Ecstacy and Sensuality / The Magnificent Age: Art, Life and Baroque

When Martin Luther published his 95 theses in 1517, it was not only a challenge to the perceived corruption of the Catholic Church, it was an act which prompted the transformation of the religious, socio-political, and artistic landscape of Europe. One of the most dynamic styles to emerge in the wake of the Counter-Reformation, the Baroque lasted a century and manifested differently in Italy, Spain, and France, where it produced the most extraordinary artists and architects including Caravaggio, Bernini, Velasquez, Poussin, and Borromini.

The Counter-Reformation outlawed gratuitous nudity in church art yet artists succeeded in imbuing clothed figures with a new sensuality as seen in Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa for the Cornaro Chapel in Rome and Ribalta’s ‘St. Bernard’s Vision of the Crucified Christ.’