Going for Baroque

Going for Baroque June 28, 2015

 

Not a felt banner in sight
Not a felt banner in sight

My article for Imaginative Conservative website this week is a critique and grudging admiration for the baroque style of church architecture.

Am I the only one to be so unenthusiastic about the baroque period? Do others share my distaste for the plaster pilasters, the too clever painted ceilings and the faux architectural tricks or do they love the exuberance and intentional theatricality of the style? Isn’t it too grandiose, flamboyant and well…. prissy? This was done, after all in an age when men wore satin britches, buckled shoes, shoulder length curly wigs and carried canes and lace hankies.

Then I check and challenge myself. Perhaps, like grand opera, cricket and Indian food, it is an acquired taste. Maybe the fault is with me and as usual it is not that baroque is bad, but that I am a boor.

Read the whole article here.


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