Baroque art was encouraged mainly by the Catholic Church. It became a powerful visual language of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, especially in Rome, during the late 16th and 17th centuries.
After the Protestant Reformation challenged Catholic authority and rejected some religious imagery, Catholic leaders used art to teach doctrine, inspire devotion, and communicate emotionally with worshippers. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) supported clear, dramatic religious images that ordinary people could understand. Baroque artists responded with intense movement, theatrical lighting, rich colour, and emotionally charged scenes.
Painters such as Caravaggio and Peter Paul Rubens, and sculptors such as Gian Lorenzo Bernini, created works that made biblical events and saints appear immediate and physically present. Baroque churches often used monumental domes, elaborate decoration, and carefully directed light to suggest the glory of heaven.
Catholicism was the principal religious patron, but it was not the only one. Protestant regions, including Lutheran Europe, also developed their own forms of Baroque art, so “Catholic” means the main influence rather than an exclusive one.