How to Paint in the Baroque Style

To paint in the baroque style is to paint in the style of the masters like Caravaggio and Peter Paul Rubens. These painters glorified subject after subject in their art. Try your hand at baroque style and glorify a subject of your own.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Acrylic or oil paint
• Paper or canvas

Paint Using the Baroque Technique

1. Use good detail when painting skin and cloth. Baroque had very realistic skin tones and a lot of draping cloth painted with painstaking detail.

2. Light and shade the picture dramatically. Use dark, black shadows and bright, white lights. Consider the way light works in a dark room with a single candle. Imagine a small, single, but intense light source amidst dark shadows.

3. Use strong colors. Baroque painters often used bright reds and golds in their paintings. The color themes were regal to emphasize the glory of the Catholic Church.

4. Make everything in the painting seem royal and fancy. Add gold and silver wherever you can. Add intricate designs to patterns in clothing and walls. Make it seem like every setting is worthy of a palace.

Paint Baroque Themes and Subject Matter

5. Choose glorious subject matter. Baroque paintings depicted heroes in moments of victory. There were representations of religious icons and monarchy. You will not find a baroque painting of a sad peasant.

6. Place the figures in your baroque painting in grand poses. Warriors should have their swords high in the air. Kings should be raising their scepters as a decree is spoken. Saints should be on their knees with hands raised up toward the heavens.

7. Keep it simple. Do not include underlying meaning or subtleties. Baroque painting was part of a movement where church and art began to target the illiterate population rather than the educated.

8. Paint about broad ideals. Baroque themes are also very simple. If there is a painting of a priest praying, then the painting is about piety and nothing more. If there is a painting of a knight in battle, then the painting is about courage and nothing more.

Tips & Warnings

• The term baroque, used to describe art in 17th Century Rome, was originally meant in a derogatory manner. Critics of the time considered the style overly elaborate. Baroque art outlived its criticism and the elaborate style is exalted to this day.
• It is difficult to separate baroque painting from the Catholic Church in the 1600s. Painting in the baroque style today can only attempt to imitate a painter's mindset amidst gargantuan social and religious revolution.