Differences between Renaissance and Baroque: how to distinguish them

The Renaissance and the Baroque were two artistic movements that developed after the end of the Middle Ages, one of the darkest periods of Western civilization.

In this article we will address the historical context that was the cause of these two artistic movements, in addition to explain how the Baroque and the Renaissance differ and how Baroque artists sought to differentiate themselves from the Renaissance men who had preceded them.

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Historical context of these two artistic movements

The end of the Middle Ages was the result of a great cultural, political and social change in Europe. Painters, sculptors, composers and other artists, through their art, were shaping and reflecting society in which they lived, witnessing great scientific advances and seeing how humanity evolved and expanded its knowledge.

In 1418, Gutemberg invented the printing press, with which it was possible to mass-produce books, allowing the expansion of knowledge more easily in addition to favoring more and more people literate. In that same century, in 1492, Christopher Columbus made the trip that would later confirm

the discovery of a new continent for Europeans: America.

In addition, in 1543 Nicolás Copernicus publishes his work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, where he exposes his heliocentric theory, that is, that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

These, along with other knowledge, motivated the society of the time, and encouraged creativity and the desire for discoveries, considering as unlimited the capacity of the human being. However, not everything was positive for Europe. In 1453 Constantinople, one of the most important cities of the continent, falls into the hands of the Turks, supposing a hard blow for all the Christendom.

All these events were the triggers for changes in medieval thought. A new vision was acquired about the human being, taking a perspective that everything could and downplaying something religious. This led to the emergence of the great artistic movement that was the Renaissance, which took place between the 15th and 16th centuries.

The end of the Renaissance

This movement did not last forever. Already from 1527 the Renaissance movement began to suffer ups and downs, since the vision that had been acquired about the human being, idealized and perfect, began to crack.

The new European regimes, in fear of Islam and the almost perpetual struggle against this religion, initiated measures to expel Muslims, especially in Spain.

This population had been a true economic engine, working the land, contributing to the sanitation of crops and being an exchange of knowledge between Christendom and the countries Islamic. This led to a lower agricultural production around the year 1609, which implied famines, diseases such as the plague and high mortality.

Society became pessimistic and this influenced art itself. The idea that man could do everything vanished, recovering in a certain way a medieval vision of the world but without doing without the technological advances of the previous century.

The Catholic world suffered a schism. Luther, faced with the abuses exercised by the pontifical authorities, proposed a reform of Catholic Christianity, which evolved in the creation of Protestantism. In turn, faced with this audacity, the Catholic leadership initiated the Counter-Reformation, with the intention of persecuting those who disagreed and fought against the papal power.

Art became a propaganda weapon against heresy, being used by the papacy to prevent the population from turning to the side of pagans and atheists.

The Baroque was an artistic movement that turned back to medieval thought, focusing on religiosity and beliefs, taking God again as the center of everything. It spanned the entire seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

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Differences between the Renaissance and the Baroque

Once the historical background of these two movements has been explained, let's see in depth what the differences were between the Baroque and the Renaissance in terms of painting, architecture, music and poetry, in addition to seeing in his vision of the world.

1. Philosophical approach

During the Renaissance humanism develops, a movement that takes the human being himself as the focus of attention, that is, acquires an anthropocentric vision.

Classical culture is revalued, considering it as the pinnacle of perfection of Western civilization. What's more, a critical movement arises that defends the use of reason to get closer to the truth; that is why the Renaissance was a time of great scientific advancement, although religion was not completely abandoned.

Ideas that were already present during the Middle Ages are reassessed, such as beauty and love, but acquiring a perspective closer to the Greco-Latin, addressing symmetry and homogeneity as earthly forms to approach perfection, an abstract and metaphysics.

The Baroque chooses to focus on everyday contexts, in the elements of the day to day. Understand that the human being is not perfect and wants to find beauty in it.

The artists and thinkers belonging to this era try to overcome the previous period through originality. Many Baroque artists considered that in a certain way the Renaissance movement had quickly become out of date, limiting himself to imitating himself and being a replica of classical art.

2. Architecture

Renaissance buildings are divided into sections. These parts are based on Greco-Latin art, in which everything followed an order and was shown with homogeneous clarity.

Renaissance architecture does not pretend that the observer fixes on a specific part of the structure, since most of the building is identical, with no details that highlight one section above the others. Thus, the Renaissance wanted to make their buildings as symmetrical as possible, predominantly the horizontal versus vertical elements, drawing inspiration from ancient Greek temple architecture and Rome.

