Chapter 12: Baroque Architecture

Buildings across Time, 4th Edition
Chapter Twelve: Baroque Architecture
Introduction
By the end of the Renaissance, the Church had great temporal power, but its moral
foundations had deteriorated. To finance both sacred and secular projects, the Church
instituted questionable fundraising practices, such as the sale of pardons and indulgences
to save the payer or a relative from a stipulated number of days in Purgatory.
The most dramatic and influential reaction came from the monk Martin Luther of the
monastery at Wittenberg, Germany. In 1517 he nailed his ninety-five theses or propositions
to the door of All Saints' Church, in the opening salvo of what would become known as the
Protestant Reformation.

Buildings across Time, 4th Edition
Chapter Twelve: Baroque Architecture
Introduction
The Council of Trent convened in 1545 and decreed that art was an essential tool for
spreading the prestige and teachings of the Church. All the arts were deployed in this
public-relations effort, and the artistic style that developed to restate traditional Catholic
teachings became known as the Baroque. The results were openly propagandistic, overtly
emotional, and long on sensory appeal.
The Baroque was a didactic, theatrical, dynamic, and dramatic style. Its effects were
achieved through the dynamic play of concave against convex curves; a preference for axial
and centralized spaces that found particular expression in the ellipse or oval, at once axial
and centralized; and the imaginative integration of painting, sculpture, and architecture to
create illusions and dissolve physical boundaries.

The Catholic Counter Reformation
Il Gesu
Vignola and della Porta: Plan and section of
the Gesu, Rome. Among the new
institutions of the reformed Catholic Church
was the militant Order of the Society of
Jesus, known as the Jesuits. Il Gesu, was
their principal church, begun in 1568 to
plans by Giacomo Vignola and completed in
1576 by Giacomo della Porta, who designed
the facade as built and the dome. Vignola
produced clear sightlines and acoustics that
allowed for preaching to be heard clearly.

Il Gesu
The composition of this facade is traceable
to Alberti's S. Maria Novella in Florence, but
with classical orders replacing the traditional
Florentine subdivision based on geometric
shapes. The three-dimensionality and
accumulation of detail in the central bay
suggest a new kind of facade composition.

Rome Plan
Fontana: Sixtus V’s plan for Rome, 1585-1590. Pope Sixtus V began radical changes for the city, and his
design program both guided the its development for the next hundred years and influenced urban
design throughout Europe and eventually in America. With this plan, the Renaissance concept of static,
self-contained spaces gave way to the Baroque concept of dynamic axial connections between
important urban points. It would inspire numerous later city layouts, from Paris to Washington, D.C.

Rome Plan

St. Peter’s
Michelangelo and Maderno:
Plan of the completed St.
Peter’s, Rome, 1546-64 and
1606-12. After the death of
Sixtus V, work continued on St.
Peter's; this project was at last
brought to completion during
the Baroque period. The dome
was finished in 1612 under
the direction of architect
Giacomo della Porta and
engineer Domenico Fontana,
and the nave addition, not
envisioned by Michelangelo,
was made by Carlo Mademo,
who also designed the main
façade. The largest church in
Christendom was finally
consecrated in 1626.

St. Peter’s
The extension of the nave
after Michelangelo's death
documents the clergy's
determination to replace the
architect-preferred Greek-
cross plan with a Latin-cross
conducive to the processional
and handling large crowds.
MichelangeloMaderno

St. Peter’s
Maderno's façade stretches the full width of the church. The small cupolas were the work of
Vignola. The dome was planned by Michelangelo and refined by Giacomo della Porta. Bernini
added the colonnade that creates the trapezoidal and oval piazzas.

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s - Interior
Bernini: Interior of St. Peter’s.
Much of the present interior's
character is the result of
Bernini's genius. Bernini was
responsible for the flooring in
the nave and narthex, for the
decoration of the nave piers,
and for the design of four
sculptural groupings for altars
and tombs. His designs for the
crossing and main apse of the
church, however, are the most
substantial contributions he
made to the interior.
https://www.360cities.net/imag
e/st-peter-s-basilica-vatican-1

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s - Baldacchino
To reduce the scale of the vast
space under Michelangelo's dome,
Bernini designed the bronze
Baldacchino (1624-33), a symbolic
protective canopy over the high
altar above the tomb of St. Peter.
To match the scale of the rotunda,
the Baldacchino is nearly ninety
feet high; its twisted columns are
not a Baroque invention, but a
greatly enlarged version of marble
columns from the Constantinian
basilica, some of which are
preserved as part of the reliquaries
at the second-floor level of the
crossing piers.

