Rise of baroque architecture

Baroque architecture emerged in Rome in the late sixteenth century, as the Catholic Church used grand and emotional art to answer the Protestant Reformation. Architects such as Carlo Maderno, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini created buildings with dramatic curves, rich ornament and play of light, as in St Peter's Basilica and the churches of Rome. The style spread through Catholic Europe and Latin America, and was adopted by monarchs for palaces, with Versailles the best-known example in France. Its forms evolved in the eighteenth century into the lighter Rococo style, and it was later challenged by neoclassicism.

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