The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts marvels at Triumphs of the Baroque: Architecture in Europe, 1600-1750 until April 9, 2000 (www.mmfa.ca). Thirty large-scale original period models, 20 paintings and 75 drawings and prints convey the grandeur of architectural projects undertaken during turbulent times in which Catholic Europe was shaken by the Reformation, the political order was challenged by the rise of the middle class and states were brought to the brink of ruin by war. Arising in Italy, the baroque style was adopted throughout Europe by church, state and aristocracy as a reaffirmation of power and prestige. Arranged by type of project - royal and private architecture, public architecture and religious architecture - the exhibition illustrates how in public buildings a visual rhetoric of splendour and munificence often transcended national boundaries, while residential architecture tended to take on a national style. It also shows how baroque architecture, despite the weighty nature of its materials, was motivated by a gravity-defying urge to create illusions of infinite possibility. FIGURE