Baroque Art Research Paper

Dominant style in art and architecture Western approximately from the year 1600 to the 1750. Its characteristics have held up throughout the first half of the 18th century, although this period is called sometimes Rococo. Baroque manifestations appear in the art of practically all European countries, as well as the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of America. The Baroque term applies also to the literature and music of that period. Definition The origins of the Baroque Word are not clear. It could derive from the Portuguese barocco or Spanish barrueco, term that refers to a type of pearls of irregular shape. The word is an epithet coined later and with negative connotations, that does not define the style to which it refers. Anyway, at the end …show more content…
It may seem confusing, for example, classified as baroque to two such different artists such as Rembrandt and Gian Lorenzo Bernini; Nevertheless, and despite the differences, his work has unquestionable in common elements of the Baroque, as concern over the dramatic potential of the light. The roots of the Baroque are located in Italian art, especially at the end of the 16th century Rome. Universalist desire inspired several artists in their reaction against the Mannerist Greeks and subjective interest in distortion, asymmetry, odd juxtapositions and intense colours. The two most prominent artists who led this first Baroque were Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio. The art of Caravaggio was influenced by Miguel Ángel humanistic naturalism and the Renaissance. In his paintings are often characters, drawn from everyday life, engaged in activities of daily living, as well as also passionate scenes of mythological and religious subject. The Carracci school, by contrast, tried to liberate the art of his mannerisms returning to the principles of clarity, monumentality and balance typical of the Renaissance. This baroque classicism had a significant presence throughout the 17TH …show more content…
Towards 1530, the Polish astronomer Copernicus matured his theory about the movement of the planets around the Sun, and not the Earth as previously thought; his book, published in 1543, was not completely accepted until after 1600. The demonstration that the Earth was not the center of the universe, in art, matches the triumph of landscape genre painting, devoid of human figures. Active trade and colonization of the Americas and other geographical areas by European countries encouraged the description of numerous places and exotic cultures, unknown until then. Religion determined many of the features of the Baroque art. The Catholic church became one of the most influential patrons, and the Counter-Reformation, launched to combat the spread of Protestantism, contributed to the formation of an emotional, exalted, dramatic and naturalistic art, with a clear sense of propagation of the faith. The austerity advocated by Protestantism in places like Holland and North Germany explain the architectural simplicity that characterizes these regions. Political developments also had influence in the art