The word baroque is derived from the Portuguese word `barocco', meaning irregular pearl. Until nineteenth century the word baroque was used mostly as a fancy synonym for `absurd' and `grotesque'. The characteristic feature of this style is energy, lack of harmony, attraction for the ornate and an explosive elaboration, which almost conceals the underlining order or pattern.

M. H Abrams in, `Glossary of Literary Terms' defines baroque as a ."..term applied by the art historians to a style of architecture, sculpture and painting that developed in Italy in the late sixteenth and seventeenth century and then spread to Germany and other countries of Europe. The style employs the classical form of Renaissance, but breaks them up and intermingles them to achieve elaborate, grandiose, energetic, and highly dramatic effects."

Imbic Buffum defines baroque style to be a style exbeating awareness of both beauty and horror of the diverse and...