Baroque and Surrealism

The Baroque art period of art was born in Italy/Western Europe, around the early 1600’s thru 1750. It was mainly influenced by the division of the Christian religion in the West, between the Roman Catholics and Protestants. The Roman Catholics used this art as a part of their campaign to maintain their followers. They felt it was aesthetically appealing and it would inspire the largest possible audience (Baroque, n.d.). Rembrandt’s The Ass of Balaam Talking before the Angel from 1626 is a good example of what the Roman Catholics wanted viewers to see and feel.
Baroque art is known for its display of intense drama, which invokes powerful psychological sensations; emotional feelings. It incorporates the use of concentrated rich colors and the extreme differences between light and dark. The subject was typically very light and bright, almost giving it an angelic quality with the background being very dark, mysterious and shadowed. The themes were generally extravagant and of ecstasy, grandiose visions, death, or overall intense moment (Pioch, 2002).
The Surrealism period of art started around 1920 and continued for many years. It commenced from Dadaist undertakings after World War I. It was very similar to Dadaism in the fact that it was anti rationalist (Baroque, n.d.). It started in Paris France and swiftly moved and was accepted around the world. It included all forms of art such as literature, poetry, film and music and moved outside the lines of art to include influences on politics, philosophy and social theory as well. (Baroque, n.d).
Surrealism visual art centered on creating images based on people’s perception of reality, imagination and dreams. The visual art of this period typically has very curvaceous lines, strange and symbolic figures and dream like surroundings which are attributed to the uninhibited, subconscious mind and the theme is typically violence and annihilation (Voorheis, n.d). Some could argue that this is carried over from the Baroque period since a majority of the themes included death and intense moments which could have been based on violence or dreams/perceptions other than reality. A majority of artists in this period looked towards Freud’s research on the subconscious and his theories of our perception as well as Karl Marx’s political impressions (Voorheis, n.d).
Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, 1931 is a very good example of the techniques and idea’s behind surrealism. It has the strange, flowing symbolic figures that are part of what one would most likely interpret to be a dream state. It is similar to the Rembrandt picture mentioned above as it has the same color scheme, background techniques and lighted foreground.
On the surface, each of these periods of art seem to be at extreme opposite ends of the spectrum. One was being focused on recruiting individuals for theology reasons and the other being based on thoughts about psychological theory. Mary Ann Caw, a noted and respected scholar of surrealism states in her book, The Surrealist Look: An Erotic’s Encounter, that Baroque techniques and feeling apply in the work of surrealism in its concepts and vivacious way of expressing emotion and thinking. She also goes on to state that the views and representations of each reflect on each other in an interconnecting perspective (Caw, 1994).
Baroque techniques are quite prominent in surrealist art. They both tend to have the darker, shadowy background, with the images that are to be the focal point, lighter and brighter. Salvador Dali, possibly the most notorious surrealist artist was able to blur the line between surrealist and baroque art later in his career. For example, his The Sacrament of the Last Supper, 1955 is a seamless combination of both periods. He merges the Catholic religious overtone with the light/bright subject with a dream like landscape and darker background in harmony. It evokes intense emotion for some viewers and has hallucinatory, super-reality quality to it.

References
Baroque, (n.d.), retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque on Jan. 23, 2012
Baroque, (n.d.) retrieved from http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c17th-mid19th/baroque.htm on Jan. 23, 2012.
Caw, M. A. (1997), The Surrealist Look: An Erotic’s Encounter, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Pioch, Nicholas, (Oct. 14, 2002), Baroque retrieved from http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/baroque/ on Jan. 23, 2012.
Surrealism, (n.d.) retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism on Jan. 23, 2012
Voorhies, James (n.d.), Surrealism retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm on Jan. 23, 2012