Baroque sculpture is the sculpture associated with the Baroque style of the period between the early 17th and mid 18th centuries. In Baroque sculpture, groups of figures assumed new importance, and there was a dynamic movement and energy of human forms—they spiralled around an empty central vortex, or reached outwards into the surrounding space. Baroque sculpture often had multiple ideal viewing angles, and reflected a general continuation of the Renaissance move away from the relief to sculpture created in the round, and designed to be placed in the middle of a large space—elaborate fountains such as Gian Lorenzo Bernini‘s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Rome, 1651), or those in the Gardens of Versailles were a Baroque speciality. The Baroque style was perfectly suited to sculpture, with Bernini the dominating figure of the age in works such as Ecstasy of Saint Theresa (1647–1652).Boucher, 134–142 on the Cornaro chapel; see index for Bernini generally Much Baroque sculpture added extra-sculptural elements, for example, concealed lighting, or water fountains, or fused sculpture and architecture to create a transformative experience for the viewer. Artists saw themselves as in the classical tradition, but admired Hellenistic and later Roman sculpture, rather than that of the more "Classical" periods as they are seen today.Boucher, 16–18

Baroque sculpture followed Renaissance and Mannerist sculpture and was succeeded by Rococo and Neoclassical Sculpture. Rome was the earliest centre where the style was formed. The style spread to the rest of Europe, and especially France gave a new direction in the late 17th century. Eventually it spread beyond Europe to the colonial possessions of the European powers, especially in Latin America and the Philippines.

The Protestant Reformation had brought an almost total stop to religious sculpture in much of Northern Europe, and though secular sculpture, especially for portrait busts and tomb monuments, continued, the Dutch Golden Age has no significant sculptural component outside goldsmithing.Honour and Fleming, 450 Partly in direct reaction, sculpture was as prominent in Catholicism as in the late Middle Ages. The Catholic Southern Netherlands saw a flourishing of Baroque sculpture starting from the second half of the 17th century with many local workshops producing a wide range of Baroque sculpture including church furniture, funeral monuments and small-scale sculptures executed in ivory and durable woods such as boxwood. Flemish sculptors would play a prominent role in spreading the Baroque idiom abroad including in the Dutch Republic, Italy, England, Sweden and France.Helena Bussers, De baroksculptuur en het barok at Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen

In the 18th century much sculpture continued on Baroque lines—the Trevi Fountain was only completed in 1762. The Rococo style was better suited to smaller works.Honour and Fleming, 460–467

Origins and Characteristics

The Baroque style emerged from Renaissance sculpture, which, drawing upon classical Greek and Roman sculpture, had idealized the human form. This was modified by Mannerism, when artists strived to give their works a unique and personal style. Mannerism introduced the idea of sculptures featuring strong contrasts; youth and age, beauty and ugliness, men and women. Mannerism also introduced the figura serpentina, which became a major characteristic of Baroque sculpture. This was the arrangement of figures or groups of figures in an ascending spiral, which gave lightness and movement to the work.

Michelangelo had introduced figure serpentine in The Dying Slave (1513–1516) and Genius Victorious (1520–1525), but these works were meant to be seen from a single point of view. An example of work that can be seen from several points of view is the late 16th century sculpture of Giambologna, The Rape of the Sabine Women (1581–1583), which changes depending upon the viewpoint. This became a very common feature in Baroque sculpture. The work of Giambologna had a strong influence on the masters of the Baroque era, particularly Bernini.

Another important influence leading to the Baroque style was the Catholic Church, which was seeking artistic weapons in the battle against the rise of Protestantism. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) gave the Pope greater powers to guide artistic creation, and expressed a strong disapproval of the doctrines of humanism, which had been central to the arts during the Renaissance. During the pontificate of Paul V (1605–1621) the church began to develop artistic doctrines to counter the Reformation, and commissioned new artists to carry them out.

Bernini and Roman Baroque sculpture The dominant figure in Baroque sculpture was Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680). He was the son of a Florentine sculptor, Pietro Bernini, who had been called to Rome by Pope Paul V. The young Bernini made his first solo works at the age of fifteen, and in 1618–25 received a major commission for statues for the villa of Cardinal Scipion Borghese. His works, highly dramatic, designed to be seen from multiple ponts of view, and spiraling upwards, had an immense impact on European sculpture. He continued to dominate Italian sculpture through his works on Roman fountains, the Baldaquin of St. Peter and the tomb of Pope Alexander VII within St. Peter's Basilica, and his altar ensemble for the Church of Santa-Maria della Vittoria in Rome. He received his final fountain sculpture commission for the Fountain of the Elephant (1665–1667), followed by a series of angels for the Sant Angelo Bridge in Rome (1667–69).

Bernini died in 1680, but his style influenced sculptors across Europe, particularly in France, Bavaria and Austria.

