The Baroque era was the age of magic. Flat surfaces became three-dimensional and paint on plaster became alive. It was the age of masterful illusion. Nothing exhibits this mastery better than Baroque ceiling paintings. From its conception Baroque art, especially painting, has been designed to overwhelm and wow the viewer. Artistic devices of spatial illusion were developed during the Baroque in response to cultural anxieties occasioned by revolutionary scientific discoveries, revolutionary religious
Now You See It...Now You Don't Illusionistic Ceiling Painting of the Seventeenth Century Introduction: Webster's dictionary defines illusion as a “perception of something objective existing in such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual nature”. In Europe during the seventeenth century, or the Baroque era, certain artistic implementations of spatial illusion were established. The influence of perception was deteriorating and being questioned. Artists of the time reacted suitably
Art from Baroque Period through the Postmodern Era Renaissance art history began as civic history; it was an expression of civic pride. The first such history was Filippo Villani's De origine civitatis Florentiae et eiusdem famosis civibus, written about 1381-82. Florentine artists revived an art that was almost dead, Villani asserts, just as Dante had restored poetry after its decline in the Middle Ages. The revival was begun by Cimabue and completed by Giotto, who equalled the ancient painters
Rome or "The Eternal City", capital of Papal estates, a city of artistic, cultural and architectural importance, home to many famous artists and architects. As Pope Urban VIII sat on the papal throne in 1623, he immediately hired two talented young men for the construction of the St. Peter's Basilica. Bernini the master sculptor and Borromini an amazing architectural draftsman, both artists worked on St.Peters for the next few years and left an imprint of their own architectural styles and visions
Bernini was given the task of finishing St. Peters after Maderno died in 1629 (676). Baroque style, as defined in the book, is a style of “persuasion” and seems to focus on appealing to the senses as well as being very dramatic in terms of sensuality, emotion, movement, and expressiveness. Everything about baroque art was splendor and opulent. Another change that was prevalent during this time that was not in the High Renaissance was the shift from the Catholic Church being the sponsor for most of
the time and to rejuvenate them in the faith. New art such as sculptures, fresco paintings, altarpieces, oil paintings, and architecture became popular during this time. Some of the main artists were Caravaggio, Bernini, Peter Paul Reubens, and Pietro da
Pliny says that in the desarts of Africk, you shall meet oftentimes with fairies appearing in the shape of men and women, but they vanish quite away like phantastical delusions. John Aubrey's apparitions don't often behave like ordinary phantastical delusions. The Laird Bocconi appeared to his friend Lord Middleton imprisoned in the Tower of London after the Battle of Worcester, under three locks. My Lord Middleton asked him if he were dead or alive. He said dead, and that he was a ghost; and