Baroque is a particular cultural and artistic period that began in Rome in the early 17th century before spreading across Europe, in various forms, in the second half of the century.
The negative connotation attributed to Baroque by 18th-century critics, who also coined the term, was aimed at artists who in their architecture and painting had moved away from the principles of harmony, beauty and functionality found in Renaissance culture.
18th-century theorists saw and recognised in Baroque art bizarre, eccentric and fantastic elements in stark contrast with the harmony derived from the rigorous application of geometric, proportional principles used in the Renaissance.
Baroque was considered in a more positive light from the end of the 19th century, a period that recognised the importance in art of a new perception of space, with its symbolic and scenographic force that was widely accepted by both the aristocratic and less affluent classes.
