Baroque Artworks

Baroque artworks, architecture, and music are among the highlights of European culture. Historians call this period between 1600 and approx. 1770 the Golden Age of the arts. Let yourself be captivated by modern interpretations of baroque splendor as wall art for your home!

Word meaning and stylistic features of Baroque artworks
More than just artworks: The Gesamtkunstwerk Baroque
Baroque artworks by LUMAS artists
Baroque timeline

The unusual name Baroque goes back to the Portuguese word for irregularly shaped pearls: barroco. Initially used mockingly to describe the opulent artistic, musical, and architectural movement, it evokes strong associations. Dynamic, dramatic, pompous, or monumental are just a few descriptions. In fact, a particular vitality emerges that is typical for Baroque artworks.

Depicted people become individuals with emotions and flaws. The world becomes a stage for biblical scenes, parables from Greek mythology, or absolutist rulers. The use of light and shadow is theatrical, the gestures large and dynamic. This new style of representation spread from Italy to the rest of Europe. Famous painters of this time include Annibale Carracci, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Guido Reni, El Greco, Nicolas Poussin, Peter Paul Rubens, Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Diego Velázquez.

The Counter-Reformation era was a time full of tension. The Catholic Church’s mission consciousness after Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation demanded magnificent buildings and the display of the Church’s glory. The influence of European princes and royal houses manifested itself in splendid palaces and gardens such as those of Louis XIV and his court in Versailles. Bitter poverty among the population and the splendid wealth of the nobility stood in stark contrast. For the arts, however, the Baroque was a flourishing era.

Discover the most important Baroque subjects through our LUMAS artists with a contemporary and relevant interpretation, and find your favorite!

Still lifes as Baroque artworks

In the Baroque, the genre of still life emerged. Depending on the motif and objects depicted, these are known as flower still lifes, kitchen still lifes, or vanitas still lifes, among many others. Common to all still lifes is that they always depict inanimate objects or dead animals. In the vanitas still life, there is always a reminder of the transience of earthly life. A skull may be depicted, or laurel and ivy as symbols of rebirth.

Kevin Best arranges traditional still lifes as photographs with fruits and glass goblets. He uses the imagery of the vanitas still life: an extinguished candle pointing to mortality.

Guy Diehl, on the other hand, paints photorealistic still lifes with modern objects that reference great artists of contemporary and classical modern art.

Dan Bannino shows, with a wink, what modern icons put on their tables: pasta and wine, champagne and cigarettes. What’s special about the still lifes at LUMAS: they are often photographic works. The painterliness of the old masters is replaced by the precise eye of modern photographers!

The genre painting as a Baroque artwork

Genre painting mostly depicts everyday scenes. The people portrayed often stand as representatives of a people or social group rather than as individual portraits. In the Baroque, Jan Vermeer stood out as a master of staging interiors or street scenes. His compositions with light, shadow, and color are subtle allegories, whose full meaning reveals itself only upon closer inspection. In this Golden Age of Dutch painting, with artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt van Rijn, the self-image and prosperity of the Dutch bourgeoisie were reflected in the Baroque. Taking up genre painting, LUMAS artists such as Mark Seelen, Lynne Collins, Iris Brosch, and Andrey Yakovlev and Lili Aleeva as photographic artists stage a lavishness that can only be described as baroque. One could almost forget they are modern photographs.

Flowers as Baroque artworks

A distinct genre of still life is the flower still life. People have always been fascinated by the fleeting beauty of blooming plants and vegetation. With technical innovations such as lenses and the camera obscura, nature could be observed much more precisely. Baroque artworks became increasingly realistic, and many painters were also botanical illustrators or engaged in other studies of nature (such as the anatomy of the human body). The development of oil painting and the emergence of canvas painting created the right conditions to paint deceptively realistic and impressive flower paintings. The influence of Baroque painters such as Rachel Ruysch and other Flemish masters can be directly felt in the works of Ysabel Lemay, Isabelle Menin, Kris Scholz, and Annet Van der Voort. With the possibilities of digital image editing and photography, these artists interpret this classic theme in a unique way for the 21st century.

Timeline Baroque and famous Baroque artworks