Far Eastern University

Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

___________________________________________________________________________

Week 6.
Topic: MAN AND HIS EMOTIONS: BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

Overview
This lecture explains the historical development that led to the Baroque period of the 17th and 18th century. The lecture
will discuss the features of the Baroque architectural style, the development of the Baroque style to a full-blown
movement. Notable architects, builders and patrons of Baroque art and architecture will likewise be explained in the
course of the lecture.

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the learner should be able to:
• Explain and describe the Baroque architectural style;
• Draw and write about architectural types and features of the Baroque style; and,
• Identify specific architectural types and stylistic variations in the countries where Baroque style spread as a
movement.

Additional Readings/Materials
• Baroque Architectural History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvhLdQ5iCiA
• Architecture of the Baroque Period
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/architecture-of-the-baroque-period/
• Baroque Architecture
https://www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-architecture
• Baroque Architecture
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Baroque_Architecture

References
Books:
• Burden, Ernest E., Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture. New York: McGraw-Hill, c2012.
• Ching, Francis, A Visual Dictionary of Architecture. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, c2012.
• Cruickshank, Dan, Sir Banister Fletcher’s A History of Architecture (Twentieth Edition). Oxford: Architectural
Press, c1996
Websites:
• Cadman, S. (2007). West Entrance, St Paul's Cathedral [Online image]. Wikimedia.
https://commons.wikimedia.org
• Dexbaldon (2014). Daraga Church [Online image]. Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org
• Fedorov, A. (2012). Kikin Palace [Online image]. Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org
• Pequod76 (2007). Cathedral of Saint Nicholas of Myra [Online image]. Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org
• Gagnon, B. (2009). Royal Palace of Madrid [Online image]. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/
• Scarth, R. (2005). Royal Palace, Amsterdam. [Online image]. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/
• [St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery] Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/
• [Trevi Fountain] Architectural Digest. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/
• Vassal, M. (2007). Palace of Versailles. Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org
 Far Eastern University
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

___________________________________________________________________________

Week 6.
Topic: MAN AND HIS EMOTIONS: BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

The style that evolved in Italy in the early 1600’s. The term ‘baroque’ is probably derived from the ancient Portuguese
noun ‘barroco’, which means a pearl that is not round but of an unpredictable and elaborate shape. The word ‘baroque’
can simply mean that something is ‘elaborate’ or with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th
and 18th centuries.

The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church which had decided
at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes in direct and emotional
involvement. The aristocracy also saw the dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing
visitors and expressing triumphant power and control.

The Baroque played into the demand for an architecture that was on the one hand more accessible to the emotions
and, on the other hand, a visible statement of the wealth and power of the Church. Baroque palaces are built around
an entrance sequence of courts, anterooms, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing
magnificence.

The baroque architects used marble, gilt, and bronze in abundance. Baroque pediments (triangular area between the
rooftop and the end of the roofs) were often highly decorated, or interrupted at the center. The tips were sometimes
turned into scrolls and gilded. Many of the ceilings used something called ‘illusionism’. Baroque art and architecture
was often used to express emotion, and was very elaborate.

The most distinct shape of the Baroque style is the oval. Creating buildings out of complex interlacing ovals allowed
the architects to have large open spaces that were different than just plain circles. To accomplish putting a circular
dome on an oval space, the architect had to use very strange angles, but it did create space for sculptures and
paintings.

Periods of Baroque Art and Architecture

1. Early Baroque (1584-1625)

Dominated by the work of Roman architects, notably the Church of the Gesu, by Giacomo della Porta, façade
and colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica by Carlo Maderno and the lavish Barberini Palace interiors by Pietro da
Cortona.

2. High Baroque (1625-1675)

Produced major works in Rome by Pietro da Cortona, Francesco Borromini and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. In
Venice, High Baroque works included Santa Maria della Salute by Baldassare Longhena. Examples in France
included the Pavilion de l’Horloge of the Louvre Palace and the Chapel of Sorbonne by Jacques Lemercier
and the Chateau de Maisons by Francois Mansart.

3. Late Baroque (1675-1750)

Saw the style spread to all parts of Europe and to the colonies of Spain and Portugal in the New World. The
Late Baroque in France, under Louis XIV, was more ordered and classical, examples are the Hall of Mirrors
of the Palace of Versailles. An ornate variant, appeared in the early 18th century, it was first called Rocaille in
France, then Rococo in Spain and Central Europe.
 Far Eastern University
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

___________________________________________________________________________

Leading Architects of the Baroque Period

1. Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)

Prominent baroque sculptor and architect of 17th century Rome. He represents the theatrical, entrepreneurial
side of the Roman Baroque, welding the arts of painting, sculpture and architecture into spectacular unified
effects

2. Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669)

Was a prolific artist and architect of High Baroque. Best known for painting fresco ceilings. Was a powerful
designer, moving towards a strongly columnar architecture marked by dramatic chiaroscuro (an effect of
contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something).

