The Baroque can be considered as era that consisted of a complex proliferation of ideas and methods that were made possible through rich economic and cultural exchange(). Its origins can be identified in the 16th century as a shift away Mannerisms overly complicated and excessive style, to an emphasis on clarity of narrative, emotional charge, and naturalism. Within this shift, representation gains a greater corporeal authority which arrests the viewer in a way that Mannerism falls short of. The excessiveness of Baroque Art does not fully diminish in history as it leads to present and it is has a significant impact on many contemporary artist, who employ the sensibilities of baroques excesses of the erotic, grotesque, and opulent as a means to navigate through complicated social issues, most prominent of which would likely by gender, class, ethnicity, and our relationship to historical works of art overall.
Many shows have been curated with the idea of illuminating the baroque sensibilities effects on the present. Most notably was the show Going for Baroque, where Mieke Bal goes in to great length within her book Quoting Caravaggio: Preposterous History on how there can be shifts in meaning within works and how contemporary works can shift historical works meanings with contemporary perspectives. She observes that within the Baroque era, it could be considered a melting pot of influences from its own contemporary cultural crossovers throughout Europe and Asia and the observations of classical antiquity of Rome and Greece.(3) The most recent resurgence of Baroque influence can be observed in the late 20th century, where its affects are not only seen within fine art, but also within entertainment media as well.(calabrese). Bal notes that when placing work of the past along with those of the present, the attempt should not be so an attempt to create an atemoporal narrative but rather to use historical forms as cultural objects to create a dialogue between the past and present(4-6). When drawing connections to historical works of the Baroque, it not limited to the notion of a contemporary work simple looks Baroque but that it is illuminating its point of view.(16)
That which is excessive is what we feel is too much. It is an overflow information to the senses that does not allow for a passive response. It is overwhelming to a point that evokes an immediate response from the viewer. When confronted by excess in art it can not only affect the senses but also ones moral sensibilities which demonstrates that excess is expressed not only materially but also in regards behavioral performance.() What is the excessive about Baroque works is the use of dynamic imagery and explosive emotive drama. Yet it is also Baroque artists major push towards naturalism within imagery that creates a catalyst for what makes this epoch’s flavor of excess distinctive. Bal observes that within the Baroque, the excess of representation inevitably leads to a representation of excess(). It seems in some ways Mannerism never gets fully abandoned but latches on as parasitic style to the Baroque. In fact clear distinctions of the transition from Mannerism and Baroque are very difficult establish, as noted by John Martin, and Mannerisms presence echoes all the way in to the 18th century.()
The erotic and grotesque become excessive when they are most candid in their representation. Within reality, our responses to these forms evokes an almost instinctual response. The body naturally becomes aroused with the presence of a nude body, yet it can respond with an abject response like that of observing something grotesque due to a moralizing lens. We can understand excess of consumption in the contemporary sense very easily. The society we have emphasizes excess in production as well as excess in consumption. We are driven to purchase as means of asserting our power and cultivate are sense of identity This can even been seen as originating with the Baroque Period, with the Dutch Art Market as one example, of the commodified exchanged of art objects().
These excessive categories are not limited hard lined distinctions. More than one can easily be represented in a single work. The affect this has can add to the visual power of work generating conflated feelings within the viewer. Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas can be seen as moment of disturbing gore as Thomas probes the wound in Christs side, but it can also posses an undercurrent of an erotically sensuous moment(). The combination of grotesque and opulence can also be seen in contemporary works like that of Damien Hurst’s For the Love God, where uses the form of skull, a symbol of mortality and adorns it with multiple diamonds. The conflation of horror and the erotic is apparant in many of the Chapman Bros. use of young nude figures cast together in to horrific mutations. The confusion of the senses and the disruptions appropriateness of tastes are part of the postmodern condition and provide a platform for contemporary artists to discuss precariousness cultural evaluations.
