The Baroque period saw a shift from the calm rationality of the Renaissance to dramatic, emotional art meant to evoke passion. Baroque painting was characterized by deep colors, rich drama, and intense light and dark shadows. Some of the greatest Baroque painters included Caravaggio, known for his realistic depictions and use of lighting; Rembrandt, a master of emotion and lighting; Rubens, who emphasized movement, color and sensuality; Velázquez, a leading artist at the Spanish court and model for realist painting; and Poussin, known for clarity, logic and order who favored line over color. Their works demonstrate the emergence of emotional, dramatic Baroque styles.

1. Baroque Period

2. Baroque Painting
• encompasses a great
range of styles, as most
important and major
painting during the period
beginning around 1600
and continuing
throughout the 17th
century, and into the early
18th century is identified
today as Baroque
painting.
• characterized by great
drama, rich, deep
colour, and intense light
and dark shadows

3. Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion
instead of the calm rationality that had been prized
during the Renaissance.
Michelangelo, working in the
High Renaissance, shows his
David composed and still before
he battles Goliath
Bernini's Baroque David is
caught in the act of hurling the
stone at the giant.

4. Among the greatest painters of the Baroque
period are:
Caravaggio
Rembrandt,
Rubens,
Velázquez
Poussin

5. Michelangelo Merisi / Amerighi da Caravaggio
(September 29, 1571 – July 18 1610)
•an Italian artist active in
Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between
1592 and 1610
•His paintings, which combine a realistic
observation of the human state, both
physical and emotional, with a dramatic
use of lighting, had a formative influence
on the Baroque school of painting.

6. Caravaggio's Artwork
Amor Vincit Omnia. 1601–1602.
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Caravaggio shows
Cupid prevailing over all human
endeavors:
war, music, science, government.

7. Caravaggio's Artwork
•The Musicians, 1595–
1596, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, NewYork.
•thought to have been
his first painting done
expressly for the
cardinal.

8. Caravaggio's Artwork
Caravaggio's approach
was, typically, to choose the moment
of greatest dramatic impact, the
moment of the decapitation itself. The
figures are set out in a shallow
stage, theatrically lit from the
side, isolated against the inky, black
background. Judith and her maid
Abra stand to the right, partially over
Holofernes, who is vulnerable on his
back. X-rays have revealed that
Caravaggio adjusted the placement of
Holofernes' head as he
proceeded, separating it slightly from
the torso and moving it slightly to the
right. The faces of the three
characters demonstrate his mastery
of emotion, Judith in particular
showing in her face a mix of
Judith Beheading Holofernes
1598–1599. Galleria Nazionale
d'Arte Antica, Rome.

9. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
(July 15 1606– October4 1669)
•Dutch painter and etcher. He is
generally considered one of the
greatest painters and printmakers in
European art and the most important
in Dutch history.
•His contributions to art came in a period of
great wealth and cultural achievement that
historians call the Dutch Golden Age when
Dutch Golden Age painting, although in
many ways antithetical to the Baroque style
that dominated Europe, was extremely
prolific and innovative.

10. Rembrandt's Artwork
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633. The painting is still missing after
the robbery from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.

11. Rembrandt's Artwork
The Night Watch or The Militia Company of Captain
Frans Banning Cocq, 1642. Oil on canvas; on
display at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
It is prominently displayed
in the
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, t
he Netherlands, as the best
known painting in its
collection. The Night Watch
is one of the most famous
paintings in the world.

12. Rembrandt's Artwork
The Abduction of
Europa, 1632. Oil on
panel. The work has been
described as "...a shining
example of the 'golden
age' of Baroque painting."

13. Peter Paul Rubens
(June 28 1577 – May 30 1640)
a Flemish Baroque
painter, and a
proponent of an
extravagant Baroque
style that emphasised
movement, colour, an
d sensuality.
well known for his
Counter-
Reformation
altarpieces, portraits
, landscapes, and
history paintings of
mythological and
allegorical subjects.

14. Rubens' Artwork
•Once attributed to the minor
Dutch artist Karel van
Mander, it is now recognised
as a work by Rubens.
•reflects Raphael's influence
on Titian and Jan Brueghel
the Elder's influence on
Rubens, who adds a parrot
and changes Adam's
posture, musculature, age
and expression.
The Fall of Man or Adam and Eve 1628–
29. Prado, Madrid

15. Rubens' Artwork
Venus at the Mirror, 1615
Peter Paul
Rubens presented
his Venus in Front
of the Mirror as
the ultimate
symbol of beauty.

16. Rubens' Artwork
The Three Graces, 1635, Prado
The painting was
held in the personal
collection of the
artist until his
death, then in 1666 it
went to the Royal
Alcazar of
Madrid, before
hanging in the
Museo del Prado.

17. Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez
( June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660)
•a Spanish painter who was the
leading artist in the court of King Philip
IV and one of the most important
painters of the Spanish GoldenAge.
•Velázquez's artwork was a model for
the realist and impressionist painters,

18. Velázquez's Artwork
The work's complex
and enigmatic
composition raises
questions about
reality and
illusion, and creates
an uncertain
relationship between
the viewer and the
figures depicted.
Because of these
complexities, Las
Meninas has been
one of the most widely
analyzed works in
Western painting.
Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) 1656

19. Velázquez's Artwork
The triumph of Bacchus/Los Borrachos 1629 (The Drinkers/The Drunks)
The painting shows Bacchus surrounded by drunks.

20. Velázquez's Artwork
Vieja friendo huevos (1618, English: Old Woman
Frying Eggs). National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.
shows the influence of
chiaroscuro, with a
strong light source
coming in from the left
illuminating the
woman, her utensils and
the poaching
eggs, while throwing the
background and the boy
standing to her right into
deep shadow.

21. Nicolas Poussin
(June 15 1594 – November 19 1665)
the leading painter of
the classical French
Baroque
style, although he
spent most of his
working life in Rome.
His work is
characterized by
clarity, logic, and
order, and favors line
over color.

22. Poussin's Artwork
The composition is
built in a series of
opposing
diagonals, highlightin
g Venus’s shapely
limbs and soft belly
and casting the
lovers into
shadow, foreboding
Adonis’s imminent
doom.
Venus and Adonis French (1594–1665)
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.

23. Poussin's Artwork
Cephalus and Aurora - Nicolas Poussin - 1627 - National
Gallery, London.
Poussin shows
the cause of
Cephalus'
rejection of
Aurora through
the putto holding
up Procris'
portrait

24. Poussin's Artwork
Selene and Endymion 1630s - The Detroit Institute ofArts.
Poussin's painting shows Endymion awake, kneeling to
welcome the arrival of the moon goddess, while her brother
the sun-god is just beginning his journey across the heavens
in his golden chariot.

25. Thank you