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- Style of art and architecture characterized
- by extravagance in ornament, asymmetry of
- design, and great expressiveness.
- It dominated European art for most of the
- 17th century, with artists like the painter
- Rubens and the sculptor Bernini.
- In architecture it often involved large-scale
- designs, such as Bernini's piazza in Rome and
- the palace of Versailles in France. In music
- the Baroque era lasted from about 1600 to
- 1750, and its major composers included
- Monteverdi, Vivaldi, J S Bach, and Handel. In
- painting, Caravaggio, with his bold use of
- light and forceful compositions, was an early
- exponent, but the Carracci family was more
- typical of the early Baroque style, producing
- grandiose visions in ceiling paintings that
- deployed illusionistic painting of florid
- architectural decoration. In sculpture, the
- greatest master was Bernini, whose Ecstasy of
- St Theresa 1645-52 (Sta Maria della Vittoria,
- Rome) is a fine example of overt
- emotionalism. Most masterpieces of the new
- style emerged in churches and palaces in
- Rome, but it soon spread through Europe. The
- Swiss art historian Burckhardt was the first
- to use the term `baroque'.
-