Baroque architecture developed from the late 16th century to 1750 across Europe and America. It reflected the scientific advances and religious/political conflicts of the time through dramatic use of light, illusionistic painting/sculpture, asymmetrical and curved designs. In Italy, architects like Bernini and Borromini created dramatic church designs fusing architecture, art and sculpture. French Baroque like Versailles was more ordered and classical, showing royal power. Rococo later emphasized ornate interiors and decoration.

1. BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE
Revision

2. Cronology and geography
• From the end of 16th century until 1750.
• Geography: whole Europe+ America.
• Characteristics of the period:
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Religious and political conflicts
Geographical colonization
Scientific development
New astrological discoveries Sun centre of Universe

3. Baroque Style
• The word means imperfection
• New naturalism that reflects the scientific
advances
• Taste for dramatic action and emotion:
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Colour and light contrasted
Rich textures
Asymmetrical spaces
Diagonal plans
New subjects: landscape, genre, still-life

4. Baroque Style
• Variety within the style
• Art at the service of power
• Two main centres:
– Rome: Pope’s authority
– France: powerful monarchy
• Influence of the Counter-Reform
• Worry about plastic values

5. Architecture: Characteristics
• Long narrow naves replaced by broader or circular
forms
• Dramatic use of light

6. Architecture: Characteristics
• Dramatic use of light
• Large-scale ceiling frescoes

7. Architecture: Characteristics
• Large-scale ceiling frescoes
• Interior a shell for painting and sculpture

8. Architecture: Characteristics
• Illusory effects
• Ekialdeko Europan tipula-kupulak

9. Architecture: Italy
• They evolved from the Renaissance forms
• Movement toward grand structures with flowing,
curving shapes
• Landscape was frequently incorporated
• New elements as gardens, squares , courtyards and
fountains.
• Influence of the rebuilding of Saint Peter, in which
classical forms integrated with the city.

10. Architecture: Italy
• Maderno
– He made the Vatican’s façade
– His work destroyed partially Michelangelo’s design
– His work combined the dome with the creation of an space
where the Pope could appear publicaly
– Other works:
• Santa maria della Vittoria
• Palazzo Barberini

11. Vaticano’s façade
Santa Maria della Vittoria
Palazzo Barberini

12. Architecture: Italy
• Longhena
– He worked mainly in Venice
– His design was selected for building Santa Maria della
Salute
– It is building of central plan with a great dome that
became the symbol of Venice.

13. Santa Maria of Nazaret
Santa Maria della Salute
Ca’ Rezzonico

14. Architecture: Italy
• Bernini
– He created a fusion of architecture, painting and sculpture
– He used false perspective and trompe-l’ oeil to impact
– He used a palace façade that became a model with massive pilasters
above a rusticated base.
– Works:
• Saint Peter’s square
• Baldaquin

15. San Peter’s colomnade
San Pete’r Baldaquine

16. Architecture: Italy
• Borromini
– His works spring from the contrast between convention
and freedom
– He used tradition as a basis, but not as a law
– Works:
• San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
• San Carlo Borromeo
• Oratorio degli Fillipenses

17. San Ivo’s dome
San Carlo alle quattro fontane

18. Palacio Spada (trompe l’oeil)
Oratorio degli Filipensi
Stairs

19. Architecture: France
• It was elegant, ordered, rational and restraided
• It is a rectilinear model, closer to classicism
• It aimed at showing the power of Louis XIV
monarchy.
• The main works are:
– Louvre: Le Vau and Perrault
– Versailles: Le Brun, Le Vau, Le Notre

20. Louvre palace

21. Versailles palace

22. Architecture: Central Europe
• It began later due to the Thirty Years’ War
• Austria developed the Imperial style with Fischer von Erlach
and Hildebrandt
• In Germany, in the Catholic South Jesuit models were
followed while in the Protestant North works were less
important
• Palace architecture was important in the whole area

23. Fisher von Erlach: Karlskirtche and Schönbrunn
Hildebrandt: Belvedere palace

24. Architecture: England and Russia
• In England is important Wren
• Baroque was the style used to design town planning
• In Russia it is very decorative, in quite traditional
churches sometimes made of brick; later it was
imported from the Low Countries and finally it
became an extravagant art.

25. Wren: Cambridge
Emmanuel chapel
Wren: San Paul
Cambridge library

26. Architecture: Spain
• At the beginning it continued the pattern of the
Escorial
• Decoration tends to concentrate just in the façade
• The Rococo was the time of the development of the
Churrigueresque style, with exaggerated decoration
around the door
• The Plateresque (last Renaissance that imitates the
work on silver) and the Churrigueresque were
exported to America, mainly to Mexico.

27. Alberto Churriguera: Salamanca’s main
square
Jose Benito Churriguera: Salamanca’s
San Esteban convent altarpiece

28. Rococo
• French style for interior decoration
• It developped mainly at the end of 1720
• It was used in other countries as a French Style
• Characteristics:
– Galante: luxurious things
– Contraste: asymmety
– Chinoiserie: exotic character imitating Chinese arts

29. Rococo Architecture
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It caught the public taste
Small and curious buildings
Elegant parlours, dainty sitting-rooms and boudoirs
Walls, ceiling, furniture and works of metal as decoration
Ensemble of sportive, fantastic and sculptured forms
Horizontal lines almost completely supressed
Shell-like curves
Walls covered by stucco
White and bright colours.