Creator's description:  The Baroque period was the Age of Theater, a time when Shakespeare, Jonson, Calderon, Lope de Vega, Moliere, Racine and Dryden were at the height of their powers. Playwrights were joined by painters and poets in seeking new responses to a world that was undergoing radical change, as the Protestant Reformation, the scientific revolution, and the New World shattered the old assumptions of European society. In this seminar, we'll see how this upsurge of new ideas shaped the art of the Baroque period, meeting along the way the great scientists of the age, the "Sun King" Louis XIV, and a galaxy of French, Italian, English and Dutch dramatists, artists, and thinkers.

CoursePal comments:  This free online course is broken into five sessions. You may begin at any time and work at your own pace.  Requires that you register.