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s - Baldacchino
Material for the Baldacchino was obtained
by melting down the Roman bronze
supports of the Pantheon's portico.
There was even enough metal left over to
cast eighty cannons for defense of the city.
So large is the interior that the
Baldacchino's height, equivalent to a nine-
story building, is not overpowering from a
distance.

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s Piazza
As the greatest church in
Western Christendom, St.
Peter's required an appropriate
approach and exterior setting,
and Bernini was also
commissioned to undertake this
work.
In 1637 he proposed that two
bell towers be constructed at
the ends of the narthex in order
to counter the horizontal
emphasis of Maderno's facade.
Only the southernmost tower
had been partially built when
soil subsidence and subsequent
cracking of the structure neces-
sitated removal of the
campanile in 1645.

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s
Bernini: Site Plan of St. Peter’s
complex and a portion of the
Vatican. In 1657, however, Bernini
designed the Piazza of St. Peter's,
one of the most famous urban
spaces in the world. Composed of
two parts, the piazza has an oval
section, the Piazza Obliqua, which
focuses on the Vatican Obelisk, fol-
lowed by a trapezoidal section, the
Piazza Retta, directly in front of the
church entrance. Both sections
work together to provide a
symbolic embrace for Christians
who come to visit the tomb of St.
Peter.

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s
Peter.
Baldacchino

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s
Peter.
St. Peter’s
Baldacchino

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s
Peter.
St. Peter’s
Sistine
Chapel
Baldacchino

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s
Peter.
St. Peter’s
Sistine
Chapel
Baldacchino
Piazza
Retta

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s
Peter.
St. Peter’s
Sistine
Chapel
Vatican
Obelisk
Baldacchino
Piazza
Retta

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s
Peter.
St. Peter’s
Sistine
Chapel
Vatican
Obelisk
Piazza
Oblique
Baldacchino
Piazza
Retta

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St. Peter’s
The Piazza Retta’s trapezoidal
shape, which is perceived as a
rectangle, "squeezes" the facade to
emphasize verticality, and the
flanking colonnade diminishes in
height as it extends toward the
church.
St. Peter’s
Sistine
Chapel
Vatican
Obelisk
Piazza
Oblique
Baldacchino
Piazza
Retta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J
yqrrMfYoDA

Gianlorenzo Bernini
S. Andrea al Quirinale
S. Andrea al Quirinale, Rome, 1658-70. 5.
Andrea has flanking walls that reach out as if
to embrace passers-by. The architectural
space around and above provides the setting
for what would today be called a multimedia
experience, as Bernini combined painting,
sculpture, stuccowork, and lighting effects to
dramatize the martyrdom and apotheosis of
St. Andrew. The coffered dome includes ten
ribs, diminishing in width as they rise to
visually support the base of the lantern.

Bernini: Plan of S. Andrea
al Quirinale, Rome. Bernini
chose to place the altar
along the short axis of the
ellipse. He also chose to
terminate the cross axis
with pilasters rather than
chapels. Both were
unorthodox choices in the
mid-sixteenth century.
Gianlorenzo Bernini
S. Andrea al Quirinale

Francesco Borromini
S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane,
Rome, begun 1634. In 1638 he
designed the diminutive but
highly innovative church at the
corner of the Strada Felice and
the Strada Pia. He embellished
the intersection with four
fountains set diagonally across
from each corner, hence the
descriptive words "Quattro
Fontane" added to the name
of the church.

Francesco Borromini
The principal facade,
constructed in 1665-67, mirrors
the internal play of concave and
convex, swinging in and out over
its three-bay width with its two
stories separated by an
intermediate oscillating
entablature.
A figure of St. Charles Borromeo
with praying hands and eyes
uplifted sets the facade's vertical
theme, and angels, their wings
contorted to form a pediment,
shelter the saint and anticipate
the almost bizarre character of
the interior. This verticality is
terminated by a crowning
balustrade broken by a large oval
medallion.

