Laurie Benson: Emerging From Darkness: Faith, Emotion and The Body in the Baroque features more than forty Baroque artworks from the NGV Collection, which is recognised as of world standard. Lending a collection of works of this magnitude is unprece dented, and while some works have joined important exhibitions in Australia and internationally, others, particularly recent acquisitions, have never before been seen outside of NGV. This includes the Martyrdom of St Lawrence, 1620–24, by Jusepe de Ribera, The mocking of Christ, 1628–35, by Orazio Gentileschi, and the Mystic marriage of St Catherine, 1574–77, by Lavinia Fontana, recently acquired by the Felton Bequest. Rare sculptures by Gianlorenzo Bernini and precious drawings by Annibale Carracci, Federico Barocci and Guido Reni are also among works included in the exhibition.

At the NGV, the collection of Baroque works from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries provides insight into the artistic develop ment that took place in Italy at this time. Emerging from Darkness situates these works within the broader sociopolitical world of Counter-Reformation Europe to the Protestant Reformation that defined Italy and impacted the art produced at this vital moment. Within that framework, a number of themes are examined in this exhibition, such as the practice of women artists and their reflections on society as expressed in their art.

At the heart of the exhibition is the exploration of the dramatic change in how the human body was imaged at the time. A distinct and rapid shift took place as artists rejected the exaggerated, over idealised but elegant treatment of the figure by Mannerist artists of the previous century, implementing instead a degree of naturalism based on direct observation that characterises Baroque art. The stimulus for this trend mainly occurred in Bologna, a key artistic centre that also fostered expansive intellectual pursuits at the oldest university in Europe.

The ideas that emerged from Bologna quickly spread to Rome, then throughout the Italian Peninsula and beyond. Baroque became the first truly international style as many artists travelled widely and international collectors gathered art in all media, which quickly disseminated the artists’ ideas and methods. Rembrandt, a quintessential Baroque artist, cultivated this approach without ever leaving Holland. He was an avid collector of prints and owned works by two of the artists who provided the most practical and impactful impetus in the shift from Mannerism to Baroque, the Bolognese brothers Agostino and Annibale Carracci. Their practice was grounded on studying and drawing from life, their art being informed by nature and reality. Along with their older cousin Ludovico Carracci, they embraced the theoretical demands placed on artists by the Catholic Church to make reli giousart more accessible for the laity by depicting biblical figures in a more naturalistic manner. The Carracci not only did this through their work, but around 1582 they established a new and rigorous teaching academy in Bologna that instilled these values on a vast array of artists. The work of the Carracci and some of their most significant students grace the walls of this exhibition.

To demonstrate the rapid impact of this shift, Orazio Gentileschi began his career as a typical Mannerist painter, then changed his style completely when he met the most influential proponent of the more dramatic adaptation of Baroque naturalism, Caravaggio. Thus, the new approach did not take a generation to happen, but occurred within single careers.

The NGV was pleased to work with the curators of this exhibition, Professor David Marshall and Dr Lisa Beaven, two local scholars who are internationally recognised experts in this field. Working with NGV curators, they have crafted a wonderful exhibition that views the NGV Collection in a unique and enlightening historical context. NGV works comprise more than two-thirds of the exhibition, which feature alongside objects from private and other public collections in Australia to help illustrate the narratives within Emerging from Darkness. The NGV is delighted to partner with the Hamilton Gallery on this ambitious and exciting project and sincerely thanks AWM Electrical for its generous support in enabling this exhibition

Dr David Marshall and Dr Lisa Beaven: Emerging From Darkness: Faith, Emotion and The Body in the Baroque features world-renowned masters alongside contemporary artists working in the Baroque style making it one of the most important exhibitions ever to be held in regional Australia.

Baroque is one of the most passionate art movements: powerful, emotive and unapologetic. Including a unique collection of forty-one loans from the NGV, the National Gallery of Australia and private lenders from across the country, the exhibition heroes the dramatic stories of three female art ists, Artemisia Gentileschi, Lavinia Fontana, and Sofonisba Anguissola, who cathartically reinterpret experi ences of violence and turmoil.

Artemisia Gentileschi’s Death of Lucretia, 1627, one of her most important paintings, is a particularly poign ant piece because the subject had great personal significance for the artist. It represents a scene from Roman history in which Lucretia is shown about to commit suicide after having been violated by Tarquin, the son of the king. Gentileschi’s own personal expe rience of being assaulted by Agostino Tassi, a fellow artist and teacher of hers, informed this work. Parallels can be drawn between Gentileschi and the other female artists who used art to tell their stories, and the modern-day #MeToo movement that advocates for females who sur vived sexual violence to speak out about their experiences.

Emerging from Darkness also tells the story of the major artistic transfor mation that took place at the end of the sixteenth century in Italy. This shift ushered in the new dramatic and naturalistic style of painting of the seventeenth century, which was epitomised by the paintings of Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci, traditionally known as the Baroque. This artistic transformation took place against the backdrop of religious upheaval and reform and new scientific discoveries. While Protestant reform ers rejected the power of images, Catholic cultures embraced them, seeking more emotionally intense relationships with works of art and developing devotional practices around them. This transformation made images more accessible and prominent in the daily lives of society.

It is the human body that was the vehicle for the radical changes to art practice at the time. Rejecting Mannerism, which centred on the copying of compositions and figures of other artists, the Carracci school of painters in Bologna made drawing from life their core activity. The exhibition also includes a range of paintings, drawings and prints by Annibale Carraci, Agostino Carracci, Guercino and Guido Reni along with the artists who inspired them, such as Federico Barocci and Antonio Allegri da Correggio. Then there’s Caravaggio, who took a different approach, which was nonetheless also based on life around him. He introduced figures from the street directly into his religious paintings – painting straight from the posed model – and combined them with contrasts of light and dark (chiaroscuro) to create a sense of relief. Painted fig ures were presented close up to the picture plane, which gave the illusionis tic effect of objects appearing to project directly into the viewers’ space.

Caravaggio’s style was immediately adopted and developed by con temporary artists, known as the Caravaggisti. Young painters in Rome such as Bartolomeo Manfredi, Valentin de Boulogne, and Jusepe Ribera adopted his practice wholesale, as did numerous Dutch artists who took this new style back to the Low Countries. Established artists including Guercino from Bologna, and briefly, Guido Reni, discarded what they had learnt and modelled their practice on his. An artist from Florence, Orazio Gen tileschi, became Caravaggio’s friend and transformed his style, while Cara vaggio’s direct painting technique formed the basis for his daughter Arte mesia’s practice.

Emerging From Darkness invites audiences to unearth insights into the moment in art history when painting moved from the religious to the emotional, from representations of Catholicism to the dramatic lived experiences of these powerful female artists. The exhibition also showcases major works by Peter Paul Rubens, Valentin de Boulogne, Guercino, and Bartolomeo Manfredi, among others. It is complemented by unique activities including a Baroque concert, a seminar on ‘Women in the Baroque’, an oil painting workshop in Hamilton’s Botanic Gardens, as well as a series of talks, tourism packages involving regional accommodation and food and wine experiences, and an illustrated exhibition publication.

Laurie Benson is NGV Curator, International Art.
Dr David Marshall is the editor of Melbourne Art Journal, an art history journal based in Melbourne.
Dr Lisa Beaven is Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at La Trobe University

This article was first published in the Jan–Feb 2024 issue of NGV Magazine.