Baroque art

The word baroque is often claimed to derive from the Portuguese word barocco, meaning irregular or rough, and used specifically to describe pearls of distorted shape. Baroque architecture, sculpture, and painting of a dramatic nature were powerful tools in the hands of religious and secular absolutism, and flourished in the service of the Catholic Church and of Catholic monarchies. While saintly miracles were prominent in medieval and Renaissance art, Baroque art was more structured toward the martyrdom of saints. The visual settings for divine-right monarchy in palaces, decorations, and festivals and in costumes, furniture, and carriages were conceived in the same climactic pattern. The Baroque artists were particularly focused on natural forms, spaces, colors, lights, and the relationship between the observer and the literary or portrait subject in order to produce a strong, if muted, emotional experience. The uniting aspect of the most disparate phases of Baroque in European countries is a common pattern of experience shared at all social levels by Catholic and Protestant alike.

Painting

The Council of Trent (1545-63), in which the Roman Catholic Church answered many questions of internal reform raised by both Protestants and by those who had remained inside the Catholic Church, addressed the representational arts by demanding that paintings and sculptures in church contexts should speak to the illiterate rather than to the well-informed.

Nativity by Josefa de Óbidos, 1669, National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon

Due to this Baroque art tends to focus on Saints, the Virgin Mary, and other well known Bible stories. This turn toward a populist conception of the function of ecclesiastical art is seen by many art historians as driving the innovations of Caravaggio and the Carracci brothers, all of whom were working (and competing for commissions) in Rome around 1600.

However, religious painting, history painting, allegories, and portraits were still considered the most noble subjects. Landscapes, still life, and genre scenes were also very common.

Baroque art is characterized by great drama, rich deep color, and intense light and dark shadows. As opposed to Renaissance art, which usually showed the moment before an event took place, Baroque artists chose the most dramatic point, the moment when the action was occurring: Michelangelo, working in the High Renaissance, shows his David composed and still before he battles Goliath; Bernini's baroque David is caught in the act of hurling the stone at the giant. Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized during the Renaissance.

Sculpture

The most important sculptor of the Baroque period was undoubtedly Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), who approached Michelangelo in his multiple skills. Bernini sculpted, worked as an architect, painted, wrote plays, and staged spectacles. In the late 20th century Bernini was most valued for his sculpture, both for his virtuosity in carving marble and his ability to create figures that combine the physical and the spiritual. He was also a fine portraitist in high demand among the powerful for bust-length likenesses.

Architcture

Italian Artists

• Caravaggio

• Annibale Carracci

• Agostino Carracci

• Orazio Gentileschi

• Artemisia Gentileschi

• Bartolomeo Manfredi

• Carlo Saraceni

• Battistello Caracciolo

• Guido Reni

• Francesco Albani

• Domenichino

• Guercino

• Daniele Crespi

• Domenico Fetti

• Gian Lorenzo Bernini

• Pietro Tacca

• Pietro da Cortona

• Alessandro Algardi

• Baciccio

• Andrea Pozzo

• Luca Giordano

• Carlo Maratti

• Francesco Furini

• Carlo Dolci

• Evaristo Baschenis

• Bernardo Strozzi

• Bernardo Cavallino

• Mattia Preti

• Carlo Maderno

• Francesco Borromini

DUTCH ARTISTS

• Pieter Lastman

• Jan Pynas

• Hendrick Terbrugghen

• Gerard van Honthorst

• Dirck van Baburen

• Frans Hals

• Rembrandt

• Jan Lievens

• Gerard Dou

• Jacob Backer

• Govaert Flinck

• Ferdinand Bol

• Carel Fabritius

• Samuel van Hoogstraten

• Gerbrand van den Eeckhout

• Philips Koninck

• Nicolaes Maes

• Willem Drost

• Aert de Gelder

• Willem Buytewech

• Jan Molenaer

• Judith Leyster

• Adriaen van Ostade

• Isaac van Ostade

• Jan Vermeer

• Pieter de Hooch

• Gerard ter Borch

• Gabriel Metsu

• Frans van Mieris the Elder

• Jan Steen

• Gillis van Coninxloo

• Roelant Savery

• Hendrick Avercamp

• Esias van de Velde

• Hercules Seghers

• Pieter de Molyn

• Jan van Goyen

• Salomon van Ruisdael

• Jacob van Ruisdael

• Aert van der Neer

• Frans Post

• Aelbert Cuyp

• Meindert Hobbema

• Paulus Potter

• Philips Wouwerman

• Willem van de Velde the Younger

• Cornelis Vroom

• Simon de Vlieger

• Jan van de Cappelle

• Michael Sweerts

• Jan Both

• Nicolaes Berchem

• Jan Weenix

• Karel Dujardin

• Thomas de Keyser

• Pieter Saeredam

• Emanuel de Witte

• Gerrit Berckheyde

• Jan van der Heyden

• Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder

• Pieter Claesz

• Willem Heda

• Jan Davidsz de Heem

• Willem Kalf

• Rachel Ruysch

• Abraham van Beyeren

FLEMISH ARTISTS

• Adriaen Brouwer

• Peter Paul Rubens

• Joost de Momper the Younger

• Paul Bril

• Anthony van Dyck

• Jakob Jordaens

SPANISH ARTISTS

• José de Ribera

• Francisco de Zurbarán

• Fra Juan Sánchez Cotán

• Francisco Ribalta

• Diego Velázquez

• Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

• Alonso Cano

GERMAN ARTISTS

• Adam Elsheimer

• Johann Liss

• Joachim Sandrart

• Georg Flegel

BRITISH ARTISTS

• Peter Lely

• William Dobson

FRENCH ARTISTS

• Valentin de Boulogne

• Simon Vouet

• Jacques Blanchard

• Laurent de La Hyre

• Lubin Baugin

• Philippe de Champaigne

• Nicolas Tournier

• Georges de La Tour

• Louis Le Nain

• Nicolas Poussin

• Claude Lorrain

• Gaspard Dughet

• Eustache Le Sueur

• Sébastien Bourdon

• Charles Le Brun

• Antoine Coysevox

• Pierre Legros the Younger

• Pierre Mignard

• François Girardon

• Jean Jouvenet

• Jean-François de Troy

• André Le Nôtre

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