Baroque Art: The Era Of The Baroque Period

The 17th century was the era of the baroque style, characterized by energy, drama, and movement. The church in Rome needed art that spoke to its resurgent power even as the conflict between the protestant and Catholics continued. Baroque was basically a counter movement to the rising Protestantism. A visual language was needed to reemphasize and reestablish the catholic belief amongst people. Baroque art was an attempt to gain control over peoples thinking, to basically make them think and feel more deeply, which could have happened only though art. The baroque era expands roughly from 1600 to 1750. The word 'Baroque' was claimed to derive from the Portuguese barroco meaning a 'pearl or tooth of unequal size.' It was therefore implied to mean imbalance and ugliness which was exactly opposite to what beauty and perfection through the imitation of ancient and Greek. It was around in 19th century when after a series of writings, baroque art could finally be considered as vital and different from renaissance art. The baroque era is sometimes roughly divided into three phases, early baroque (1590-1625), high baroque (1625-1660) and late baroque (1660-1725), in which late baroque is also sometimes called rococo.

Baroque art pieces contain dramatic compositions, are highly detailed for beautification and most importantly, have emotionally charged subject matter to give its viewers an intense viewing experience. Baroque art pieces, murals etc. are usually found in churches and cathedrals throughout Italy and rest of the Europe because the roman catholic church of the 17th century knew that this kind of subject matter and art, and this kind of style will definitely drive back the viewers, promote church and give and impression of power. ...

... middle of paper ...

...and architecture. They wanted to explore more and break certain rules as they probably knew that making the art piece in a certain way and not the baroque way would make it look better, will be able to be used better and will create a better impact if at all its used for the same purpose. But they wanted to do more than just what baroque art was all about.

They wanted to mould Rococo art and architecture in such a way that it was made strong by using creamy, pastel-like colours, asymmetrical designs, curves and gold. Unlike the more politically focused Baroque, the Rococo had more playful and often witty artistic themes. Rococo was all about beauty. It was what seems pretty to the eyes, had curves and floral designs all over. The development of rococo art was not just limited to art pieces, sculptures and frescoes, it could also be seen in the dresses and furniture.