Baroque

Overview

Baroque art grew out of Rome around 1600, encouraged by a Catholic Church that wanted images to move and persuade. Caravaggio lit his figures against deep shadow and painted saints as ordinary people; Bernini made marble seem to twist and breathe.

The style took different forms across Europe. In the Dutch Republic, a Protestant merchant society bought portraits, landscapes, still lifes and scenes of daily life from painters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer, while in Spain Velázquez brought the same realism to the royal court.

What defines it

• Chiaroscuro: strong contrasts of light and dark
• Diagonal compositions and figures caught mid-action
• Emotional intensity and theatrical settings

Works to know

• The Calling of Saint Matthew Caravaggio · 1599–1600 · San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome
• The Night Watch Rembrandt · 1642 · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
• The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa Gian Lorenzo Bernini · 1647–52 · Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome
• Las Meninas Diego Velázquez · 1656 · Museo del Prado, Madrid
• Girl with a Pearl Earring Johannes Vermeer · c. 1665 · Mauritshuis, The Hague