Splendor of the Baroque and Beyond

In order to finish the report which the Chinese teacher assigned,I went to National Palace Museun with my two group members.There were so many exhibitions for us to choose from,but we decided to go to see the special exhibition---Splendor of the Baroque and Beyond:Great Habsburg Collectors-Masterpieces from the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.We entered the exhibition hall at about nine-thirty,half an hour after its open time.At first there were few people in the hall,but it did not take long when more and more people flooded in.

Beginning around the year 1600, the demands for new art resulted in what is now known as the Baroque.The word baroque probably derives from the ancient Portuguese noun "barroco"[citation needed] which is a pearl that is not round but of unpredictable and elaborate shape.A defining statement of what Baroque signifies in painting is provided by the series of paintings executed by Peter Paul Rubens for Marie de Medici at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris (now at the Louvre),in which a Catholic painter satisfied a Catholic patron: Baroque-era conceptions of monarchy, iconography, handling of paint, and compositions as well as the depiction of space and movement.(quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque)

Not knowing which picture I should choose as my topic,I saw all paintings hung on the wall and quickly wrote down any important information on my notebook.Because we didn't follow a narrator or rent audio tour service,we had more freedom to see whichever painting we like.But soon we regretted---we had no idea which one was worth paying much attention to and what more stories were about the painters!

Finally we chose three painters as our own topics and left the exhibition hall at around twelve o'clock.Before our leave, we went to the gift shop to buy some souvenirs as symbols of our arrival.Though I spent only three hours visiting National Palace Museum,I acquired a lot of artistic knowledge and Biblical stories from the Baroque.