(bouncy piano music)
Female voiceover: I know that there are a lot of these illusionistic ceilings
that were made during the Baroque period in the 1600s.
This looks like a really beautiful one, and an early example, right?
Male voiceover: It is an early example.
This was begun in the late 1590s, and finished in the very early 1600s.
It's the Farnese Gallery ceiling by Annibale Carracci, a Bolognese painter.
Female voiceover: I said "illusionistic," because that's really what it is.
It's entirely an illusion.
Male voiceover: Everything that you see above the moldings on the walls is fresco.
It's all paint.
There's nothing three-dimensional.
Female voiceover: Everything that looks like sculpture,
everything that looks like a frame,
all of that is just paint.
Male voicover: It's all fresco.
We'll see some good details that show you that in a minute.
Before we start talking about details,
we should situate this within Annibale Carracci's career
and in the development of Baroque painting.
The Carracci, by the end of the 1500s,
had established themselves in Bologna
as the leaders of this new style of painting
that was a rejection of mannerism and for various reasons,
was pointing towards a style that was more naturalistic,
as well as being more straightforward,
and dramatic, and clear, and very, very legible.
This was the Baroque style that's going to dominate European art ...
Female voicover: In the 1600s.
Male voiceover: For centuries to come.
They had established themselves in Bologna,
but when Annibale Carracci gets called to Rome
in the 1590s to work for the Farnese family,
this was really his moment to step on to a major stage,
and to bring his revolution of painting
to the center of the art world at the time.
Female voiceover: He's sort of gone from doing off-Broadway play
to now being a big star on Broadway, in Rome.
Male voiceover: Exactly. Right, in Rome for the Farnese family in their main palace.
This is a family of dukes and cardinals, incredibly important patrons.
All of these things make this commission particularly important for him.
Female voiceover: Can you get in to see this today in Rome?
Male voiceover: You can sometimes, but not all the time,
because today the Fernese Palace is the French Embassy.
Female voiceover: Those lucky French ambassadors.
Male voiceover: Although it may be inconvenient, we might also be thankful
because, undoubtedly, it being secluded has kept it in good condition.
Female voiceover: That's true.
What is the subject of the ceiling?
Male voiceover: The subject of the ceiling is several different scenes
of the loves of the gods from classical mythology.
Those are the scenes that we see in the paintings,
and it's as if these paintings are framed
in either wood gilded frames or in stone architectural details,
and then inserted among real people and real sculptures.
But of course, like we said, it's all paint.
Female voiceover: This is the subject
because it celebrated a marriage and a family.
Male voiceover: Right.
Female voiceover: This is all about love.
Male voiceover: Right, and even though we're
following the Counter-Reformation here,
we should keep in mind that this is a very private viewing context,
and it's also to celebrate a wedding.
So, the stories of love and eroticism that we see,
we shouldn't think of as being out of place at this time.
Female voiceover: Let's have a look at one of them.
Male voiceover: Here we again see the ceiling in a full view,
and as we said, it's as if there are paintings
of these love scenes inserted among people and sculptures
who are not necessarily related exactly to the subject of the painting.
Female voiceover: It's hard to believe that those are not paintings
leaning up against the molding.
Male voiceover: Right, especially the one at the far end.
It looks like it's leaning up against the wall, but it's all fresco.
The ceiling is curved, but it's flat to the touch.
Female voiceover: Amazing.
So, artists are really building
on what perspective had given them,
what Brunelleschi had given them, and being able
to do all sorts of kind of tricks with perspective.
That becomes a big thing during this period.
Male voiceover: Very much so, but it starts out initially as an effort
on reclaiming naturalistic skills, and studying carefully from life,
and then making your art look as life-like as possible.
The illusionism that we see here,
the fooling you into thinking that you're looking
at real three-dimensional things perspectively,
sometimes has very serious weight as well,
in terms of the revolution that the Carracci are trying to bring.
Female voaiceover: Don't you think it's also a little bit
of a desire to involve you emotionally, to bring you into it?
Male voiceover: It is very engaging in that sense, as well, absolutely.
In the center of the ceiling is the main subject matter.
This is the triumphal chariot with Bacchus and Ariadne,
two of the most famous lovers in classical mythology.
Female voiceover: Wait a second.
This whole thing along the bottom, that's all paint, right?
Male voiceover: Everything is paint, and you can see that it's curved.
Again, it's a barrel vaulted ceiling, but there's nothing
three dimensional on the surface of the ceiling.
Female voiceover: Wow. Amazing.
Male voiceover: You can see here, it's a very celebratory tone.
It's very fitting towards the celebration of a marriage.
You can see, also, the incredible claccisism
that Annibale Carracci has brought to his painting,
much more in these works than in his earlier work in Bologna.
Of course, that makes sense, not only because
of the classical subject matter,
but also because now he's in Rome,
the heart of classical [antiquity].
Here's a really good example to look at,
where we can see our different levels of reality.
This particular scene in the middle,
the painting that's [unintelligible] inserted in the ceiling,
is the story of Diana and Endymion.
There are several versions of the story,
but basically, the story is that Endymion is a hunter
who is incredibly beautiful, and he is asleep.
The goddess Diana, the goddess of the moom,
is to taken with his beauty that she seduces him while he's sleeping.
This is one of the love stories that we see in the Farnese ceiling.
Female voiceover: It's very sweet.
Male voiceover: It's very sweet, and the sweetness of it,
and the seductiveness of it is,
as in all Baroque paintings no matter what their subject matter,
communicated through gestures and facial expressions.
The way she tenderly caresses his face,
the way that the figure of the Cupid in the back
is saying, "Shh," because he's sleeping.
All of these things, when we say that Baroque art
uses gestures and dramatic expressions,
and so on, to tell a story,
we're not always talking about religious art.
Sometimes, it can be something like this.
Female voiceover: I notice, still, too, that use of the diagonal line.
Male voiceover: That strong use of the diagonal line.
Actually, we have two intersecting diagonal lines,
almost like an X-shape to the composition;
everything, again, very close to us.
Male voiceover: Close to the viewer; also very, very simplified.
The whole composition is boiled down to its essentials,
nothing confusing, nothing enigmatic,
which had been the hallmarks of the mannerist style,
which had been rejected.
Female voiceover: And that's Diana, the goddess of the moon [unintelligible].
Male voiceover: Right, and you know it's her
because she has her little moon on her headband,
and you know that she's a goddess,
not just some seductive woman lurking in the bushes,
because you can see she's floating in on a cloud.
Female voiceover: She's floating on a cloud, right.
I'm amazed by the illusion.
It looks as though these are stucco or sculptures
that are lit from below.
Male voiceover: Because, of course, that's where the windows are.
Annabile Carracci has carefully studied the light sources,
the real light sources in the room, to then paint
these fictive sculptures and people
as if they're being lit by the real light
entering the space, and that enhances the illusion.
This is especially good detail to look at.
Female voiceover: The shadows - the shadows are so dark
around the shoulders of these sort of figures
that frame them, so that it really looks
like they're kind of in high-relief there.
Male voiceover: That's exactly what they're supposed to look like.
I'll draw your attention to the sculpture on the right.
The arm on the left, which is his right arm,
is broken off ...
Female voiceover: It looks exactly like an ancient Greek sculpture.
Male voiceover: It looks like a real, three-dimensional sculpture
that would be broken, but the joke is,
there's nothing there to break, because it's flat and fresco.
Female voiceover: It's paint.
It's tricky.
Male voiceover: It is tricky.
Female voiceover: And fun.
There's something really playful about it, I think.
Male voiceover: Which is appropriate for the subject matter,
again because it's love stories and
because it's about celebrating [unintelligible].
Female voiceover: How long did it take him to paint?
Male voiceover: Several years.
Female voiceover: I bet.
Male voiceover: Beginning in the 1590s, and finished [unintelligible].
Female voiceover: And he worked with a workshop,
as most artists did then, right?
Male voiceover: Most artists had workshops working for them,
mixing paints, and getting things ready.
Female voiceover: Obviously, the example that he must be looking at
is Michaelangelo's ceiling.
Male voiceover: Of course.
The Carracci had been interested in all the major artists
from the High Renaissance as inspiration and resources
which which to reject what they saw
as the convolutions, and the strangeness of mannerism.
Michaelangelo becomes particularly important
when Annibale Carracci goes to Rome,
because Michaelangelo's Sistine ceiling,
that we're looking at a section of here ...
Female voiceover: That's exactly this.
Male voiceover: Does exactly the same, and if you
think about it, the format is very much the same,
even though the subject matter is very different.
Female voiceover: Inserted paintings, painted sculpture and architecture
around those painted scenes in the center,
mixing of that sort of painted images in color
with figures that look like sculpture.
Male voiceover: Yes, so this is a very good illustration
of the idea that, in some ways Baroque art is a
return to the principles of the High Renaissance,
but also going even further than what had been done
in the High Renaissance, increasing the drama,
increasing the playfulness,
increasing even the illusion that we see,
Female voiceover: Increasing the emotion, and the accessibility.
Male voiceover: Absolutely, and don't forget,
like we said before, Annibale Carracci really needs
to pull out all the stops here, because he needs
to bring this new style and his skill
to Rome [unintelligible].
Female voiceover: So, he's really showing off.
Male voiceover: Right, exactly.
Female voiceover: That's obvious.
(lively piano music)