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 century, 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 schools. Along the way, we meet such leading Baroque practitioners as Nicolas Poussin, Annibale Carraci, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt, and examine their particular innovations in composition, narrative, and light to achieve a Baroque sensibility.