravings 

Alphabetical listing of the most well known Baroque painters and architects, whose works have appeared on stamps.  Click on either of the active links to go to the individual artist's page. Those marked with an asterisk are represented on this page. 

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