The excess of the erotic is powered by naturalism’s illusionistic power to create a sensuous body before the viewer. The increase of tension of the emphasis of the natural body allowed for works of the Baroque to be more provocative. Works of the period appear more seductive with artists virtuosic abilities to depict not only the body but also a sense spiritual energy (martin 13). The nudes of Rembrandt possess an alluring presence. His figures are posed as intimate, available, and luminescent. As he render the flesh with great sensitivity, he employs a sensuous excessiveness. Yet, within his candid rendering of the female body, he challenged ideal forms of beauty of the times. In particular, the etching A Naked Woman Seated on a Mount, depicts a woman with unidealized features of sagging boddess, garter, and stretch marks.
Tracy Emin uses this same level of feminine honesty in her installation My Bed. The installation was first exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999. It consisted of cigarettes butts in ashtrays, empty liquor bottles, and soiled garments and linens, and used condoms strewn around an unmade bed. This work can allude to baroque in its simplicity and its naturalness, but more so in its emotionally charged staging. Its erotic power exists in the that this is the representation of a sexually active women. There is a sense agency that lies within her vulnerability. The drama of this work also lies in its reception. Like in Rembrandts etching, the artists candid expression was seen as excessively offensive. The installation also posses an illusionistic power as well. It appears as though this installation would smell unpleasant with the objects of ash trays and appearance of female bodily fluids(). its does not actually have a rancid order, but it does not seek to address feminine criticism of societal pressure on woman to conceal and self shame their bodily functions as well as the demand for incessant performance in the bedroom.
As Majority of work of the female body were depicted by male artist there is canonical representation of the female body as being a symbol of beauty as the muse of the artist(). The female nude figure is typically in a position of submission as seen in Bernini’s Rape of Persephone or in Ruben’s Andromeda. Figures that are helpless to the moment yet postured in an erotized manner that in even their suffering they still must perform as objects of arousal. On the other hand, the male body is not typically depicted in the same manner. The male nude is typically depicted in heroic position that which conveys sitting upright and confrontational like the depiction of Hercules in Annibale Carraci’s Choice of Hercules. Hercules is positioned between two allegorical female figures, one representing virtue the other vice. This again refers to the female body as a performative entity for the male protagonist.
The most notable exception of the excess of representation of the body that crosses gender bias is in work of Caravaggio. He used of young male models for the depiction of mythological figures, but what they are not all posed in a heroic positions. John the Baptist, depicts the saint, as a young boy posed in a dynamic manner. He turns his head, looking at the viewer. The back is slightly turned away as his legs and mid section turn towards the viewer. It feels as if his body about to be thrusted towards the viewer. There is something peculiar of this figure when compared to other artists depictions. In Anthony Van Dyck’s Saint John, we see a mature contemplative youth, legs crossed, and partially covered by a red robe. The erotic charge is subdued by the lack of confrontation appearing as if he in own world focused on his studies. Where as in Caravaggio’s there is a sense of seductive allure read in the gaze of young St. John.
This alluring gaze echoes in other works of Caravaggio such as that of young Bacchus. Here, the male figure has fair skin and flushed cheeks. He sits reclined with an exposing his should as his drapery falls off as he reaches out and offer a glass of wine. The position of such young male figures of Caravaggio suggests they meant for erotic consumption. Being created by a male artist has led to assertions of their homoerotic tendencies by many critics, and also echo the homosexual tendencies of the artist himself. In not only the full exposure of the bodies in dynamic positions but also in their rendering of their bodies as soft and possessing youthful flushed faces, that look upon the viewer in an suggestive manner.
The feminization of the male body of Caravaggio does offer a gender ambiguity and sense of equality of the bodies objectification. Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the handful of Baroque female artist that most notable had a strong sense of agency in her work and ability of rendering of the female body that appeared more natural in that she likely had studied her own figure in a mirror(51).In her works Danae and Cleopatra she uses the same figure and pose(158). The erotic charge that emanates from these works comes these work is likely from her awareness of arousal that is more self conscious. Both figures appear to be lost in their own worlds, become objects of voyeurism. When these two pieces are read together, the use of the same figure does create can be read as sister works both with the erotically suggestive act of penetration with oppose effects; Danae representing life with the moment of Perseus’s creation and the other as s of death with Cleopatra’s imminent suicide. These paintings among many others of Gentilischi she tend depict strong willed female characters, and even with sites of submission, like the bed, The female figure has a sense of control over her body and that even moments of pain and pleasure the erotic power of her body is still hers.
