Baroque Vs Baroque Essay

The purpose of the Counter-Reformation was for the Catholic Church to revive itself after the Protestant Reformation where the Church was threatened with the conversions to Protestantism. While this was a very dramatic and life changing time for religion and people, art went through a complete transition in terms of its style. Post-reform, art was very much absent in churches, and non-religious art was humanist, consisting of genre and landscape paintings. When the Catholic Church fought back with the Council of Trent, religious art came back into the church with more focus on true religious meaning. The amount of conflict going on and changes in art catalyzed a style movement from the Renaissance Period into the Baroque period, veering …show more content…
The word “Baroque” is thought to be derived from the Portuguese word “Barroco”, meaning a pearl with an imperfect shape. The imperfections in the pearl’s shape are very random, unpredictable, and elaborate, which perfectly corresponds to the Baroque style and how it emerged from such a tumultuous time in history. In contrast to its preceding time period, the Renaissance, which is very structured, Baroque is characterized being full of life and movement. In fact, the term “Baroque” was initially used in a negative way when talking about art because of the excessive emphasis of dramatic aspects in paintings, architecture, and music. Paintings in this style create this great sense of drama and grandeur using certain effects to appeal to the senses, such as playing with very dramatic light and extreme attention to detail. Architecture during the Baroque period became very grand with displays of wealth and power of the Catholic Church. Even Baroque literature emerged with just as a dramatic theme as all other forms of art, in particular in Germany, reflecting the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War. Overall, many forms of art took a dramatic turn in the Baroque