Francis Morrone September–December 2023
On Wednesdays from September 13 to Ocotber 11 I will be offering Baroque, a series of five one-hour lectures, by Zoom, for the 92nd Street Y. These will be at 3:00 p.m. Because these are Zoom lectures, and because I am not the one responsible for pressing the “record” button, these will be recorded and available to view at your leisure. If you have a job or other commitments that make it impossible for you to view these live on Wednesday afternoons, you can instead view them in the evening or over the weekend or whenever you like. We’ve found that three and a half (!) years after the Zoom era began, more and more people do just that.
I’m very excited to be offering this series, which will cover art and architecture roughly of the period 1600 to 1750. Baroque was a form of classical architecture and art that grew out of the Renaissance. The word “baroque” means an irregularly shaped pearl; if the Renaissance was a perfectly shaped pearl, the Baroque pushed, pulled, and twisted the Renaissance forms in an effort to heighten sensation and to extend the expressive potentialities of art. Keywords of the Baroque include drama and movement. The great art historian Heinrich Wölfflin, writing in 1888, said that Baroque architecture represented “movement imported into mass,” and as such had an intent the exact opposite of that of the Renaissance. That’s one way of looking at it. Baroque painting gave us realism such as had never before existed in art. This realism was in the service of putting the viewer into the scene being depicted, of making you feel that you were a participant in the scene. Often, both art and architecture sought to take you by the collar and pick you up and shake you, to leave you dazed and breathless. But it’s also the case that the techniques—the surprising geometries and new ornamental forms of the architects, or the intense realism of the painters—were put to diverse uses, especially as the techniques crossed national and regional borders. And it wasn’t always so much as rejection of the Renaissance as it was something that built on the Renaissance and took it in new directions. We’ll begin in the birthplace of the Baroque: Italy. We’ll look at the paintings of Caravaggio and of Artemisia Gentileschi, at the great ceiling-painters (Annibale Carracci, Pietro da Cortona, Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Andrea Pozzo), at the sculpture and architecture of Bernini and the architecture of Borromini. Mostly we’ll focus on Rome, but with detours to Turin to look at architecture by Guarino Guarini and Filippo Juvarra and Venice to look at architecture by Baldassare Longhena. From there we’ll move to Spain and the paintings of Velázquez, Ribera, and Zurbarán and some of the most mind-blowing (or mind-numbing) architecture ever built. Next will be central Europe and France (including Versailles), then the Low Countries (Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer) before finishing with Britain and the Americas.
Each lecture will be profusely illustrated. As many of you know, I take enormous care with my images, both in their selection and their formatting. I try to use only images that fill the screen, for maximum impact. I want my lectures to be visual feasts that can be enjoyed quite apart from anything I may have to say. That said, I have plenty to say. What I have to say is hardly the last word. A different lecturer may offer an entirely different interpretation. What I have to offer is half a century (yes, I’m getting old) of spending all my working hours and all my leisure hours (I don’t actually know where the one ends and the other begins) looking at and thinking about this stuff, for the simple reason that it excites and interests me so much. And unlike some addictions, like heroin (so I am told), where the effect diminishes with overuse, I’ve found that as I get older I get more, not less, excited. And this is what I try to convey.
Please note: The description of this series on the 92nd Street Y web site clearly states that the series is about both art and architecture. But for some reason, the title, which was outside my control, is An Architectural History of Baroque. I just want to make sure you know that the series is not exclusively about architecture.
September 13: Italy
September 20: Spain
September 27: Central Europe
October 4: The Low Countries
October 11: Britain and the Americas
For Scarsdale Adult School I will also be doing a Wednesday afternoon series. These will be at 1:00 and will also be by Zoom, meaning they will be recorded so that you can view them at your leisure.
The series is titled Must-See Buildings in the United States. (I originally called it Buildings to See Before You Die but the Scarsdale people thought that macabre.) The series is geared to those of you making travel plans over the next few years. If you’re like me (and some of you are!), then you make travel plans around significant buildings you want to see. Each one-hour lecture will be about a building (or group of buildings) that is worth building a travel itinerary around. I will discuss why the building is worth seeing (indeed, why it must be seen), and guide you through it. I will also sometimes mention other things within a stone’s throw of that building that you should also make a point of seeing, and may offer practical travel advice and even the occasional restaurant recommendation. Consider it a lecture-series equivalent of one of those “1,000 Things to Do/See/Hear Before You Die” books that are so popular, only instead of 1,000 we’ll keep it to a more manageable fifteen.
Unlike the 92nd Street Y series, where you must sign up for the whole series, the Scarsdale lectures can be done on an individual basis.
Here’s the schedule (click to register):
September 20: Library of Congress
September 27: Louis Sullivan in downtown Chicago
October 4: Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska
October 11: San Francisco Civic Center
October 25: Hearst Castle at San Simeon
November 1: Cincinnati Union Terminal
November 8: Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, Illinois
November 15: Duke University in Durham, North Carolina
November 29: Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library
December 6: Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
January 10: Greene & Greene’s Gamble House, Pasadena City Hall, and more in Pasadena, California
January 17: Art Deco in Midtown Manhattan
Other stuff may be coming up between now and the end of the year, and I may send another email to let you know.
The fall exhibitions I am most looking forward to in New York are:
Spirit and Invention: Drawings by Giambattista and Domenico Tiepoloat the Morgan Library, October 27–January 28. Some of you know that Giambattista Tiepolo is one of my favorite painters, and, on some days, my favorite painter. I also love his son Domenico. This exhibition is not of their paintings (fine examples of which by both artists can be seen at the Met) but of their drawings, of which the Morgan owns an unrivaled collection. Exhibitions of drawings are not everyone’s cup of tea, I know. They require a great deal of attention—and squinting. They can be exhausting. But bear two things in mind. One is that drawings are a window onto the creative process, a journey into the artist’s mind. Second, drawings are seldom exhibited. They are fragile and light-sensitive. Museums haul them out of storage only very periodically. Many exhibitions of drawings are, therefore, truly once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I wouldn’t miss this show for the world.
The days of Frick Madison are winding down. Its last day will be March 3, 2024. The Frick will reopen in its renovated Fifth Avenue home in “late 2024” (there is no definite date). From November 9 to February 4 Frick Madison will be offering Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini, in which the Frick will show its own St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini, one of the greatest paintings in New York, together with Giorgione’s Three Philosophers, on loan from the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna. The reason for the pairing is that the two paintings once resided together in the Venice home of the nobleman Taddeo Contarini. This is a rare opportunity to see them together again—and a rare opportunity to see a masterpiece by Giorgione in New York.
I hope to see you this fall.
Francis Morrone