Jenny Saville, a contemporary painter whom originated from the 1990s group of Young British Artists and rose to fame with powerful paintings of full figured women that uses the excess of flesh itself to confront ideals of beauty and the body as a performative site of cosmetic manipulation(9). Her self portrait, Reflective Flesh is rendered the composition is with the this dramatic baroque presence where the it appears as if she is thrusting herself forward in to the viewer space. The paint application is bold and heavy, but that figure is rendered with great precision. She squats in a corner her back against a corner, where the walls and floor are mirror surfaces. Her gentalia is exposed and are positioned as the focal point of the image. She looks at the viewer with a look of stoic awareness. The space reflects her body and her awareness of her figure and she reflects the viewers gaze back to you. This works has that power of baroque art that draws the viewer, but it is not seductive as it is confrontational.
Returning back to the figure and the bed, Few images depict a men in bed in the same manner as women. Yet one particular image by … Man in bed with cat . has this erotic playfulness to position. He has a look on his face similar to Victorious Cupid and Young John the Baptist, that you may have walked in on a nefarious act and they are inviting you to engage. The Bed which has typically functioned as a sight of female performance, where the woman is depicted as in a state of submission, vulnerability, and seduction. It is obvious that sexism of male artists has proliferated through pretty much all of western art history, and even work of like that of slaying of Holofernes’s still is a narrative of the bed as a place of entrapment by the femme fatale character. Emin’s My Bed can be seen as a criticism of this performative site.
The use of erotic excess tends lend itself to being more confrontational and even aggressive as in works like Emin and Saville. Jake and Dino Chapman take on the erotic forms and combines power of abject horror. Their most notable works are of casts young nude figure in bizarre mutations combining reorienting them, creating centipede like forms with varying genitalia, both male and female, on the faces. These works are anatomical accurate which add to their disturbing presence they are not threatening, but they appear amoral. They challenge sensibilities and tastes of the depictions of the nude figure. The energy that circulates these figures is in their passive innocent position yet they are horrifying to look upon.
When Caravaggio was brutally honest with the use of his models to depict holy figure, they were met with great animosity. The depiction of dead prostitute, like that of death of a virgin, where shows a bloated, pale skin corpse. Even the employ of living prostitutes as Mary in…, has an indirect eroticism of the implicit lifestyle of a model that is so easily recognizable during the works production, because of his emphasis a natural depiction. The use of candid expression of the expression of naturalism of seeing bodies that are so sensuously charged can also be used as means of alluding to an underlying psychology that can appear quite obvious with temporal distance. Caravaggio had a way of depicting young men in such a lurid fashion that one could help but consider, his personal desires were and ideas male beauty were interwoven in to the mythological narratives of his works. It’s the power to disrupt and horrify like that of works of the chapman brothers the reads a baroque. Like eroticism we see that emphasis on naturalism leads to visual excess in images of grotesque themes such as death, gore, and disgust. The Grotesque is malleable in that it can be represented with humor, blasphemy, and intimacy. Caravaggio elements of the morbid such skill that one cannot help but have a viscerally abject response. In such works that focus on decapitation like Medusa, David with the Head of Goliath , and the Slaying of Holofernes, there is the dynamic charge of a transitional moment of life and death. A moment that we as living being truly have no access to what is on the other side. Especially in the latter two works mentioned above we witness the precise moment of decapitation where the characters being slain still have the look of horror and confusion on their faces. We still can still observe that last rememnats of life within their eyes. Caravaggio exposes the viewer to viscera in such a manner of candidness there is little time for contemplation of the narrative before we are consumed by the power of moment.
