The term Baroque architecture were just words I had seen in the pages of books until last month when I stood in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral and tried to capture the beauty of it in my camera lens. I say tried, because this beautiful structure has so much to offer that some details could not be captured on camera, they just got etched in your mind!

Baroque Architecture

The architecture of this time was called Baroque because it was considered to be very odd. This architecture evolved out of Renaissance architecture in Italy in the 1600’s when the architects there began to get bored of the same symmetry and forms that they had been using for the past 200 years. When this happened, they began to make curving facades and used the double curve on many different buildings.

Marble, gilt and bronze were the materials the Baroque architects used in abundance. Oval was the most distinct shape of the Baroque style and was a very common shape among the Baroque buildings. Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini were the two main architects of the Baroque era. Since Bernini’s first medium was sculpture, this was what he liked to incorporate into his buildings. Francesco Borromini was a sculpture and mason who incorporated many shapes and different forms into his designs.

Features of Baroque Architecture

Some of the features of Baroque architecture are listed below:

* Large-scale ceiling frescoes
* Dramatic or uniform use of light
* Dramatic central projection on the external façade
* Opulent use of ornaments, such as plaster or stucco, marble or faux finishing
* Use of the interiors as a shell for painting and sculpture (especially during the late Baroque)
* Use of columns, domes, towers and oval windows

Baroque Architecture – Rome and South Italy

The beginnings of Baroque architecture were in the Italian paradigm of the basilica with the crossed dome and nave. The church of Santa Susanna was the first Roman structure to break with the Mannerist conventions exemplified in the Gesù. It was the use of dynamic columns and pilasters, central massing and the protrusion and condensation of central decoration that added complexity to the structure.

Saint Peter’s square has been praised as the masterstroke of the Baroque theatre. This square is shaped by two colonnades, which were designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini on an unprecedented scale to suit the space and provide emotions of awe. The polychromatic oval church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale was one of Bernini’s favorite designs.

Francesco Borromini was Bernini’s chief rival in the papal capital. Borromini condemned the anthropomorphic approach of the 16th century and thus, chose to base his designs in complicated geometric shape. The church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, which is distinguished by a corrugated oval plan and complex convex-concave rhythms, is Borromini’s iconic masterpiece. Sant’lvo all Sapienza, one of his later works also displays the same antipathy to the flat surface and playful inventiveness, which was epitomized by a corkscrew lantern dome.

It was Carlo Fontana who was the most influential architect in Rome after Bernini’s death. Fontana’s academic approach exerted substantial influence on Baroque architecture through his prolific writing and also through a number of architects who he trained. It was the 18th century that saw the capital of Europe’s architectural world transferred from Rome to Paris with the Italian Rococo, which flourished in Rome from the 1720’s being profoundly influenced by Borromini’s ideas. Read the rest of this entry »