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What characteristics make the animals painted in the Baroque Era unique compared to other animals in different eras like the Renaissance?

While reading this paper, readers should understand how certain aspects of the Baroque era evolved from the Renaissance era. What I decided to use to understand the differences between the two was the way they represented animals. I believe that my findings and observations prove that the Baroque Era’s style evolved from what the Renaissance already accomplished.

To begin with, while looking at the Baroque period’s art the style has certain traits that often shine through. For example grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, dynamism, movement, tension, and emotional exuberance. Looking through any piece of baroque art and two or more of these characteristics will shine through. For example Pieter Paul Rubens, “Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt,” 1616. In this piece, you can see the characteristics of drama in this painting. Whenever an artist wants to make their piece seem more dramatic or dynamic they tell them to use curves. The way that Rubens uses curves can be seen on the man that is on the ground next to the dog. Rubens takes this man’s spine and bends it to add dynamism to his stabbing motion. Also with this motion, Rubens adds to the drama because the man hasn’t stabbed the beast yet, the man is getting ready to do it further building up this drama in the viewer’s head. What this does for the viewer is it almost foreshadows an up-and-coming collision, building anticipation in the viewer's head.

In the Baroque period, drama and dynamism weren’t the only key factors that lead to the creation in this age; another element that helped as well that element was emotional exuberance. What does emotional exuberance mean? Emotional exuberance is the expression of negative emotions one, in particular, being the blocking of rewards. In “Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt,” 1616 Rubens communicates this to the audience. What is the reward in this painting? The reward in this painting is dominance over nature. In this piece, Rubens wanted to accentuate the struggles man has when dealing with nature. All the men in this painting have to do is kill these two animals. It’s only two animals so it shouldn't be too hard right? Wrong, in this painting, there are five men, three horses, and one dog all trying to kill these two animals that seem to be working together. But they are struggling dearly to get the job done. As you can see at the bottom right of the painting one of their own men has already succumbed to the power of nature as he lays there seemingly dead. This paint really shows this aspect of Baroque very well.

The final characteristics I want to touch upon are sensuous richness and grandeur. Sensuous means gratification of the senses for the sake of aesthetic pleasure. This was very prevalent in Fran Snyders art, specifically “Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market” 1614–1614. Snyders took real dead animals and organized them in a way to make a killer composition. At first when looking at the painting the first thing the viewer notices is the white on the dead goose and the red on the merchant’s shirt. Since the whole painting leans on the darker side, this bright white goose and this red shirt on the left side really help to guide the eye throughout the whole painting. And then the eye greets the rest of the animals on the table. Like the baby deer, the rabbits, the smaller birds, and so on. This painting appeals to some of the 5 senses as well. For instance just by looking at the picture and realizing that these animals had to sit in the same position for hours while the artist finished the painting you could imagine how rancid that table must smell. Back then some perfumes might aid a little with the stench but in general, we can all imagine the pungent odor of these dead animals.

Next, I will touch upon the renaissance with “The Battle of San Romano” c. 1435–1460 by Paolo Uccello and compare the horse’s anatomy to Rubens. Even though Rubens is flemish and Paolo Uccello is Italian there is still valuable information to be gained from looking at the anatomy of these horses in these action/war scenes. Just to see how far those animal anatomy studies took artists like Rubens in the Baroque Era. Just by looking at Paolo’s horses, you can automatically see a difference in the anatomy. The horses in “The Battle of San Romano” are very stylized. These horses don’t really focus on the individual muscles or the shape and shading of those muscles like Ruben’s painting does. In Rubens’s painting, you instantly see more detail pop out. You can look at one of the legs of the horses in the paintings and decipher almost every muscle on the leg. From the shoulders of the horses down to the hooves Rubens allows you to see more. Not only that but the hair in Rubens’s painting is also more realistic and flows more. In general Paolo’s horses look very 2D and flat with minimalist shading and lighting. While on the other hand Rubens looks more 3D and the lighting and shading looks more advanced. Just by looking at the horse's chest alone, you can see more than 3 tones of color. Paolo does have a good knowledge of horse anatomy Rubens with this painting helps to display a deeper understanding of the topic.

So Why Did Animal Art In The Baroque Era Get “Better”? There are a few reasons why the Baroque age brought in a new way to recreate animals in their art. One reason is that around 1600 - the 1660s there was a boom in animal discretion and experimentation. It was said that “Robert Hooke and Richard Lower (1631–91) did a series of surgical vivisections in the 1660s to elucidate the mechanism of respiration, although Hooke and John Evelyn disliked the open-thorax experiments because of their cruelty”(Anna Marie Roos). At the time of these experiments, happening people began rebelling against it claiming that it was undignified, there was also the issue of people believing animal anatomy wasn’t applicable to humans. Even with the backlash given to scientists at the time they kept up with their experiments and shared their newfound knowledge with the public. This is when the public started to learn more about breast anatomy. Through beast anatomy studies, artists were able to make their art more realistic and believable. As stated before the artist Fran Snyders used real animals in his still life paintings many people found problems with this as well. Studying animals this way and the moral complications that followed them proved how complex and different these ideas were. Witch is a fitting statement considering that is the meaning of the word “Baroque.”

What was the incentive for this art? The incentive for creating this more realistic and dramatic art was money and political power. During the Baroque age, these types of paintings exploded with popularity. These paintings became a status symbol of the elite class so everyone wanted one.