"Baroque"　バロック美術

June 18, 2020 ·

I finally got a ticket with limited number of visitors every 30 minutes and entered the Rembrandt exhibition hall.

The number of people entering each room within the venue is also controlled, and people must enter the next room according to the instructions of the museum staff. As a general rule, U-turns are not possible.

Rembrandt's works are displayed in chronological order, and you can trace the transition of techniques in each era.

The skill of Rembrandt in his twenties is impeccably perfected. The paints are carefully and precisely placed down to the smallest detail. With a sense of transparency and solidity that can be called "craft", his qualities as a first-class portrait painter are in full swing.

However, in his 40s, his technique, which was thought to be perfect, began to crumble, his paint touches became rougher, and the contour lines disappeared from his paintings. There is a clear sense of trial and error in trying to inject the spirit into reality, instead of losing interest in the faithful depiction of objects.

Naturally, the kind of pure artistry that Rembrandt was aiming for would not satisfy his customers.

Why did Rembrandt go to the trouble of destroying his perfect style?

By separating truth from falsehood, good from evil, beauty from ugliness, and eliminating and organizing complex and unstable elements, harmony and balance can be maintained in this world.

For that reason, it is required to draw a line to things, and a contour called a boundary is born. A world where there are no outlines and things are mixed together is chaos.

At the beginning of the 17th century, all kinds of conflicts occurred throughout Europe, including fierce religious wars, and nations and societies were in extreme turmoil.

In that unstable era, the harmonious world image dominated by ethical and religious views collapsed.

The Belle Époque, which was optimistic about the bright future of humankind due to the development of science that covered Europe in the late 19th century, collapsed in the early 20th century with the First World War, giving birth to destructive art starting with Dadaism. As you can see, the 17th century also saw a period of destruction and transformation.

At the root of Baroque is the nihilistic idea that "nothing lasts forever; everything is subject to change."

From there, the fluid emotional expression of "Baroque" erupted.

Emotions have no outline.

Just as there are no boundaries between anger and kindness, the confrontational structure of truth, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, etc. disappears, and emotions just drift in a chaotic sea.

In a world that was in perfect harmony, people didn't have to get lost under the protection of the given ethics.

But once the reliability of that order is shaken and the world is thrown into a void of borderless chaos, we realize that we are beings with imperfect cognitive abilities.

We begin to doubt when we know that nothing is credible.

Doubt comes from consciousness.

Baroque opened the curtain on the modern era with a troublesome monster called "consciousness".

３０分刻みで入場者数が制限されたチケットをやっと手に入れ、レンブラント展覧会場に入った。会場内でも部屋ごとにも入場者数のコントロールがされ、館員の指示に従って人々は、次の部屋に入る。基本的にUターンは出来ない。

年代順にレンブラントの作品が展示されていて、各時代ごとに技法の変遷を辿れる。２０代のレンブラントの技量は非の打ち所無く完成されている。細部にいたるまで注意深く、しかし的確に絵の具が置かれている。「工芸」的とも言える透明感と堅牢性を備え、彼の第一級の肖像画家としての資質が躍如している。

それが、40代位から、完全と思われていた彼の技法は崩れ始め、絵の具のタッチは粗暴になり、絵から輪郭線は消えさっている。そこには、対象物の忠実な描写への関心が薄れ、それに代わって、如何に現実に精神を注ぎ込ませようとする試行錯誤が明瞭に伺える。

レンブラントの目指す純粋な芸術性は当然顧客を満足させない。どうして、レンブラントは完璧なスタイルをわざわざ壊す必要があったのか？

真を偽から、善を悪から、美を醜から分別しし、複雑で不安定な要素を排除、整理することでこの世界に調和と均整（バランス）がたもたれる。そのために物事に線引きをすることが要求され、境界という輪郭が生まれる。輪郭が無く、物事が整理されていない世界はカオスである。

だが17世紀初頭にはヨーロッパ全土で、激烈を極めた宗教戦争などあらゆる紛争が起こり、国家や社会は混乱を極めた。その不安定な時代において、倫理観や宗教観に支配されていた調和した世界像は崩れさった。

丁度１９世紀後半にヨーロッパ中を覆っていた科学の発達に人類の明るい未来を楽観視していたベルエポックが、２０世紀初頭の第一次世界大戦で崩れ去り、ダダイズムに始まる破壊的アートを産んだように、１７世紀にも破壊と変容の時代が訪れた。

「何も永遠に続くものは無く、全てが移ろいゆく。」という虚無的な考えがバロックの根底にある。そこから「バロック」の流動的な感情的表現が噴出した。

感情には輪郭が無い。怒りと優しさには境界が無いように、真偽、善悪、美醜、等という対立構造が消え、感情は渾然一体としたカオスの海を漂うだけだ。