Jupiter and Antiope
Anthony van Dyck · 1620
Baroque
The Baroque is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 1600s until the 1750s. 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 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, Poland and Russia.
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Works you can watch
What to see
Jupiter and Antiope
Anthony van Dyck · 1620
Jupiter and Antiope is a series of two similar oil-on-canvas paintings by the late Baroque Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck, from c. One painting is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent; the other in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne.
The Surrender of Brea
Diego Velázquez · 1634
The Astronomer
Johannes Vermeer · c. 1668
The Astronomer is an oil-on-canvas painting completed in 1668 by Johannes Vermeer, a painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Measuring 51 cm × 45 cm (20 in × 18 in), The Astronomer is now in the collection of the Louvre in Paris. Portrayals of scientists were a favourite topic in 17th-century Dutch painting and Vermeer's oeuvre includes both this astronomer and the slightly later The Geographer.
Supper at Emmaus
Caravaggio · 1601
The Supper at Emmaus is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, completed in 1601, and now in London. It depicts the Gospel story of the resurrected Jesus's appearance in Emmaus. Originally, this painting was commissioned and paid for by Ciriaco Mattei, brother of Cardinal Girolamo Mattei.
Apollo and Daphne
Gian Lorenzo Bernini · 1622
Apollo and Daphne is a life-sized marble sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which was executed between 1622 and 1625. It is regarded as one of the artistic marvels of the Baroque age. The statue is housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, along with several other examples of the artist's most important early works.
Chair of Saint Peter
Gian Lorenzo Bernini · 1647
The Chair of Saint Peter (Latin: Cathedra Petri), also known as the Throne of Saint Peter, is a relic conserved in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. The relic is a wooden throne that tradition claims belonged to the Apostle Saint Peter, the leader of the Early Christians in Rome and first Pope, and which he used as Bishop of Rome.
The artists
Artworks
Death of the Virgin
Caravaggio · 1603
The Elevation of the Cross
Peter Paul Rubens · 1610
The Musicians
Caravaggio · 1595
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
Caravaggio · 1602
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Caravaggio · 1597
The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus
Peter Paul Rubens · 1618
St. Peter's Baldachin
Gian Lorenzo Bernini · 1620
Conversion on the Way to Damascus
Caravaggio · 1600
The Presentation in the Temple
Simon Vouet · 1640
Damned Soul
Gian Lorenzo Bernini · 1619
Bust of Gabriele Fonseca
Gian Lorenzo Bernini · 1668
Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness
Caravaggio · 1605
How to recognise it
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.
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Sources
- en.wikipedia.orgread 2026-08-17
- www.wikidata.orgread 2026-08-17