Baroque & Rococo

If Renaissance art sought harmony and balance, Baroque art wanted to overwhelm you. Beginning around 1600, artists like Caravaggio developed tenebrism, an extreme form of chiaroscuro where figures emerge from pitch darkness into dramatic spotlight. The Catholic Church, fighting the Protestant Reformation, deployed art as propaganda. Paintings had to move viewers emotionally, to make them feel the ecstasy of saints and the terror of martyrdom.

Peter Paul Rubens embodied Baroque grandeur with his monumental canvases of fleshy figures in swirling motion. Rembrandt turned inward, using light to explore human psychology. Vermeer captured quiet domestic moments with almost supernatural luminosity. Meanwhile, in Spain, Velázquez painted the royal court with unflinching honesty. The Dutch Golden Age produced more paintings than any previous century, many depicting landscapes, still lifes, and everyday scenes.

By the 1700s, Rococo lightened the mood. Where Baroque served popes and monarchs, Rococo pleased aristocrats seeking pleasure and wit. Pastel colors replaced deep shadows. Playful cherubs and flirtatious lovers replaced tortured saints. Fragonard's famous Swing captures the style perfectly: frivolous, decorative, deliberately superficial. The French Revolution would sweep it all away.