Among the distinctive elements of Renaissance architecture are the semicircular arch, the barrel vault and the hemispherical dome.

Some examples of buildings built during the Renaissance are the famous cathedral of Santa María de las Flowers of Florence, the Church of Santa Maria Novella, the Palace of Carlos V in Granada and the Cathedral of Jaen.

Instead, the architecture of the Baroque is less clear. Everything is treated as if it were a continuum, but it is not divided into clear and equal parts, but details are incorporated that could seem that it is a somewhat chaotic structure.

Baroque facades usually have elements that are concentrated in a very rich and striking way, such as columns, arches, statues, low and high relief and curved walls.

Some examples of Baroque buildings are the Royal Palace of Madrid, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the Palace of Versailles and the Basilica of Saint Peter.

3. Painting

During the Renaissance, innumerable schools of painting arose, which, despite their differences, influenced each other.

Renaissance painting improves perspective compared to medieval art. The human anatomy is represented in great detail, thanks to the improvement of pictorial techniques and the use of a new style of painting: oil. It is intended to represent in the most realistic, but idealized and symmetrical way, to man and his surroundings.

The Quattrocento was the moment of success for great painters such as Masaccio, who is considered the first to apply in painting the laws of scientific perspective and a new concept of expressiveness. His work was revolutionary, especially for its use of light. During the Cinquecento the greats of the Renaissance emerged: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

He is known to all the famous Vitruvian man by da Vinci, a very faithful representation of human anatomy, in addition to the well-known work of him the Mona Lisa. Raphael's work is considered the stereotypical painting of the Renaissance, for its perfection, use of perspective and color. On the other hand, the figures in Renaissance painting are characterized by their dynamism, a lot of color and bombast.

In Spain we have El Greco, whose work represents the combination of the Byzantine knowledge acquired in his youth together with Renaissance tendencies. His figures are very expressive, elongated and somewhat shady. Despite the fact that he is considered Renaissance, his work is one foot from the Baroque.

Instead, the baroque painter captures reality as he sees and feels it, with its limits, violent postures, diagonal compositions. He focuses on the individual human being. Art becomes less distant from the public.

The church uses painting to send a less distant and bombastic message, which had been the norm during the Renaissance.

Caravaggio is one of the representatives of the Baroque. His work is more human, without resorting too much to solemnity. The drama is heavily accented, showing psychological realism.

Diego Velázquez, Philip IV's painter, painted great works such as the Surrender of Breda, the portrait of Pope Innocent VII. His last two masterpieces are the Meninas and the Hiladeras, with a large number of characters placed at different distances from the front.

These painters show environments with chiaroscuro, realistic people, with their strengths and weaknesses. The Baroque had no qualms about showing the paleness or signs of illness of some of their patrons.

4. Music and poetry

Renaissance music is characterized by its polyphonic texture, following the laws of counterpoint, and with a certain legacy from the Gregorian chant.

In the ecclesiastical sphere there are the mass and the motet, while in more profane areas there are the carols, the madrigal and the chanson. Among the best known composers of this period are Orlando di Lasso, Josquin des Prés, Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria.

The poetry of the Renaissance follows the style of the lyric of the songbook, speaking of aspects such as love, beauty in the divine and to some extent mythological aspects recovered from classical civilizations. Great Renaissance poets were Fray Luis de León, Garcilaso de la Vega and Petrarca.

Baroque music gave mankind one of the great musical genres: opera. It is the period in which it is traditionally related to what we understand today as classical music, in addition to the later periods.

During the Baroque, the tonality and the use of the basso continuo appeared, in addition to the sonata and the concerto.

Great musicians of this period were Georg Friedrich Händel, Antonio Vivaldi, and the composer whose death ended the Baroque, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Baroque poetry aEmbroider themes such as disappointment, disgust for continuing to live, despair, love issues or nonconformity, with touches of acceptance that human beings can hardly be successful and can only wait for death as the inevitable end. It is a very overloaded poetry, which aims to excite sensitivity and intelligence. Baroque writers seek originality and surprise.

Some relevant Baroque poteras were Luís de Góngora, Lope de Vega and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Bibliographic references:

• Beltrando-Patier, M.C. (nineteen ninety six). Music history. Madrid: Espasa.
• by Antonio, T. (1989). The Spanish seventeenth century. Madrid: History 16.
• Onians, J. (2008). Atlas of art. Barcelona: Blume.