The work is cast and gilt bronze, with 4 twisting Solomonic columns that replicate the original columns of the Baldacchino that was in the same spot in the original St. One of the central commissions for this is the 9-storey tall Baldacchino, or honorary canopy, that marks the supposed burial place of St. Peter’s at the Vatican was also now complete, and Pope Urban VIII had commissioned Gianlorenzo Bernini to complete the interior decoration, much of which celebrates this idea of the Church triumphant. This was in no small part because of the forced conversion of thousands of Native Americans in the new Spanish territories in Central and South America, as well as the West Indies. The Catholic Church in the 17th century saw itself as triumphant, moving towards the defeat of what it saw as the heresy of Protestantism. Religious fundamentalism was on the rise, along with superstition and fear of the Devil and the Antichrist. This was seen as a dangerous heresy by the Catholic Church in Rome. Astrological discoveries by Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo were all vigorously opposed by the Church, as they had discovered that the Earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around. With the Parliamentary system in England, and the Constitutional monarchy, Charles’s attempt was doomed to failure from the beginning, and the beheading of the King led to the establishment of a Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell.
![baroque portraiture baroque portraiture](http://cdn2.all-art.org/baroque/images/velazquez/118.jpg)
This came after Charles I tried to impose the same rule by divine right that Louis XIV in France had imposed. Puritans fled religious persecution in England by sailing to the colony of New England, while England beheaded King Charles I and introduced parliamentary rule. There were also a number of wars of religion, with Holland rebelling against the Catholic domination of Spain, which, after the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, led to The Netherlands being divided into Protestant Holland and Catholic Flanders (modern Belgium). Some characteristics of Baroque art are that it departs from Classical restraint is usually asymmetrical and it lacks the appearance of controlled linear perspective.Įurope in the 17th century was characterized by competition for colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Oceania. The word Baroque means irregular or imperfect, and was originally meant as a pejorative.
![baroque portraiture baroque portraiture](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFOkYpDW4AAi4Lr.jpg)
The Baroque Style is really a diversity of styles that tend to be relatively unrestrained, overtly emotional, and more energetic than earlier styles.