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Overview
The major topics painted and sculpted during the 17th century are featured here. Baroque artists chose stories not only from the Bible but also from mythology; these are not included in art history texts. In this volume, one finds the primary sources: The Golden Legend, the Bible, Ovid, and Plutarch, to name a few. Each entry concludes with an example of a work depicting the topic under examination (Diana Hunting, Lot and His Daughters, for instance) along with a readily available source where the work is pictured. The only reference of its type for art students, this is a companion piece for the author's earlier work (Greenwood, 1987).
The turbulent 17th century resulted in two main artistic styles: an expressionistic, sensual kind of emotional outpouring and a silent, classical mode of the highest possible decorum. These styles focused on topics that were mostly mythological or religious: maenads, satyrs, and nymphs pouring wine, carrying baskets of flowers, and lounging at a mythological event; angels shown in the heavens or with the characters on earth. Art students until now have not had a single source that attempts to describe the topics of this intensely artistic age with artists as different in approach as Bernini and Rembrandt. Direct quotes from primary sources including the Bible and Ovid enrich the descriptive material. Extensive cross-referencing adds to the user-friendly aspect of the dictionary.