Francesco Borromini
The church plan consists of an
undulating oval, its long axis
leading to the main altar.
Borromini's own drawings show
that he conceived his complex
plan by interlocking a series of
geometric figures from circles to
equilateral triangles, and he
based his proportions in section
on more equilateral triangles.

Borromini: S. Ivo della Sapienza, Rome,
begun 1642.
The building consists of a chapel inserted
behind the curved end of an existing two-
story courtyard at the Archiginnasio, a col-
lege popularly known as La Sapienza.
Francesco Borromini
S. Ivo della Sapieza

Borromini: Plan of S. Ivo della Sapienza, Rome.
Borromini made use of two interlocking
equilateral triangles as a conceptual structure for
this complex plan. The reflected ceiling plan
reveals the facets of his “pumpkin” vault. the
dome contains images of bees, icons of the
Barberini family, the building's patrons.
Francesco Borromini

Borromini: Transverse section through S.
Ivo della Sapienza, Rome. This section
reveals Borromini’s unconventional
layering. Atop the pilasters sits the
faceted entablature. Springing from this
entablature are the ribs, folded against
one another and diminishing in width as
they rise.
Francesco Borromini

Urban Open Spaces in Baroque Rome
Piazza Navona
Nolli map of the Piazza Navona, Rome, begun
1644. Bernini and Bonomini jointly created the
urban design of the Piazza Navona, an unusually
proportioned space that was once the Stadium of
Domitian.

Piazza Navona
The Piazza Navona’s church, S.
Agnese in Agone, was designed by
Borromini. Borromini chose to place
the dome close to the façade so it
could be seen between flanking
towers. It is the same scheme
intended by Bernini at St. Peter's
before his towers became unstable.
The skull of St. Agnese is on display
in the church, as a religious relic.

Piazza Navona
Bernini sculpted the
Fountain of the Four
Rivers (1648-51 ),
located in the center of
the piazza but off the
main axis of S. Agnese
so as not to compete
with it. It has symbolic
figures set amid
splashing water and
represents the major
rivers of the continents
to which Catholicism
had spread. The river
figures represent the
Ganges, the Danube,
the Nile and the Rio
della Plata in South
America.

Piazza del Popolo
The next Baroque square to be considered is the Piazza del Popolo. The placement of an obelisk
at the point where its three radial streets converge gave the space a monumental focus. In the
mid-seventeenth century, Roman planners wanted to regularize this important gateway to Rome
by placing identical domed churches on the trapezoidal sites created by the three streets.

Piazza del Popolo
In 1816-20, the architect Giuseppe Valadier carved out an oval volume for the piazza in imitation
of Bernini's Piazza of St. Peter's and added a set of viewing terraces to the east leading up to the
Borghese Gardens

Spanish Steps
De Sanctis and Specchi: the
Spanish Steps, Rome, 1723-26.
The route to S. Maria Maggiore
runs up the face of Pincio Hill.
Topographic difficulties here
required the route to make a
steep ascent, which was
imaginatively resolved by the
creation of the Spanish Steps
(1723-26), located near the
Spanish embassy.
The principle elements are the
steps with their landings, the
obelisk, and the church of the
Trinita dei Monte, built at
separate times but deftly
combined by Francesco de Sanctis
and Alessandro Specchi.

Spanish Steps
De Sanctis and
Specchi: Plan of the
Spanish Steps, Rome.
The steps speak of
choice about the run
of stairs to take,
choice about stopping
on an overlook, and
choice about the
speed at which to
proceed. Here in the
Nolli plan it is also
apparent how this
intervention interacts
with the existing
context.

