Baroque exhibition in Zurich focuses on magnificent churches – kath.ch
With the term baroque, many first associate churches with a lot of pomp and above all a lot of gold. With an exhibition, the Swiss National Museum shows the Baroque as an “age of contrasts”.
Christian Laudage
When the Catholic Church had magnificent churches and palaces built in Rome from the end of the 16th century, Ticino architects such as Carlo Maderno and Francesco Borromini were involved. Swiss Jesuits made their way to South America and Asia, where they set up missions and contributed to the worldwide spread of baroque building culture.
Networks in the Baroque
The exhibition in the Swiss National Museum and the accompanying catalog aim to show that “Swiss artists and architects, scientists, collectors and companies were heavily involved in the global networks of the Baroque era,” says curator Joya Indermühle.
Was was baroque at all? A style or an era? The Swiss National Museum has made its decision; it shows the period from around 1600 to 1750 as an “age of contrasts” and draws attention to “the possible connections between Switzerland and Europe and the whole world”.
Magnificence versus not
In the catalogue, the curator Joya Indermühle points out the contrasts of the era. While many baroque churches or works of art were created in the name of ecclesiastical representation, there were religious wars in Europe, which meant hardship and misery for many people.
Fundamental scientific discoveries and technical innovations pushed the boundaries of what was known, the Baroque court culture unfolded its splendor and at the same time climate changes repeatedly triggered epidemics and famines.
Swiss master builders in Rome
Schweizer Baumeister was “in the eye of the baroque hurricane”, according to Axel Christoph Gampp in the exhibition catalogue. They were of the utmost importance for the baroqueization of Europe. He names the three master builders, all related to one another, Domenico Fontana (1543-1607), Carlo Maderno (1556-1629) and Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) because, in his opinion, they have – “more than any other contemporaries – in architectural terms the baroque stamp on the Eternal City». How did they do it? In which they baroqueized churches and built palaces in Rome.
Gampp cites the Tencalla family of artists from Ticino as another example. However, it did not carry the influence of the Baroque to the south, but in other directions. Carpoforo Tencalla (1623-1685) brought about the breakthrough of Baroque painting in the area dominated by the Habsburgs, his relative Costante (around 1590-1646) carried Italian Baroque far into the East. He worked in Vilnius (now Lithuania) and in Warsaw.
Baroque joy of the senses from Mariastein to Disentis
In Switzerland, the large churches became “centres of baroque sensuality,” according to Kaspar von Gruyeres in the catalogue. These include the churches of the monasteries of Muri, Einsiedeln, Disentis and Mariastein, the Jesuit Church in Lucerne, the late Baroque church of the Engelberg monastery and the collegiate church in St. Gallen.
“Baroque Catholicism”
Not only the church buildings were baroque, also the faith. Daniel Sidler speaks of a “Baroque Catholicism” that determined the everyday life and living environment of Catholic believers for about two centuries. This baroque Catholicism was shaped “by monasteries and cults of saints, by pilgrimages and brotherhoods, by universal forms and practices of piety,” says Sidler. According to Sidler, these forms of piety were found primarily in the agrarian alpine and pre-alpine conditions of Central Switzerland, Graubünden and Valais.
According to curator Joya Indermühle, Baroque meant more than just gold in churches and pious pilgrimages. She points out that the success story of the Swiss textile industry also began during this period. For her, the Baroque is “an epoch that laid the foundations for many aspects of our modern world – from the discovery of the bloodstream to stock trading, global exchange and the modern fashion system”. (kna)
The exhibition «Baroque – Age of Contrasts» can be seen in the Landesmuseum in Zurich until January 15, 2023.
© Catholic Media Center, 10/29/2022
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