AR2131​ ​

Semester 1 | A.Y. 2024-2025

COURSE OUTLINE

I. Baroque in Italy
II. Baroque Outside Italy

KEY TERMS
☆ Gild - gold paintings
☆ Gold painting - said to symbolize heaven
☆ Pilaster - a rectangular, vertical protrusion
that resembles a flat column/half column ★​ Borromini's Ceiling of San Carlo
☆ illusionism - achieved through paintings Alle Cuatro Fontane (1646, top)
and Gallery at the Palazzo
Spada (1652-1653, right)
Baroque Architecture

Background St. Peter's Basilica (1600-1657)

➔​ Designed by
➔​ The movement began in Rome partly as a Carlo Maderna,
reaction against Protestant Reformation. who also
➔​ It was also a product of boredom with the added 3 bays
symmetry of old forms used for the past of the nave of
200 years making bold, curving. St. Peter's
asymmetrical buildings with highly ornate Basilica; first
decorations stone laid on
Feb. 10, 1608
Baroque Architecture in Italy and most of
the work was completed on July 21,
Architectural Characteristics 1612; another 2 years for ornamentation
○​ The Loggia of the Blessings, is
where the new pope is
➔​ Use of abundant materials such as marble, announced; relief of the balcony
gilt and bronze done by Buoncovino, represents
➔​ Baroque pediments were often highly Christ giving the keys to St. Peter
decorated or interrupted at the center; tips
turned into scrolls and were gilded
➔​ Architectural treatments used to express Piazza of ➔​ By Gianlorenzo Bernini
emotion and usually used by the upper class St. ➔​ Its design was an adjustment
Peter's to pre-existing structures like
the Egyptian obelisks and
Maderno's fountain
➔​ Piazza's oval enclosure has 4
rows of Doric columns, 300 all
together carved in Roman
travertine

S. Andrea Al Quirinale, Rome

★​ Ecstacy of St. Therese at
(1658-1670)
Comaro Chapel, Sta. Maria
Vittoria, Rome (by G. Bernini)
➔​ Use of illusionism ➔​ Designed by Bernini and
➔​ Oval is the most distinct shape; complex built as a chapel for a Jesuit
interlacing ovals allowed architects to have seminary at Quirinal Hill
larger spaces ➔​ Commissioned by Pope
Alexander VII, Bernini considered
it as his "only perfect" work
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➔​ Employed the architect's most favorite
form in plan, the transverse oval Guarino Guarini (1624-1683)
➔​ Combined the 3 art forms to relay St.
Andrew's story and symbolic use of color ☆​ Revolutionized spatial concepts and
in the interior structural procedures
☆​ Praised Gothic architecture for its
"lightness and fantasy"
Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) ☆​ Known for his open-work domes and
telescopic creation of vertical space
☆​ Chief formulator of the Baroque ☆​ Guarini's Palazzo Carignano in Turin
architectural style through the use of repeated the undulating movements of
curvilinear forms to create vital spatial Borromini's San Carlo Alle Quattro
effects Fontane
☆​ His design approach is focused on
geometric figures (modules) rather than
human body proportions San Lorenzo, Turin (1666-1679)