Guarini: The Cappella della SS. Sindone, or Chapel
of the Holy Shroud (begun 1667), was added to
the east end of the cathedral of Turin to house the
important relic of the Holy Shroud.
This section drawing reveals Guarini’s
extraordinary organic quality of dome
construction, which is dramatic change from the
more hemispherical domes of Brunelleschi.
Spread of Baroque to Northern Italy
SS. Sindone, Turin

The Baroque in Central Europe
Karlskirche, Vienna
Karlskirche, Vienna, 1716-
25 by Fischer von Erlach.
In many respects Baroque
churches in central Europe
continued medieval
themes, and architecture,
sculpture, and painting
advanced a single idea: the
evocation of a heavenly
realm. Number symbolism
is prominent, as are the
images of saints serving as
intercessors between earth
and heaven. Twin-towered
west fronts are commonly
found capped by bulbous
domes rather than Gothic
spires.

Karlskirche, Vienna
The church’s broad facade
is dominated by a dome on
a drum rising above a
pedimented portico,
flanked by columns in a
manner recalling the front
of S. Agnese in Agone.
Elements from historical
buildings incorporated here
include the columned
portico from Roman
temples such as the
Pantheon; Trajan's Column
from imperial Rome, he
drum and dome from papal
Rome; and an overall
composition suggesting the
dome and minarets of
Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople.

Wurtzburg, Bavaria
Johann Balthasar
Neumann: Wursburg
Residence, begun 1720.
This is the garden front of
the palace. The second
floor contains the royal
reception room reached
by one of the great stairs
of the period.

Wurtzburg, Bavaria
It is the lofty Stair Hall that most clearly
exhibits the architect's technical skill. At
nearly 100 by 60 feet, the hall is the largest
single room in the palace, and it is roofed
by a clear-span stone vault. The centrally
placed stair rises in a single flight to a
landing, where it reverses direction and
divides before extending to the upper floor
- a so-called imperial stair.

French official patronage of the period was more than ever centered on the royal court, and the
propaganda of the Catholic Counter-Reformation was not an important issue. The official court style
glorified the monarch, and the primary function of the state-run artistic establishment was to provide
splendid settings, furnishings, and objects for the display of royal power.
During the 1660s several architects, including four Italians, were invited to submit designs for the east
facade.
Bernini, the leading European architect, submitted three design proposals, all better suited to the
bright sun of Italy than to the overcast skies of northern Europe.
The Baroque in France
East Façade of the Louvre, Paris

East Façade of the Louvre, Paris
Perhaps because Bernini failed to reflect French taste in his designs, Louis decided not to adopt any of
these schemes. Instead he gave the commission to a trio consisting of the architect Le Vau, the painter
Charles Lebrun (1619-90), and a doctor of medicine, Claude Perrault (1613-88).

Val-de-Grace, Paris
Francois Mansart:
the Church of the
Val-de-Grace,
Paris, 1644-46.
Mansart
simplified his
early schemes for
this church in
order to make it
economically
viable.

Val-de-Grace, Paris
Francois Mansart: Early section
drawing for the Church of the Val-
de-Grace. Low-slung vaults in the
stunted nave and steep,
telescoping domes at the crossing
visually allude to the design work
of the northern Italian Baroque
architects.
Telescoping
Domes

Versailles
Andre Le Notre: Site plan of the palace and
gardens, Versailles, begun 1661.
In the mid-seventeenth century, King Louis
XIV wanted to create a palatial estate outside
of Paris, where he could keep an eye on the
aristocracy and impress all with an
ostentatious display of his wealth and power.
In 1661 Architect Louis Le Vau first added two
freestanding service wings to the enclosure of
an old hunting lodge in the town of Versailles,
built by King Louis XIV’s father. Then, in 1669,
Le Vau enveloped the north and south flanks
of the original chateau with enfilades of
rooms in front of courtyards and stairs. From
the first, Louis intended Versailles to be the
permanent residence of the royal court,
dismissing medieval Paris as an unfit setting
for the Sun King.

Versailles
Under the direction of
Landscape Architect
Andre Le Notre, (1617-
1700), the army
drained 37,000 acres of
land and diverted an
entire river thirty miles
to supply water for the
fountains, which
eventually numbered
1400. Then Le Notre
planned vast gardens,
with axial vistas,
terraces, sculpture,
formal flowerbeds,
fountains, water basins,
and paths integrated
into a grand plan that
focused on the king's
bedroom in the center
of the palace.

