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principle of articulation. Absolute unity became the rule, and subordinate
parts were sacrificed." As Veliz himself recognizes, W61ffiin read Baroque
architecture in a purely abstracted manner. He saw its meaning in terms
of its relation to the human body. He was trying to read it as a kind of
articulated representation of our own sense of our standing in the
physical world. W6lffiin overlooked the thing which is most important
to Veliz, which is the connection of the Baroque to the Counter–
Reformation. Because of W6lffiin's image, many other disciplines were
affected by the idea of the Baroque as a particular artistic style, which
could be detached from the Counter-Reformation and understood in
terms of a deeper and more universal
Zeitgeist.
In
musicology, theater,
there arose the fatal description of Bach as a Baroque composer, and
along with it the calamity of "authentic performance," and the locking
away of the music of that period in museums. I blame W6lfflin and the
German art historians for their desire to categorize all artistic endeavor
by periods, and to find themes or unifying ideas and structures which
would cover music, architecture, literature, history, law, and everything
else. I think that this has been a calamity in art history, in musicology,
and in criticism.
Fortunately, because Veliz proceeds with a light touch, I think he
has extricated himself from his use of this category. He recognizes that
what is really important about the Baroque is the connection with the
Counter-Reformation and the attempt to reimpose some central disci–
pline on the Church and therefore on Church architecture, as an expres–
sion of Counter-Reformation attitudes.
I would say, though, that one cannot understand the Baroque only
in terms of this principle of unity and the idea of large forms compre–
hended within a single plan. What is important is the diversity which is
comprehended with the plan. The Baroque style is famous for its prolif–
eration of detail, mouldings and sculptures. Everything, in a self-tor–
mented world above the ground plan of the church, was held together
by an over-mastering order.
In
the work of artists such as Bernini and
Borromini this represented a great architectural achievement, but it was
not reproduced in the Spanish Baroque with the same success. Stylistic
diversity is a very important part of the Baroque, just as the diversity of
religious and spiritual experience played a very important part in the
unifying spirituality of the Counter-Reformation. So I think one has to
qualify W6lfIlin's Baroque, not only in the case of architecture, but also
in the case of the surrounding cultural history.
Just as the hedgehog turns out to be Baroque, so the fox turns out,
in the end, to be Gothic, and Veliz quotes from Ruskin: "It is that
