The Exhibition
The patronage of the Roman Catholic Church was fundamental to the Baroque. Promoted by generations of popes, cardinals, priests, missionaries, worshippers and lay-patrons, the style spread to the four corners of the globe.
Holy imagery was everywhere, on street corners and squares, on shrines and public statues, and carried in procession. Although the Baroque style was strongly associated with the power and authority of the Catholic Church, it would also have been familiar to many Protestants.
Baroque religious art was designed to move, impress and please the beholder. Holy objects were both functional and ornamental. Of a vast array of pictorial and decorative images, some focused on complex theological subjects while others touched on the mundane and the familiar. At every stage of life, they brought spiritual improvement to the devout and comfort to believers. All conferred honour on those who paid for them and made them.
Space & Ritual
The secular and the religious were not alternative worlds of experience. Statues of saints on church façades gestured to passers-by, who crossed themselves as they passed the church door. Travellers to Catholic countries remarked on the lively social interaction of the congregation witnessing the solemn Mass. In the midst of this bustling social life, religious art had to compete for attention.
Performance was as prominent in the sacred spaces of chapels and churches as it was in the theatres. Religious processions, church services and other rituals were designed to maintain social cohesion as well as offer a route to personal salvation.
This ability of the Baroque style to communicate effectively and immediately with audiences of all kinds, and in a range of situations, made it a powerful tool in the organisation of sacred ritual.
Rome & the Papacy
Baroque Rome was the global headquarters of the Roman Catholic church. It was also a princely court, a government bureaucracy, a centre for cultural heritage and learning, a focus for pilgrims and tourists, and an archaeological site.
The popes were both secular lords and bishops of Rome. Like princes, they used their patronage to wield power, within the Vatican and beyond. They spent vast sums on building projects and art commissions of all kinds, and on establishing their collections. The cardinals and papal nephews were also great patrons.
Some popes set artistic trends by favouring particular artists, art media and subjects. The most favoured of all the papal artists was Bernini, who worked for a succession of popes for over fifty years. He was the rarest of people - a brilliant and universal practitioner across all the visual arts and a highly accomplished courtier and diplomat.
The Total Work of Art
The Baroque style employed painting, sculpture, architecture and the applied arts in tandem with other arts such as music and poetry. The aim was to appeal to all the senses. Seeking a combined and integrated effect, these total works of art sought to affect not only the hearts and minds of onlookers, but also to touch their very souls.
The most influential expression of the Baroque theory of the total work of art can be found in the work of Bernini. At the Cornaro chapel and in his portfolio of designs for St Peter's, Bernini united sculpture, painting and architecture.
In creating works of art, Bernini used terracotta sketch models to explore what he called the concetto - his vision of the total impact of the work. He kept this concetto in his mind's eye throughout each stage of the creative process.
Furnishings
In the Baroque church, the onlooker entered a densely populated world of images and ornament.
Each part of the church had specific functions, utensils and furnishings, and even the most utilitarian items were decorated accordingly. Bronze was employed for railings, grilles and lighting, silver for the ceremonial objects used during the Mass. Carved and decorated wood was used for seating and framing. Paint and gilding were on every surface, and embroidered textiles were used as hangings, vestments and covers.
There was also sculpture of every description - in wood, stone, metal, clay and plaster - set on and around altars, and even into the flooring. Any available flat surfaces were painted. The history of Baroque art is a history of all the arts, not only the arts of painting and architecture.
The Altar & the Mass
High Mass was a compelling, multi-sensory performance. With its music, incense and splendidly decorated accoutrements, its bread and wine, it appealed to all the senses, not just vision.
It was conducted in commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice. As in many non-Christian religions, the sacrificial table – a flat surface where the sacrifice might be made or acted out – was central to the ritual. This table, the altar, played a dual role. It was the setting for the dramatic re-enactment of the Mass and also the station for distributing the symbolic material – the consecrated bread – to the communicants.
The congregation mostly witnessed this ritual from afar. This meant that the officiating priests had to use dramatic gestures, and the artists and designers had to employ strong visual effects. At the same time, those who saw the Mass from close-to would witness minute and exact references and gestures.
The Chapel of St John the Baptist in the Church of São Roque, Lisbon
In 1743–4, the Portuguese king John V ordered a team of artists based in Rome to build, decorate and fit out a royal chapel for the Jesuit church of São Roque in Lisbon. It was dedicated to St John the Baptist and blessed by the pope before being transported to Lisbon.
He paid architectural and decorative masons, pietra dura (or hardstone) specialists, metalworkers, gilders, joiners, embroiderers and glaziers to create what is the most splendid of all surviving late Baroque chapels.
Private Devotion
Religious devotion was a matter of constant practice and did not simply take place in church. Protestants read the Bible at home, and Christians of all denominations were encouraged to engage in spiritual improvement and renewal. This involved sets of devotional exercises to be undertaken at all hours and in all situations.
Some of these rituals were carried out collectively but many were undertaken in private. Worshippers would open their souls to God through prayer, or by means of intercessors such as saints or the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Their devotions were facilitated by images and other works of art. These ranged from simple wooden crosses hanging on the walls of modest family homes to costly bejewelled treasures wrought in exotic materials and kept locked away in the prince's strongroom.
