By the end of the sixteenth century, artists in Italy developed new means of depicting both the Catholic and mythological subjects so commonplace in European art. Together, these various methods make up a style known as the baroque. It is characterized by dynamic, often assymetric compositions, dramatic lighting, and a powerful three-dimensionality in the space and figures, often executed in large scale. Works Guercino, Carlo Saraceni, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Bernardo Strozzi, and Mattia Preti are among those in this gallery. Preti’s immense painting of The Roman Empress Faustina visiting Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison, commissioned for a prominent Roman patron, is typical of Catholic Counter-Reformation imagery intended to encourage the faithful in their devotion to Christ.