Baroque

From dramatically lit paintings to elaborate gilded interiors, the Baroque era introduced a new dimension to Western art. In place of the harmonious perspectives and elegant proportions of the Renaissance came a world of momentum, energy, and heightened spectacle. The style influenced many forms and disciplines between the 16th and 18th centuries, infusing painting, sculpture, architecture, and music with a direct, often emotive, appeal to the audience.

This TASCHEN Basic Art 2.0 edition focuses on Baroque painting. Through mythological and religious scenes, still lifes, and beyond, we explore how a vivid vocabulary of deep colors, intense shadows, dramatic gestures, and diagonal lines infiltrated both northern and southern European schools. Along the way, we meet such leading Baroque practitioners as Nicolas Poussin, Annibale Carracci, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt, and examine their particular innovations in composition, narrative, and light to achieve a Baroque sensibility.



About the series

Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art History series features:

approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions

a detailed, illustrated introduction

a selection of the most important works of the epoch, each presented on a two-page spread with a full-page image and accompanying interpretation, as well as a portrait and brief biography of the artist