Room 201D

The concept of "moving" or "being moved" is a central issue in the Baroque era.

Artists focused on the depiction of movement in time and space, on how the protagonists portrayed are moved emotionally, and on how spectators are moved when they encounter art.

The concept of "moving" people was borrowed from the realm of rhetoric. To instruct, to please, and to move an audience was the tripartite objective that the Roman philosopher Cicero provided as a guiding light for orators who wished to connect with their audience.

These concepts were adopted and turned into useful tools for artists. Painters from Naples such as Salvator Rosa and Girolamo Troppa were masters at drawing spectators into a world full of suffering, mysteries, and eeriness.

During the same period a friend of Salvator Rosa, the Florentine artist Carlo Dolci, took a much sweeter and lighter approach to what it means to be moved by art.