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 visual art

Main article: Baroque art

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A defining statement of what Baroque signifies in painting is provided by the series of paintings executed by Peter Paul Rubens for Marie de Medici at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris (now at the Louvre) http://www.students.sbc.edu/vandergriff04/mariedemedici.html, in which a Catholic painter satisfied a Catholic patron: Baroque-era conceptions of monarchy, iconography, handling of paint, and compositions as well as the depiction of space and movement. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravagio to Cortona; both approaching emotive dynamism with different styles. Another frequently cited work of Baroque art is Bernini's "Saint Theresa in Ecstasy" for the Cornaro chapel in S. Maria della Vittoria, which brings together architecture, sculpture, and theater into one grand conceit http://www.boglewood.com/cornaro/xteresa.html.

Related Topics:
Peter Paul Rubens - Marie de Medici - Luxembourg Palace - Louvre - Caravagio - Cortona - Bernini - Saint Theresa in Ecstasy

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The later baroque style gives way gradually to a more decorative Rococo. A comparison with Rococo, will help define Baroque by contrast.

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