Yasumasa Morimura in a cheeky manner appropriates Caravaggio’s Medusa, but within the melodrama of a drag performer, which echoes Caravaggio’s work since he used himself as model for the original image. This is particular work point out the relativity of excess in particular with gore, through Morimura’s depictions of shock and horror these element are shifted to humor How we see excess of gore today has shifted to point of camp. This can be easily observed in the slaughter porn movie industry. Movies originating with the abject horrors in the 80s where film take a major influence of Baroque sensibilities of being over the top, more natural and emotional charged. Morimura’s takes all this in with this photograph.
In one particular that stirs unease with the viewer is the image of doubting Thomas. Here there is a link between the erotic and grotesque is illustrated. As Thomas’ finger is gently guided in to Christ side is abject power stir revulsion with us, but it also is intimate moment between Christ and the Apostle(). Christ is not depicted in pain. In fact he is the most composed of the characters. Caravaggio further conflates the uneasy of the moment in his depiction of Christ. His body is exposed and vulnerable and his appearance calm, youthful, and gentle.
This linking of the grotesque and intimate is sensed in the 1997 performance titled Balkan Baroque by the contemporary artist Marina Ambromavic. She did the performance at the Venice Biennale. Ambromavic sat on top of pile cattle bones where a white dress. With a scrub brush in hand she takes the raw bloodied bones and scrubs them singing of stories from home country. The room she performs in is dark with three projection of videos, one of her mother, father, and herself. As performance the task of cleaning the removing flesh from the bones and sings, she takes the dramatic excess to the point of physical exhaustion as she continually does this for days. The cleansing process is meant as metaphor of that one can only move forward to a new a future if one is able to face and accept all the past.() This narrative of rebirth is dually haunted by the horrific narrative of genocide. The act of cleaning the bones is also a metaphor of ethnic cleansing and sheds light on the many lives that have been lost throughout the 20th century within the Balkan regain as a result of many wars and conflicts. This theme of holding a dual narrative of life and death being held in a single instance can also relate to Caravaggio’s Lazarus(). Here Lazuras is physical suspended appearing in state of mortem. Yet as hist left hand is open and directed to the skull on the ground. His right hand reaches out to the light illuminating from Christ on the far left of the composition who has reached out his hand and bringing Lazarus back to life.
The excess of exposing the bodily viscera, is not only see in works of Caravaggio, but in also in work such as that of Rembrandts Anatomy lessons. Candid and subdued in its drama this works are still unsettling in that they are so convincing, one winces in unease. The excess of bodily fluids as means of dramatic effect can be seen in Andre Seranos Piss Christ. A large photograph that shows a crucifix submerged in a tank of the artists urine. A single source ray of light penetrates with the container and illuminate the figure of Christ in warm golden and red tones. This work was very provocative when it was displayed in 1981. Its blasphemous content arose from a period in the 1980s where the American Family Association had stirred a political campaign against the National Endowment of the Arts financing and promotion of offensive art. It was considered a major part of the Culture Wars were Christian values were being asserted on public funding of the arts and attempts to censor artistic expression, which included marginalized groups of homosexual culture, groups that challenged Christian ideals, and commentary on racial inequality (9-23) It looks very similar To the baroque painting Crucifixion by Fansisco de Ziberan. But as Mieke Bal notes it actually is rather beautiful image with the se deep read and soft golden light that illuminates Christ. (54-56)
Opulence of the Baroque period was fueled by the wealthy for with the most pervasive intention of affirming class status as well as divine appointment of authority. Though the baroque movement began as a movement in rejection of the complex and decadent style of Mannerism, the complexity finds its way in to the forefront. Monarchs such Louis XIV considered himself king by divine right and he like many others of aristocratic and royal power use opulent art as means of propaganda().required his subjects to ornate the world as if it bent to is control, our consumerist identities provide us with a sense of being rulers of small world by our illusions of free choice that we can adorn ourselves with accessible goods that’s value no longer relies on rarity or status as much as it to simply consume. We find in behavioral with in those whom not only display excess of materiality but also in larger than life attitudes. As we see with artist who function with the high art markets, generating works that valued for millions based on celebrity. Status and notoriety have long had an effect on the value of works, but what works are sold for by living artists is a clear sign of what can be considered as the market value and the character of the artist as the necessary excess of a contemporary work of art.
