Renaissance-Baroque Style Comparisons With Visual Examples

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1. Linear vs. Painterly

Renaissance art tends to define forms with clear contours. Even given that thedevelopment of chiaroscuro (light/dark contrasts) is a Renaissance phenomenon, the

use of light and dark in a Renaissance image generally does not interfere with theviewer’s clear understanding of the boundaries of an object. As an example, Wölfflin

suggests Dürer’s St. Jerome in His Study. Even though the artist has made great

use of lights and darks, the emphasis is still on the integrity of each form (object) inthe object and its distinctness. On the other hand, Baroque art, being more painterly,

defines masses rather than forms, and the Baroque artist is not concerned withmaking sure that we know exactly where forms begin and end in space.

Rembrandt’s etching of St. Jerome helps to make the point: forms seem to dissolve

in light. The Baroque artist does not hesitate to create patterns of light and darkwhich transgress the boundaries of objects.



3. Closed vs. Open

Renaissance art draws attention to its own rationality, to the clear horizontal andvertical orientations (relating to the ideal of knowing exactly where objects are

located) of the image or constructed form. Baroque creations, in contrast, attemptto hide their underlying structures. A Baroque copy of a Renaissance masterpiece

such as Raphael’s Disputa will, quite characteristically, transform the symmetry of

the original into a marked asymmetry.



4. Multiplicity and Unity

In this oppositional pair, Wölfflin addresses the issue of how art works of each styleachieve effects of unity. He [somewhat confusingly?] distinguishes between

“multiple unity” (Renaissance style) and “unified unity” (Baroque style). By this he

means that the Renaissance artist presents a number of clearly identifiable parts(“articulated”) which are subordinated to an overall arrangement or emphasis or

single effect. Leonardo’s Last Supper is one excellent example among many:Within each group of apostles, each apostle is clearly defined; moreover, each group

of apostles is also distinct. However, each individual and all three groups aresubsumed or organized into a unified whole with the focal point of the composition

being Jesus’ head. Leonardo takes advantage of the privileged central position of

the picture, where viewer’s attention is naturally drawn. A Baroque artist will not

worry about maintaining the individual integrity of forms and parts, being instead

more concerned with achieving an overall effect. Often, this effect involves a strongsense of movement, and in many Baroque art works, the viewer will distinguish a

specific figure only with difficulty, the much stronger visual impression being of the

overall swirl of dynamic motion.



5. Clearness and Unclearness

Wölfflin notes that “for classic [Renaissance] art, all beauty meant exhaustiverevelation of the form; in baroque art, absolute clearness is obscured even where a

perfect rendering of facts is aimed at. The pictorial appearance no longer coincides

with the maximum of objective clearness, but evades it.” The opposition betweenclearness and unclearness may take many forms, and is obviously related to many

of the oppositional pairs already discsussed. That is, the Baroque tendency toobscure forms in the painterly manner of presentation certainly leads to less

“clearness.” Other areas of representational style which are relevant include the useof color. In this realm, Wölfflin notes that, while Renaissance artists such as

Leonardo knew of and observed the effects of colored reflections — that is, realized

that the color of an object may depend upon the reflection of light from a nearby

colored surface onto that object — he refrained from applying this knowledge to anygreat extent in his paintings, as he felt that to do so would be to risk clarity. Baroqueartists, striving for a type of art in which, as Wölfflin argues, “there is always an

unsolved remainder,” did not hesitate to make greater use of such color effects. In

terms of spatial organization, as well, Baroque artists present ambigous situations(e.g., pictures within pictures where the boundaries of each are not clearly

articulated, or where it is unclear, as some critics argue is the case with Velazquez’sJesus in the House of Marth and Mary, whether we are looking at a mirror, a painted

image, or an opening in a wall).



In order to begin exploring Wolfflin’s ideas and testing them out for ourselves, let’s

turn to a number of comparisons of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, with eachcomparison involving paintings of the same subject matter or theme.

Renaissance-Baroque Style Comparisons With Visual Examples

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