Descartes Dualism

• Descartes, a 17th century philosopher, proposed that the human experience is made up of two separate entities: the mind and the body.
• Descartes’ ideas help people question their existence and links to the idea of the baroque’s purpose of stimulating people’s emotions, human relationships are made up of the mind and body- therefore it could be said that the baroque’s liberation of forms links to the idea of a lack of static space, so there’s a link between descarte’s idea of two parts which play a role to stimulate emotion AND make people question their existence
• In Baroque art, the dramatic interplay of light and shadow (chiaroscuro) and the tension between motion and stillness mirror the Cartesian dichotomy between the immaterial mind and the material body.
• Baroque art's intricate details and layered compositions can be seen as a visual metaphor for the complexity of the human condition, which Descartes also addresses by exploring the deep and often conflicted relationship between mind and body.
• Baroque art frequently plays with illusion, creating a sense of depth and realism that can blur the line between reality and appearance. This echoes Cartesian scepticism, where Descartes questions the reliability of sensory perceptions and seeks certainty through reason.