The High Drama of Baroque Art

In Passignano’s painting, Adam and Eve appear desperate and distraught as they’re escorted out of Eden by an angel; in Roncalli’s shadowy picture, Jacob and the angel are at the end of their all-night struggle, locked in exhausted embrace. They are emotional and tender scenes, in contrast to d’Arpino’s more regal and restrained image of the Archangel, who seems to pin Lucifer underfoot without much effort. “What they have in common is their scale — this monumentality — and their clarity,” says McGarry. “You can see very quickly what’s going on and the message is very clear.” At the height of the Counter-Reformation, projecting the supremacy of God — and, by extension, the Church — was among the primary preoccupations of Rome. <a href="https://medium.com/minneapolis-institute-of-art/the-high-drama-of-baroque-art-ba22a4c6654">Read More</a>