1. Definition

The term “baroque” denotes a style and a period between approximately 1580 and 1720 or even up to 1760. The Enlightenment introduced the word in a derogatory sense for the architecture of the High Renaissance, meaning something that was bizarre or against the classical rules. Soon it came to be used also for music and literature, where it had the sense of bombastic, affected, or unnatural. Not until the …