We are created from the same substance,
What are our dreams. And surrounded by sleep
All our little lives...
W. Shakespeare
Baroque in painting
Baroque(from Italian barocco - bizarre, strange; from Portuguese perola barocca - pearl of irregular shape) - the main style in the art and literature of Europe in the first half of the 17th century, which is characterized not by imitation of reality, but recreating a new reality in a more bizarre, sophisticated art form.
There is no exact definition of "baroque", however, writers who worked in this direction called this direction "a sickly child born from a freak-father and a beautiful mother", i.e. Baroque combined the features of the beautiful era of antiquity (resurrected during the Renaissance) and the dark Middle Ages.
For Baroque literature, the 17th century is a time not only of intensive formation, but also of flourishing. Baroque manifested itself especially brightly in the literature of those countries where the nobility prevailed over the bourgeoisie (Italy, Germany, Spain), i.e. nobility sought to surround itself with brilliance, glory and sing of its power and greatness with the help of literature, to convince the reader of its superiority and splendor, refinement and selectivity. That is why baroque literature is characterized by increased expressiveness and emotionality, and writers see it as their job to impress and stun the reader. This leads to the fact that earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sea storms, storms and floods become common baroque motifs, i.e. nature is depicted in its chaotic, menacing guise.
In baroque culture the whole world is perceived as a work of art, therefore, such metaphors as "the world-book" and "the world-theater" become the most common. Representatives of the Baroque believed that the real world is just an illusion, a dream (Pedro Calderon's drama Life is a Dream), and its objects are symbols and allegories (allegory) that require interpretation.
In general, in the literature of the Baroque, the optimism of the people of the Renaissance is replaced by pessimism, and a heightened sense of the tragedy and inconsistency of the world becomes characteristic. Representatives of the Baroque are beginning to willingly turn to the theme of the inconstancy of happiness, the precariousness of life values, the omnipotence of fate and chance. The concept of dissonance became fundamental in baroque literature. Enthusiastic admiration for man and his capabilities, characteristic of the Renaissance, is replaced by an image of the depravity of man, the duality of his nature, the inconsistency of his actions. Also, writers, artists and sculptors are attracted nightmare and horror themes, and the image of God is often associated with this. This is explained by the fact that the skeptical attitude towards religion is replaced by religious frenzy and fanaticism (P. Calderon "Adoration of the Cross"). God becomes a gloomy, cruel and merciless force, and the theme of the insignificance of man in front of this force becomes central in the art of the Baroque.
The attitude of the representatives of the Baroque to the world as a book of polysemantic symbols determined the basic aesthetic principles of this trend and influenced the style of the created works. Writers gravitated toward lush imagery, and the images merged one with the other and were built mainly on the basis of complex metaphors. Much attention begins to be paid to the graphic form of the verse, "curly" poems are created, the lines of which form a pattern in the form of a heart or a star.
Writers are especially attracted reception of contrast. They mix the comic and the tragic, the sensual and the rational, the beautiful and the ugly. In poetry, the use of oxymorons (combining incompatible concepts) and paradoxical judgments is welcomed:
In the name of life - do not rush to be born.
Hurry to be born - hurry to die.
(Luis de Gongora)
Baroque existed until the middle of the 18th century and manifested itself in national literatures in different ways:
1. Gongorism (Spain) - Luis de Gongora y Argote and Pedro Calderon
2. Marinism (Italy) - Giambattista Marino and T. Tasso
3. Precise Literature (France) - Marquise de Rambouillet.
The main church of the Jesuit order, Il Gesu (Jesus) in Rome (1575), built by the architect Giacomo de la Porta based on the design of Vignola, can be attributed to the first works in which the features of the Baroque are already clearly outlined. The deep development of the interior space is emphasized on the facade by accentuating the entrance. Its expressiveness is achieved by growing to the center of order forms, creating strong contrasts of light and shadow, dynamic movement of articulations from the edges to the axis. The plane of the facade is perceived as a massive "screen", behind which the main thing is the interior space. The side façades are of secondary importance, their simplified composition having little to do with the main façade.
