http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque
Beginning around the year 1600, the demands for new art resulted in what is now known as the Baroque. The canon promulgated... by demanding that paintings and sculptures in church contexts should speak to the illiterate rather than to the well-informed, is customarily offered^{[weasel words]} as an inspiration of the Baroque, which appeared, however, a generation later.
The appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, and dramatic. Baroque art drew on certain broad and heroic tendencies in Annibale Carracci and his circle, and found inspiration in other artists such as Caravaggio, and Federico Barocci nowadays sometimes termed 'proto-Baroque'.
Seminal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo and Correggio.