17th-Century Europe: Vocab

Question 1

What is Absolutism? Please provide an example.

Answer 1

Political doctrine of unlimited centralized authority. Typically vested in a monarch or a dictator.
EX: Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV, c. 1701, Baroque (French)

Question 2

What is Baroque?

Answer 2

Style of art and decoration in Western Europe c. 1600- 1700, characterized by a sense of drama and splendor achieved through formal exuberance, material opulence, and spatial projection.

Question 3

What is Caravaggisti? Please provide an example.

Answer 3

Stylistic followers of the Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio.
EX: Artemisa Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, c. 1619-20, Baroque (Italian)

Question 4

What is Genre scenes? Please provide an example.

Answer 4

An art historical category for images that show scenes of everyday life.
Ex: Judith Leyster, Man offering Money to a Woman, c.1631, Baroque (Dutch).

Question 5

What is Still life? Please provide an example.

Answer 5

An artwork depicting an arrangement of objects, typically including fruit, flowers, bowls, or glassware.
EX: Clara Peeters, Table with Cloth, Salt Cellar, Gilt Tazza, Pie, Jug, Porcelain Dish with Olives and Roasted Fowl, c. 1611, Baroque (Dutch)

Question 6

What is Tenebrism? Please provide an example.

Answer 6

From Italian Tenebroso (“ in a dark manner”); a style of painting using pronounced chiaroscuro where there are strong contrast of light and dark, and darkness becomes a dominant feature of the image.
EX: Caravaggio, Entombment, c.1603, Baroque (Italian)