What is Baroque Art?

Growing Demand for Visual Arts

• Catholic Church and Counter-Reformation Efforts
• More sovereign rulers acquiring arts
• Aristocrats patronized the arts
• Growing merchant class patronized the arts

The Theatricality of the Arts — Tenebrism

• Extreme contrasts of light and dark
• Focus on dramatic subject matter
• Virtuosity
• Meticulously crafted realism
• Still Lifes – see link below

Expansion of Artistic Subject Matter

• Still Lifes
• Genre Paintings
• Portraits of Common People
• Group Portraits or Corporation Paintings

Italian and Spanish artists

• Bernini
• Gentileshi
• Velasquez
• Carravaggio

Dutch Artists

https://www.eyeconart.net/history/Baroque/Dutch.htm

• Rembrandt
• Vermeer
• Leyster

French Artists

George La Tour

Claude Lorrain

Artists in Flanders

Peter Paul Rubens

Still Life Painting

Baroque still life painting – it isn’t just about flowers and fruit!?!?!?

Mexican Baroque Art

https://instructional1.calstatela.edu/bevans/colonial_art/baroque_page.html

Illusion Ceilings

Overview

When you look at this, you need to realize that there is not dome on this building.

Ceiling Detail