The Art and Artists of the Baroque Era

The Art and Artists of the Baroque Era as Influenced by Religion

The word Baroque from its origins in the 16th century is a technical term for irregularly shaped pearls . Its popularized English language jargon meant variously strange , distorted and extravagant . The Baroque era seem to actually reflect the strange and distortion because of the divergence in religion and various styles . The extravagance is indeed manifested in the rich architectural and painting samples of this period

In the early 16th century , the Protestant reformation came to fruition that rooted from the

growing dissatisfaction with Church leadership . A damaging perception was that Roman popes concerned themselves with temporal power and material wealth than with the salvation of the members of the church . In late 16th century , the Counter Reformation was at its peak and all religious art was being scrutinized in strict accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent to eliminate any form of imagery that might be regarded as profane , pagan or heretical (Kleiner 508

Besides the doctrinal differences between the Catholic Church and the Protestants , another was the role of visual imagery in religion . The concern of Protestants was about the role of religious imagery that sometimes progressed to iconoclasm , which is defined as the objection to and destruction of religious imagery . Protestant leaders encouraged a more personal relationship with God by speaking out against the religious art being produced because this could lead to idolatry and distraction from communicating with God . However , Catholics embraced church decoration...