The first episode of art critic Waldemar Januszczak's three-part BBC4 documentary on Baroque painting, sculpture and architecture sees him examine the birth of the movement in Rome and Naples at the start of the 17th century. He starts in Saint Peter's Square, designed in 1656-67 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and gives a nice overall summary - "The Baroque was after you. So it threw the kitchen sink at you."
The Baroque started out as the artistic contribution of Catholic Italy to the Counter-Reformation. Lutherans dismissed sacred art as blasphemous. The Catholic Church's reaction, one of the outcomes of the Council of Trent, was to reemphasise the central role of religious art in inspiring faith amongst the masses.
The Baroque was born in Rome with the paintings of Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio (1571-1610), especially those in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. Caravaggio was the most important religious painter of the Counter-Reformation (in contrast to the typical 20th century view of him as "a knife-mad, predatory homosexual, who went berserk in Baroque Rome"). He was a master of darkness, turning painting into theatre, with tangible, vivid, cinematic paintings. He "made sure that the religious message of the counter-Reformation came after you like a spotlit rottweiler". He created a vivid new religious art that spoke to the people in language they could understand, using ordinary people as his models.
3. Baroque pearls. Portuguese word "barocco" - a misshapen pearl. If Renaissance art is a perfectly shaped pearl, then Baroque art is a misshapen pearl.
Architecture: Baroque is the default architecture of Rome.
Francesco Borromini: bendy architecture; "the Picasso of architecture", "a man of twisted brilliance". Courtyard of the Church of San Carlo in Rome. "Boromini was a rulebreaker by instinct, and that makes him totally Baroque." The church interior itself - "completely crazy". A blunt Greek cross fighting for control with a perfect oval. A perfect bit of geometry underlying apparent chaos. "He builds this exact mathematical basis, and then he just ruffles it up, like someone messing up your hair." A homosexual who later committed suicide.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini: "the undisputed King of Yang" in Baroque Rome. Architect, sculptor, painter, who "charmed the kings and popes". A ladies men. Sant'Andrea al Quirinale. "That's the Baroque for you. It twists this way and that. Always on the move. Like a restless dragonfly." Church filled with rich colour. A very theatrical efect, telling a story of St Andrew's mmartyrdom and ascension into heaven. St Peters itself is a truly stupendous piece of Baroque theatre - Bernini's Baldacchino under the transept. Is it sculpture or is it architecture? "All the dividing lines get blurred." The Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria - Bernini's masterpiece. St Teresa of Avila having an ecstatic vision, an angel piercing her heart with an arrow. A young woman, overpowered by the love of god. Misinterpreted in the 20th century as something sexual.
"The Baroque loved painted ceilings, filling the air around you and above you with remarkable sights was a very Baroque ambition." Difficult to do: "The Baroque however was never afraid of effort. Whatever it took, whatever it cost, the Baroque was up for it." 17th century virtual reality, blurring the divide between the art and you. French Embassy in Rome - the first great painted ceiling of the Baroque age. Formelrly the palace of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese. A young painter from Bologna, Annibale Carracci, and his brothers. "Piano nobile of the Farnese Palace" room - a room filled with stories about the mad love affairs of the pagan gods - "a diving orgy of love and conflict, and roleplaying, and naughtiness". Employs a cunning optical trick. Each love affair in its own picture, all the pictures crammed onto the roof, held wonkily in place by an assotment of cupids, nudes and statues. Time and space are being played with by a master scenographer. A huge curved roof.
Jesuit church of Sant'Ignazio - the ceiling painting is the fullest most perfect statement of the Baroque. Celebrates the canonisation of Ignacious Loyola (founder of the Jesuits). Painted by a Jesuit Lay brother from Trento, Padre Pozzo. "A master of illusion. The best there's ever been at making small spaces look huge." Even wrote a book about optical illusions. "A wonderful movie maker, born 300 years early". Included a painted dome, cheap and easy to repair. The roof itself - A flat roof, designed to look like a vertical gateway into heaven, with clouds, architraves and columns. St Ignacious hilself, in the middle, floating up on a cloud, being greeted into heaven by Jesus. The four corners of the earth represented in the corners Asia, Africa, Europe, America. "A rather cheesy bit of Jesuit propoganda". Also: a side room inside the Jesuit College has an illusionistic collonnade, showing the life of St Ignatius. Only look right from one place.
Naples: where the baroque learned to scream and howl. The second biggest city in Europe after Paris. A Spanish colony. Half a million people squashed into slums. Caravaggio turend up in 1606 for YEAR, on the run after murdering his tennis opponent. His art grew darker. The Pio Monte della Misericordia, home church of the Misericordists. Paintings by Caravaggio, including the Seven Acts of Mercy, the greatest religious painting of the 17th century. Bury the dead, clothe the naked, help the sick and infirm, visit those in prison, feed the hungry, offer shelter to pilgrims, give something to srink to the thirsty. "One Baroque tornado of a composition".
Giuseppe Ribera - the Little Spaniard. Bearded women. Macabre. The Cabal of Naples, with Corenzio the greek and ...
