Western European Baroque Era: Verisimilitude in Art Definition of Verisimilitude (Essay Sample)

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Western European Baroque Era: Verisimilitude in Art
Definition of Verisimilitude
Verisimilitude or Realism is the manifestation of being false or true. It was embodied morality, generality, and reality. In Verisimilitude, the dramatist had to eliminate everything that could not occur in real life, except they were acknowledged part of the biblical material or a Greek myth. Additionally, chorus and soliloquies were discouraged and ruled as unnatural. On the other hand, violence was eliminated offstage due to the complicity of making it real. In this ancient time, the playwright had to teach moral teachings, disclose life’s ideal blueprints. Every time injustice seemed to triumph, and it was made clear to the audience that it was part of God’s just arrangement, which was beyond human understanding. The truth was either exposed through systematic examination or rational experience, whichever way, truth norms were to extend to all aspect of theatrical work of art.
Verisimilitude in Baroque
During this era, there were different types of dramatic purity. In this case, only two forms were allowed which were comedy and tragedy. All the other forms were considered inferior due to their mixed types. In comedy norms, stories only talked about private affairs and the domestic life which in all times had happy endings. Characters who take part in these comedies were most drawn from lower and middle classes, with who style was, distinguish by the use of reasonable language. Conversely, tragedy norms stories always concluded with unhappy ending and their style was poetic and loft. In these norms, characters were drawn from nobility or rulers.
Most of the tragedy norms stories talked about the downfall of kings or rulers and state affairs. However, all these norms were to be severely followed. At this time, deviate plays were present but denounced as inadequate efforts that were not worth of critical thought. These products were considered of poor quality, drawn by tasteless shallow educated writers and were marked as illegitimate or irregular drama. Under the Act form, every rightful play ought to be written in five acts.
Decorum was phrased as the standard of character description. In decorum, every sex, rank, age group and profession had its significance. All playwrights were supposed to stay true to these standards in character creation. In this scenario, playwrights ought to put in writing the everlasting features of civilization, and the administering patterns that do not change in all places and time periods.
Baroque is an artistic style that mainly originated from Europe. It was present from the late 16th Century up to the early 18th Century (Charles and Carl 5). It is believed to be the primary style of art around Europe amid the Rococo and Mannerist period. The Baroque art style stands out as it is illustrated by dynamic movement, self-confident rhetoric and overt emotion. It was characterized by ornate language and description of persons and types with emotional extreme. The Roman Catholic Church was fascinated by the Baroque style of art and in the years 1545 to 1563, the church demanded the representatives of the arts to create sculptures and paintings that even the uninformed might understand (Charles and Carl 74).
The Baroque style of art carried on to spread from Italy to Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. On the other hand, Latin America was highly influenced by the Baroque style. Most of the public buildings, Catholic churches, private and official residences constructed during this time were without a doubt of Baroque origin (Charles and Carl 98). The Baroque style developed from archetypal forms of the Renaissance. However, it varies from the new trends and details.
Verisimilitude in ancient times relied on three fundamental unities that consisted of action, place and time. It devoted only 24 hours or lesser of subjective time ought to go by through a play. Due to the audience awareness of the play being in the same place, all actions should occur at a single location. However, this was slowly loosened to permit the change of venues as long as it would be achieved in 24 hours. Subplots were not allowed, only one action was permissible.
Caravaggio majored in realism and was one of the founders of Baroque painting. Although he received training of a Mannerist painter, he came to be known in Europe as the most significant painter of the 17th Century (Warwick 11). Ultimately, his impact on the society grew with arts of Caravaggio becoming a household name in the European paintings. In his art and style, Caravaggio concentrated in Baroque. Just like other known artists, Caravaggio was profoundly influenced by the Venetians. He paid much attention to the Mannerist style with a clear realism. He outstandingly was an accurate and a clever imitator of nature.
Even though Caravaggio revolutionized realism with his paintings, were still a style promoted by the traditional realism that already existed in Salvedo and Moroni (Warwick 25). In the year 1596, things took a different but positive turn around when Caravaggio paintings were purchased by Cardinal de Monte. From then he was asked to paint some religious paintings for churches. It was during this time that Caravaggio worked and lived in Rome; he received numerous demands or religious paintings from the Society of Jesus that requested for the visualization of the pain of Jesus. This led to the painting of Contarelli chapel altarpiece, the St Mathew and an Angel including two wall boards. Each of the paintings by Caravaggio in this era caused a sensation. One of his renowned works was the basket of fruits which was painted in the year 1596.
Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini focused architecture, paintings and sculpture (Mormando and Bernini 45). He mainly concentrated on sculpture, and over his lifetime he single-handedly transformed the city of Rome with his art. He had close ties with popes and royal families; hence he would sculpture arts like the David, Martyrdom of San Lorenzo and Apollo and Daphne. In addition, he also made unique sculptures for the Catholic Church that caught the attention of many individuals. In today life, he antiques and influence of his art can be still seen in the Catholic Churches, public buildings, parks and even in residential. He entire revolutionized the way people viewed the environment through his art.
Comparison between Verisimilitude in Movies and Baroque
In all the current television dramas, there are different stages of verisimilitude depending on the plot or genre contained by the program. In ancient times, Baroque form of art used to exaggerate motion and clear so as to generate tension, drama, exuberance, and grandeur in painting, sculpture, dance, music and literature. In addition, various instruments and voices echoed each other at different pitches to produce or invert the echo and even repeal thematic material. Consequently, this kind of inventions pervaded way for similar but more advanced Baroque style of art. In the current world, this is experienced through movies, music, drama, paintings and sculptures all over the globe.
Movie producers have acquired ancient realism. In modern realism, film characters tend to exaggerate certain aspects in the movie. Even so, different actors take varied roles of characters in the movies that wildly differ from them. For instance, in the first films ever made by the Lumiere brothers, their documentaries were all about screening the actual world. However, this did not mean that they indeed showed the real world. Actors have the tendency of adapting to whatever character that they are presented with. They tend to borrow that presented character personality and make it their own.
The same applied to actors in the Baroque era. They would mimic people, animals or certain sounds. In most cases, they would perform these mimics in front of audiences. In actual, the technology used today in commercial plays and Broadway was developed and invented during the Baroque age. During this time, artists were still growing, and as time went by, stages could be turned into palaces or romantic gardens in a minute. Furthermore, gods were able to descend actually from space and save the hero in the most unsafe state. This is also evident in today’s films. Even though it is humanly impossible for gods to descend in such a manner, this action Baroque form of art intriguing and exciting.
The present world demands more and more from the film producers and actors. Consequently, this has resulted in the Mainstream film to create high verisimilitude movies. Films ought to look realer, which indeed unreal because of the many modifications and exaggerations in the film. Vehicles have to appear true and even car crashes ought to resemble real car crashes. This is due to the stimulated reality that the mainstream presents to its audiences. Films that do not bring out realism are at the risk of receiving fewer viewers or lack demand. This might cost the movie industry millions of shillings spent in developing the film. Unlike in the Baroque era, individuals would just go back to the drawing and instantly come up with a new script.
Recreation of Reality
In Baroque art, the recreation of reality was enabled by three major tropes, time, light and space. Space is not the just the measurable length of a room. On the contrary, it is also considered the shattered barrier that distinct imagination from reality (Martin 55). Through the appropriate depiction of space, the artist can conceive the subject that is represented as existing in a space in a simultaneous manner as the perception of the observer. As a consequence of space, the visual representation with reference to canvas is brought to life (Martin 55). Subsequently, it ushers the reader into a fictional world. The Night Watch is ...