3. Francesco Borromini (1599-1667)

Byname of Francesco Castelli. A prominent and influential Swiss Baroque architect in Rome. Most
revolutionary architect of the Roman Baroque architects. Chief rival of Bernini for Papal projects

4. Carlo Maderno (1556-1629)

Was an Italian Swiss architect. One of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His designs of church facades
were of key importance in the evolution of Italian Baroque

Baroque Architectural Styles

1. Dutch Baroque
Dutch Baroque s a variety of Baroque architecture that
flourished in the Dutch Republic and its colonies during the
Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century. The architecture of the
first republic in Northern Europe was meant to reflect
democratic values by quoting extensively from classical
antiquity.

Royal Palace of Amsterdam

2. Roman Baroque
Any form of the arts in the Baroque period, roughly from 1600
to the late 18th century. Rome was a leading center
for Baroque architecture and Baroque painting in particular.
Styles in ancient Roman art and Roman architecture, mainly
of the middle Imperial period, where many aspects of the
modern baroque style are also found.

Trevi Fountain
 Far Eastern University
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

___________________________________________________________________________

3. French Baroque
Sometimes called French Classicism, was a style of
architecture during the reigns of Louis XIII (1610–43), Louis
XIV (1643–1715) and Louis XV (1715–74). It was preceded
by French Renaissance architecture and Mannerism and
was followed in the second half of the 18th century
by French Neoclassical architecture.

Palace of Versailles
4. English Baroque
English Baroque is a casual term sometimes used to refer to the developments in English Architecture that
were parallel to the evolution of Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of
London (1666) and the Treaty of Utrecht (1713).

St. Paul’s Cathedral

5. Sicilian Baroque
The distinctive form of Baroque Architecture that took hold
on the island of Sicily, off the southern coast of Italy, in the
17th and 18th centuries. It came during a major surge of
rebuilding following a massive earthquake in 1693.

Cathedral of Saint Nicholas of Myra

 Far Eastern University
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

___________________________________________________________________________
6. Petrine Baroque
Name applied by art historians to a style of Baroque
architecture and decoration favored by Peter the Great
and employed to design buildings in the newly-founded
Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, under this monarch
and his immediate successors. Petrine Baroque
represented a dramatic departure from Byzantine
traditions that had dominated Russian architecture for
almost a millennium.

Kikin Hall
7. Ukrainian Baroque
Ukrainian Baroque or Cossack Baroque is an architectural style
that emerged in Ukraine during the Hetmanate era, in the 17th
and 18th centuries. Ukrainian Baroque is distinct from the
Western European Baroque in having more moderate
ornamentation and simpler forms, and as such was considered
more constructivist.

St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery

8. Spanish Baroque
Spanish Baroque is a strand of Baroque Architecture that evolved in Spain and its provinces and former
colonies, notably Spanish America and Belgium. Artists' fluency in interpreting traditional motifs of Spanish
cathedral architecture in the Baroque aesthetic idiom.

In contrast to the art of Northern Europe, the Spanish art of the Baroque period appealed to the emotions
rather than seeking to please the intellect. The Churriguera family, which specialized in designing altars and
retables, revolted against the sobriety of the previous Herrerian classicism and promoted an intricate,
exaggerated, almost capricious style of surface decoration known as the Churrigueresque.

The Royal Palace of Madrid

 Far Eastern University
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

___________________________________________________________________________

9. Earthquake Baroque
Earthquake Baroque is a style of Baroque architecture found in places, such at the Philippines and
Guatemala, which suffered earthquakes during the 17th century and 18th century and where large public
buildings, such as churches were rebuilt in a Baroque style. Similar events lead to the Pombaline
architecture in Lisbon following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and Sicilian Baroque in Sicily following the
earthquake in 1693.

Daraga Church

Characteristics of Baroque Architecture

1. Domes were a common feature and their interiors were often painted with a sky filled with angels and
sculpted sunbeams, suggesting glory or a vision of heaven
2. Quadratura (illusionistic ceiling painting) and paintings in trompe-l-’oeil (an art technique that uses realistic
imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three
3. Grand stairways – occupied a central place and were used for dramatic effect, winding upward in stages,
giving changing views from different levels, serving as a setting for ceremonies
4. Cartouche in elaborated forms and frames break up the surfaces and add three-dimensional effects to the
walls
5. Mirrors to give the impression of depth and greater space, particularly when combined with windows
6. Chiaroscuro – use of strong contrasts of darkness and light for dramatic effect
7. Overhead sculpture – figures on or just below the ceiling, giving the impression of floating in the air
8. Solomonic columns – gives an illusion of motion