Development of Baroque Ideology - Essay Example

As a result of the Council of Trent, held between 1545-1563, the Roman Catholic Church invested heavily in sponsorship and support for the development of Baroque ideology. In such a way, the arts were leveraged to display a direct emotional involvement and attachment with the audience. As a function of this, triumphal power, emotional appeal, grandeur, opulence, and many other overwhelming emotions were clearly enunciated within Baroque architecture as a means of engaging the participant with a compelling level of appreciation for the religious thematic that was invariably demonstrated within such a medium.  As a function of analyzing Baroque art to a further level, this particular analysis will consider the means by which religious imagery and fundamentals are presented to the reader with regards to “The Crucifixion of St. Peter” by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio as well as the sculpture of Geon Lorenzo Bernini “The Ecstasy of St. Theresa”. 

Whereas it is sometimes the case that a sculptor is also skilled with the use of oil and canvas, this was especially true with regard to Geon Lorenzo Bernini.  Tying in with the discussion and analysis of the means by which many of the Baroque artists were sponsored and promoted by the Catholic Church, Bernini is an especially good example of this. Rising rapidly among the ranks of the many artists of the time, Bernini soon attracted the attention of the papacy who commissioned him to perform several works of art. Blown away by his skill and prowess, both on canvas and with marble, Bernini became something of an artist of court for several successive popes. With such a notion in mind, it is easier to analyze the implied meaning and means by which bring me the expressed strong overt and subliminal religious tones within “The Ecstasy of St. Theresa” (Wilkin 31). Many scholars have considered this particular sculpture to be the beginning of high Roman Baroque art. In effect, even the casual observer can note the means by which the sculpture approach rates how the divine is interacting with the earthly via a theatrical mechanism. This in truth and into the affairs of men creates something of a sensual, some even say orgasmic, juxtaposition of both the divine and human. However, rather than understanding the sculpture in too much of a temporal mindset, it was doubtless Bernini’s intention to express the pure joy and bliss that mankind could achieve when in communion with the divine.

Although thematic elements between Bernini and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, represented within his artwork entitled “The Crucifixion of St. Peter”, are quite disparate, the reality of the matter is that the ideas represented and discussed are both highly spiritual in nature. At first glance, the reader can note the fact that a painstakingly detailed and imaginative oil painting of the crucifixion of St. Peter is displayed. Beyond the fact that St. Peter is obviously the only face within the portrait that can be seen, beyond the fact that St. Peter’s body, although supposedly aged at the time it has crucifixion, is unbelievably toned muscular, the viewer is also illustrated with the subliminal understanding that the weight of this crucifixion, both physical and mental, ways most heavily upon the perpetrators. As can be noted from an examination of the painting, it requires three strong young men to carry the body of an agent St. Peter to his final crucifixion (Marcussen 75). Each and every one of them is weighed down event under the heft of both the spiritual connotation and physical reality of the injustice that they are about to commit.

Although the thematic elements are slightly nuance, both of these Baroque art pieces are useful in helping the viewer to understand a further level of appreciation for the divine and the means by which the individual participant within these art forms should be respectful and mindful of this higher power stop obviously, one of the subtexts of such a message was with regards to encouraging the faithful, or even those who had fallen away from the message, to return to the folds of the Catholic Church.