TheBaroque is a Westernstyle ofarchitecture,music,dance,painting,sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followedRenaissance art andMannerism and preceded theRococo (in the past often referred to as "late Baroque") andNeoclassical styles. It was encouraged by theCatholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and austerity ofProtestant architecture, art, and music, thoughLutheran Baroque art developed in parts of Europe as well.
The Baroque style used contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep color, grandeur, and surprise to achieve a sense of awe. The style began at the start of the 17th century in Rome, then spread rapidly to the rest of Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, then to Austria, southern Germany, and Poland. By the 1730s, it had evolved into an even more flamboyant style, calledrocaille orRococo, which appeared in France and Central Europe until the mid to late 18th century. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires including the Iberian Peninsula it continued, together with new styles, until the first decade of the 19th century.
In thedecorative arts, the style employs plentiful and intricate ornamentation. The departure from Renaissance classicism has its own ways in each country. But a general feature is that everywhere the starting point is the ornamental elements introduced by theRenaissance. The classical repertoire is crowded, dense, overlapping, loaded, in order to provoke shock effects. New motifs introduced by Baroque are: thecartouche, trophies and weapons, baskets of fruit or flowers, and others, made inmarquetry,stucco, or carved.
