This day in history: Pedro de Mena's death

On the 13th October 1688 Pedro de Mena, one of the most important Baroque sculptors, passed away in Málaga. He was one of the most outstanding sculptors of the Baroque Andalusian school. He worked mainly for the Church and sculpted works for the cathedrals of Málaga and Toledo. Here you have some of his main works. You can include some of them on your travel journal: 

Penitent Magdalen

Source: http://arte.laguia2000.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/pedro-de-mena-1.jpg

Saint John the Baptist

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/San_Juan_Bautista_ni%C3%B1o_001.jpg/800px-San_Juan_Bautista_ni%C3%B1o_001.jpg

Ecce Homo

Source: http://esunmomento.es/Arte/Mena%205.jpg

Saint Francis of Assisi

Source: http://www.lahornacina.com/images12/D%20-%20Excelencias%20XVII.jpg

THE FOUNTAIN OF TREVI, NICOLA SALVI

In 1629 the Pope Urban VIII asked Bernini for renovations for the Trevi fountain but he abandoned the project when the Pope died. So, Nicola Salvi continued with the work with some ideas of Bernini, but he died in 1751 before he finished the sculpture. Finally, the Fountain of Trevi was finished in 1762 by Guissepe Pannini.

The Fountain of Trevi is the biggest (with almost 40 meter of front) and the most famous fountain in the Baroque of Rome placed on the crossing of three streets: Vía de Crocicchi, Vía Poli y Vía Delle Muratte where the Acqua Vérgine was.

The sculptor used travertine marble to build the sculpture becaus it is the material with most predominance in Rome. The dimensions are very big (25’9 meters high and 19’8 meters width). The Fountain of Trevi is represented by Neptuno in his carriage with two horses which are leaving the water where we can see two tritons. Behind the sculpture of Neptuno there is a precious façade standing out a representative figure.

In the Baroque, the sculptors wanted to capture fleeting moments to cause emotions, so in the Fountain of Trevi the sculptor located the sculptural scene on a fantastic waterfall sculpted in travertine marble. The sculptor wanted to represent movement; he used curved lines and cloth folds to intensify the sensation of movement. All these features corresponding to Baroque, we can see which coincide with the elements of the sculpture, the Fountain of Trevi.

The Fountain of Trevi was emptied to check the state of the monument in 2012 and finally the Rome’s mayor said that a global reformation was necessary. The reformation supposed a lot of money and finally the reformations were inaugurated in 2014. While the reformations the visitors could see the fountain, there wasn’t any problem to see it.

Sources:

http://www.jmhdezhdez.com/2012/02/fontana-di-trevi-de-fountain-roma-italy.html

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana_de_Trevi#La_fuente_actual

 I have looked for in a project of a tourism degree.

http://www.youtube.com

For the photosà

http://www.disfrutaroma.com/fontana-de-trevi

http://europaenfotos.com/italia/photo_ro7_1.html

Saint Longinus by Bernini

It is clearly a Baroque work art because it represents a fleeting moment (the conversion of Longinus to Christianity, as I’ve said before) that makes the people amazed and it has a lot of details: in his face, his expression, his clothes, the decoration… The columns of this sculpture are solomonic columns Bernini added to this sculpture four relics related to Saint Peter:

-A piece of cranium of Saint Andrew (his brother).

-A piece of the Vera Cross (found by Saint Elena).

-The veil of Saint Verónica.
-A piece of the Lance of Passion of Christ.
It had a great influence on his disciples Alessandro Algardi and François Duquesnoy, who opened an important school dedicated to his genres and registers.

Some curiosities:

The author of this sculpture was Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1628 and 1638 (Italy), an Italian sculptor, architect and painter. He was the most prestigious sculptor of the Baroque.

It is made up of marble, polychrome wood and bronze. It’s 300 cm high. It is nowadays in the Basilica of Saint Peter, in Rome. He made over twenty proves of Saint Longinus in mud. Bernini used to represent the most important part of the life of the people in his works, for example, in the Bible that explains Longinus was one of the Roman centurions who took Jesus Christ to the cross. When Jesus Christ was on the cross, he looked at him and said: “he was the real God’s son” so that is what the sculpture represents, his transformation to Christianity (and that’s why Bernini made him looking at a celestial light which passes through the dome). As we can see, Saint Longinus face represents the victory.

