Baroque

In arts, the Baroque (or baroque) is both a period and the style that dominated it. Baroque style used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur from sculpture, painting, literature, and music. The style started around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe. In music, the Baroque applies to the final period of dominance of imitative counterpoint.

Baroque architecture

Main article: Baroque architecture

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In Baroque architecture, new emphasis was placed on bold massing, colonnades, domes, light-and-shade (chiaroscuro), 'painterly' color effects, and the bold play of volume and void. In interiors, Baroque movement around and through a void informed monumental staircases that had no parallel in previous architecture. The other Baroque innovation in worldly interiors was the state apartment, a processional sequence of increasingly rich interiors that culminated in a presence chamber or throne room or a state bedroom. The sequence of monumental stair followed by state apartment was copied in smaller scale everywhere in aristocratic dwellings of any pretensions.

Related Topics:
Colonnade - Dome - Chiaroscuro

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Baroque architecture was taken up with enthusiasm in central Germany (see e.g. Ludwigsburg Palace and Zwinger Dresden) and Austria. In England the culmination of Baroque architecture was embodied in work by Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, from ca. 1660 to ca. 1725. Many examples of Baroque architecture and town planning are found in other European towns, and in the Spanish Americas. Town planning of this period featured radiating avenues intersecting in squares, which took cues from Baroque garden plans.

Related Topics:
Germany - Ludwigsburg Palace - Zwinger - Austria - England - Christopher Wren - John Vanbrugh - Nicholas Hawksmoor - Baroque garden plans

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For examples see: List of examples of typical Baroque architecture

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Neo-Baroque architecture

• Paris Opera, Charles Garnier
• Semper Oper (Dresden)