Baroque
A defining statement of what Baroque signifies in painting
is provided by the series of paintings executed by Peter Paul Rubens for Marie
de Medici at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris (now at the Louvre), in which a
Catholic painter satisfied a Catholic patron: Baroque-era conceptions of
monarchy, iconography, handling of paint, and compositions as well as the
depiction of space and movement.
There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque
painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona; both approaching emotive dynamism with
different styles. Another frequently cited work of Baroque art is Bernini's
Saint Theresa in Ecstasy for the Cornaro chapel in Saint Maria della Vittoria,
which brings together architecture, sculpture, and theater into one grand
conceit.
The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, which, through contrast, further defines Baroque.
The intensity and immediacy of baroque art and its individualism and detail—observed in such things as the convincing rendering of cloth and skin textures—make it one of the most compelling periods of Western art.