The last period of Italian world prominence in the visual arts, the Baroque witnessed a shift of artistic power toward Spain, France, and the Netherlands. The private collecting of pictures, controversies over the legitimacy of religious images, the exploration of etching, pastels, and monotypes, and the serious pursuit of less august subject matter for the visual arts all served to separate Baroque art from its esteemed predecessor, the Renaissance. Bernini, Borromini, Caravaggio, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Poussin are among the artists to be studied.