Baroque in Italy from Late Ren

What distinguishes the Baroque in Italy from the earlier Renaissance in outlook, art and architecture? What are all the characteristics as reflected in the paintings of Caravaggio? Cite specific works. The first of these was the emergence of the Counter-Reformation and the expansion of its domain, both territorially and intellectually. By the last decades of the 16th century the refined, courtly style known as Mannerism had ceased to be an effective means of expression and …

…and the extraordinary skill with which all the details are rendered. But this harsh realism was replaced by a much more powerful mature style in his paintings The Decapitation of Saint John the Baptist (1608) and The Death of the Virgin (1606). His selection of plebeian models for the most important characters in his religious pictures caused great controversy, but the total sincerity of the figures and the intensity of dramatic feeling are characteristic of the Baroque.