Church of Il Gesu
Baroque features were especially pronounced in the architecture of the Church of San Carlo at the Four Fountains (1638-1640), built by one of the greatest Baroque masters Francisco Borromini (1599-1667). Its lush and extremely saturated facade in the form of a tensely curved plane, dissected by two tiers of orders, is a kind of culmination of the principle of sharp emotional expressiveness, concentrated in the development of forms that accentuate the main entrance. The stone wall, due to its undulating structure and sculptural quality, acquired the features of a soft plastic material, from which the architect freely "sculpts" the form, not so much caring about its logic and tectonicity, but about direct sensory perception of the image, reflecting to a large extent the subjective attitude of the artist to the creative task. This manifested the architectural individualism and heightened psychologism characteristic of the Baroque, combined with the general formal features inherent in the style.
Church of San Carlo at the Four Fountains
One of the greatest masters of the Roman Baroque was Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). The church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale (1658), built by him in Rome, especially clearly reveals the baroque tendency to highlight the solemn portal on the facade. The facade facing the street in the form of a huge portal is essentially independent of the elliptical volume located in the depth of the section.
Church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
The largest work of Bernini in Rome is the grandiose colonnade in front of the Cathedral of St. Peter, which completed in the middle of the XVII century. ensemble formation. By lengthening the cathedral, the composition turned from centric into deep, frontal-axial. Significance of the facade increased greatly, which at the beginning of the 17th century. was built by a major Baroque master K. Maderna. Its plane, processed by a colossal order, equal in width to 115 m, at a height of 45 m, suppresses with its scale a person who is perceived as tiny next to hypertrophied forms. Bernini created a vast square in front of the facade of the cathedral. The Doric colonnade, about 20 meters high, seems small in comparison with the facade and the huge space that it encloses. The axis of the cathedral dominates the composition, consistently organizing the interior, facade and space of the square.
Here, for the first time, following the ensemble of the Roman Capitol by Michelangelo, a unidirectional spatial composition of the square is created, strictly regular, axial, oriented towards the main object.
The first example of a regular street ensemble was the Uffizi Street in Florence (1569-1574), built by Michelangelo's student D. Vasari. However, the rectilinear street becomes a widespread principle of urban reconstruction only in the second half of the 17th century, when grandiose works were undertaken to rebuild medieval Rome.
Uffizi street
One of the most interesting completed ensembles is Piazza del Popolo - a square at the main northern entrance to Rome with three diverging streets - rays leading to different parts of the city. An obelisk was placed at the point of intersection of the beams, and between the streets on the square, two identical domed churches were built by the architect Rainaldi - a kind of propylaea, accentuating the beginning of the streets. Here, for the first time on a large scale, the city implemented the principles of regular planning, which became fundamental in the architecture and urban planning of classicism.
Piazza del Popolo
The great Michelangelo, with the power and expression of his individual style, in an instant destroyed all the usual ideas about the "rules" of drawing and composition.
Michelangelo is considered both the last master of the Renaissance and the creator of the Baroque style, for it was he who realized its main style-forming element - the plasticity of the wall. The crown of his work - St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is already considered to be in the Baroque style.
Saint Paul's Cathedral
Indeed, Michelangelo is the true "father of the Baroque", since in his statues, buildings, drawings there is, at the same time, a return to the spiritual values of the Middle Ages and a consistent discovery of new principles of shaping. This ingenious artist, having exhausted the possibilities of classical plasticity, in the late period of his work created previously unseen expressive forms. His titanic figures are depicted not according to the rules of plastic anatomy, which served as the norm for the same Michelangelo just some ten years ago, but according to other, irrational form-building forces, brought to life by the imagination of the artist himself. One of the first signs of Baroque art: redundancy of means and confusion of scales. In the art of Classicism, all forms are clearly defined and delimited from each other. They are proportionate to the viewer; sculpture and architecture are also separated, and although decorative statues and murals are associated with architectural space, they always have frames and clear compositional boundaries. Michelangelo’s “Sistine Plafond” is therefore the first work of the Baroque style, because in it there was a clash of figures drawn, but sculptural in tangibility, and an incredible architectural frame painted on the ceiling, not at all consistent with the real space of architecture. The dimensions of the figures also mislead the viewer, they do not harmonize, but are discordant even with the picturesque, illusory space created for them by the artist.
