Baroque Art Research Paper

To many, Baroque art was a period of art history that could be interpreted in many different ways. To Robert Neuman, Baroque art was simply put as an art style that wanted to bring art to life and to really immerse the viewing audience in the work. Baroque art was an art that was so real, you felt as if you could reach into the painting and pull an object out of it or touch the smooth surface of a sculpture and feel real skin. It was art that pushed the boundaries between real and unreal as well as “to unify real and artistic space” (Harris 13), and to portray different states of mind. It was also art that was meant to capture a specific moment in time that could never be repeated again. In a way, Baroque art was like photography before it
While Harris shared the ideals that Baroque was about realism, he also believed that Baroque was more than just trying to make art look real. Harris believed that Baroque art was to also embody emotions in it’s form, but not just any emotions. Baroque art was about “energy, emotion, drama, and even extravagance” (Harris xxiii). Not only was the painting or the sculpture supposed to look real, it was supposed to embody the emotions and energy of real life as well. This is somewhat similar to Neuman's idea of portraying different states of mind.
A third writer by the name of John Martin, also weighed in his own thoughts on what the goals and principal characteristics of Baroque art were. Martin believed that Baroque art was a ”genuine movement pathetically anchored in life” (Martin 116). This meant that Baroque was in fact a real movement of art, which in turn proved critics wrong who didn’t think that it was, but also a movement that was very weakly positioned having come just after the Renaissance. He also states that Baroque corrects critics and stands on it’s own from the other style that it was originally compared to, which was
During this time, it became common practice for those looking to become an artist to study under the guidance of a master of art as an apprentice. To learn how to become a better artist, apprentices often copied the styles and masterpieces of famous artists that came before them. Artists found inspiration from these famous predecessors. This made it so that the styles that were popular during the Greek and Roman times were revitalized again during the Baroque and improved upon. Without this help from the fourteenth and fifteenth century artists, Baroque naturalism wouldn’t have been possible in painting, drawing or other two dimensional