Baroque

The Baroque (UK: /bəˈrɒk/, US: /bəˈroʊk/; French: [baʁɔk]) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s

There are regional differences in Baroque style, the biggest of these is that the "northern style" is different from the "southern style".

Baroque followed Renaissance art and Mannerism. It came before 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.

What it looks like

The Baroque style used contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep color, 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 the rest of Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, then to Austria, southern Germany, and Poland. 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. 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 19th century.

In the decorative arts, the style employs plentiful and intricate ornamentation. The departure from Renaissance classicism has its own ways in each country. But a general feature is that everywhere the starting point is the ornamental elements introduced by the Renaissance. The classical repertoire is crowded, dense, overlapping, loaded, in order to provoke shock effects. New motifs introduced by Baroque are: the cartouche, trophies and weapons, baskets of fruit or flowers, and others, made in marquetry, stucco, or carved.

Gallery

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  The chapel of Saint Johannes von Nepomuk, in the city of Bregenz in Austria
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  The Cathedral of Fulda, in Germany
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  The gate of Belvedere palace in Vienna
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  What lies beyond the gate, Belvedere Palace, panoramic view
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  Melk Abbey / Stift Melk is one of the best-known monasteries in Austria
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  Part of the image on the ceiling in the library of Stift Melk
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  The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg
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  Winter Palace, again, different view
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  The Karlskirche (St. Charles' Church) in Vienna among the most important Baroque churches north of the Alps
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  The altar and oratory insde the Karlskirche
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  Detail of a fresco inside the Karlskirche
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Related pages

• Baroque music
• Rococo

Other websites

• The difference between Classicism and baroque in video.