Works such the Baldachino, Triumph in the Name of Jesus, and the Palace of Versailles are visual marvels that not only appear grand and luxurious but also function as a sight of transformation. The use of illusionism within these works creates that where the viewer is located is a divine space. These baroque works though served to function as part of assertion of wealth and power were also meant to inspire a sense of awe.
In contemporary work artists are able to question power, status, value. Taking the visually intensity of baroque opulence and transform it critiques. Kenhide Wiley creates oil paintings of African-American men in contemporary dress and has them pose in heroic position of notable male figures of classical painting. Within these works he adorns his portraits with patterns and designs of Baroque art. What Wiley does is he takes imagery and postures of aristocratic figures and draws questions of the identity of status, masculinity, and race. His figures are empowered yet feminized in a manner that relates some classical works where through a contemporary eye they may appear more feminine. Wiley who quiet famous , was commissioned by Vh1 to paint portraits of honorees in to the hip hop hall of fame. Which in this sense powerful institution such the Vh1 network can function as a surrogate for the church and celebrities as their canonized saints. One particular image titled Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five depicts the hip hop group in similar poses to the Dutch Civic Guard.
Many work that served the royal court like that of Rubens to …. And Velazquez to …served as means of express authority of works. The particular image of las Meninas as this complex visual, that not only was served as kind of genre piece but also psychological play on the perspective of the viewer. Here it can again read as illusionism works well with themes of oppulance. (elaborate).
Again there is Yasumasa Morimura, appropireates this partical classical piece in a performance where he positions himself in front of the paintings las meninas, stage the large Painting, which is depicts Morimura in drag as the young princess…, Here Morimura has placed the viewer in complicated position. If the painting functions as a mirror , then the viewer is either the reflection with the painting. Here Morimura seeks to challenge the senisibllities of antiquity itself. Which though they serve as historic artifacts they also function as objects material excess. They averge museum patron has limite acess to the objects and can only marvel at the museum collection. Morimura mocks this in his work as he performs as Valequez assertion of himself as courtly figure, and as he is elevated he takes the viewer with him in to this conflated narrative. It also touches on the broader contemporary issue of luxury and wealth distribution within contemporary society. The theme of sedution of becoming powerful, performing within the aritostcratic game that welcomes and rejects the public.
The appeal to art market has become an aesthetic characteristic of many contemporary artists most notably in the present Damien Hurst and Jefff Koons. Both these artist works are very expensive both in their market value which is built on their celebrity and in their works frabrication. Hurst created a platinum cast skull, encrust in diamonds, titled for the of God. Its value is estimated to be close 50milliion pounds(66million dollars)(). It is an aggressive form that is generated out of contemporary execess. A form that is notoriiuosly celebrated and ironic. It functions a vanita, A theme of classical art that is a reminder of ones mortality. It seems that this piece quite literally serves as the pinnacle material excess of the art world.
Jeff Koon’s whom can be considered a kind of contemporary Andy Warhol with his fabrication and seriality of everyday objects and having his very own art factory. His works are consist of ordinary objects that are easily recongnizable. Objects that almost anyone in the western world has owned or at the very least come in contact with. These forms are blown up cast in bronze, coated with shiny metallic paint like his balloon dogs or candy hearts. He takes iconic imagery ,like of Micheal Jackson and Bubbles ,and cast them in life sized forms, pained as kitchy porcelain with golden paint rendering. His works have been shown within the Palace of Versaille. In placing his work in the location he engages with the delusions Louis the 14th. The work that functions in a manner that any manifestation if possible. With Koons works being of everyday objets he presents a notion that everyone already leads lives of material opulence, that in our excess of material consumption anyone can lead a life of luxury. It is similar to Warhols idea that anyone can be famous.
Originally published 15.10.2019