BAROQUE: EROTIC OR NOT?

Baroque is a period of expression. In contrary to the previous Renaissance era, which is all about perfection.

I personally find Baroque art and architecture erotic. It contains the elements of expressiveness and exuberance. It is its “pleasure if excess” that correlates with the idea of eroticism, which is a stimulation of feelings and emotions; never fixed, uncontrollable and most of the time overwhelms our logical thought. So Baroque architecture is erotic, evidently in Bernini’s left transept of Santa Maria della Vittoria, where the painting of clouds spills over the corner onto the sculptures expressing the uncontrollable nature of clouds. Moreover, the blending of the two is also erotic in a way that it demonstrate a certain ambiguity because it cannot be defined as solely a painting or purely a sculpture, it is where painting becomes sculpture and the sculpture becomes part of the painting. One other element that is both Baroque and erotic is the layering of things, which occurs mainly on the pediments, its repetitiveness shows an emphasis and an excess of an components which makes the architecture much more dramatic and unconfined. Another ingredient of illicitness is the use of oval plan, as it exceeds the boundaries of perfection defined in the Renaissance period by using a deformed circle that has a directional quality to it. Likewise, the curvature that is nature to Baroque architecture also contributes to bringing out an erotic effect as a breakout from the norm of straight and confined outlines to a morphing and free form that is again expressive and affective. Especially in Sant Andrea al Quirinale where there is a use of layering and curving in the pediment, and a curving cut that breaks the convention of a triangular pediment completely, so it explored curvature, illicitness, repetition, excessive, all in which corresponds with the ideal of eroticism.

Painting in the left transept of Santa Maria della Vittoria - Bernini

Sant Andrea al Quirinale - Bernini