The Baroque was a movement in art, architecture, and music that flourished across Europe from the early seventeenth century into the early eighteenth, characterized by dramatic contrast, emotional intensity, and a sense of movement and grandeur, often in the service of the Catholic Church's Counter Reformation or the courts of absolutist monarchs. In painting and sculpture it favored strong light and shadow, dynamic composition, and theatrical subject matter. In architecture it produced curved facades, elaborate ornament, and dramatic interior spaces designed to overwhelm the viewer. In music the period is defined by the elaboration of tonal harmony, the rise of opera, and the contrapuntal mastery of composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, whose fugues and cantatas represent one of the style's technical high points. The term originated as a description of visual art and architecture and was extended to music only later by historians, so its boundaries in the different art forms do not align precisely, a source of ongoing scholarly discussion about how unified a single Baroque style really was across the arts.
Facts
Disputed
Start YearHistorians disagree on whether the Baroque begins with Caravaggio's dramatic naturalism in Rome around 1600 or somewhat earlier with late sixteenth century Mannerist experiments it grew out of. End Year1750, the year of Bach's death, is a conventional closing date for Baroque music; Baroque painting and architecture are often considered to have given way to the lighter Rococo style somewhat earlier, so a single end date across the arts is an approximation. Founded In PlaceRome, in the Papal States (present-day Italy), in the service of the Counter-Reformation Catholic Church 1 Key PrincipleDramatic contrast, emotional intensity and a theatrical sense of movement and grandeur, deployed in the service of religious or absolutist authority 1 Connections
Associated With
Expressed In
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Influenced
Rococo, Movements Rococo emerged in early 18th century France as a lighter, more ornamental development directly out of late Baroque decorative style.
Influenced By
Mannerism, Movements Mannerisms late, theatrical phase transitioned directly into the Baroque style of the 17th century.
Movement Members
A leading Baroque painter and one of the Caravaggisti generation.
Defining Baroque sculptor and architect.
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Centered on Rastrelli's Baroque Winter Palace complex.
French Baroque printmaker.
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Central French Baroque classicist painter.
The defining French Baroque royal palace.
Russian Baroque imperial palace.
Velazquez is a leading Baroque court painter.
Rembrandt, Artists Why this is disputed. Rembrandt is widely grouped with Baroque painting for his dramatic use of light and shadow, though some historians treat Dutch Golden Age painting as its own current, distinct from the Catholic Counter-Reformation context most closely associated with the term Baroque.
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Maderno's facade and Bernini's piazza and interior work completed the basilica in the Baroque idiom, alongside its Renaissance origin (see the paired edge), matching the existing two-movement precedent on Sistine Chapel Ceiling.
Austrian Baroque imperial palace.
Caravaggio is the founding Baroque tenebrist painter; his own followers, not Caravaggio himself, are classed as Caravaggism.
Rastrelli's Elizabethan Baroque design.
Sources
1. Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage Learning- chapters on the Baroque period
- chapter on the Baroque
- Movement Members: Rembrandt, chapter on Dutch Golden Age painting, section on Rembrandt
2. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Stanley Sadie, editor (successive editions), Oxford University Press- entry: Baroque, music of the
- Movement Members: Mass in B minor
- Movement Members: Goldberg Variations
Wiktionary
Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMovement Members: Caravaggio, Caravaggio, Wikipedia infobox, Movement field
Baroque
Movement Members: Antonio Vivaldi, Antonio Vivaldi, Wikipedia summary lead, movement
Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe
Movement Members: Peter Paul Rubens, Peter Paul Rubens, Wikipedia summary lead, movement
He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition.
Movement Members: Johannes Vermeer, Johannes Vermeer, Wikipedia infobox, Movement field
Dutch Golden Age, Baroque
Movement Members: George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel, Wikipedia summary lead, movement
was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti.
Movement Members: Girl with a Pearl Earring, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Wikipedia infobox, Movement field
Dutch Golden Age painting
Movement Members: The Night Watch, The Night Watch, Wikipedia infobox, Movement field
Baroque painting
Movement Members: The Calling of Saint Matthew, The Calling of Saint Matthew, Wikipedia, main body section
Created during the Baroque era, the painting is an iconic example of the style, featuring conventions like naturalism and tenebrism
- Movement Members: Las Meninas
View the Source Frequently Asked Questions
Does the word Baroque mean the same thing in painting and in music?
Not exactly, and historians still discuss how unified a single Baroque style really was across the arts. The term originated as a description of visual art and architecture, strong light and shadow, dynamic composition, curved facades and dramatic ornament, and was extended to music only later by historians. In music the same period is defined instead by the elaboration of tonal harmony, the rise of opera, and the contrapuntal mastery of composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, so the boundaries of the style do not line up precisely between the art forms even though they share the name and the era, roughly the early seventeenth century into the early eighteenth.
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