History of Western Art ② – From the Baroque to Realism

Theatre of Emotion Beyond the Divine: The Baroque (17th century)

If the Renaissance was an era that celebrated reason and ideals, the Baroque delves into the human psyche through the capture of emotion and dramatic moments. Seventeenth-century Europe was in a state of turmoil and political tension, marked by the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation and the rise of absolute monarchy, and art began to visually express the complex emotions of this era. It is characterised by dynamic movement conveyed through grand, symmetrical compositions.

Caravaggio, in works such as The Calling of Saint Matthew and Christ Crowned with Thorns, utilised the chiaroscuro technique (strong contrast between light and shadow) to bring sacred scenes into the realm of reality. Rather than focusing on Christian-centric sacred figures, he cast characters from the grimy realities of everyday life as protagonists, reinterpreting religion as something directly connected to human life.

천재의 추락 – 카라바조

Meanwhile, Peter Paul Rubens presented sensual and grandiose paintings characterised by voluptuous figures, intense movement and vibrant colours in works such as The Descent from the Cross and The Holy Trinity. In sculpture, Gian Lorenzo Bernini demonstrated his magic in capturing transience and emotion in marble through works such as The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, David, and Apollo and Daphne, thereby ushering in the era of the ‘moving sculpture’.

The Aesthetics of Decoration and Pleasure: Rococo (18th Century)

As the grandeur and solemnity of the Baroque began to feel excessive to the aristocracy, the Rococo emerged in early 18th-century France, pursuing private pleasure and beauty. Centred in 18th-century France, it is characterised by delicacy, elegance and ornamentation. This was a movement that separated art from the public and the sacred, shifting it into the realm of elegance and taste.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard depicted love, desire and an escapist world through cheerful colours and asymmetrical compositions in works such as *The Swing* and *The Confession of Love*. His paintings were entirely different from those of the past in that they delicately portrayed human emotions unfolding within intimate, private spaces.

François Boucher transplanted sensual ideal beauty into mythology through *Venus at Her Bath*, whilst Antoine Watteau, in *Departure for the Island of Love*, expressed fleeting emotions and elegant melancholy, imbuing Rococo painting with a poetic, pictorial rhythm.

The Return of the Classics, the Aesthetics of Order: Neoclassicism

Following the French Revolution, the era’s demand to overcome chaos and hedonism led to the revival of classical painting, which emphasised order and morality. Neoclassicism restored the forms of ancient Greece and Rome, visualising the Enlightenment values of nation, duty and virtue.

Jacques-Louis David created visual propaganda that propagated revolutionary ideology by emphasising ancient heroic narratives and moral restraint through works such as The Oath of the Horatii, The Death of Marat, and The Coronation of Napoleon. Through his composition, the clarity of his lines, and the impassive expressions of his figures, he realised ‘painting as thought’.

His pupil, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, pursued classical line and mythical ideal beauty in works such as *The Grand Odalisque* and *Napoleon Worshipping Ocyan*, whilst emphasising formal perfection over emotion. His nudes reflect the aesthetic conventions of an era that sought to maintain an order of ideal beauty whilst distorting reality.

Painting of Freedom and Emotion: Romanticism (Late 18th–19th Century)

However, reason cannot fully explain human nature. Romanticism focused on human emotion, imagination, passion and suffering, returning painting to a realm of subjectivity and sensibility. Its defining characteristics were a focus on individual emotion, imagination and subjective experience, a critical attitude towards reality, and the pursuit of an ideal world.

Eugène Delacroix, in works such as Liberty Leading the People and The Death of Sardanapalus, expressed revolutionary passion and romantic tragedy and human emotion through vibrant colours and vigorous brushstrokes, directly challenging Classicism. His paintings sensually recreate chaos, heralding the dawn of colour-centred painting that would later lead to Impressionism.

J. M. W. Turner visualised the sublimity of nature and the frailty of humanity through works such as *The Slave Ship*, *Rain*, *Steam* and *Speed*, and his method of dissolving the boundaries of form is regarded as a pioneering element of abstract painting.

The Shadow of Reality, the Challenge of Realism

In the mid-19th century, as the Industrial Revolution and class conflict spread, artists turned to Realism, which sought to depict the reality before their eyes honestly, rather than an idealised world.

Gustave Courbet depicted the daily lives of workers and rural people in works such as *The Stone Breakers*, *A Funeral Procession* and *The Studio*, in a solemn manner devoid of narrative. He declared his ethical stance and visual independence as a painter with the words, “I have never seen an angel or a fairy. I merely paint what I have seen,” thereby declaring his ethical stance and visual independence as a painter.

Jean-François Millet expressed the sublimity of rural labour and his reverence for human life through paintings such as *The Gleaners*, *The Sower* and *The Angelus*, and his works were reflective paintings that embraced both socialist interpretations and religious sentiment.