Baroque & Rococo architecture

Baroque & Roccoco Architecture
A lecture by
Tanushree Das
Date : 06.03.2014
A lectutre by Tanushree Das

Baroque Era
Period of artistic style started in 16th century in Rome,
Italy and spread to most of Europe
Encouraged by Roman catholic church
A response to the protestant reformation
often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and
the absolutist state
The late Baroque style is often referred to as Rococo or,
in Spain and Spanish America, as Churrigueresque.

Period for Baroque
Roughly 3 phase :
Early Baroque ( AD 1590 to AD 1625 )
High Baroque (AD 1625 to AD 1660 )
Late Baroque (AD 1660 to AD 1725)

Baroque architecture
Architectural style originating in late 16th-century Italy and lasting in some
regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, until the 18th century.
It had its origins in the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church
launched an overtly emotional and sensory appeal to the faithful through art and
architecture.
Precursor and features
Michenlengelo’s late Roman buildings,
particularly St. Peter’s Basilica, may be
considered precursor to Baroque
architecture.
His pupil Giacomo della
Porta continued this work
in Rome, particularly in
the façade of the Jesuit
church Il Gesù, which
leads directly to the most
important church façade
of the early
Baroque, Santa
Susanna (1603), by Carlo
Maderno

Distinctive features of Baroque architecture:
 Bold massive colonnade and domes
Broader naves and sometimes oval forms
Fragmentary or deliberately incomplete architectural elements
Bold play of volumes and voids
Dramatic use of light; either strong light-and-shade contrasts (chiaroscuro effects)
as at the church of Weltenburg Abbey, or uniform lighting by means of several
windows (e.g. church of Weingarten Abbey)
Opulent use of colour and ornaments (figures made of wood (often gilded), plaster
or stucco, marble or faux finishing)
Large-scale ceiling frescoes
An external façade often characterized by a dramatic central projection
The interior is a shell for painting, sculpture and stucco (especially in the late
Baroque)
Illusory effects like trompe l'oeil
The blending of painting and architecture
Pear-shaped domes in the Bavarian, Czech, Polish and Ukrainian Baroque

Complex architectural plan shapes, often based on the
oval, and the dynamic opposition and interpenetration
of spaces were favoured to heighten the feeling of
motion and sensuality.
 Other characteristic qualities include grandeur, drama
and contrast (especially in lighting), curvaceousness,
and an often dizzying array of rich surface treatments,
twisting elements, and gilded statuary.
Architects unabashedly applied bright colours and
illusory, vividly painted ceilings.

Significant architect of Baroque era
Outstanding practitioners in Italy included Gian
Lorenzo Bernini, Carlo Maderno (1556–1629),
Francesco Borromini, and Guarino Guarini (1624–83).
 Classical elements subdued Baroque architecture in
France. In central Europe, the Baroque arrived late but
flourished in the works of such architects as the
Austrian Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656–
1723).
Its impact in Britain can be seen in the works of
Christopher Wren.

List of Baroque architecture

Roccoco
Rococo is a subset of Baroque ( late Baroque of 18th century) in
the field of Panting, Sculpture , architecture , interior design and
decoration, literature , music and theatre
• Display shapes of nature – leaves, shells, scrolls (floral
elements) in surface ornament
• More simplified forms
• Painted Details over built forms
• Compiled with Painting to create illusion of depth
• Predominately used in Secular Buildings
• France, Germany, Austria, 18th Century

Famous buildings in Roccoco
Igreja de São Francisco
de Assis in São João del
Rei, 1749–1774, by the
Brazilian
master Aleijadinho
Czapski Palace in Warsaw, 1712–
1721, reflects rococo's
fascinations of oriental
architecture St. Andrew's
Church in Kiev, 1744–
1767, designed
by Francesco
Bartolomeo Rastrelli

