The Baroque is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture and
other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1740s.
In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including the Iberian
Peninsula it continued, together with new styles, until the first decade of the
1800s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo
(in the past often referred to as "Late Baroque") and Neoclassical styles. It was
encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and
austerity of Protestant architecture, art and music, though Lutheran Baroque
art developed in parts of Europe as well. The Baroque style used contrast,
movement, exuberant detail, deep colour,grandeur and surprise to achieve a
sense of awe. The style began at the start of the 17th century in Rome,then
spread rapidly to France, northern Italy, Spain and Portugal,then to Austria,
southern Germany and Russia. By the 1730s, it had evolved into an even more
flamboyant style, called rocaille or Rococo, which appeared in France and
Central Europe until the mid to late 18th century.
Bacchus
(Caravaggio)
Bacchus (c. 1596) is an oil painting by Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio (1571–1610) commissioned by Cardinal Del Monte. The painting shows a
youthful Bacchus reclining in classical fashion with grapes and vine leaves in his hair,
fingering the drawstring of his loosely draped robe. On a stone table in front of him is a
bowl of fruit and a large carafe of red wine. He holds out a shallow goblet of the same wine,
inviting the viewer to join him. The painting is currently held in the Uffizi Gallery
in Florence.
The Garden of Love
(Rubens)
The Garden of Love is a painting by Rubens, produced in around 1633 and now in the Prado
Museum in Madrid. The work was first listed in 1666, when it was hung in the Royal Palace
of Madrid,in the Spanish king's bedroom. In early inventories, the painting was called
The Garden Party. It is the apotheosis of the outdoor courtly Merry Company genre painting.
The subject of this piece is common in Baroque paintings, which used exaggerated motion
and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension,and grandeur. Rubens uses
multi-layer allegory and symbolism to his paintings.
The Rokeby Venus
(Diego Velázquez)
The Rokeby Venus (also known as The Toilet of Venus,Venus at her Mirror,Venus and Cupid
or La Venus del espejo) is a painting by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish
Golden Age. Completed between 1647,and 1651 and probably painted during the artist's visit
to Italy,the work depicts the goddess Venus in a sensual pose,lying on a bed and looking into
a mirror held by the Roman god of physical love, her son Cupid. The painting is in the
National Gallery of London. Numerous works, from the ancient to the baroque, have been
cited as sources of inspiration for Velázquez. The nude Venuses of the Italian painters, such
as Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (c. 1510) and Titian's Venus of Urbino (1538), were the main
precedents. In this work, Velázquez combined two established poses for Venus: recumbent on
a couch or a bed,and gazing at a mirror. She is often described as looking at herself in the
mirror,although this is physically impossible since viewers can see her face reflected in their
direction. This phenomenon is known as the Venus effect. In a number of waysthe painting
represents a pictorial departure, through its central use of a mirror, and because it shows
the body of Venus turned away from the observer of the painting.