The Ages of German Art - The Baroque 'Gesamtkunstwerk' (Online)

The „Gesamtkunstwerk“, the total work of art, fuses all art forms – architecture, painting, and sculpture – into one overwhelming masterpiece. It is mainly the Catholic Church who, in the course of the Counter-Reformation, fully explores the emotionally gripping potential of Baroque art by designing churches as stages for a theatrum sacrum. The main focus of this study day is the art of the Catholic south of Germany which occasional excursions into Austria and to the Protestant north of Germany. In addition to ecclesiastical architecture, a second focus lies on secular palatial architecture and its furnishings where Germany, like the rest of Europe, tries to emulate the great example of Versailles.