Denis De Lucca: The Baroque Mind
International Institute for Baroque Studies, University of Malta. 2018.

Consisting of 10 chapters and four appendices, The Baroque Mind presents the reader with a universe of the mental attitudes of diverse Baroque personae towards a wide variety of themes, to better understand the ‘spirit’ of the Baroque age.

Based on selected extracts, chosen from the written evidence of a wide cross-section of men and women living in the Baroque age, the 1,030-page book written by Denis De Lucca, who is the director of the International Institute for Baroque Studies at the University of Malta, reproduces and discusses numerous writings that reflect the Baroque mentality.

The joys and the fears, the triumphs and the tribulations, the strengths and the weaknesses, the good deeds and the misdemeanours of people living in the Baroque age are all explored.

The themes of the book concern religious reform and spirituality, political, military and civic affairs, philosophy, aesthe­tics, science, medicine, the love of theatrical spectacle, literary achievement and repeated evocations of past grandeur.

The world of the late 16th, 17th and 18th centuries is presented as a colourful but double-faced cultural episode in the history of humanity that is described as having been reformist and spiri­tual, violent and intolerant, urban and urbane, theatrical, passionate, sensual and overpowered by fierce emotions – emotions that would have been unleashed during the frequent celebrations of important events and important discoveries.

Evoking the mentality of the age, these emotions would have expressed triumph or despair, joy or sorrow, all resulting from an innate need to respond to various occasions. No single date can as yet be chosen to identify with chronological accuracy the start of the Baroque age, since its appearance seems to have been gradual and uneven, swifter and more complete in one place than in others. However, it seems to have happened at a time when the ruling classes of both the emerging national States of Europe and a triumphant Catholic Church would have become convinced that the time had arrived to focus their attention on the communicative value  of grand spectacles that would positively affect the minds of many a contemporary poet and writer.

The Baroque mind was obsessed with a love of spectacle, used by ruthless rulers to impress crowds

Spectacular multimedia performances, the likes of which had never been seen before, now started being used as a powerful weapon to underline political and religious dominance – to impress, to dazzle, to sometimes instil awe and fear, to sometimes amuse and entertain a largely servile and hungry populace. This fulfilled in an unprecedented manner the calendar and lifestyle of ruling kings, queens, popes, cardinals and princes of the time. They, therefore, announce the arrival – during the second half of the 16th century – of a new age of absolute power structures, gunpowder wars, a new science of experimental enquiry and artistic patronage.

The accumulation of evidence furnished by the various eyewitnesses and others mentioned suggests that there were a set of unwritten priorities which would have conditioned the human mind of Europeans in the Baroque age. The religious concerns that were associated with the tridentine renewal of the Catholic Church (considered necessary by many in view of Luther’s revolt and the irreverent spending and dissolute lives of the Borgias and their successors in the first half of the 16th century) and its sequel (as manifest in the unprecedented splendour and elaborate ceremonies in Catholic Church rituals and the emphasis on the concept of dying well to acquire eternal bliss in heaven) would have constituted the first of these conditioning priorities.

Aesthetics and fine things – The awe-inspring interior of the grand salon of the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge in Turin.

Being an age of intrinsically violent behaviour patterns, the Baroque mind would have also prioritised the need of living not only in the grace of God, but also securely in towns that were well equipped with rings of fortifications, with firearms and ammunition, and with supportive urban armatures. Well organised standing armies and formal instruction in military matters would have also been on the mind of powerful rulers, who would have been determined to cling on to what they believed were God-given absolute rights over their subjects. All this would have given rise to a stifling air of suspicion and intolerance of Church and State to any winds of change, which could have inspired in the populace thoughts of rebellion against the established order.

Many were those ardent minds, however, who defied the spy networks of their peers to create marvellous novelties such as new approaches to mathematics and astronomy, medical practice, and women’s rights.

Reacting to the general air of suspicion, oppression and atrocious punishments that pervaded the Baroque age, other ardent minds found solace in an unprecedented appreciation of all that was beautiful and fine in cities and their buildings so that there was never an age so infatuated with the patronised achievements of its architects, sculptors, painters and art collectors.

It has also been shown in The Baroque Mind that in all things, the Baroque mind was obsessed with a love of all for all kinds of spectacle, used by ruthless rulers to impress crowds and discourage rebellion, which provided distracting enjoyment and recreation. For this purpose, everything seems to have been orchestrated to provide a show – theatrical performances, public punishments, medical dissections, military drills and parades, spectacular banquets, garden festivities with breathtaking pyrotechnics and, for good measure, an impressive range of indoor and outdoor religious rituals concerned with life and death. All these themes now became multimedia experiences affecting all the human senses by their musical sounds, incense, damasks and interior artistry.

It has also been shown that an appreciation of literary en­deavour also occupied a special place in the Baroque mind, providing an opportunity for diverse literary expressions to subtly criticise happenings of the times; to highlight the concerns of everyone for the very human problems of life, time and death; to promote a love of God; to encourage laughter and love as an escape from the harsh realities of contemporary life; to resurrect idealised mythological themes of the ancient world and to immortalise the achievement of leading personalities and great military victories.

These, then, were the principal priorities conditioning the Baroque mind, affecting thousands of Europeans living in the Baroque age.

Superbly illustrated and intended to serve as an important reference work for all who are engaged in studies of the Baroque age, the last chapter of the book, entitled ‘A Perennial Baroque?’, provides food for thought. In this context, the emergence of a so-called neo-baroque phenomenon that has already been widely debated by a broad range of 12th-century philosophers, cultural critics, and writers from both Europe and the Americas, becomes an important field for further academic investigation, even in an age when robots without a soul may eventually be permitted to become our servants or our masters, signalling the end of human history.

The Baroque Mind can be obtained from the administrative office of the International Institute for Baroque Studies at the University of Malta and from major bookshops.