Maderno, Mochi, and the other Italian Baroque sculptors Generous papal commissions made Rome a magnet for sculptors in Italy and across Europe. They decorated churches, squares, and, a Rome specialty, the popular new fountains created around the city by the Popes. Stefano Maderno (1576–1636), originally from Bissone in Lombardy, preceded the work of Bernini. He began his career making reduced-size copies of classical works in bronze. His major large-scale work was a statue of Saint Cecilia (1600, for the Church of Saint Cecilia in the Trastevere in Rome. The saint's body lies stretched out, as if it were in a sarcophagus, evoking a sense of pathos.

Another early important Roman sculptor was Francesco Mochi (1580–1654), born in Montevarchi, near Florence. He made a celebrated bronze equestrian statue of Alexander Farnese for the main square of Piacenza (1620–1625), and a vivid statue of Saint Veronica for Saint Peter's Basilica, so active that she seems to be about to leap from the niche.

Other notable Italian Baroque sculptors included Alessandro Algardi (1598–1654), whose first major commission was the tomb of Pope Leo XI in the Vatican. He was considered a rival of Bernini, though his work was similar in style. His other major works included a large sculpted bas-relief of the legendary meeting between Pope Leo I and Attila the Hun (1646–1653), in which the Pope persuaded Attila not to attack Rome.

The Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy (1597–1643) was another important figure of the Italian Baroque. He was a friend of the painter Poussin, and was especially known for his statue of Saint Susanna at Santa Maria de Loreto in Rome, and his statue of Saint Andrew (1629–1633) at the Vatican. He was named royal sculptor of Louis XIII, but died in 1643 during the journey from Rome to Paris.

Major sculptors in the late period included Niccolo Salvi (1697–1751), whose most famous work was the design of the Trevi Fountain (1732–1751). The fountain also contained allegorical works by other prominent Italian Baroque sculptors, including Filippo della Valle Pietro Bracci, and Giovanni Grossi. The fountain, in all its grandeur and exuberance, represented the final act of the Italian Baroque style.

France

The major part of French Baroque sculpture was intended to glorify not the Church, but the French monarchs - Louis XIII, Louis XIV, and Louis XV. Though baroque sculpture already emerged in the 1630s in France with the likes of Jacques Sarazin and Philippe de Buyster, much of it was produced by the sculptors of the new Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, founded in 1648 and later closely supervised by Jean-Baptiste Colbert the King's Minister of Finance. French sculptors worked closely together with painters, architects, and landscape designers such as André Le Notre to create the sculptural effects found in the Palace of Versailles and its gardens, the other royal residences, and the statues for new city squares created in Paris and other French cities. Colbert also established the French Academy in Rome so French sculptors and painters could study classical models.Article by Uwe Geese in L'Art Baroque – Architecture, Sculpture, Peinture, (2015) H.F. Ullmann, pp. 302–315

In the early part of the Baroque period, French sculptors, like Pierre de Francqueville, were largely influenced by artists from Flanders and the Netherlands, particularly the Mannerism of Giambologna. But the sculptors Simon Guillain (1581-1658) and Jacques Sarazin (1592–1660) spent part of their training in Italy when the baroque style was gaining popularity, before returning to France. Bernini himself, at the peak of his fame, came to Paris in 1665 to present his own plan for the Louvre to Louis XIV. The King and his ministers did not like Bernini's work, and the plan was rejected, though Bernini produced a fine bust of Louis XIV, which was greatly admired and is now on display at the Palace of Versailles.Paul Fréart de Chantelou, Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France, 1985, ed. Anthony Blunt

The best French sculptors were engaged to make statues for the fountains gardens of the Palace of Versailles and other royal residences. These included Pierre Puget, who was active in Italy before working for Louis XIV, Jacques Sarazin, François Girardon, who created the large Apollo served by nymphs marble group for Versailles gardens in 1666, Jean-Baptiste Tuby, Antoine Coysevox, who made several bust portraits and equestrian statues of Louis XIV and Nicolas Coustou. In the 18th century, Guillaume Coustou, Nicolas' younger brother, created a particularly celebrated group of horses for the gardens of the Château de Marly, known as the Marly Horses.

Some important French sculptors were mainly active in Italy, especially in Rome, like Nicolas Cordier in the early 1600s, and later in the century Pierre Le Gros the Younger and Pierre-Etienne Monnot, who adopted a more berninian style.

In the later years of the Baroque era, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785) and Jean Baptiste Lemoyne (1704–1778), Director of the French Academy in Rome, were considered the finest rococo sculptors, along Robert Le Lorrain, Michel-Ange Slodtz, Lambert Sigisbert Adam, Étienne Maurice Falconet and Clodion. Edme Bouchardon's work marked an early transition between the rocaille and a more severe classicism while Lemoyne's pupil, Jean-Antoine Houdon led the transition of French sculpture from the Baroque to neoclassicism.

The Southern Netherlands