Other works by Michelangelo - the architectural ensemble of the Capitol in Rome, the interior of the Medici Chapel and the lobby of the library of San Lorenzo in Florence - showed classicist forms, but everything in them was embraced by extraordinary tension and excitement. Old architectural elements were used in a new way, primarily not in accordance with their constructive function. So in the lobby of the library of San Lorenzo, Michelangelo did something completely inexplicable. The columns are doubled, but hidden in the recesses of the walls and do not support anything, so their capitals are some kind of strange endings. There are imaginary, deaf windows on the walls. And the vestibule staircase, according to the witty remark of J. Burckhardt, "is suitable only for those who want to break their necks." On the sides, where necessary, the stairs do not have railings. The outer steps are rounded with completely useless curls at the corners. By itself, the staircase fills almost all the free space of the lobby, it does not invite, but only blocks the entrance.
In the project of St. Peter's Cathedral (1546), Michelangelo, in contradiction to Bramante, who began construction, subordinated the entire architectural space to the central dome, making the structure dynamic. Bundles of pilasters, double columns, dome ribs depict a coordinated, powerful upward movement. In comparison with the sketches of Michelangelo, the executor of the project Giacomo della Porta in 1588-1590. enhanced this dynamic by sharpening the dome; he made it not hemispherical, as was customary in the art of the Renaissance, but elongated, parabolic. Thus, the classicist ideal of balance was canceled, in which the visual aspiration from the bottom up was, as it were, extinguished by the static semicircular shape. The new silhouette emphasized a powerful movement upward, towards the sky.
Lobby of the San Lorenzo Library
Today let's deal with the most interesting baroque art style. Its emergence was influenced by two important events of the Middle Ages. Firstly, this is a change in worldview ideas about the universe and man, associated with the epoch-making scientific discoveries of that time. And secondly, with the need for those in power to imitate their own greatness against the backdrop of material impoverishment. And the use of an artistic style that glorifies the power of the nobility and the church was most welcome. But against the background of mercantile tasks, the spirit of freedom, sensuality and self-awareness of a person as a doer and creator broke into the style itself.
- (Italian barocco - bizarre, strange, prone to excesses; port. perola barroca - a pearl with a vice) - a characteristic of European culture of the 17th-18th centuries, the center of which was Italy. The Baroque style appeared in the XVI-XVII centuries in Italian cities: Rome, Mantua, Venice, Florence. The Baroque era is considered to be the beginning of the triumphal procession of "Western civilization". opposed to classicism and rationalism. 
In the 17th century, Italy lost its economic and political power. Foreigners, the Spaniards and the French, begin to manage on its territory. But exhausted Italy has not lost the height of its position - it still remains the cultural center of Europe. The nobility and the church needed everyone to see their strength and viability, but since there was no money for new buildings, they turned to art to create the illusion of power and wealth. This is how the baroque appeared in Italy. 
Baroque is characterized by contrast, tension, dynamism of images, the desire for grandeur and splendor, for the combination of reality and illusion. During this period, thanks to the discoveries of Copernicus, the idea of the world as a rational and constant unity, as well as of man as a most rational being, changed. In the words of Pascal, a person began to realize himself "something in between everything and nothing", "one who catches only the appearance of phenomena, but is not able to understand either their beginning or their end." 
The Baroque style in painting is characterized by the dynamism of compositions, the “flatness” and pomp of forms, the aristocracy and originality of subjects. The most characteristic features of the Baroque are catchy flamboyance and dynamism. A vivid example is creativity with their riot of feelings and naturalism in the depiction of people and events. 
Caravaggio is considered the most significant master among Italian artists who created at the end of the 16th century. new style in painting. His paintings, painted on religious subjects, resemble realistic scenes of the author's contemporary life, creating a contrast between late antiquity and modern times. The heroes are depicted in twilight, from which the rays of light snatch out the expressive gestures of the characters, contrastingly writing out their specificity. 
In Italian baroque painting, different genres developed, but mostly they were allegories, a mythological genre. Pietro da Cortona, Andrea del Pozzo, the Carracci brothers (Agostino and Lodovico) succeeded in this direction. The Venetian school became famous, where the genre of veduta, or urban landscape, gained great popularity. The most famous author of such works is the artist. 
Rubens combined in his canvases the natural and the supernatural, reality and fantasy, learning and spirituality. In addition to Rubens, another master of the Flemish Baroque achieved international recognition -. With the work of Rubens, a new style came to Holland, where it was picked up and. In Spain, Diego Velasquez worked in the style of Caravaggio, and in France, Nicolas Poussin, in Russia, Ivan Nikitin and Alexei Antropov. 
Baroque artists opened up to art new methods of spatial interpretation of form in its ever-changing vital dynamics, and activated their life position. The unity of life in the sensual-bodily joy of being, in tragic conflicts, is the basis of beauty in baroque art. The idealization of images is combined with turbulent dynamics, reality with fantasy, and religious affectation with emphasized sensuality. 
Closely associated with the monarchy, the aristocracy and the church, baroque art was intended to glorify and promote their power. At the same time, it reflected new ideas about the unity, infinity and diversity of the world, about its dramatic complexity and eternal variability, interest in the environment, in the human environment, in the natural elements. Man no longer appears as the center of the Universe, but as a multifaceted personality, with a complex world of experiences, involved in the circulation and conflicts of the environment. 
In Russia, the development of the Baroque falls in the first half of the 18th century. The Russian baroque was free from the exaltation and mysticism characteristic of Catholic countries, and possessed a number of national features, such as a sense of pride in the successes of the state and people. In architecture, baroque reached majestic proportions in the city and estate ensembles of St. Petersburg, Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo. In the visual arts, freed from medieval religious fetters, they turned to secular social themes, to the image of a human figure. Baroque everywhere evolves towards the graceful lightness of the Rococo style, coexists and intertwines with it, and from the 1760s. superseded by classicism. 
Writers and poets in the Baroque era perceived the real world as an illusion and a dream. Realistic descriptions were often combined with their allegorical depiction. Symbols, metaphors, theatrical techniques, graphic images (lines of poetry form a picture), saturation with rhetorical figures, antitheses, parallelisms, gradations, oxymorons are widely used. There is a burlesque-satirical attitude to reality. Baroque literature is characterized by the desire for diversity, for the summation of knowledge about the world, inclusiveness, encyclopedism, which sometimes turns into chaos and collecting curiosities, the desire to study being in its contrasts (spirit and flesh, darkness and light, time and eternity). Baroque ethics is marked by a craving for the symbolism of the night, the theme of frailty and impermanence, life.
The actions of the novels are often transferred to the fictional world of antiquity, to Greece, court cavaliers and ladies are depicted as shepherdesses and shepherdesses, which is called the pastoral (Honoré d'Yurfe, Astrea). Pretentiousness and the use of complex metaphors flourish in poetry. Such forms are common like a sonnet, rondo, concetti (a short poem expressing some witty thought), madrigals.
Baroque literature, like the whole movement, is characterized by a tendency towards complexity of forms and a desire for stateliness and pomp. In baroque literature, the disharmony of the world and man, their tragic confrontation, as well as internal struggles in the soul of an individual, are comprehended. Because of this, the vision of the world and man is most often pessimistic. At the same time, the baroque in general and its literature in particular are permeated by faith in the reality of the spiritual principle, the greatness of God. In this culture, and especially in literature, in addition to focusing on the problem of evil and the frailty of the world, there was also a desire to overcome the crisis, to comprehend the highest rationality, combining both good and evil principles. Thus, an attempt was made to remove contradictions, the place of man in the vast expanses of the universe was determined by the creative power of his thought and the possibility of a miracle. With such an approach, God appeared as the embodiment of the idea of justice, mercy and higher reason.
Baroque literature insisted on freedom of expression in creativity, it is characterized by an unbridled flight of fantasy. Baroque strove for excess in everything. Because of this, there is an accentuated, deliberate complexity of images and language, combined with the desire for beauty and affectation of feelings. The Baroque language is extremely complicated, unusual and even deliberate techniques are used, pretentiousness and even pomposity appear. Baroque literature constantly confronts the real and the imaginary, the desired and the real, the problem of "to be or to seem" becomes one of the most important. The intensity of passions led to the fact that feelings pressed the mind in culture and art. Finally, baroque is characterized by a mixture of very different feelings and the appearance of irony, "there is no phenomenon either so serious or so sad that it cannot turn into a joke." A pessimistic worldview gave rise not only to irony, but also to caustic sarcasm, grotesque and hyperbole.
The writers proclaimed the originality of the work as its most important advantage, and the necessary features - the difficulty for perception and the possibility of various interpretations. Baroque poets highly valued wit, which consisted in paradoxical judgments, in expressing thoughts in an unusual way, in comparing opposite objects, in building works on the principle of contrast, in interest in the graphic form of verse. Paradoxical judgments are an integral component of baroque lyrics. A striking example are 2 Spanish poets: Luis de Gongora and Francesco de Quevedo. Luis de Gongora represents the aristocratic Baroque, Francesco de Quevedo the democratic.
