The Polish Baroque lasted from the early 17th to the mid-18th century. As with Baroque style elsewhere in Europe, Poland's Baroque emphasized the richness and triumphant power of contemporary art forms. In contrast to the previous, Renaissance style which sought to depict the beauty and harmony of nature, Baroque artists strove to create their own vision of the world. The result was manifold, regarded by some critics as grand and dramatic, but sometimes also chaotic and disharmonious and tinged with affectation and religious exaltation, thus reflecting the turbulent times of the 17th-century Europe.
Portrait of Jakub Narzymski by Szymon Czechowicz, 1738
Plafond Allegory of Spring by Jerzy Siemiginowski-Eleuter, 1680s
Saints Peter and Paul Church, Kraków, Poland
Church of St. Johns and Vilnius University
The Baroque or Baroquism is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo and Neoclassical styles. It was encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and austerity of Protestant architecture, art, and music, though Lutheran Baroque art developed in parts of Europe as well.
Image: WLA metmuseum Venus and Adonis by Peter Paul Rubens
Image: Ecstasy of Saint Teresa September 2015 2a
Image: Cour de Marbre du Château de Versailles October 5, 2011
Pendant in the form of a siren, made of a baroque pearl (the torso) with enameled gold mounts set with rubies, probably circa 1860, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City, New York).