The time after the Renaissance was a turbulent one for Europe, bringing religious wars between Catholics and Protestants, and heralding the early settlement of the Americas. Such drama was captured in the style of the time, which we call the Baroque era.

The word "baroque" comes from the French baroque, which refers to an imperfect pearl and which fit the rough times in which this art formed. The actual school of Baroque painting has its roots in the Council of Trent in 1600, when the Catholic Church wanted to encourage a new form of religious art that would stand up against the rising cultural influence of Protestantism. These paintings were meant to speak to the illiterate rather than to the educated few, in the hopes of inspiring a new wave of religious devotion. Such influence spread into architecture and theatre as well, bringing in more detail and a new focus on personal space.

What set Baroque paintings apart from works of the Renaissance was a change in subject. The artist no longer focused on painting a scene just before a dramatic moment, but on painting out the drama itself. It was no longer David about to fight Goliath or a line of soldiers about to charge the enemy, but the very act itself, with all the emotion that could be captured on a human face. More attention was paid to detail and perspective, giving rise to the technique known as chiaroscuro,a strong contrast of light and shadow. It was more common for painters to show scenes at night lit with their subjects lit by candles, adding a new dimension of realism as well as sensationalism.

Just like in the Renaissance that preceded it, the Baroque period produced some of the most famous artists in history. It was the era of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, of Diego Velazquez and Johannes Vermeer. Their paintings cast human beings in a new light--sometimes literally, if they played up the contrasting shadows as Caravaggio did in works like Salome with the Head of John the Baptist or The Denial of Saint Peter. Vermeer popularized scenes of everyday life, featuring the common masses instead of monarchs and the aristocracy. Although inspired by the work of the Renaissance, these artists set a new standard for perception and action within a painting.

To see a Baroque painting in person, you can visit any of the major art galleries in Europe. Such museums include the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Museo del Prado in Madrid, and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Image by Flam on Flickr