GEC 106- ART APPRECIATION 2022

Lesson 10
RENAISSANCE, BAROQUE, AND ROCOCO PERIODS

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify, compare and contrast distinct characteristics of arts during Renaissance and
Baroque-Rococo Periods
2. Identify the representative artist and arts during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo
Periods
3. Evaluate works of art using the concepts and ideas of the periods mentioned
4. Create artwork guided by Baroque/Rococo styles and principles

Renaissance art, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and literature produced during the 14th,
15th, and 16th centuries in Europe under the combined influences of an increased awareness of
nature, a revival of classical learning, and a more individualistic view of man.

Renaissance art is marked by a gradual shift from the abstract forms of the medieval period to the
representational forms of the 15th century. Subjects grew from mostly biblical scenes to include
portraits, episodes from Classical religion, and events from contemporary life. Human figures are
often rendered in dynamic poses, showing expression, using gesture, and interacting with one
another. They are not flat but suggest mass, and they often occupy a realistic landscape, rather than
stand against a gold background as some figures do in the art of the Middle Ages. Renaissance art
from Northern Europe emphasized precise detail as a means of achieving a realistic work.
(https://www.britannica.com/art/Renaissance-art).

Baroque art and architecture, the visual arts and building design and construction produced during
the era in the history of Western art that roughly coincides with the 17th century. The
earliest manifestations, which occurred in Italy, date from the latter decades of the 16th century,
while in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, certain culminating
achievements of Baroque did not occur until the 18th century. The work that distinguishes the
Baroque period is stylistically complex, even contradictory. In general, however, the desire to evoke
emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramatic ways, underlies its manifestations.
Some of the qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous
richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur
distinctions between the various arts. (https://www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-art-and-
architecture)

The Rococo style originated in Paris about 1700 and was soon adopted throughout France and later
in other countries, principally Germany and Austria. Like the Baroque style, Rococo was used in
the decorative arts, interior design, painting, architecture, and sculpture. It is often characterized as
the final phase of the Baroque, but the style differs from its predecessor in its intimate scale,
asymmetry, lightness, elegance, and exuberant use of curving natural forms in ornamentation.
Rococo painting in France, for example, began with the graceful, gently melancholic paintings
of Antoine Watteau, culminated in the playful and sensuous nudes of François Boucher, and ended
with the freely painted genre scenes of Jean-Honoré Fragonard. French Rococo painting in general
was characterized by easygoing, lighthearted treatments of mythological and courtship themes, the

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introduction of the family as subject, rich and delicate brushwork, a relatively light tonal key, and
sensuous colouring. (https://www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-art-and-architecture).

Michelangelo. Pieta. 1498–1499

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa. 1503

Caravaggio. The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist.

Filippo Brunelleschi. Cathedral of Santa Maria del 1608
Fiore. 1436

Paolo de Matteis. The Triumph of the Immaculate

Palace of Versailles Interior. France.1631 1716

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Giovanni Battista Crosato. Ballroom ceiling of the Ca

Rezzonico in Venice. 1753

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on

canvas, 81 x 64.2 cm (Wallace Collection, London)

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