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A performance in the Oratory in Rome, with music by Emilio de' Cavalieri, is in effect the first oratorio
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Claudio Monteverdi presents Orfeo, the first opera to win a lasting place in the international repertory
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The Teatro Farnese in Parma is the first to have a proscenium arch, framing perspective scenery painted on flat wings
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Bernini's youthful Pluto and Proserpina, suggesting soft flesh in cold marble, introduces the lively tradition of baroque sculpture
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Rubens completes a great narrative sequence of twenty-one paintings to celebrate the achievements of Marie de Médicis
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Velazquez, in Las Meninas, paints himself painting the king and queen of Spain
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19-year-old Alessandro Scarlatti has a great success in Rome with Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante, the first of his 115 operas
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In his opera La Caduta de' Decemviri, Alessandro Scarlatti introduces a new form of prelude, later known as the Italian overture, which is an important stage in the development of the symphony
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J.S. Bach publishes The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of 24 Preludes and Fugues
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Frederick the Great begins to build the summer palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam