the concetto, ingenious conceit, to be divine, and placed artists capable of it on a level with the Creator, who in turn is thus transformed into an accomplished rhetorician. The art of quick wit uses metaphor as its principal instrument, whereas logic assigns this role to concept.
Landscape with a Goatherd and Goats
c. 1636–1637
Oil on canvas, 52 × 42 cm
National Gallery, London
Hence the basic importance of metaphor and allegory in the poetics of the stile moderno: the theory of art and aesthetics cognition takes on certain features of general rhetoric.
The rhetorical orientation of art and aesthetics in the 17th century is closely bound up with a phenomenon aptly described in more recent literature on the subject as a “mythology explosion”.
The 17th century is essentially the beginning of the end for mythology’s dominant role in artistic subject matter, after holding undisputed sway for several millennia.
The Cowherd
1636
Etching, 12.6 × 19.5 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
And precisely at this crucial point, in a seemingly unfavourable historical and cultural situation, the mythological theme suddenly burst into flower, with an unprecedented growth in its repertory of themes and with an infinite wealth of forms and interpretations. In this respect, the 17th century left the preceding periods of art history so far behind that, by comparison, we may indeed describe the increase in its scope and intensity as a sort of mythology explosion.
Seaport with the Setting Sun
1637
Oil on canvas, 74 × 99 cm
Alnwick Castle, Alnwick
Alongside the marked tendency towards extending the stock of subjects beyond the traditional limits, and the increasing variety of genres, 17th-century art demonstrates an unflagging interest in myth. The question of interrelationship of myth and reality will be found to be central to any branch of Baroque art we turn to. Painting seems to have achieved more in the exploration of this problem than any other art. To convince oneself of this, it is enough to recall the work of such leaders of the different national schools as the Carracci, Caravaggio, Velazquez, Poussin, Rubens, and Rembrandt.
The Dance
c. 1637
Etching, 19.2 × 25.5 cm
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
The 17th-century approach to mythology had some characteristic traits, most notably a breaking away from traditional iconography (within certain bounds, of course) and the predominance of individual interpretations of mythological themes. Does that imply that myth was no longer perceived as myth in the proper sense of the word, but only as a body of material previously built up in the collective consciousness and liable to free creative interpretation? At any rate, it is an indisputable fact that 17th-century artists exercised considerable freedom in the treatment of mythological sources.
Seaport with the Rising Sun
c. 1637–1638
Oil on canvas, 74 × 99 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Moreover, the “mythology explosion” in Baroque art may have been prompted by a desire to employ the synthesising potential of myth in a rational way. Viewed like this, myth may be understood as a particular means of generalising reality, as an instrument of artistic cognition. This granted, it takes only one step to establish a direct relationship between mythology and rhetoric in 17th-century art. The idea of such an interconnection can already be found in the treatises of the leading theorists of the Baroque era.
Oak Tree in the Campagna
1638 (?)
Chalk and brown wash, 32.9 × 22.4 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Later this idea was brilliantly developed by Giambattista Vico, who advanced, in particular, the concept of the mythological roots of poetic tropes; Vico held that every metaphor is a myth in miniature.
Fundamental to the understanding of 17th-century art is the problem of its principal stylistic concepts. Among a wide variety of stylistic trends, there were two leading ones, the Baroque and Classicism. It has been suggested that the Baroque played a prevalent, and Classicism a subsidiary role.
Pastoral Lanscape
1638
Oil on canvas, 100 × 132 cm
Collection at Parham House, West Sussex
Some authorities distinguish yet a third trend, unconnected with either the Baroque or Classicism. We are not inclined to adopt either the former, or the latter view, believing as we do that the notions of Baroque and Classicism, neither of which can be placed in a subordinate position to the other, amply suffice for the reconstruction of a complete picture of 17th-century stylistic evolution, with all the interaction of its conflicting trends. The terms Baroque and Classicism may be said to mark the two extreme points between which the process of style formation developed as a struggle between opposing tendencies.
Pastoral Caprice with the Arch of Constantine
Oil on canvas, 98 × 145 cm
Duke of Westminster Collection
The Baroque style can be characterised in a general way, using such features as heightened expressiveness, eccentricity, a rejection of the norms and rules, a taste for sharp contrasts and extravagant effects, a combined use of different viewpoints, imagery of exuberant splendour, metaphorical language, love of allegory, and a strong and direct appeal to the emotions and the imagination in a deliberate effort to overwhelm the spectator.
Landscape with Lowland Plain in the Vicinity of Rome
c. 1638
Brush drawing in brown wash with pen and ink, 19.6 × 30.5 cm
Musée
