Baroque Painting Literature & Language Essay Paper
Assignment
On page 366 of our textbook, there is an illustration of the French painter Nicolas Poussin's Ashes of Phokion (1652).
Through a brief essay of about 500 words, discuss the extent to which this painting has Baroque characteristics.
Here are a few suggestions for this assignment:
1) What is the main narrative depicted within the painting? Here is the answer, please quote it directly and/or paraphrase it:
"Phokion was a 4th-century-B.C. Athenian politician. Although elected general forty-five times, he consistently opposed the war against Macedon because he believed that Athenian military supremacy had come to an end. As a result, he was convicted of treason and executed, and his ashes were buried outside the city limits. The Greek author Plutarch included Phokion in his Lives as a model of Stoic virtue." (Adams, p. 366.)
Is the subject of Poussin's painting a political narrative of his own time (mid 1600s) or is it derived from the past (4th-century B.C.)?
2) Describe the main figures within the paintings and indicate the predominant colors used by Poussin.
3) To what extent is the painting Baroque in style? How?
4) To what extent is the painting Renaissance in style? How?
5) What is your conclusion on Poussin's style in light of the book entitled Poussin and France by Todd Olson, as cited below?
Poussin and France: Painting, Humanism, and the Politics of Style by Todd P. Olson (CT: Yale University Press: 2002)
"Nicolas Poussin, perhaps the most famous French painter of the seventeenth century, lived and worked for many years in Rome. Yet he remained deeply engaged with cultural and political transformations occurring in France, argues Todd P. Olson in this original exploration of Poussin's paintings, their production, and their reception. Poussin's references to ancient literature and sculpture addressed a political elite-the Robe nobility-whose humanist education in classical antiquity equipped them to relate Greek and Roman history to contemporary events and to deploy ancient precedents in legalistic and political arguments. When the French civil war known as the Fronde erupted in the middle of the seventeenth century, the paintings that Poussin exported to France responded directly in both subject and style to the crisis in monarchical authority and the disenfranchisement of his Robe patrons. Olson demonstrates that Poussin's association with a disgraced political group, his loss of official support, and his exile in Italy imbued his history paintings with a symbolic weight. The painter's audience considered the hard-earned pleasures of his restrained, difficult pictorial style a benchmark of integrity as well as a criticism of the Regency's indiscriminate collecting practices and taste for foreign luxury. Poussin transformed the easel painting-its making and collection-into an expression of cultural and political commitments binding a community. Olson's fresh insights reveal the importance of this painter's work to a learned and powerful French constituency at a critical moment in French history and demonstrate that Poussin's famously timeless style was far more responsive to historical contingencies than has been previously recognized."
6) Do you think Poussin is making use of a political narrative from the far past in order to comment on the political circumstances of his own time?
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Baroque Painting: Ashes of Phokion
Baroque is the artistic period that began in Rome, Italy, at around 1600. It later spread to a majority of the European countries in the 17 and 18th centuries. The word Baroque in the informal application describes something which is highly detailed and elaborate.
The significant factors from the Baroque era include the reformation as well as the counter-reformation. This style of art is highly considered to be linked to the Catholic Church closely. The style's population was highly encouraged by the Catholic Church, whose main intention was to encourage communication of religious themes through art (Adams). The Catholic Church at the council of Trent decided that art that communicates religious themes and has direct involvement of emotion should be highly encouraged in response to the reformation of the Protestants (Riegl et al.). The Baroque style manifestation varied from the European countries due to its unique cultural and political climates.
This style is highly characterized by motion exaggeration and clear details, which are used for producing grandeur in sculptures, exuberance, drama, music, dance, literature, and paintings (Adams). The iconography in baroque is considered to be direct, dramatic, and obvious with the intention of appealing above all to emotions and senses.
I have chosen the Ashes of Phokion as the work of art by Nicolas Poussin. This art was completed by 1648, making it part of the baroque era. "Ashes of Phokion" was painted using oil paint on canvas and is currently being kept in the Walker Art g...