THE GIANTS OF THE BAROQUE

In the first half of the seventeenth century the style that appeared in Rome would dominate European taste for the next one hundred years: the Baroque. Among the painters, sculptors, and architects of the Roman Baroque, six were particularly influential: Annnibale and Agostino Carracci, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Gian-Lorenzo Bernini, Pietro da Cortona and Francesco Borromini. Their careers were propelled by popes and cardinals born into powerful families: the Farnese, Borghese, Pamphilj, Barberini, and Chigi. These five lectures will look at the works of these six artists and their relationships with their patrons.

CARAVAGGIO: DEVIL AND GENIUS

Our epoch is fascinated with Caravaggio; he is often presented as a troublemaker and a homosexual, a ‘free spirit’ of his time. The tenebrous realism of his paintings contributed to the construction of the myth. But in looking at Caravaggio’s works we discover the real genius: he used empirical observation to depict his subjects. Divine revelation is not invoked by the supernatural, but by human experience.

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