1. Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Period styles course Monteverdi’s Venice, the development of opera, and Baroque

3. Even as early as the Renaissance, Venice was a tourist destination Carpaccio’s paintings deliberately set out to get over this character

4. The Venetian Republic was a trading centre with strong links to the middle east and to trades in various luxury goods such as silk textiles, spices and other exotic products. Venetian plotting, derailing the last and fourth Crusade, led to the Sack of Constantinople in the early 13 th century, and many artworks from that city found their way to Venice at that time. Venice was indebted to the colourful polychrome styles of Byzantine art such as mosaics. After the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, Venice retained her trading links with the Muslim regime, and Venice strengthened its hold over Middle eastern trade. In the Renaissance Venice remained artistically apart from the rest of Italy. So, although famous painters such as Bellini, Titian, Veronese or Tintoretto depicted classical subjects from myth, their handling was different from the strongly plastic (i.e. tonal, three-dimensional) treatment of other Italian painters; instead they developed colour and atmosphere through their exploration of oil paint. Venice also had an exceptionally strong musical culture, producing both church and secular music. Famous composers include Monteverdi and Vivaldi. The first public opera house was opened in Venice in 1630. Monteverdi wrote one of the earliest operas that was performed in public, L’Orfeo (1607), and his last opera I’Incoronazione di Poppea (1642) is still performed today. Both Monteverdi and Vivaldi also wrote music for those unique Venetian ‘conservatoires’ the Ospedali, the foundling hospitals that trained young women as singers and musicians.

9. BAROQUE San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane Façade by Francesco Boromini 1638-41

11. BAROQUE San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane Façade by Francesco Boromini 1638-41

12. St Peter’s Square, Rome Laid out by Gian Lorenzo Bernini ca 1656-1667

14. OVID: Metamorphoses Apollo and Daphne Bernini

15. Versailles (1668-1710) by Louis Le Vau and others

16. Versailles, garden design by le Notre Begun in 1685

18. Hall of Mirrors (originally with solid silver furniture)

21. Chapel Royal

22. The Banqueting Hall, London by Inigo Jones 1619-1622,Ceiling by Rubens St Paul’s Cathedral, Christopher Wren 1675-1710 Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace, John Vanbrugh

23. The ‘East Indies and Australia’ 1675

24. Baroque, ‘world style’ 1620-1800 Church of the Holy Spirit, Goa 1661

25. Altarpiece of the Virgin of Sorrows c. 1690 Central Mexico

26. The Dutch Republic also became one of the wealthiest trade nations in the world in the seventeenth century with holdings in the Dutch East Indies, for example in Indonesia, Surinam Because of the Dutch detailed approach to painting, and the popularity of painting as a purchasable commodity in the Republic, with a concentration on domestic scenes and natural objects, these paintings are a great resource for period styles

28. Baroque splendour, opera, and the mechanics of spectacle

29. Drottningholm Royal theatre, Sweden, now world heritage site There’s a recreation of this interior and the period theatre workings in Ingmar Bergman’s film version of Mozart’s Magic Flute 1975

30. Handel wrote Italian opera for a London audience, with celebrity castrati singers and an aristocratic following of fans and sponsors. His subjects were taken from classical myth and history, such as Xerxes (shown here), Julius Caesar, or Alcina to name a few from many more

32. Blackpool Tower Ballroom by Frank Matcham