Chapter 17: The Baroque Style in Western Europe

(old notes here)

• Baroque color and light are dramatically contrasted, and surfaces are richly textured

• Baroque space is usually asymmetrical and lacks the appearance of controlled linear perspective

  • sharply diagonal places replaced predominant verticals/horizontals of Renaissance compositions

• Allegory is significant in Baroque art, no longer primarily found in a biblical context

• Paris would become the artistic center of Europe at the end of the Baroque (would be the art capital until WW2)

• 2 major Baroque architectural achievements

  • St. Peter’s in Rome

  • court of the French monarch Louis XIV at Versailles

ARCHITECTURE

Italy

• Rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica began while Julius II became pope in 1503

  • completed during the Baroque period

• Gianlorenzo Bernini (official archietect of St. Peter’s till his death) wanted to reduce the space a the crossing so that worshipers would be drawn to the altar

  • did that by erecting bronze baldacchino over the high altar about St. Peter’s tomb

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