Art associated with the Baroque cultural movement and often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states throughout Western Europe underscores its widespread popularity and in fact there was a relatively small amount of religious painting in this period.

Baroque painting encompassed a great range of styles, as most important art during this period is identified today as Baroque. In its most typical manifestations, Baroque art is characterised by great drama, rich, deep colour, and intense light and dark shadows, but the Classicism of French Baroque painters like Poussin and Dutch Golden Age painters such as Vermeer are also covered by the term. Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized during the Renaissance.

Late Baroque style is usually referred to as Rococo.

Among the greatest painters of the Baroque period are Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velázquez, Poussin, van Dyck, Hals and Vermeer.