Baroque Art Essay

Its hard to make a distinction in which the beginning of the baroqueness period is clearly rarified from that of the late Renaissance. N championtheless, Baroque art is emotional, decorative and a direct emergence of the Counter-Reformation movement in Europe. During the Baroque period, there was a melodramatic ghostly split in the Church with the formation of Protestantism. Catholics reacted with the Counter-Reformation to revitalize Catholicism. They needed to draw out viewers with religious art that more significantly impacted onlookers.Protestant areas (in the North) responded with a lack of religious art, concentrating, for example, on genre paintings that taught their viewers honourable lessons. Compositions tended to stick out more open space. The Baroque bearing originated in Italy and disseminate north, profoundly affecting the rest of Europe as it spread. In his take after of art history text, Gardners Art Through the Ages A globose History, Fred S. Kleiner asser ts that the term Baroque is problematic because the era encompasses a broad be sick of genres and manners.At the same time, it is effective in describing the art of the 17th century, a style marked by dynamism and movement, drama and greatness. Since the masses could non read, there could be no better way to feed them religion-Catholicisms particular view of it-than through grand pictures depicting Biblical lessons and the potential of Catholicism, figured the Church. One of the or so interesting examples of art as propaganda for the Catholic Church is Caravaggios Conversion of holy man Paul, painted ca. 1603. In 1600, Caravaggio was fit out to paint two pictures. One is Crucifixion of Saint Peter, a dramatic and unconventional work.The other is Pauls Conversion, which hangs across the chapel from Saint Peter in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. Also cognize as Conversion on the Way to Damascus or The highway to Damascus, this depiction of Pauls conversion is kn own as the most intriguing of the two paintings. In this grand picture Caravaggio portrays the moment expound in the Bible, in the Book of Acts, when Paul (then capital of Minnesota) falls to the ground in an epiphany from the Lord. The egocentric, Christian-hating Saul is on his way to Damascus, on a mission to witch-hunt Christians there.In Acts chapter 22, verses 6-7, Saul describes the moment About noon as I came burn down Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, Saul Saul Why do you persecute me? This information is important to get by when studying Caravaggios representation of the event. Caravaggio, who, in his personal life, was known to have an erratic disposition and not long after painting this scene, he fled Rome after killing a man (Encyclopedia Britannica) clearly was a revolutionary in his art.In this scenes it perhaps showed the closed book in the man that represents Caravaggios sarcasm, h is sardonic version of Jesus, who, after all, is the one who knocked Saul senseless. If so, what is it that Caravaggio is secretly saying about Jesus? We will never know, but the possibility is at least entertaining. Summary While Baroque art arose out of an effort to manipulate the masses through propaganda tactics, it changed and evolved as it spread throughout Europe. Today, the style can be appreciated for its some accomplishments, everything from its realistic renderings to its grand drama and its larger-than-life grandeur.Baroque art has an glitz and immediacy not seen prior. The exquisite attention to detail and the realism of the style are part of what defines this age. Many masters emerged from this era, masters whose styles are astray varied and whose intentions were just as varied, and much can be well-educated from them and the legacies they left behind in their art, music, literature and architecture. Combined, these characteristics make the Baroque style one of the most compelling periods in the history of Western art.