Rethinking the Baroque

In 1988, Gilles Deleuze published a discussion of the notion of the term baroque in his Le pli; Leibniz et le Baroque. As we learn in the present volume, Deleuze's work helped historians and art historians re-think and re-define the term baroque, putting a spotlight onto its meanings and attendant styles. The concept of the baroque is central to the ten essays of this collection (7 were first presented at a 2006 conference organized by Hunt at the U. of York in the UK) and many of the writers also engage with Deleuze's work on a theoretical level. Topics include Walter Benjamin's interpretation of the baroque, definitions and influences of the rococo, Nicholas Hawksmoor's drawing technique, and the definition of baroque as applied to Ottoman architecture. The volume is well-illustrated with b&w and color plates. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Helen Hills is Professor of Art History at the University of York, UK. She has published widely on seventeenth-century Italian architecture, including Invisible City: the architecture of devotion in aristocratic convents in baroque Naples. She is the editor of Architecture and the Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe (Ashgate, 2003) and co-editor of Representing Emotions (Ashgate, 2005).