International Baroque

Exuberant, ornate and theatrical, the Baroque is synonymous with richness, luxury and extravagance.

The Baroque style was born in Italy in the 1620s.

Over the next hundred and fifty years it came to dominate European art, design and architecture and was carried to Latin America, Asia and the Pacific, becoming the first global style.

Baroque was rich and exciting: for the first time it was possible to express in design, architecture and art the full range of range of human emotions, experiences and aspirations.

It was a style perfectly suited to an age which saw the growth of absolute rule and a newly vigorous Catholic Church: the result was an unprecedented burst of palace building and furnishing, of great formal gardens, of churches calculated to inspire the faithful, of ballet and opera and of extravagant public festivals.

This pioneering exhibition will bring together art and architecture and the whole range of the decorative arts, from the Baltic to Sri Lanka.