(Source: http://arte.laguia2000.com/escultura/san-longinos-de-bernini )

(Source of the photo: http://uploads5.wikiart.org/images/gian-lorenzo-bernini/st-longinus(1).jpg )

                                         

(Source: http://www.romeartlover.it/Andrea6.jpg )

Bernini liked to play with the mixture of materials to create shadows, movement and realism.

(Source: http://html.rincondelvago.com/escultura-de-gianlorenzo-bernini.html )

(Source of the self portrait http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Gian_Lorenzo_Bernini,_self-portrait,_c1623.jpg

(Source: http://www.lahornacina.com/semblanzasbernini.htm ) 

Piety by Gregorio Fernández.

Piety

The Piety was made by Gregorio Fernández. It was made in Valladolid in 1616 and it was commissioned by the Illustrious Penitential Brotherhood of Our Lady of Anguish. It belonged to a processional float which was showed in the religious processions during the Holy Week with other sculptures, such as the “good thief” or Dimas and the “impenitent thief” or Gestas, Saint John and the Magdalen.

The Sixth Anguish or Piety.

Source: http://domuspucelae.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/visita-virtual-la-sexta-angustia-la.html

Its size is 1,75 m high x 2,18 m wide. It’s made up of wood and polychrome. At the moment, this sculpture is in the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid.

This a religious sculpture and it represents one of the final stages of Christ’s Passion. The Virgin is holding Christ’s body without life after he has been removed from the cross. The Virgin is standing her right hand as if she was begging and her other hand is placed in the Christ’s shoulder. Her face is expressing pain, that it’s the normal Baroque’s expression. Her clothes are polychrome with strong colors, like red and blue, while her face is polychrome with pastel colours and without brightness. This shows its reality. We can find some similarity with Juni’s models. The anatomy of the Christ’s is very detailed. We can see all his wounds and blood. While the Virgin is expressing her suffering, the Christ has a relaxed expression. The cloth folds are also very detailed in both sculptures.

Piety.

Source: http://seordelbiombo.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/analisis-y-comentario-de-la-piedad.html

Baroque sculptures were usually about religious themes for altarpieces or processional floats made with polychrome wood. All the images were realistic and dramatic because we can find wounds, blood and expressions of pain and suffering. As we have read before, all these characteristics agree with the Piety.

The author, Gregorio Fernández although he worked in Valladolid, he was born in Lugo. He became one of the best models of the Castilian school that was one of the artistic nucleus of religious sculpture of the 17th century. Later, in the 2º part of the 18th century, Salzillo would be inspired by Gregorio Fernández. Other sculptures he made were ‘Christ at the Column’, ‘Cristo de la Luz’ and ‘Inmaculada Concepción’.

Portrait of Gregorio Fernández.

Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Fern%C3%A1ndez

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Gregorio_Fern%C3%A1ndez)

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Fern%C3%A1ndez

http://lapiedad1578.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/la-sexta-angustia.html

http://seordelbiombo.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/analisis-y-comentario-de-la-piedad.html

http://arte.laguia2000.com/escultura/piedad-gregorio-fernandez

http://julioelperiodista.blogspot.com.es/2013/06/la-piedad-de-gregorio-fernandez.html

ECSTASY OF SAINT THERESA, BERNINI

Ecstasy of Saint Theresa is a sculpture made in marble between the years 1647 to 1652 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It was requested by cardinal Cornaro to be placed on its grave in Santa Maria della Vittoria’s church in Rome, nowadays it still placed there.

Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, in Cornaro's chapel.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

This work is usually considered as the most emblematic piece made by Bernini, who was also the main sculptor from the Barroque period. It’is a religious sculpture, it represents the ecstasy of Saint Theresa based on her own deeds in which it’s written that she felt a divine arrow pierced her chest and she felt pain and pleasure at the same time and she also levitate.

