IWT1 Task 1

The two art periods that I chose are Baroque and Impressionism. Baroque art refers to the style that would be found in Europe and North and South America during the 17th and 18th century. The Catholic Church heavily influenced their art, as well as the Protestant rising up during this time. There was an emphasis on unity and harmony in all of the visual arts that often had themes from the Bible or stories. There was realism and more attention was paid to physical details in portrait paintings, there was more light contrast, landscapes were more expansive and there was use of more deep, rich colors. In architecture there were structures that expressed humans longing for spirituality and there was extreme presentation and in the grand scale it was reflected theatrically (Mindedge, 2013). In the Baroque period the art would depict a play, that it was not just a picture but every figure would have meaning, the art was meant to be read just not looked at as decoration. Figures would be drawn with realism, they have depth in the art, and they are almost falling off the page. They used dark shades and lights to show realism in their paintings. This was brought on with the further discovery of how our universe was formed, how we are not the center of the universe and also with that discovery, we discovered that Europe is not the middle of the Earth as well. Each painting had a story, told about us, about real people and there was more realism than before. Sculptures were made to be experienced, they were made not as standing men but men in action, they told a story in each sculpture that was made in this period. The social conditions that contributed to the Baroque period began with the rebirth of people, the Catholic Church had overcome the Protestant rising. There was new life and new water brought in to Rome and other major cities. We made discoveries that had shown us that the Earth was not the center of the universe like we had previously thought, also the