There are 2 varieties of baroque in Spain. Cultism - L. de Gongora represented it. According to Gongora, art should serve only a select few. The deliberate complexity of his poems limited the circle of readers. Gongora's style is dark. This is a form of expression of rejection of ugly efficiency. He tries to rise above efficiency. His poems are full of complex metaphors that reflect the author's pessimistic view of the world. In support of this, consider the poem "While the fleece of your hair flows."
"While the fleece of your hair flows,
Like gold in radiant filigree,
And do not brighten the crystal in the break of the face,
Than a gentle neck swan takeoff ... "
F. de Quevedo was a staunch opponent of the dark style. Most of the manifestations are satirical. He reduces even high mythological themes. He has bold political satires, denounces social vices. One of the key themes is the omnipotence of money. The novel "The life story of a rogue named Don Pablos." This is blatant satire. Life, a classic example of a picaresque novel.
It stands apart in studies of the history of literature and art of the 16th-17th centuries. such a phenomenon as mannerism. Mannerism(from Italian maniera, manner) - Western European literary and artistic style of the 16th - first third of the 17th century. It is characterized by the loss of Renaissance harmony between the physical and spiritual, nature and man. Some researchers (especially literary critics) are not inclined to consider Mannerism as an independent style and see it as an early phase of the Baroque. There is also an extended interpretation of the concept of "mannerism" as an expression of the formative, "pretentious" beginning in art at different stages of cultural development - from antiquity to the present. This is one of the earliest evidence of the manifestation of the attitude of the new time and the adherence to baroque aesthetics. It originates in the depths of the Renaissance aesthetics, and is considered by many researchers precisely as a stylistic trend of the late Renaissance, even as evidence of its crisis.
It testifies to the search for expressiveness in the field of language at the "border" of cultural and aesthetic eras. It is distinguished by a complicated, sophisticated poetic manner (the term itself already emphasizes this aspect), which is the result of a fundamentally new attitude towards art itself. The individual creative initiative of the poet, the new principle of figurativeness, comes to the fore. Mannerism reflects the tragedy of the worldview of the "frontier" period (the ideas of relativity, the transience of everything that exists, predestination, skepticism and mysticism, etc.). It manifested itself, first of all, in the culture of the nobility (for example, in France). Thus, in general, it is a “borderline” phenomenon between the late Renaissance and the actual direction of the baroque of the 17th century. Mannerism is a systematizing general name for a number of art phenomena. In literature, one way or another, gongorism and conceptism (Spain), Marinism (Italy), euphuism (England), and precision literature (France) are associated with it.
1. High baroque - developed "high", that is, philosophical, universal problems, touched upon eternal questions. It manifested itself in drama, associated with the work of Calderon and Gryphius.
2. Low baroque - refers to modern, everyday, private material, most often relies on satire. Uses the "picaresque" tradition. Representatives - Charles Sorel, Paul Scarron.
Baroque (Italian barocco - “bizarre”, “strange”, “prone to excesses”, port. perola barroca - “pearl of irregular shape” - a characteristic of European culture of the 17th-18th centuries.
Baroque era
The Baroque era gives rise to a huge amount of time for entertainment: instead of pilgrimages - the promenade (walks in the park); instead of jousting tournaments - "carousels" (horseback rides) and card games; instead of mysteries - theater and a masquerade ball. You can add the appearance of swings and "fiery fun" (fireworks). In the interiors, portraits and landscapes took the place of icons, and music turned from spiritual into a pleasant play of sound.
Baroque features
Baroque is characterized by contrast, tension, dynamic images, affectation, striving for grandeur and pomp, for combining reality and illusion, for the fusion of arts (urban and palace and park ensembles, opera, cult music, oratorio); at the same time - a tendency towards autonomy of individual genres (concerto grosso, sonata, suite in instrumental music).
baroque man
Baroque man rejects naturalness, which is identified with savagery, arrogance, tyranny, bestiality and ignorance. The Baroque woman cherishes the pallor of her skin, she wears an unnatural, frilly hairstyle, a corset and an artificially extended skirt on a whalebone frame. She is in heels.
And the ideal of a man in the Baroque era becomes a gentleman, a gentleman - from the English. gentle: “soft”, “gentle”, “calm”. He prefers to shave his mustache and beard, wear perfume and wear powdered wigs. Why force, if now they kill by pulling the trigger of a musket.
