Baroque Art: Origins, Types and Characteristics

Baroque Style: Origins and Characteristics

Context: The Baroque style emerged at the end of the sixteenth century and extended into the 18th century. It originated in Italy and from there it spread throughout Europe. It is a bright, flashy, and often lavish art form, the result of a time of crisis. Baroque expresses the power of great monarchs and the flowing, rich, prosperous states of Catholicism.

Variety and Types of Baroque

The variety of socio-economic, political, and religious situations gave rise to several types of Baroque. These include:

1. Italian Baroque: courteous, more classical and Catholic; in the European courts it is sensuous, monumental and decorative.
2. Classicist Baroque: rigorous in style, developed by the French court and placed at the service of Louis XIV.
3. Hispanic Baroque: occurring in Spain, Portugal and Latin America; ecclesiastical, effectistic, naturalistic, theatrical and highly symbolic.
4. Protestant Baroque: found in Holland and Germany; simple and intimate, realistic, full of symbolism and oriented toward the bourgeoisie — this was mostly expressed in painting.

Common Features and Historical Context

These variants share common features such as a tendency toward overwhelming emotion and the reflection of the moods of contemporary people (often disillusioned with imperfections), in contrast to the optimism of the Renaissance. The term "Baroque" acquired a pejorative sense by the late eighteenth century, being used to define what was perceived as excessive ornamentation.

At the time of the Baroque there were major intellectual and political shifts: the Scientific Revolution, Cartesian rationalism, the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. This period also saw the consolidation of absolute monarchy and the development of parliamentary systems, together with the rising economic power of the bourgeoisie.

Functions, Techniques and Aims

Baroque is an art in the service of both absolutist church and state, so it is both civic and religious. It seeks to promote, create wonder and enchantment; it tends toward spectacle, theatricality and strong effects. It brings into play all the arts by combining motion and lighting and by integrating architecture, sculpture and painting.

The result is moving, dramatic tension in sculpture, aerial perspective in painting, and stage-like design in architecture. The primary purpose is to impress, move and persuade. Baroque often rejects key Renaissance values; in this context people confronted the insignificance and transience of life, and that perspective influenced and sometimes distorted their works.