High Baroque
Baroque Grotesque, Style Bérain
In the French Baroque, grotesque decoration was further developed with regard to perspective by Jean Bérain I. and influenced what was known as “Laub- und Bandlwerk” (“leaf and scrollwork”), a style of surface decoration that became established in the German-speaking region from 1710 and, especially in the Austrian territories, replaced the acanthus ornament which had been dominant in the 17th century, as well as, for the most part, the basket-weave ornaments of the French Regency period. Ill. 5
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Ill.5.: Jeremias Wolf
Folio from the Kopien nach Jean Bérain |
Scrollwork and Strapwork, Auricular Style
Ornamental styles of the 16th and 17th centuries such as scrollwork and strapwork or the auricular style cultivated the use of flat relief in decorative motifs. Ill. 6
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Ill.6.: Virgilius Solis
Ornament with two satyrs with entwined arms in strapwork |
The first scrollwork-like designs appeared on the cartouches of the frescoes of the Sala di Constantino (1523/1524, Rome, Vatican) by Raphael and Giulio Romano and were disseminated by way of the title pages of ornamental prints and books. Via Francesco Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino, the scrollwork motif spread to France, to the court of François I. In decorating the gallery of the Castle of Fontainebleau for the French king, beginning in 1534, the “School of Fontainebleau” developed the cartouche form into an ornamental system that tended strongly toward the three-dimensional, with extensive use of stucco. In the stucco decorations of the gallery, the motif was given befitting substantiality and, through ornamental print series by Jacques Ducerceau (1561) and others, was in turn disseminated all over Europe and served as a model for other artists and craftsmen. Ill. 7
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Ill.7.: Jacques Ducerceau
2 Vignettes with grotesque scrollwork |
As early as 1540, scrollwork had verifiably appeared in the Flemish region, where designers and engravers such as Cornelis Floris or Cornelis Bos contributed to its development, as did Hans Vredeman de Vries in his illustrations of the decorations of royal parades and in his “Architectura”. The influential, often copied series of fourteen masks engraved by Frans Huys, based on designs by Cornelis Floris, also belongs to this style of ornament. Here, anthropomorphic faces are created out of leaves, volutes and sea creatures, comparable to the heads in the paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Ill. 8
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Ill.8.: Cornelis Bos
Folios from the Folge grotesker Füllungen mit Wagen |
Shadow formation, three-dimensional volutes and chevrons, enriched with fruit garlands and figures “confined” by the ornament characterize the Mannerist scrollwork ornaments of the Netherlands.
Bernd Evers, Rainald Franz
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