A common observation of current society demonstrates the link between art, music, drama, and literature and social norms, politics, scientific trends and discoveries, and religious and philosophical discussions. In some cases, it is difficult to discover whether it was, for example, the art that influenced philosophy, or philosophy that influenced the art. This phenomenon is not limited to the 21st Century, however, and has been observed by people throughout recorded history. This paper will discuss one part of that recorded history, the Baroque Age, and then show how the new scientific and philosophy of the Baroque Era impacted the art of Rembrandt Van Rijn, Wenceslaus Hollar, and Sebastien Leclerc.
There has been some discussion as to where the term "baroque" first came from. One source claims it came from the Italian word "Barocco," which means bizarre.[i] Another source believes that the term was
originally used to describe an imperfect pearl. The meaning then grew to encompass any art form that was considered to be gaudier than the accepted Classic style of the Renaissance Era. While it originally was a term meant to criticize artists of this form, it later grew to encompass the diversity of style of art, music, architecture, and ideas of the time period between approximately 1600 and 1770.[ii]
In the time of the Renaissance, leading up to the Baroque Age, society had changed from "the medieval theocentric (God-centred) image of the world to an anthropocentric (man-centered) concept of the world."[iii] For example, Martin Luther had begun the Reformation by nailing his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. The emphasis of these
theses were that each person was responsible for his or her own
relationship with God and did not need the intercession of a priest. This
broke the chokehold the Catholic Church had previously had on religious
theory, philosophy, and ultimately science.[iv]
Additio...