Outrageous Baroque

How can baroque be ugly? We remember the beautiful music of Vivaldi and Bach. Is it ugly? And the palaces of Rastrelli? What ugliness can one find in them? And the sculptures of Bernini? And the paintings of Caravaggio, the greatest Italian artist of the baroque era? The paintings of Rubens, which are considered some of the most expensive in the history of painting? Are they ugly? It wasn't always like this. Less than a hundred years ago, the very concept of "baroque" was not even a style, but merely a derogatory evaluation and a mark of poor taste — a negative nickname for "incomprehensible" art. About how the ugly became beautiful, how the baroque style evolved, and what influence it had on world art, will be told in the new book by Evgeny Viktorovich Zharinov, opening a series of detailed studies of different eras and styles.