Versailles
In 1678, the palace was again enlarged, this time under the direction of Frarncois Mansart's nephew,
Architect Jules Hardouin Mansart (1646-1708). Mansart also added the Galerie des Glaces, or Hall of
Mirrors, and two adjacent salons of War and Peace behind the west facade of the central block, finally
completing the envelopment of the original chateau. The king's own suite of rooms included salons where
paintings depicted monarchs of antiquity with the attributes of the gods representing the seven known
planets. His throne room was the Salon of Apollo.

Versailles
All of the interior decoration at Versailles was carried out under the direction of decorator
Charles Le Brun, and his ornamental work, furniture, tapestries, reliefs, and paintings were as
elaborate as anything to be found in Baroque palaces of the period.

Versailles
Architectural elements utilized at Versailles include long, straight avenues, dense forested areas, large water
features, and garden parterres. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=194CDlsFpQA

Les Invalides
J. H. Mansart: Saint-Louis-des-
Invalides, Paris, 1670-1708. J. H.
Mansart made use of drawings he
inherited from his uncle Francois in
preparing a design for this church. His
center plan can also be compared to
Bramante’s centralized scheme for St.
Peter’s. The church was the chapel
for a hospital for disabled soldiers,
where Napoleon’s tomb is located.

Les Invalides
Saint-Louis-des-Invalides’
Triple-shelled dome was an
inspiration for English Architect
Christopher Wren, when he designed
St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
1
2
3

Christopher Wren and the Baroque in England
St. Paul’s, London
Christopher Wren: St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. After the great London fire of 1666, Sir
Christopher Wren proposed a re-planning of London, that would have placed St. Paul’s at a
critical spot along several major axial streets. It never happened, and the church remains today
amidst the rebuilt medieval street pattern.

Wren's facade composition looks back to such
models as S. Agnese in the Piazza Navona. His triple-
shell dome includes the unique feature of a conical
intermediate shell that supports both the lantern
and the timber superstructure of the outer shell.
https://www.360cities.net/image/st-paul-s-
cathedral-london-uk-in-front-of-the-high-altar-and-
choir-stalls

The external massing of the dome had to
be tall and dignified to dominate the
London skyline, but this would have
created an excessively vertical internal
space. Thus Wren resorted to the triple-
domed strategy employed by J.-H.
Mansart at his church of St.-Louis-des-
Invalides. The innermost dome is of
masonry. Above this, a brick cone
supports both the cupola and the
wooden superstructure of the lead-
covered exterior dome. Despite Wren's
background as a mathematician, there is
no evidence that he used his academic
knowledge to make calculations
predicting structural behavior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bms
ejntbXRw

Wren’s original “Great Model” plan for St. Paul’s
Cathedral, London, 1673. This design was found to
be unacceptable in England because it had strong
Catholic overtones, derived from the churches of the
Italian Baroque Style in Rome.

Sir John Vanbrugh
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire
Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1705-24. he most celebrated
house of the Vanbrugh-Hawksmoor partnership is Blenheim Palace, built by a grateful England for the Duke
and Duchess of Marlborough in commemoration of the duke's success at the battle of Blenheim in 1704. A
large and pompous building, Blenheim is representative of this period of grandiose design and is one of the
most monumental pieces of domestic architecture of any period in Britain.

Sir John Vanbrugh
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire
Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, objected to its impracticality as a home, because kitchen and
dining room were a quarter-mile apart. The poet Alexander Pope observed, “’Tis very fine, But
where d'ye sleep, or where d'ye dine?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJtmx2P9hVQ

James Gibbs
St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London
St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, London, 1721-26. This
church set a precedent for countless religious
buildings, most notably in the American colonies
both before and after the Revolution, mainly as a
result of Gibbs's A Book of Architecture, published in
1729, which was widely-read and richly-illustrated.
The book displays Gibbs’ numerous works of
architecture, including St.-Martin-in-the-Fields.

James Gibbs
St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London
James Gibbs: Plan, section,
and elevation of St. Martin-
in-the-Fields. Gibbs
successfully united the
temple front, Wren-like
tower, and basilican nave to
produce a prototype for
churches in England and
America. He tried out several
variants before settling on
this composition that begins
as a square, moves through
sets of octagons, and
terminates with a faceted
spire.

Chapter 12: Baroque Architecture

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Chapter 12: Baroque Architecture