Counter-Reformation and Baroque

Abstract

In Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-1750, Rudolf Wittkower, claims that 'Nothing could be more misleading than to label - as has been done the art of the entire Baroque period as the art of the CounterReformation'. I In the parenthesis, Wittkower is referring to the book by W. Weisbach, Der Barock als Kunst der Gegenreformation.2 In the present article, the intention is not to consider the accuracy of Weisbach's description when applied to the whole Baroque period but to ask under what circumstances and in what period, if any, it might be useful and illuminating to link the two terms together. The fact is, however, that neither 'Counter-Reformation' nor 'Baroque' is an easy term to work with. In the first place, there are several versions of how the term 'Counter-Reformation' is to be understood. Three of these versions are introduced here.