Baroques

the long version

"From Rome to Saint Petersburg, Portugal to Brazil, the Baroque was the first art movement to span not only countries but distant continents. This illustrated book takes us on a pilgrimage through its endless variations over some two hundred years, beginning in the early seventeenth century. Readers are treated to such wonders as Bernini's intensely powerful sculptures and his immense colonnade on Saint Peter's Square, as well as imposing palace facades, trompe l'oeil painted ceilings, soaring angels, fierce demons, elegant villas, lush gardens, and more. Though once viewed in Europe as decadent compared to Renaissance art, the Baroque is seen today as the ultimate manifestation of a style that expanded the bounds of reality and led to a "culture of visualization," prefiguring the modern age." "Combining Ferrante Ferranti's magnificent color photographs, many never before published, with Giovanni Careri's absorbing prose account of the Baroque in chapters arranged by theme, Baroques marks the first time the topic has been treated so expansively, going well beyond Italy as far as colonial Latin America."--Jacket.