Baroque Art

        Baroque art of the 17^th century is characterized by propaganda. Like renaissance art baroque art also has a sense of idealism and naturalism. What makes baroque art much more different is the way the art shows more drama and emotions. Baroque art has a classical influence and also has more viewer involvement. We can see these styles compared in the David statue created by Michelangelo and the David statue done by Bernini.

      The David statue created by Michelangelo is somewhat similar to the statue by Bernini but there are characteristics that do differ. The statue by Michelangelo is a nude statue that is created to be very idealized. You can see that the muscles on the abdomen are very muscular. There is also that sense of naturalism as you can see in the way his body is still proportionate and real to life.  Although I feel his hands are much to large for his body but I think it was created that way to show that he is a powerful man with these massive manly hands. Another quality from the renaissance period is the fact that he is in the nude; this was to show the human achievement. It was common for artist to create figures in the nude. In this statue of David there isn’t much action going on, David is just standing there looking over at something or someone. You also don’t really see any emotion in his facial expression.

      As for the statue created by Bernini you can see much more of the baroque style of art. You can see that David is caught in the highest moment of drama and he shows a great detail of emotion in his face.  As he is twisting and turning you see the movement in his body. You can also see a great detail in textures from his skin to the drapery over his thigh. The drama, emotion and movement are big characteristics of the Baroque art in the 17^th century. Another characteristic is the way the viewer can see the movement from another point of view. Baroque art liked to have that sense of the viewer interaction.  As in the renaissance period you can see that there is naturalism in this statue. You can see the realistic definitions in the muscles on the body and the way his body is twisted it looks natural. Knowing that this is a self-portrait of Bernini you can see that his body is a little idealized as well. The fact that David has some drapery over his thigh leading to cover his genitalia shows another difference between renaissance and baroque art. The reason for the drapery was to cover David so that the statue was more decent for people to look at.

        Each of the David statues show either renaissance and baroque art you can clearly see the differences and similarities of the statues from the different eras. Baroque art is known for the drama and emotion while renaissance is known for the naturalism and idealism. It’s also clear to see the different views they have on nudity, renaissance art uses without question, while baroque art is more modest. Baroque art is defiantly more intriguing to the viewer because people are emotionally drawn into the statue done by Bernini over the one by Michelangelo.