Baroque to Neoclassical art in Europe

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Baroque art

Stone becomes flesh and ceilings dissolve into the infinity of heaven—artists such as Bernini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Velazquez and Rembrandt were masters of drama and illusion.
A beginner's guide to Baroque art
Italy
Flanders
Dutch Republic
Spain
France

Rococo

Overgrown gardens heavy with the scent of roses, palaces and luxury; the artists Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard typify the aristocratic style known as Rococo.
A beginner's guide to the Age of Enlightenment
A beginner's guide to Rococo art
Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera
Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera
Boucher, Madame de Pompadour
The Tiepolo Family
Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait with her Daughter, Julie
Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait
Vigée Le Brun, Madame Perregaux
Unlocking an 18th-century French mechanical table
Bernard II van Risenburgh, Writing table
Construction of an 18th-century French mechanical table
The inlay technique of marquetry
Fragonard, The Swing
Fragonard's The Swing Quiz
Fragonard, The Meeting
Greuze, The Village Bride
Rococo Art

Neo-Classicism

Jacques Louis David invented a style reflecting Enlightenment ideas by looking back to ancient art. He became a revolutionary and 1st painter to Napoleon.
Neoclassicism, an introduction
David, Oath of the Horatii
David, Oath of the Horatii
David's Oath of the Horatii Quiz
David, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons
David, Study for The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons
Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat
David and The Death of Marat
David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women
David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps
Kauffmann, Cornelia Presenting Her Children as Her Treasures
Girodet, The Sleep of Endymion
Canova, Repentant Magdalene
Canova, Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorius
Vignon, Church of La Madeleine
Soufflot, The Panthéon, Paris
Neoclassicism
David, The Emperor Napoleon in his Study at the Tuileries

British art in the 18th century

Britain and America were at war but shared a common artistic tradition. From Hogarth’s biting satire to Jefferson’s Monticello—here is invention, wit, nobility.
British art in the eighteenth century
Age of revolution (quiz)

Recommended

Baroque art in Europe, an introduction
How to recognize Baroque art
Francis Bacon and the scientific revolution
A beginner's guide to the Baroque (quiz)
Bernini, Pluto and Proserpina

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A beginner's guide to Baroque art
Get a head start on the historical developments that shape Baroque art in the Catholic Italy, Spain, Flanders, France and in the Protestant north.
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