Baroque & Enlightenment
1600 – 1800 ADAn age of grandeur and reason. Baroque art overwhelmed the senses while Enlightenment philosophy insisted on clarity. Bach built cathedrals in sound, Rembrandt painted the soul, and Kant drew the map of human understanding.
Literature & Philosophy
Visual Arts & Architecture
Music & Performing Arts
1600–1700
LiteratureCervantes1547 – 1616Don QuixoteVisualCaravaggio1571 – 1610Dramatic chiaroscuroVisualRembrandt1606 – 1669Night Watch, self-portraitsVisualVelázquez1599 – 1660Las MeninasLiteratureMilton1608 – 1674Paradise LostLiteraturePascal1623 – 1662PenséesLiteratureDescartes1596 – 1650Meditations, Discourse on MethodVisualBernini1598 – 1680Ecstasy of St Teresa, St Peter's SquareVisualVermeer1632 – 1675Girl with a Pearl EarringLiteratureSpinoza1632 – 1677EthicsMusicJean-Baptiste Lully1632 – 1687French opera and the tragedie lyriqueMusicArcangelo Corelli1653 – 1713Concerti grossi — violin masterMusicHenry Purcell1659 – 1695Dido and Aeneas — English Baroque geniusMusicFrancois Couperin1668 – 1733Les Barricades Mysterieuses — French harpsichordMusicAntonio Vivaldi1678 – 1741The Four Seasons — Venetian concerto masterLiteratureMoliere1622 – 1673Tartuffe, The Misanthrope — king of comedyLiteratureJean Racine1639 – 1699Phedre, Andromaque — French tragic perfectionVisualPeter Paul Rubens1577 – 1640Descent from the Cross — Baroque exuberanceVisualNicolas Poussin1594 – 1665Et in Arcadia Ego — French classical paintingVisualClaude Lorrain1600 – 1682Ideal landscape — the golden light of RomeVisualEl Greco1541 – 1614View of Toledo, Burial of the Count of OrgazVisualFrans Hals~1582 – 1666The Laughing Cavalier — Dutch portraitureVisualGeorges de La Tour1593 – 1652Nocturnal candlelight scenesVisualJacob van Ruisdael1628 – 1682Dutch landscape master — windmills and waterfalls
1700–1800
MusicJ.S. Bach1685 – 1750Well-Tempered Clavier, Mass in B minorMusicMozart1756 – 1791Don Giovanni, Requiem, symphoniesLiteratureKant1724 – 1804Critique of Pure ReasonLiteratureHume1711 – 1776Treatise of Human NatureLiteratureVoltaire1694 – 1778Candide, philosophical lettersLiteratureRousseau1712 – 1778Social Contract, ConfessionsMusicHandel1685 – 1759Messiah, opera seriaMusicHaydn1732 – 1809Father of the symphony and string quartetMusicGluck1714 – 1787Orfeo ed Euridice — opera reformMusicJean-Philippe Rameau1683 – 1764Hippolyte et Aricie — theorist and opera composerMusicDomenico Scarlatti1685 – 1757555 keyboard sonatasMusicGeorg Philipp Telemann1681 – 1767Most prolific Baroque composerMusicC.P.E. Bach1714 – 1788Empfindsamer Stil — the sensitive styleLiteratureJonathan Swift1667 – 1745Gulliver's Travels, A Modest ProposalLiteratureSamuel Johnson1709 – 1784Dictionary, Lives of the Poets — the Great ChamLiteratureFriedrich Schiller1759 – 1805Don Carlos, Ode to Joy — German idealistVisualAntoine Watteau1684 – 1721Pilgrimage to Cythera — inventor of the fete galanteVisualGiambattista Tiepolo1696 – 1770Wurzburg ceiling — the last great fresco painterVisualJean-Simeon Chardin1699 – 1779Still life and domestic scenes — the quiet masterVisualWilliam Hogarth1697 – 1764A Rake's Progress — painting as moral satireVisualGiovanni Battista Piranesi1720 – 1778Carceri, Vedute — visionary architectureVisualAntonio Canova1757 – 1822Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss — Neoclassical sculptureVisualJean-Honore Fragonard1732 – 1806The Swing — Rococo exuberanceVisualCanaletto1697 – 1768Venice vedute — the Grand Tour painterVisualThomas Gainsborough1727 – 1788The Blue Boy, Mr and Mrs Andrews — English portraitureVisualGeorge Stubbs1724 – 1806Whistlejacket — anatomy of the horseVisualSir Joshua Reynolds1723 – 1792Discourses on Art — first president of the Royal Academy