Art :: essays research papers

World Cultures Baroque Art Essay During the Baroque period, new ideas and views of society and of religion spurred up. To express these new ideas many artists used the ideas of past artists to further expand their own motives. " If I have seen further (than you and Descartes), it is by standing upon the shoulders of Giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1676 The artists of the baroque period were using past ideals as a ladder to the prevalent and the gallant. Four pieces of art that exceplified the usage of the great minds of the past were; The Rape of the Sabine Women by Nicholas Poussin, The east faà §ade of the Louvre Palace, The View of Delft by Jan Vermeer and The Palace of Versailles. The magnificent artwork of Nicholas Poussin shows the mixture of Roman architecture and ideas. He copied the body sculptures and the basilicas of ancient Rome and added them to his medium of oil. Poussin traveled to Roman museums for inspiration and models. In The Rape of the Sabine Women, he show s how he balanced his art by carefully arranging opposites. Since he used statues for models, the people in his painting look to be chiseled and very statuesque. Poussin also uses a background of a Roman city to further enhance his love for the classical world. He sought for permanent in the momentary and the universal in the individual. Many artists of the time turned to classical Greece and Rome for their ideas. Another prime example is the East Faà §ade of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. KING LOUIS XIV originally commissioned this piece of work to Gianlorenzo Bernini in 1665. The king's finance minister felt " it left the king housed no better than before." so his plan was rejected and a French architect named Claude Perrault was appointed to finish the job. This palace had to grand enough for the "sun-king", so Perrault used classical influences to achieve the proper grandness fit for a king. He used a long Corinthian colonnade, friezes, and pilasters. T his acted as a restraining influence to the baroque ideas of the time. Greek and Roman art influenced many Europeans, especially the monarchs of the time. No monarch showed that better than King Louis XIV of France. His rule of France's nobles required a large palace to be built to accommodate and preoccupy the people that could have threatened his absolute power.