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THE ROLE OF GRAPHIC ART IN THE BAROQUE CULTURE

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Lomnicka-Zakowska E.

Barok. Historia - Literatura - Sztuka (Baroque. History - Literature - Art)

2007

vol. 14

issue 1(27)

15-48

In the times of the Baroque, the graphic art began to play a more important role in the European culture. It was associated with the dynamic development of graphics as artistic discipline. Outstanding painters were interested in graphic techniques and invented new means of expression. At the beginning of the 17th century Rubens founded a school in Antwerp in which many famous painters made graphic copies of his paintings. Anton van Dyck supervised graphic works for a publication of hundred portraits of well-known personages; he himself was the author of numerous drawings and eleven he engraved personally. Graphic works were of no lesser importance than paintings in the artistic creativity of Rembrandt van Rijn. Many eminent artists at the time could make an excellent use of the graver and etcher's needle. The growing importance of graphic art brought about an increasing number of engravings all over Europe, in Italy, Netherlands, France, Germany, Britain and Poland. There was also an increase in publications containing various illustrations. This resulted in a growing number of graphic artists and an improvement of graphic techniques such as copperplate and etching. The invention of the mezzotint technique allowed better reproductions of paintings. The important role of graphic art in Baroque times is attested by its numerous functions: communicative and cognitive, ethical and educational, religious and emotional, aesthetical and ludic as well as the utilitarian one. Many a time engravings fulfilled several functions. Engravings communicated versatile information, for instance the appearance of a ruler and important people (portraits), cities, towns and various buildings, they documented battles, secular and religious ceremonies, marriages and funerals, etc. They also could promote patrons of arts (including rulers) and founders of various undertakings. The events described and illustrated with engravings were documented and at the same time served as models of an order of things accepted by the authorities. Engravings also showed various entertainments available to the people on the occasion of diverse celebrations as well as great theatre and opera events in which participated representatives of court circles. In the 18th century a great importance were attached to outward manifestations of piety. In many cult centres, especially Marian one, there was performed ceremonial crownings of the cult images (most often images of the Virgin Mary), accompanied by processions, sermons and secular entertainments - all this was reflected in engravings which fulfilled the religious and emotional function. Engravings as illustrations and decoration of publications served mainly their pervasive utilitarian function. The development of collecting attested that graphic works were serving also aesthetic function, initially as beautiful reproductions of paintings, then as individual compositions of high artistic standard. Graphic arts mirrored the life of the Baroque period for which of great importance were theatreness and representation as it tended to regard life as a great stage on which successive spectacles were played one after another.

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1 Barok. Historia - Literatura - Sztuka (Baroque. History - Literature - Art)

1 Lomnicka-Zakowska E.

1 2007

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THE ROLE OF GRAPHIC ART IN THE BAROQUE CULTURE