Italian Baroque Art

Grandeur, intensity, passion, and motion – these are the defining characteristics of art created during the Baroque period in 17th and early 18th-century Italy. This rich and turbulent era heralds the Age of Enlightenment, and Italian art engages closely with key intellectual debates of the period, including the secular vs. the sacred; the role of the individual within a Catholic state; and the rise of cultural politics over military might.

This anthology presents classic and recent scholarship on Italian art from 1600-1750, highlighting key debates with which art historians continue to grapple. Its essays explore the concept of style or the visuality of art; the creation and utilization of art; artistic communication as projected and experienced; and artists’ interactions with the ancient world and the new sciences. Italian Baroque Art is an innovative, intellectual, and instructional collection for students and lovers of 17th and 18th-century art.