The author obtained a lot of dynamism in this work, and transmitted perfectly Saint Theresa’s feelings. We can see her lying down with a long dress and the angel over her, who is looking at her and holding an arrow.

Let’s look a bit closely with a presentation I've made:

Sources:
http://citelighter-cards.s3.amazonaws.com/p16o7qj2ve19a61u8tsg0dro11270_8664.jpg

http://cherkas.com/romesartwork/berninissculptures.html

http://pensarelarte.blogspot.com.es/2009/05/comentario-de-el-extasis-de-santa.html

http://seordelbiombo.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/analisis-y-comentario-del-extasis-de.html

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Santa_teresa_di_bernini_04.JPG

4th November (Tuesday)

Hello!
Today in the class of Social Sciences Paqui explained us the instructions for the Baroque Project. We all have two works (that can be work of architecture, sculptures and paintings). This two works have been chosed by our teacher. We have to write an individual post on both works writing the information about they.After this Paqui has revised our homework for today, that was to complete a scheme from the Baroque Art with the book's contets.

When she finished to revise, we started to correct this scheme that have five parts:

Chronology: This style was developed in the 17th century and a part of the 18th century.

General features: This style had movement; realism representations; complexity; interest in surprising the audience; curved lines, concave and convex; and predominance of colour and light over drawing. And Paqui explained us that this style had just the opposite characteristics of the Renaissance Art.

Architecture: The architecture in this style had curved lines, spirals, ellipticand oval floor plans, solomonic colums, contrast of lights and shadows... Paqui drawn the diferents componets of the architecture. And then we seen some examples of this, like the square and colonnade of saint Peter of the vatican by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in Italy and the Versailles palace by Le vau, Mansar  and le nótre, in France.

                                           
http://www.arqhys.com/contenidos/versalles-palacio.html


http://fr.academic.ru/dic.nsf/frwiki/707863

Sculpture: The purpouse in this style was representing movement, capturing feeting movements, provoking surprise and emotion in the public. And we seen also examples, like Apolo and Daphne by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Paqui us the history of this sculpture when Daphne flee from Apolo and become a tree. And Fontana Di Trevi, by Nicolas Salvi, where the people throw coins.

http://mitosandmyths.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/apolo-y-dafne-presentacion-de-los.html


http://sobreitalia.com/2008/05/08/la-fontana-di-trevi-encanto-historico-y-cinematografico/

Painting: The features were use oil painting, predominance of colour over drawing use warm colours, contrast o light and shadows, realism, movement, complex, compositions in order to sock the audience...And also we seen some examples, like Death of the Virgin, by Caravaggio that was an estrange painting because the painter have used a young prostitute for represent the old Virgin, and The calling of Saint Matthew also by Caravaggio.
   
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muerte_de_la_Virgen_(Caravaggio)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calling_of_St_Matthew_(Caravaggio)

And we copied some words in the glossary:
to sock-impactar
solomic column-solomonica
baldachin-baldaquin
ball room-salón de baile
to flee-huir
fleeting-fugaz
solemn-solemne
fold-pliegue
cloth fold-pliegue de los tejidos
newt-tritón
oil painting-óleo
foreshortened figure-escorzo

And have an exam next friday so we have to study a lot!

Bye!

Why did Moses have horns?

The Moses is one of the most famous Michelangelo Buonarrotti´s sculptures. Michelangelo sculpted it as part of Pope Julius II tomb. It´s an impressive marble sculpture located in the small church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, the church of the Della Rovere family. Michelangelo considered the Moses to be his most life-like creation and there is a legend that says that when he finished it, he struck the statue´s knee and said " Now speak!". 

But one of the most shocking aspects of the Moses is that the prophet seems to have horns. This was the common way of representing Moses in iconography, but the origin of this representation lies on a translation mistake. Saint Jerome, the translator of the Bible from Hebrew to Latin, made a mistake. When he translated the paragraph that explains the moment when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he made a mistake with the word karan, which can mean "brightness" and also "horn" in Hebrew. The context of this story of the Bible suggests that Moses´s head was surrounded by some kind of halo, but Saint Jerome wrote "horns" instead of "halo" and this conditioned many further representations of Moses in art history.