Art & Music of the Baroque: 1580-1620
Art and Music of the Baroque: From Ecstasy to Enlightenment lecture, given by Victoria Martino, who also happens to be an art historian as well as Baroque violinist, will feature the Musica Pro Arte Ensemble, covering the years 1580-1620 in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. Around 1600, the idealistic medieval worldview came to an end. Sensual and emotional experiences became the impetus for new artistic creation. Temporal changes (such as morning and evening) and human actions were now intensely felt and depicted. The play of light on surfaces became one of the main sources of painterly inspiration. In music, the emotional element came fully to the fore, not only in melodies and harmonies, but, above all, in a new dynamic and rhythmic structure and brilliant runs. These developments found their finest outlets in the creation of opera in Italy and the renewal of religious music in the North. The painters, Michelangelo da Caravaggio, the brothers Caracci, and Peter Paul Rubens, found their musical counterparts in the composers, Claudio Monteverdi, Giulio Caccini, and Heinrich Schütz.