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
VisualEl Greco1541 – 1614View of Toledo, Burial of the Count of OrgazLiteratureCervantes1547 – 1616Don QuixoteVisualCaravaggio1571 – 1610Dramatic chiaroscuroVisualPeter Paul Rubens1577 – 1640Descent from the Cross — Baroque exuberanceVisualFrans Hals~1582 – 1666The Laughing Cavalier — Dutch portraitureVisualGeorges de La Tour1593 – 1652Nocturnal candlelight scenesVisualNicolas Poussin1594 – 1665Et in Arcadia Ego — French classical paintingLiteratureDescartes1596 – 1650Meditations, Discourse on MethodVisualBernini1598 – 1680Ecstasy of St Teresa, St Peter's SquareVisualVelázquez1599 – 1660Las MeninasVisualClaude Lorrain1600 – 1682Ideal landscape — the golden light of RomeVisualRembrandt1606 – 1669Night Watch, self-portraitsLiteratureMilton1608 – 1674Paradise LostLiteratureEvliya Çelebi1611 – ~1682Seyahatname — the Ottoman HerodotusLiteratureMoliere1622 – 1673Tartuffe, The Misanthrope — king of comedyLiteraturePascal1623 – 1662PenséesVisualJacob van Ruisdael1628 – 1682Dutch landscape master — windmills and waterfallsVisualVermeer1632 – 1675Girl with a Pearl EarringLiteratureSpinoza1632 – 1677EthicsMusicJean-Baptiste Lully1632 – 1687French opera and the tragedie lyriqueVisualChristopher Wren1632 – 1723St Paul's Cathedral — London rebuiltLiteratureJean Racine1639 – 1699Phedre, Andromaque — French tragic perfectionMusicBuhurizade Mustafa Itri1640 – 1712Nevâ Kâr, Mevlevi music — Ottoman music's greatest composerMusicArcangelo Corelli1653 – 1713Concerti grossi — violin masterMusicHenry Purcell1659 – 1695Dido and Aeneas — English Baroque geniusMusicFrancois Couperin1668 – 1733Les Barricades Mysterieuses — French harpsichordMusicDimitrie Cantemir1673 – 1723Edvar — prince, scholar, and Ottoman music notatorMusicAntonio Vivaldi1678 – 1741The Four Seasons — Venetian concerto masterVisualLevni~1680 – 1732Tulip Period portraits — Ottoman court painter
1700–1800
LiteratureJonathan Swift1667 – 1745Gulliver's Travels, A Modest ProposalMusicGeorg Philipp Telemann1681 – 1767Most prolific Baroque composerMusicJean-Philippe Rameau1683 – 1764Hippolyte et Aricie — theorist and opera composerVisualAntoine Watteau1684 – 1721Pilgrimage to Cythera — inventor of the fete galanteMusicJ.S. Bach1685 – 1750Well-Tempered Clavier, Mass in B minorMusicHandel1685 – 1759Messiah, opera seriaMusicDomenico Scarlatti1685 – 1757555 keyboard sonatasLiteratureVoltaire1694 – 1778Candide, philosophical lettersVisualGiambattista Tiepolo1696 – 1770Wurzburg ceiling — the last great fresco painterVisualWilliam Hogarth1697 – 1764A Rake's Progress — painting as moral satireVisualCanaletto1697 – 1768Venice vedute — the Grand Tour painterVisualJean-Simeon Chardin1699 – 1779Still life and domestic scenes — the quiet masterLiteratureSamuel Johnson1709 – 1784Dictionary, Lives of the Poets — the Great ChamLiteratureHume1711 – 1776Treatise of Human NatureLiteratureRousseau1712 – 1778Social Contract, ConfessionsMusicGluck1714 – 1787Orfeo ed Euridice — opera reformMusicC.P.E. Bach1714 – 1788Empfindsamer Stil — the sensitive styleVisualGiovanni Battista Piranesi1720 – 1778Carceri, Vedute — visionary architectureVisualSir Joshua Reynolds1723 – 1792Discourses on Art — first president of the Royal AcademyLiteratureKant1724 – 1804Critique of Pure ReasonVisualGeorge Stubbs1724 – 1806Whistlejacket — anatomy of the horseVisualThomas Gainsborough1727 – 1788The Blue Boy, Mr and Mrs Andrews — English portraitureMusicHaydn1732 – 1809Father of the symphony and string quartetVisualJean-Honore Fragonard1732 – 1806The Swing — Rococo exuberanceMusicMozart1756 – 1791Don Giovanni, Requiem, symphoniesVisualAntonio Canova1757 – 1822Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss — Neoclassical sculptureLiteratureFriedrich Schiller1759 – 1805Don Carlos, Ode to Joy — German idealist