Baroque Art Influence

The Baroque time period in history saw changes in art across Europe, all leading to more dramatic more individualized art. However, the movement saw its beginnings in Italy. Though many influences inspired the change to Baroque art, the religious climate in 16th century Italy was one of the strongest influences on the art of the time, mainly because of art's role in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The Reformation was mainly brought about by Martin Luther who raised numerous concerns with the Catholic Church. His ideas and concerns spread, and soon England became a Protestant Nation, and Holland split into the Dutch Republic and Flanders. It seemed that people across all of Europe was crying against the Catholic church. Some of the main
Now, rather than idealize figures and use lovely people, the subjects of the paintings were ordinary people. They were not exceptionally lovely, they were not idealized. They were normal. One very good example of this is the Death of a Virgin by Carravaggio. This painting portrays the death of Mary, mother of Jesus. However, rather than show Mary as beautiful or graceful, she was modelled after a dead prostitute. She really looks dead. This was highly offensive to the church it was commissioned for, however, it perfectly matched the style of the day, and fulfilled the requirement to bring the church to the people. Many other paintings include this tendency to portray people naturally, not idealized. This technique was successful in bringing you into the art because it is a lot easier to identify with the people if they aren't percieved as so far above
Before, in medieval and renaissance paintings, the figures were calm and unconcerned. However, this is ineffectual in pulling in the viewer. Baroque art really focused on making the scenes more intense, dramatic, and compelling. They used several techniques to do this, but one of the most popular and widespread was using diagonal lines. This threw the painting off from the perfect symmetry of the medieval and the ideal pyramids of the renaissance. Instead, it created disharmony and a feeling of action. One of the best examples of a diagonal line is in the painting Entombment by Carravaggio. The heads are lined up in away that creates a diagonal, all contributing to the motion towards the bottom where they lay Christ. This painting also shows a good example of how the positions of the figures created drama. The arms thrown in the air and the faces of the figures show true grief and pain. Their emotion helps us to feel emotion, bringing us into the painting. Drama can also be created through the intense lighting that became popular in the Baroque time period. The tenebristic lighting , invented by Caravaggio, is where the contrasts of light and dark are taken to the extreme. It is described as the light from a flash of lightning. This lighting, and the contrast it causes, creates a heightened feeling of tension in the painting, making it more interesting to look at and become involved in. A good example of tenebristic