BAROQUE, a term used to describe the tendencies prevailing in European art during part of the 16th, the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries. It is of uncertain derivation, one ex planation being that it springs from the Spanish word barrueco, a large irregularly-shaped pearl. The word denotes the greater free dom and irregularity which succeed, in European art, the equipoise and restraint of the Renaissance. At first marked by stateliness and amplitude of form, the Baroque style in the 18th century becomes more playful and piquant in character, this variety of it being known as the style of the Rococo (q.v.). Typical Baroque artists are: in architecture, Lorenzo Bernini (1598-168o) and Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) ; in sculpture, Lorenzo Ber nini ; and in painting, Pietro Berettini da Cortona (1596-1669) and Peter Paul Rubens (15 7 7-1640) .