BAROQUE ART

In the arts, Baroque was a Western cultural period starting roughly at the beginning of the 17 th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified in drama and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance and music. Baroque art is characterised by great drama, rich deep colour, and intense light and dark shadows. As opposed to Renaissance art, which showed the moment before an event took place, Baroque artists chose the most dramatic point, the moment when the action was occurring.

David by Michelangelo

David by Bernini

The style incorporated architectonic and sculptural elements with the use of fontanels (triangular closings), heavy volutes and garlands, although it also used bulbous figures, elaborated moulded, gilded and floral marquetry. The most luxurious materials were chosen including the velvet, the brocade and Damascus upholsteries and the semi-precious stones and upholsteries.

Catani San Benedetto

Interior of St. Peter s Basilica

The Queen s bedchamber Palace of Versilles

Palace of Versailles

Stiff Melk, one of the most famous monastic sites.

Stiff Melk (1702-1736) Jakob Prandtauer Melk,Austria

The Library

The aristocracy also saw the dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing visitors and expressing triumphant power and control. Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence.

Elector s Palace in Trier, Germany

Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brhl, Germany

Ludwigsburg Palace, Germany s Largest Baroque Palace

San Augustin Church

IMPORTANT FEATURES OF BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

Long, narrow naves are replaced by broader, occasionally circular forms.

Dramatic use of light either strong light-and-shade contrasts, chiaroscuro effects or uniform lighting by means of several windows.

Opulent use of ornaments (puttos made of wood(often gilded), plaster or stucco, marble or faux finishing)

Large- scale ceiling frescoes

Fresco dome painted on low vaulting, Jesuit Church, Vienna, Austria

Illusionary effects like trompe loeil and the blending of painting and architecture

BAROQUE SCULPTURE

The architecture, sculpture and fountains of Bernini (1598-1680) give highly charged characteristics of Baroque style. Barnini was undoubtedly the most important sculptor of the period.

Habakkuk and the angel

Breezy manjacs

Ecstasy of St. Teresa

Fountain of four rivers

BAROQUE PAINTING
Baroque painting is the painting associated with Baroque cultural movement, a movement often identified with Absolutism and the counter Reformation.

Domine, Quo Vadis Annibale Caracci

Assumption of the Virgin Mary Annibale Caracci

Antoine and Cleopatra Agostino Caracci

The last Communion of St Jerome Agostino Caracci

Judith Beheading Holofernes Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

Beheading of St. John the Baptist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio