Baroque sculpture

Baroque sculpture is the sculpture of the period between the early 17th and late 18th centuries associated with the Baroque cultural movement, based on exaggerated motion and drama. Stylistically, Baroque sculpture followed Renaissance sculpture and was succeeded by Neoclassical Sculpture. Gian Lorenzo Bernini is the first developer of this style and many of his works are the most important works in this period. Rome is the first place, where was the style formed. After the second half of the 17th century Baroque expanded also to the other parts of Italy and Europe. France had main position in spread of Baroque art after the late 17th century, but other lands, mainly Spain, Dutch Republic and Habsburg Monarchy, supported the baroque ideas, too.

At the end of 15th century art permanently got into the hands of the aristocracy and its secular intentions. Many donors used it for own promotion and tried to gain a new fame thanks to it. The real problem did not consist in the creation of secular works for aristocratic courts but in the use of religious works set to the field of church. Nobles wanted by this way not only ensure their place in God's kingdom, but mostly tried to promote their name in public. Response to this fact started the Protestant Reformation spreading mainly in Northern Europe. Many of new Protestant branches tried to finish the corruption of religious art. Therefore, production of most works, mainly sculptural, was stopped and the development of art gained a new way.

Catholic opposition to this approach lead to Council of Trent, held in 1546, and the beginning of the Counter-Reformation, which was trying to stop the spread of Protestant ideas. Along with this fact, it was extended the activity of the Society of Jesuit, which became the main demonstrators of new ideas based on new devotion to the Church and God. However, the progress of this development in the art lasted longer. While the first signs of new views emerged in painting at the end of the 16th century, the improvement of sculpture came at the beginning of the 17th century.

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