The Baroque & Rococo in Italy
St. Peters Cathedral
• Michelangelo imparts his mannerisms
onto the design and creates a large
dome. (Mannerisms hint at freedom of
expression) He died in 1564. Giacomo
Della Porta finishes his dome.
• Carlo Maderno Finishes the Cathedral
in Baroque Fashion (adds onto nave &
Creates transept narthex with colonnade
1607 – 1626
• Gianlorenzo Bernini in 1624 begins
work on the Baldacchino & the Piazza
Colonnade

St. Peters Cathedral
Michelangelo broke the rules first.
Pilasters broke the Classical Mold. The
addition of the sculpture broke the
classical mold. It gave license to the
other architects to begin to break the
rules of the Renaissance

Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598 – 1680)
An Italian artist and a prominent architect who
worked principally in Rome.
He was the leading sculptor of his age, credited
with creating the Baroque style of sculpture.
Bernini's architectural works include sacred and
secular buildings and sometimes their urban
settings and interiors. He made adjustments to
existing buildings and designed new
constructions.Amongst his most well known works are the Piazza San
Pietro (1656–67), the piazza and colonnades in front of St.
Peter's Basilica and the interior decoration of the Basilica.

Apollo and Daphne
David
Ecstasy of saint teresa
The Rape of Proserpina
Aeneas and Anchises,

Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598 – 1680)
Amongst his secular works are a number of Roman palaces:
following the death of Carlo Maderno, he took over the supervision
of the building works at the Palazzo Barberini from 1630 on which
he worked with Borromini; the Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo
Montecitorio)(started 1650); and the Palazzo Chigi (now Palazzo
Chigi-Odescalchi) (started 1664).
His first architectural
projects were the
façade and
refurbishment of the
church of Santa
Bibiana (1624–26)
and the St. Peter's
baldachin (1624–33)

St. Peter's Square - Altar Canopy - 1624 – 33 AD
The Baroque sculpted bronze canopy
(or baldachin) located at the centre of
the crossing and directly under the
dome of Saint Peter's Basilica in
the Vatican City, Rome. Designed by
the sculptor and architect Gian
Lorenzo Bernini, it was intended to
mark, in a monumental way, the place
of Saint Peter's tomb underneath.
Under its canopy is the High Altar of
the basilica. Commissioned by Pope
Urban VIII, the work began in 1623
and ended in 1633

Pope Urban VIII put him in charge of all the ongoing
architectural works at St Peter's. However, due to political
reasons and miscalculations in his design of the bell-towers
for St. Peter's, of which only one was completed and then
subsequently torn down, Bernini fell out of favor during
the Pamphili papacy of Innocent X
Bernini then regained a major role in the decoration of St.
Peter's with the Pope Alexander VII Chigi, leading to his
design of the piazza and colonnade in front of St. Peter's
Further significant works by Bernini at
the Vatican include the Scala Regia,
(1663–66) the monumental grand
stairway entrance to the Vatican Palace
and the Cathedra Petri, the Chair of
Saint Peter, in the apse of St. Peter's.

Scala Regia or Royal Staircase is a flight of steps in the Vatican City and is
part of the formal entrance to the Vatican. It was built by Antonio da
Sangallo the Younger in the early 16th century, to connect the Apostolic
Palace to St. Peter's Basilica, and restored by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from
1663 to 1666.
 The site for the stairs, a comparatively narrow
sliver of land between church and palace, is
awkwardly shaped with irregular converging
walls.
Bernini used a number of typically
theatrical, baroque effects in order to exalt this
entry point into Vatican. Above the arch at the
beginning of this vista is the coat of arms
of Alexander VII, flanked by two sculpted
angels.

He fulfilled three commissions for new churches, designed the structure and
decorate the interiors in a consistent manner. Best known is the small oval
baroque church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale.
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, 1658-70,
Rome; commissioned by Cardinal
Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili
for the nearby Jesuit seminary
Inside, the main entrance is located on the
short axis of the church and directly faces the
high altar.
The oval form of the main congregational
space of the church is defined by the wall,
pilasters and entablature, which frame the side
chapels, and the golden dome above.
Large paired columns supporting a curved
pediment differentiate the recessed space of
the high altar from the congregational space.

Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, 1658-70, Rome;
commissioned by Cardinal Camillo Francesco
Maria Pamphili for the nearby Jesuit seminary
Unlike San Carlo, Sant’Andrea is set
back from the street and the space outside
the church is enclosed by low curved
quadrant walls.
An oval cylinder encases the dome, and
large volutes transfer the lateral thrust.
The main façade to the street has an
aedicular pedimented frame at the center
of which a semicircular porch with two
Ionic columns marks the main entrance.
Above the porch entablature is the heraldic
coat of arms of the Pamphili patron.

Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco
Castelli (25 September 1599 – 2 August 1667),[was an
architect from Ticino who, with his
contemporaries Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da
Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence
of Roman Baroque architecture.
A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and
the ruins of Antiquity, Borromini developed an
inventive and distinctive, if somewhat idiosyncratic,
architecture employing manipulations of Classical
architectural forms, geometrical rationales in his plans
and symbolic meanings in his buildings. He seems to
have had a sound understanding of structures, which
perhaps Bernini and Cortona, who were principally
trained in other areas of the visual arts, lacked.

Major works of Francesco Borromini:
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (San Carlino)
In 1634, Borromini received his first major
independent commission to design the church
Situated on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, the
complex was designed for the Spanish
Trinitarians, a religious order. The monastic
buildings and the cloister were completed first
after which construction of the church took
place during the period 1638-1641 and in 1646
it was dedicated to San Carlo Borromeo.
The church is considered by many to be an
masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture.
San Carlino is remarkably small given its significance to Baroque architecture;
it has been noted that the whole building would fit into one of the dome piers
of Saint Peter's A lectutre by Tanushree Das

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (San Carlino)
The site was a corner site and the space was
limited. Borromini positioned the church on the
corner of two intersecting roads. Although the
idea for the serpentine facade must have been
conceived fairly early on, probably in the mid-
1630s, it was only constructed towards the end
of Borromini's life and the upper part was not
completed until after the architect's death
Borromini devised the complex ground plan of
the church from interlocking geometrical
configurations. The resulting effect is that the
interior lower walls appear to weave in and out,
partly alluding to a cross form, partly to a
hexagonal form and partly to an oval form.
Illuminated by windows hidden from a viewer
below, interlocking octagons, crosses and
hexagons diminish in size as the dome rises to a
lantern with the symbol of the Trinity.A lectutre by Tanushree Das

Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri (Oratorio dei Fillipini)
The Oratorio dei
Filippini (Oratory of Saint
Phillip Neri) is a building located
in Rome and erected between
1637 and 1650 under the
supervision of
architect Francesco Borromini.
The oratory is adjacent to
the Chiesa Nuova Santa Maria in
Vallicella, the mother church of
the congregation.
The facade the oratory
(1720 engraving)
The congregation of the Filippini already had one of the most well-
decorated Baroque churches in Rome, and the order had planned to build an
oratory, as well as residential quarters, adjacent to the church of Santa Maria in
Vallicella (Chiesa Nuova) located in crowded central Rome. Borromini won a
competition for designing the structure against many including Paolo was
employed in the task for 13 years, often a testy process. By 1640, the oratory was
in use, and by 1643, the library, called the Biblioteca Vallicelliana, was complete.A lectutre by Tanushree Das

Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri (Oratorio dei Fillipini)
The striking facade adjacent to the church entrance
has little regard for the structures behind. Inside the
oratory is articulated by half columns and a complex
rhythm of pilasters.
The facade provides a summary of Borromini's
characteristics of innovations style, both austere and
technically rigorous. The main body is divided into
five parts by pilasters following a concave curve. In
the central part, a dialectic set appears between the
lower level, whose curve moves outward.
At the corner of the oratory, on the Piazza
dell'Orologio, Borromini raised a turret with a
clock (1647-1649).

Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza
It is a Roman Catholic church in Rome. Built in 1642-1660 by the architect
Francesco Borromini, the church is a masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture.
In the 14th century, there was
a chapel here for the palace of
the University of Rome. The
University is called La
Sapienza, and the church was
dedicated to Saint Yves (patron
saint of jurists). When a design
was commissioned from
Borromini, he adapted to the
already existing palazzo. He
choose a plan resembling
a star of David, and merged a
curved facade of the church
with the courtyard of the
palace.

It is a Roman Catholic church in Rome. Built in 1642-1660 by the architect
Francesco Borromini, the church is a masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture.
The complex rhythms of the interior have a
dazzling geometry to them. It is a rational
architecture- intricate to view, but on paper
the overlap of a circle on two superimposed
equilateral triangles creates a basis for a
hexagonal array of chapels and altar in a
centralized church. The undulations, both
concave and convex of the interiors, create a
jarring yet stunning appeal.
The rotunda of Sant'Ivo is contrived of distinct shapes, a triangle with its three
angles cut as if bitten off, and semi-circles located in between the triangle’s three
lines.

Despite the shift from the smooth geometrical alignments of San Carlino to the
sharper abrupt geometrical bends in Sant'Ivo, both buildings exhibit harmony
between the sharp edges and the curves and spheres. Borromini utilized curves
(semi-circles) and edges (clipped triangle tips) in equal amounts to define the
shape of the rotunda. This blending of edges and curves is arguably Borromini’s
most distinguishable signature.

Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza ( exterior)
The church rises at the end of the alley of
buildings so that the façade can be seen
throughout the alleyway; this suggests a
decentralized planning on Borromini’s part.
Baroque architecture differed from
renaissance in moving from centralization
to different orientations, shifting the
buildings; such as churches, from the main
stage to the background while maintaining
similar importance in society. This is
specially true for Sant'Ivo, hidden within the
confines of its encapsulating alley.
The façade of San Ivo alla Sapienza is concave, molding the church into the
alleyway as if completing it rather than disrupting it. The façade itself looks like a
continuation of the alley arches except with the openings filled in with small
windows, a door, and a larger glass window above the door. Above the façade is a
large parapet structure which adds towards the effect of the almighty dome by
hindering it just a little more so that only the higher stages of the church is seen past
the façade.

Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno (1556 – 30 January 1629) was a Swiss-
Italian architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of
the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa
Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were
of key importance in the evolution of the Italian Baroque.
He worked initially as a marble cutter, and his
background in sculptural workmanship would help
mold his architecture. His first solo project, in
1596, was an utterly confident and mature façade
for the ancient church of Santa Susanna (1597–
1603); it was among the first Baroque façades to
break with the Mannerist conventions that are
exemplified in the Gesù. The structure is a
dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, with a
protruding central bay and condensed central
decoration add complexity to the structure. There
is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic
design, still maintaining rigor.

Carlo Maderno
The Santa Susanna façade won the attention of Pope Paul V, who appointed him
chief architect of St Peter's. Maderno was forced to modify Michelangelo's plans for
the Basilica and provide designs for an extended nave with a palatial façade. The
façade (completed 1612) is constructed to allow for Papal blessings from the
emphatically enriched balcony above the central door.

Carlo Maderno
Most of Maderno's work continued to be the remodeling of existing structures. The
only building designed by Maderno and completed under his supervision was the
little Santa Maria della Vittoria(1608–20)
The church is the only structure designed and completed
by the early Baroque architect Carlo Maderno, though
the interior suffered a fire in 1833 and required
restoration. Its façade, however, was erected
by Giovanni Battista Soria during Maderno's lifetime,
1624–1626, showing the unmistakable influence of
Maderno's Santa Susanna nearby.
Its interior has a single wide nave under a low
segmental vault, with three interconnecting side
chapels behind arches separated by colossal Corinthian
pilasters with gilded capitals that support an
enriched entablature. Contrasting marble revetments
are enriched with white and gilded stucco angels
and putty in full relief.

The Baroque & Rococo in UK
Sir Christopher Michael Wren
(20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) is one of the most highly
acclaimed English architects in history. He was accorded
responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches in the City of
London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his
masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in
1710.
Following the Great Fire of 1666, which had hopelessly
damaged most of the City of London. Christopher Wren
proposed within 10 days an ideal plan for the City calling for
straight streets, etc, which was deemed impractical.
Later, however, Christopher Wren was active in establishing new safety
regulations for buildings and, significantly, was busy as the chief architect for the
rebuilding of over 40 parish churches,
His principal work, the evolutionary design and construction of the new St. Paul's
Cathedral, started soon after 1670 (although Christopher Wren had proposed a
reconstructed dome for the former edifice shortly before the fire' and was
eventually completed in 1711.

St Paul's Cathedral :
St Paul's went through five
general stages of design.
The first survives only as a single
drawing and part of a model. The
scheme (usually called the First
Model Design) appears to have
consisted of a circular domed
vestibule (possibly based on
the Pantheon in Rome) and a
rectangular church
of basilica form. The plan may
have been influenced by
the Temple Church. It was rejected
because it was not thought "stately
enough“.
Wren's second design was a
Greek cross, which was thought
by the clerics not to fulfill the
requirements of Anglican liturgy.
St Paul's Cathedral (old) :
It sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest
point in the City of London. Its dedication
to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original
church on this site, founded in AD 604. The
present church, dating from the late 17th
century, was designed in the English
Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its
construction, completed within Wren's
lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding
programme which took place in the city after
the Great Fire of London.

St Paul's Cathedral :
The Greek Cross Design
Wren's third design is embodied in the "Great
Model" of 1673. The model, made of oak and
plaster, cost over £500 (approximately
£32,000 today) and is over 13 feet (4 m) tall
and 21 feet (6 m) long. This design retained
the form of the Greek Cross design but
extended it with a nave. The design was
declined as being too dissimilar from other
English churches to suggest any continuity
within the Church of England

St Paul's Cathedral
Warrant Design :
Wren's fourth design is known as
the Warrant design because it was affixed
a Royal warrant for the rebuilding. In this
design Wren sought to reconcile Gothic,
the predominant style of English churches,
to a "better manner of architecture." It has
the longitudinal Latin Cross plan of a
medieval cathedral. It is of one and a half
storeys and has classical porticos at the
west and transept ends. It is roofed at the
crossing by a wide shallow dome
supporting a drum with a second cupola
from which rises a spire of seven
diminishing stages.

Sir Christopher Michael Wren St Paul's Cathedral (Final design):
The final design as built differs substantially
from the official Warrant design. Wren received
permission from the king to make ornamental
changes" to the submitted design, and Wren
took great advantage of this.
Many of these changes were made over the
course of the thirty years as the church was
constructed, and the most significant was to the
dome:
He raised another structure over the first cupola, a
cone of brick, so as to support a stone lantern and he
covered and hid out of sight the brick cone with
another cupola of timber and lead; and between this
and the cone are easy stairs that ascend to the lantern.
The final design was strongly rooted in St. Peter's
Basilica in Rome. The saucer domes over the nave
were inspired by François Mansart's Church of the
Val-de-Grâce, which Wren had seen during a trip to
Paris in 1665. A lectutre by Tanushree Das

Sir Christopher Michael Wren St Paul's Cathedral :
St Paul's Cathedral is built in a restrained Baroque style
which represents Wren's rationalization of the traditions
of English Medieval cathedrals with the inspiration
of Palladio, the Classical style of Inigo Jones, the
Baroque style of 17th-century Rome, and the buildings
by Mansart and others that he had seen in France.
It has much
emphasis on its
facade, which has
been designed to
define rather than
conceal the form of
the building behind it.
St Paul's is
comparatively long for
its width, and has
strongly projecting
transepts.
In section St Paul's
also maintains a
medieval form, having
the aisles much lower
than the nave, and a
defined clerestory

Interior
Internally, St Paul's has a nave and choir
each of three bays.
The entrance from the west portico is
through a square domed narthex, flanked on
either side by chapels: the Chapel of St
Dunstan to the north and the Chapel of the
Order of St Michael and St George to the
south side.
 The nave is 91 feet (28 m) in height and is
separated from the aisles by an arcade of
piers with attached Corinthian pilasters rising
to an entablature.

The cathedral is some 574 feet (175 m) in length (including the portico of the
Great West Door), of which 223 feet (68 m) is the nave and 167 feet (51 m) is the
choir. The width of the nave is 121 feet (37 m) and across the transepts is 246 feet
(75 m).
The cathedral is thus slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul's.
The bays, and therefore the vault compartments, are rectangular, but Wren has
ingeniously roofed these spaces with saucer-shaped domes and surrounded the
clerestorey windows with lunettes.
The vaults of the choir have been lavishly decorated with mosaics by
Sir William Blake Richmond.
 The dome and the apse of the choir are all approached through wide arches with
coffered vaults which contrast with the smooth surface of the domes and
punctuate the division between the main spaces.

Exterior
From the exterior, the most visible and most notable feature is the dome, which
rises 366 feet (108 m) to the cross at its summit, and still dominates views of the
City.
St Paul's was until the late 20th century, the tallest building on the city skyline,
designed to be seen surrounded by the delicate spires of Wren's other city
churches.
The dome is described by Banister Fletcher as "probably the finest in Europe",
Wren drew inspiration from Michelangelo's
dome of St Peter's Basilica, and that
of Mansart's Church of the Val-de-Grâce which
he had visited. Unlike those of St Peter's and
Val-de-Grâce, the dome of St Paul's rises in two
clearly defined storeys of masonry, which,
together with a lower unadorned footing, equal
a height of about 95 feet.

Above the peristyle rises the second stage surrounded by a balustraded balcony called
the "Stone Gallery". This attic stage is ornamented with alternating pilasters and
rectangular windows which are set just below the cornice, creating a sense of lightness.
 Above this attic rises the dome, covered with lead, and ribbed in accordance with the
spacing of the pilasters. It is pierced by eight light wells just below the lantern, but these
are barely visible. They allow light to penetrate through openings in the brick cone,
which illuminates the interior apex of this shell, partly visible from within the cathedral
through the ocular opening of the lower dome.
The lantern, like the visible masonry of the dome, rises in stages.
The most unusual characteristic of this structure is that it is of square plan, rather than
circular or octagonal. The tallest stage takes the form of a tempietto with four columned
porticos facing the cardinal points.
Its lowest level is surrounded by the "Golden Gallery" and its upper level supports a
small dome from which rises a cross on a golden ball. The total weight of the lantern is
about 850 tons. A lectutre by Tanushree Das

French Baroque architecture
French Baroque architecture is the name given to the French architecture during
the reigns of Louis XIII (1610–43), Louis XIV (1643–1715) and Louis XV (1715–
74).
The three most important and notable baroque architects in France in the 17th
century were Jacques Lemercier (1580/5-1654), a man who was a master of
delicate elegant line and graceful silhouettes which he ingeniously combined with
forceful mass. He was most noted for his work on the Church of the Sorbonne.
Next is Francois Mansart (1598-1666), a man who’s exteriors and interiors,
composed with scrupulous purity and infinite stability, make him in architecture
the cornerstone of French Baroque Classicism. He was best known for his work
on the Ste Marie de la Visitation and Chateau of Blois. Finally Louis Levau
(1612-1670), a man who emphasized on terraced, parterres, pools, fountains, all
to provide an axial relationship to his work. He was best known for his work on
the Chateau and Gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte and College des Quatre Nations.

Baroque & Rococo architecture

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