BAROCCO "Baroque"

The term Baroque probably ultimately derived from the Italian word "barocco", which philosophers used during the Middle Ages to describe an obstacle in schematic logic. Subsequently the word came to denote any contorted idea or involuted process of thought. Another possible source is the Portuguese word barroco (Spanish barrueco), used to describe an irregular or imperfectly shaped pearl, and this usage still survives in the jeweler’s term baroque pearl. Baroque art above all reflected the religious tensions of the age - notably the desire of the Catholic Church in Rome (as annunciated at the Council of Trent, 1545-63) to reassert itself in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. Thus it is almost synonymous with Catholic Counter-Reformation Art of the period.

Baroque art is like the 4th era, the Renaissance art but there are different:Time

-Renaissance artists like Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael Sanzio, and Leonardo Da Vinci are more famous than Baroque masters Bernini and Caravaggio.
-Renaissance art began early in the 1400s, while Baroque came later in the 1600s.
-Renaissance art works did not completely depict human emotion, while Baroque art focused more on showing them.

The most important characteristic of Baroque art:

-Time 

-Motion

-Drama

-Space

-Light and Shadow

Subject matter:

- Religious

-Mythological

-Superstitious

Predominant Style:

- Classicism

- Realism

- Naturalism

Many Catholic Emperors and monarchs across Europe had an important stake in the Catholic Church's success, hence a large number of architectural designs, paintings and sculptures were commissioned by the Royal Courts of Spain, France, and elsewhere - in parallel to the overall campaign of Catholic Christian art, pursued by the Vatican - in order to glorify their own divine grandeur, and in the process strengthen their political position. By comparison, Baroque art in Protestant areas like Holland had far less religious content, and instead was designed essentially to appeal to the growing aspirations of the merchant and middle classes.

Catholic-inspired Baroque art tended to be large-scale works of public art, such as monumental wall-paintings and huge frescoes for the ceilings and vaults of palaces and churches. Baroque painting illustrated key elements of Catholic dogma, either directly in Biblical works or indirectly in mythological or allegorical compositions. Along with this monumental, high-minded approach, painters typically portrayed a strong sense of movement, using swirling spirals and upward diagonals, and strong sumptuous color schemes, in order to dazzle and surprise. New techniques of chiaroscuro (is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition.) and tenebrism (is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image.) were developed to enhance atmosphere.

Trompe l'oeil

-a style of painting in which things are painted in a way that makes them look like real objects.

-something that misleads or deceives the senses : illusion.

This era are so nice and amazing, this is like the renaissance but the baroque is unique than the renaissance because the paintings have motion, drama and so on. Some paintings is about "feminism" or the scene about women, "nude" and brutal scene.  

Judith and Holofernes

Susannah and the elders