Major features of Baroque art included dramatic effects emphasizing movement and dynamism to create a heightened emotional state in the viewer. The Baroque period in Western art began around 1600 and ended around 1750.
Baroque pictorial art used powerful perspective effects, bold colors, overlapping figures, dense compositions and the mixing of intense light and deep dark. These paintings tended to depict moments of drama and tension, such as ecstatic visions, martyrdom and death. Some classic examples of Baroque painting include Artemisia Gentileschi's "Judith Slaying Holofernes," Nicolas Poussin's "The Rape of the Sabine Women" and Rembrandt van Rijn's "The Night Watch."
Baroque sculpture also emphasized movement, with figures reaching out or whirling around a central point. Unlike the sculptures of earlier periods, Baroque sculptures had multiple ideal viewing angles, allowing a viewer to walk around the work and experience it newly from each perspective. The quintessential Baroque sculptor was Gian Lorenzo Bernini, whose "Ecstasy of St. Teresa" and "Apollo and Daphne" depicted dramatic events with luxurious flowing garments and intense emotional effects.
The Baroque period also found expression in architecture. Buildings designed during this period tended to include a central empty space surrounded by monumental staircases. These buildings often had colonnades, domes and extreme ornamentation that often included sculpture and pictorial art in addition to classically architectural forms. Major Baroque architectural feats include the Trevi Fountain in Rome, the Church of St. Nicholas in Prague and the entire city of Noto in Sicily.