The Muses' Concord

The glories of the Baroque age, mainly the arts of literature, painting, and music, are examined from a fresh viewpoint notable for its scope and catholicity. The term Baroque here denotes a period from the early seventeenth to the early eighteenth century. From Jensen's method of moving from one country and time to another we discover that Addison's writings, Vivaldi's music, Rubens's paintings, Shaftesbury's aesthetics, and Coeffeteau's psychology all help elucidate seventeenth-century ideas and works of art. The author devotes major attention to Enland, but does not neglect France and Italy. Ranging widely over an entire aesthetic movement, he encompasses psychology, artistic creation, rhetoric, education, moral values, social mores, scientific discoveries, and issues of taste, and richly enhances our appreciation of Baroque art.