Introduction to Western Literature and
Arts
A Comparison of the styles: Renaissance,
Mannerism, and Baroque
I. Influences of Reformation and Counter-Reformation
II. Problems of classicification of style
III. What is style?
1.
Style is artist's instrument of reduction of or emancipation from experience,
by which he filters life.
A style is artist's way of seeing
life.
2.
Style is the technique for representing (simulating, distorting) what the
artist has already seen.
Trans-media
--> Transformation of style --> correspondence of senses (synaethesia)
3.
Style is the mode of treating the subject matter.
4.
Style reveals artist's modes of consciousness.
5.
Style is the symptom, or vocabulary of a culture.
6.
Style is not an absolute requisite for artist, but a source/resource. An artist
may find one, alternate one after another, or juxtapose one with another.
IV. Cycle of Style
|
Thesis |
Antithesis |
Synthesis |
|
--> Romanesque |
--> Gothic |
--> Renaissance |
cycle 1 |
--> Renaissance |
--> Mannerism |
--> Baroque |
cycle 2 |
--> Baroque |
--> Rococo |
--> Neoclassicism |
cycle 3 |
--> Neoclassicism |
--> Romanticism |
--> Realism |
cycle 4 |
--> Realism |
--> Impressionism |
--> Post-impressionism |
|
Classicism |
Romanticism |
|
|
Apollonian |
Dionysian |
|
V. Analogy between arts and literature
1. History of Style (Wooefflin, Sypher)
2. Social History of Arts (Hauser)
3. Comparative Literature
4. Comparative Arts
VI. Comparative Table
|
Renaissance
(1400-1520) |
Mannerism
(1520-1590) |
Baroque
(1560-1774) |
|
rinascita = rebirth 1.order: symmetry, proportion, balance 2. Rebirth of humanism (paganism) (Reintegration of Classicism and Christianity) 3. Artists observe Nature from the model of classical antiquity |
manierismo, maniera = manner, style 1.Reaction to classicism and naturalism of High Renaissance [the impact of Reformation) 2. Artists learn from the model of High Renaissance masters, esp. Michelangelo
and Raphael. |
baroco [Portuguese= irregular] baroque〔French->English] 1.Generally as a Counter-reformation reaction to Reformation and
Mannerism. 2. Artists have a new interest in Nature. |
內容 |
Normal, supernormal, ideal; Appeal to the universal 1. Harmony, consonance 2. Balance and proportion: centralized 3. Frozen moment--idealized space-time 4. Rest and certainty |
Abnormal or anormal; Exploits strangeness of subject, uncontrolled emotion, 1. Dissonance 2. Disturbed balance and proportion 3. Zigzag or spiral moveme1nt--restlessness 4. Restless, ambiguous |
1. Grandeur 2. Extreme and diverse emotional states (religious fervor) 3. Tension between contrasting forces 4. Movement 5. Perception of the infinite 6. Domestic intimacy |
世界觀 |
1. Religious concept of earth-universe is still dominant. 2. Harmonious relation between microcosm and macrocosm. |
1. The concept of Earth-center world was broken by scientists, such as
Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler. Solar-center, eccentric, elliptical. 2. Disintegration of universe: religion, humanity 3. Skeptical, witty |
1. Reintegration of belief (the material fact and empirical observation
as foundation of the spiritual)--"accept secular pomp and the efficiency
of the flesh." 2. Resettle the skeptic uncertainties in M. through spectacles. |
|
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1591) |
Shakespeare, Hamlet.(1601-2) |
Shakespeare, King Lear (1605-6) |
空間 |
1. Central, Controlled; measured, harmonious 2. "Tectonic", close space |
1. dis-centered, disjointed, ambiguous, 2. Pushed to the foreground 3. Vortex-like, tunnel-like |
1. Oblique, emphasizes on contrast and depth, and movement, 2. "Recessional" 3. "Folding" |
構圖 |
1. Harmonious, integrated, centralized, 2 "tectonic", and closed 3. Fixed, linear perspective |
1. conflicting with frame and parts, dis-central, 2. Zigzag, spiral composition, 3. Oblique or mobile perspective |
1. Contrasting bi-polarity as constructing unit: synthesis 2. Zigzag, diagonal composition 3. Oblique, intimate perspective |
比例 |
Normative, idealized |
Distorted, extended, twisted |
Normative, use proportion to highlight contrast of importance, esp.
class status |
光線與色彩 |
Natural, balanced, controlled, harmonious |
Contrasting, strange combination |
Strong contrast of light and dark= chiaroscuro, tonal color |
|
Renaissance |
Mannerism |
Baroque |
1. |
Linear 重線條 |
|
Painterly 重色彩 |
|
1. clarity of contour; sharp edge and boundaries; 2. Separating details in isolating way |
|
1.Bluring the contours (輪廓),
boundaries of visual forms; 2. Merging objects and images; 3. Obscuring the subordinate parts; Searching
for the ambiguous, |
2 |
Plane 平面 |
|
Recession 景深 |
|
1. Use horizontal perspective (linear perspective). 2. Arranging objects or designs on wall-defined plane 3. Influenced by "low-relief", flat background |
|
1. Use oblique angles (zigzag composition) 2. The plane is broken or disappears 3. Creating the illusion of depth and distance Searching
for the infinite depth |
|
Raphael's ideal, monumental space Flat facades |
Michelangelo, Last Judgment Tintoretto’s funnel space Parmigianino's ambiguous space |
El Greco's folding space Borromini's church facade Bernini's painterly sculpture Milton, Paradise Lost |
3 |
Closed Form |
Open From |
Open Form |
|
1. Bound by a apparent limit (theme, theses) and "frame"
--"tectonic" 2. Balance between vertical and horizontal 3. Geometry and proportion |
1. Conflicting with the frame, 2. The frame help to create ambiguity |
1. The subject extends or flows out of the frame--"atectonic" 2. Limitless, flowing 3. merge into space |
|
Renaissance sonnets, |
*Metaphysical Poet Shakespeare, Hamlet, |
*Metaphysical Poet: favor of conceit, paradox, irony, ambiguity |
4. |
Multiple
details |
Multiple
but ambiguous details |
Unified by
obliterating details |
|
1. individual details maintain their identity and independence |
|
1. Organic: in a unified composition, the details are submerged in a
tonal rhythm or direction, or merged into the dark 2. Unification of detail within one dominant |
|
Raphael's School of Athens Leonardo's Last Supper Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights |
Tintoretto's Last Supper |
Caravaggio, Carracci, Rubens, Rembrandt Milton's Paradise Lost Cervantes's Don Quixote: the episodic adventures are centered on
the Quixote-Panza bipolarity. |
5 |
Absolute
Clarity |
Ambiguity |
Relative
Clarity |
|
1.The design, color, and light serve to define the structure of
individual forms. |
|
1. The color and light have their own value. 2. Conflict between form and lighting, or between light and line 3. The accent of color and light may distort or obliterate objects. |
6 |
Rest |
Motion
(Multiple Direction) |
Motion
(Unified Direction) |
|
Renaissance Sonnet French Baroque: Versailles chapel Poussin, Lorrain Johnson, " Drink to Me Only with Thine Eye" |
Tintoretto |
El Greco, Rubens, Metaphysical poets, |
By Chen Chi-szu,
Apr.3, 1996
Update: 4/25/2004