Baroque
paintings & oil reproductions

Baroque paintings: the guide

Baroque painting is the art of Europe from about 1600 to 1750, and it begins in Rome. After the Reformation, the Catholic Church wanted pictures that would move people, not just instruct them, and a young painter called Caravaggio gave them exactly that: real people, lit by a single hard beam of light, caught at the most dramatic second of the story. Within a generation the style had spread to Spain, Flanders and the Dutch Republic, where Velázquez, Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer each turned it into something of their own.

What makes a painting Baroque?

• Light against darkness. Strong contrasts of light and shadow, called chiaroscuro, and in Caravaggio’s case figures that seem to step out of black (tenebrism).
• The decisive moment. Not the calm before or after, but the instant itself: the blade, the call, the turn of a head.
• Movement. Diagonal compositions, swirling drapery and bodies in motion instead of the balanced, frontal order of the Renaissance.
• Real life. Saints with dirty feet, servants, soldiers and kitchen maids, painted with the same care as kings.

The most famous Baroque paintings

The Calling of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio (1599 to 1600)

Christ points across a dim tax office and a beam of light falls on the man he has chosen. The painting that made Caravaggio famous still hangs where he painted it, in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. Read the story.

Judith Beheading Holofernes, Caravaggio (about 1599)

Judith pulls the sword through the general’s neck with a look of disgust, while her old servant waits with the sack. Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Read the story.

David with the Head of Goliath, Caravaggio (1610)

The severed head David holds up is a self-portrait. Caravaggio painted it while he was a fugitive, condemned for murder. Galleria Borghese, Rome. Read the story.

Las Meninas, Diego Velázquez (1656)

The little Spanish princess and her maids, a dwarf, a dog, and Velázquez himself at a huge canvas, while the king and queen appear only as a reflection in the mirror. Prado, Madrid. Read the story.

The Surrender of Breda, Diego Velázquez (1634 to 1635)

A defeated Dutch commander hands over the keys of his city, and the Spanish general stops him from kneeling. Behind them stands a forest of lances. Prado, Madrid.

The Night Watch, Rembrandt (1642)

An Amsterdam militia company bursts into action. It is in fact a daytime scene, darkened by centuries of varnish, which is how it got its name. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Read the story.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, Rembrandt (1632)

Seven surgeons lean in as Dr Tulp lifts the muscles of a dead man’s arm. Rembrandt was 26, and this was his breakthrough. Mauritshuis, The Hague. Read the story.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt (about 1668)

A ragged son kneels and his old father rests both hands on his back. Painted near the end of Rembrandt’s life, it is the quietest painting on this list. Hermitage, Saint Petersburg. Read the story.

Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer (about 1665)

Not a portrait of a real sitter but a tronie, a study of a face, turban and pearl. Mauritshuis, The Hague. Read the story.

The Milkmaid, Johannes Vermeer (about 1657 to 1658)

A kitchen maid pours milk in the light of a window, and nothing else happens. Vermeer makes the bread crust and the wall glitter with tiny dots of paint. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Read the story.

The Laughing Cavalier, Frans Hals (1624)

He is not actually laughing: the swagger is in the moustache, the hand on the hip and the dazzling embroidered sleeve. Wallace Collection, London. Read the story.

Saturn Devouring His Son, Peter Paul Rubens (1636 to 1638)

The god of time tears into his own child while the stars of his planet shine above him. Painted for the hunting lodge of King Philip IV of Spain. Prado, Madrid.

Et in Arcadia Ego, Nicolas Poussin (1637 to 1638)

Shepherds in a perfect landscape find a tomb with the words “Even in Arcadia, I am here”: death, speaking. The calm, classical side of the Baroque. Louvre, Paris.

The great Baroque painters

Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi in Italy; Diego Velázquez and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in Spain; Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck in Flanders; Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer and Frans Hals in the Dutch Republic; Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain in France and Rome. The Dutch also made still life a great art of its own, with painters like Rachel Ruysch and Clara Peeters. Meet them all in our guide to the most famous Baroque artists, or read the stories in famous Baroque paintings, explained.

Where to see Baroque paintings

• Prado, Madrid: Velázquez, Rubens and Murillo, including Las Meninas.
• Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Night Watch, The Milkmaid and the Dutch Golden Age.
• Mauritshuis, The Hague: Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Anatomy Lesson.
• Rome: Caravaggio in the Galleria Borghese, Palazzo Barberini and the churches of San Luigi dei Francesi and Santa Maria del Popolo.
• National Gallery, London and the Louvre, Paris for every school at once.

Every Baroque painting in our shop is in the public domain and painted by hand in oil on canvas, in the size you choose, by artists trained in layered glazes and deep shadows.