Baroque or Renaissance?

                I feel like our society is definitely more Baroque than Renaissance.  I believe that the Renaissance was a purer time in the history of the world.  During that time people were just beginning to learn for themselves. Up to this point, the church controlled everything so in a sense they controlled how people thought.  Look at the art forms of that day and take a look at the Sistine Chapel celling.  It is beautiful but it is so pure at true.  The art during the Renaissance was so realistic and it focused on man and the beauty man contained.  The statues were so life-like and when people did things differently they were shunned.  Take Galileo for instance, he discovered that the universe rotated around the sun and the Catholic Church condemned him for saying that until 1992! People today have different views and opinions and we just deal with it and let them think what they want to think. 

                My first thought in comparing our society to being more baroque, is that in class, you said artist coined the term baroque to refer to art as grotesque and distorted.  Some art that is made today is focused on pure beauty but a lot of today’s art screams individualism.  During the Renaissance time period, individualism was looked down upon and people were unlearned so they were more close minded.  Today, people are more educated than they ever have been and so many people are tolerant and accepting of others and their opinions.  In my opinion the spread of different cultures has also had an impact on people accepting new and different things.  Back in the day travel occurred but it was slower and mainly for business and today we can fly almost anywhere for fun.  People move to different countries and learn about all kinds of cultures.  This has influenced our society because we constantly interact with different types of people and during the renaissance it was less common.

                  I also feel that many of the art forms today are degrading.  There are many types of art that focus on nude subjects and because of the way our society has developed the pleasure found in these art forms is sexual pleasure not pleasure in the natural beauty of man.  Our society is more baroque today because of the high level of individualism in art and because of how open we are to new things.