Galileo for the first time directs a telescope to the stars and proves the rotation of the Earth around the Sun (1611), and Leeuwenhoek discovers tiny living organisms under a microscope (1675). Huge sailboats plow the expanses of the world's oceans, erasing white spots on the geographical maps of the world. Travelers and adventurers become literary symbols of the era.
Baroque in sculpture
Sculpture is an integral part of the Baroque style. The greatest sculptor and recognized architect of the 17th century was an Italian Lorenzo Bernini(1598-1680). Among his most famous sculptures are the mythological scenes of the abduction of Proserpina by the god of the underworld Pluto and the miraculous transformation into a tree of the nymph Daphne, pursued by the god of light Apollo, as well as an altar group "The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" in one of the Roman churches. The last of them, with its clouds carved from marble and the clothes of characters fluttering in the wind, with theatrically exaggerated feelings, very accurately expresses the aspirations of the sculptors of this era.
In Spain, in the era of the Baroque style, wooden sculptures prevailed, for greater credibility they were made with glass eyes and even a crystal tear, real clothes were often put on the statue.
Baroque in architecture
For baroque architecture ( L. Bernini, F. Borromini in Italy B. F. Rastrell and in Russia Jan Christoph Glaubitz in the Commonwealth) are characterized by spatial scope, fusion, fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms. Large-scale colonnades are often found, an abundance of sculptures on facades and in interiors, volutes, a large number of rake-outs, arched facades with a rake-out in the middle, rusticated columns and pilasters. The domes acquire complex forms, often they are multi-tiered, as in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. Characteristic details of the Baroque - telamon (atlas), caryatid, mascaron.
Baroque in the interior
The baroque style is characterized by ostentatious luxury, although it retains such an important feature of the classical style as symmetry.
Wall painting (one of the types of monumental painting) has been used in decorating European interiors since early Christian times. In the Baroque era, it was most widely used. The interiors used a lot of color and large, richly decorated details: a ceiling decorated with frescoes, marble walls and parts of the decor, gilding. Color contrasts were characteristic - for example, the marble floor, decorated with tiles in a checkerboard pattern. Abundant gilded jewelry was a characteristic feature of this style.
Furniture was a piece of art, and was intended almost exclusively for interior decoration. Chairs, sofas and armchairs were upholstered in expensive, richly colored fabric. Huge beds with canopies and flowing down bedspreads, giant wardrobes were widespread. Mirrors were decorated with sculptures and stucco with floral patterns. Southern walnut and Ceylon ebony were often used as furniture material.
Baroque style is not suitable for small spaces, as massive furniture and decorations take up a large amount of space.
baroque fashion
The fashion of the Baroque era corresponds in France to the period of the reign of Louis XIV, the second half of the 17th century. This is the age of absolutism. Strict etiquette and complex ceremonial reigned at the court. The suit was subject to etiquette. France was a trendsetter in Europe, so other countries quickly adopted French fashion. This was the century when a general fashion was established in Europe, and national characteristics receded into the background or were preserved in the folk peasant costume. Before Peter I, European costumes were also worn in Russia by some aristocrats, although not everywhere.
The costume was characterized by stiffness, splendor, an abundance of jewelry. The ideal of a man was Louis XIV, the "sun king", a skilled rider, dancer, shooter. He was short, so he wore high heels.
Baroque in painting
The Baroque style in painting is characterized by the dynamism of compositions, the “flatness” and pomp of forms, the aristocracy and originality of subjects. The most characteristic features of the Baroque are catchy flamboyance and dynamism; a prime example is creativity Rubens And Caravaggio.
Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610), nicknamed after his birthplace near Milan Caravaggio, is considered the most significant master among Italian artists who created at the end of the 16th century. new style in painting. His paintings, painted on religious subjects, resemble realistic scenes of the author's contemporary life, creating a contrast between late antiquity and modern times. The heroes are depicted in twilight, from which the rays of light snatch out the expressive gestures of the characters, contrastingly writing out their specificity. Followers and imitators of Caravaggio, who at first were called caravaggists, and the current itself was called caravagism, such as Annibale Carracci(1560-1609) or Guido Reni(1575-1642), adopted the riot of feelings and the characteristic manner of Caravaggio, as well as his naturalism in the depiction of people and events.
