Baroque
The Baroque style flourished in Rome in the early
16oos and persisted in varying degrees throughout
Europe until the eighteenth century. The name comes
from the Italian word 'barocco', meaning
bizarre or zany. Baroque art is generally typified by
its dramatic exuberance and emotive appeal to the
viewer. The archetypal Baroque religious picture
might show the saints or the Madonna in a swirl of
billowing draperies and fleecy clouds surrounded by
cherubs. Themes such as subjects from Ancient
mythology were also popular, and were treated in the
same exaggerated manner. Not all art of the period
was so luxuriant, however, and the sombre dramaticism
of artists such as Caravaggio is equally termed
Baroque.
Representative painters:
Bernini, Caravaggio, Cuyp, Gentileschi,
Guercino, Kalf, Rembrandt, Rent, Rubens, Sánchez-Cotan, Velázquez, Zurbarán