The arts of the historical period of the Baroque are associated with opulence and exaggeration, a pleasure in the illusionistic and theatrical, an obsessive engagement with the concept of vanitas, as well as intermediate boundary blurring. In this grand world theater, everything revolves around the interplay of virtuality and reality, deception and disappointment amidst a complex web of references, embedded in a flow of permanent perspective shifts. From this web, the Baroque can also be understood as a mindset that becomes tangible regardless of specific historical periods. Accordingly, this volume examines artistic positions from the 16th to the 21st century, whose ideological backgrounds and methods are viewed through the lens of the Baroque. The accompanying discourse and reception history are also taken into consideration.