➔​ Located in Piazza
San Carlo Alle Cuatro Fontane (1633-1667) Reale and surrounded by
mostly civic buildings, it is
➔​ Compact planning
allows for unimpeded flow of distinguished for its cupola
dynamic space from entrance
to altar ➔​ Stands out for its
logical geometry of plan,
➔​ Interior is a provocative successful structural system
variation of a centrally-planned
church: a Greek cross pressed and intricately interwoven
into an oval, creating a space of succession of spaces
tension and compression
○​ Facade is made ○​ Shape of plan changes at different
of travertine with statues of St. levels: Octagonal plan with curved
Charles Borromeo (on center)
flanked by Sts. John of Matha and sides is converted into a Greek
Felix of Valols of the Trinitarlan cross plan at the pendentive level
Order then into circular plan at the
drum's base
Sant Ivo Alla Sapienza, Rome (1642-1660)
➔​ Dome is an interlaced network of 8
➔​ Chapel attached slender ribs with well lighted openings
to an old university in
Rome, Palazzo della
Sapienza (now serves as Baroque Architecture Outside Italy
the Italian State Archives)
Background
➔​ Synthesis of the
Renaissance dome ➔​ Spain - Churrigueresque style (highly
(cosmic symbol) with the sculptural facades made of stucco)
Gothic tower (aspiring ➔​ New World and East Indies-part of
religious faith) Spanish colonial influence
➔​ In northwestern Europe, Baroque
➔​ Consists of a plan architecture attained a more "restrained"
having two interlocking character
triangles forming a six-pointed star whose a.​ Baroque chateux in France
ends are alternately convex and concave
curves
Palace of Versailles, France (1661-1708)
FORM ➔​ Converted into a
➔​ The form is symbolic referring palace and center of
to the "star of wisdom" government by King
(sapienza) and the bee on the Louis XIV after being used
patron's (Pope Urban VIII) as a hunting lodge by
coat of arms Louis XIIII
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➔​ The chateaux was planned in several narrowing of column spacing and
stages and projected Louis XIV's ideals of increasing depth of relief in the forwarded
absolute power; his quarters at the end of facade to culminate the focus
the courtyard is the focus of the plan and
the bedroom on an axis with the garden ➔​ The domed
and the towns of Versailles and Paris church between the two
wings of the Hotel des
➔​ One of the most emblematic spaces in Invalides
the palace is the Hall of Mirrors, where
the king put on his most ostentatious ➔​ Dome is seen up
display of power in order to impress through wide opening in
visitors the inner cupola on to
the painted surface of
➔​ Versailles had themed salons decorated the second cupola (a Baroque spatial
with relief panels and illusionist fresco effect)
paintings on the ceilings St. Paul's Cathedral, London (1675-1710)
➔​ The gardener André Le Nôtre widened the
Royal Path and made the Grand Canal ➔​ It is the seat of the
Bishop of London located
in Ludgate Hill
Louis Le Vau
➔​ Three-bay system
☆​ Le Vau worked withAndre Le Notre and of main entrance is
Le Brun for redesign of Chateaux repeated in the entrance
Vaux-Le-Vicomte before the Versailles transept
Palace ➔​ Sir Christopher
Wren (1632-1723)
Charles Le Brun ➔​ Facade is modelled
on the facade of the
☆​ Le Brun's decorations at Louvre; Upper part of two
☆​ Vaux-Le-Vicomte attracted Louis XIV's flanking towers and dome
attention and later hired and called him lantern from St. Agnese by
"greatest artist of all time" Borromini and lower part is
Palladian in nature
➔​ Dome's diameter is
Jules Hardouin Mansart as wide as the nave and
aisles combined
☆​ Born in Paris, France in 1646
☆​ Generated architecture in the grand era ➔​ Triple-layer dome
of the "Sun King",Louis XIV consisting of the inner and
☆​ Known for his buildings with imposing outer layers, but the
scale and understated simplicity structural integrity to
support the heavy stone
structure atop the dome is
St. Louis des Invalides (1675-1706) provided by an intermediary layer which is
much steeper and more conical in shape.
➔​ Jules Mansart's most
massive yet rhythmical and ➔​ The dome is restrained round its base by
dynamic Baroque composition a wrought iron chain to prevent it
spreading and cracking.
➔​ Dominating feature is
the dome resting on two
drums
➔​ Lack of broad base
and omission of colonnades in
front (compared to St. Peter's)
depicts the vanishing power of absolute
monarchy
➔​ Employs the
"crescendo effect" of
Baroque style:
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Vierzehnheiligen Pilgrimage Church,

Germany (1743-1772)

➔​ Located on an
elevated section
overlooking the River Main
➔​ Dedicated to the
14 Holy Helpers of the
church
➔​ A fine example of
the last synthesis of the
basic themes of Christian
architecture (Borromini's
Ottobeuren Church, Germany (1735-1766) unified spatial elements +
Guarini's "ars
➔​ This monastery combinatoria" + Late
church is part of a Gothic's wall-pier system
BenedictineAbbey
founded by Blessed ➔​ Exterior wall's stable continuity is
Toto in 764A. D. interrupted by window openings,
influenced by northern Europe's chateaux
➔​ Built by Abbot architecture
Rupert Ness during the
flourishing of the ➔​ Bl-axial layout on conventional Latin cross
Ottobeuren Abbey and has overhead baldachins defining the
completed by his carved-out and sculpted space
successor Anselm Erb
➔​ Oval baldachins follow Guarini's principle
➔​ Use of ornamental disguises or trompe l' of spatial interpenetration without
oeil effects in connection with complicated treatment of domes
well-thought-out interior lighting
➔​ Large windows which replace Italian
niches and statues, give liberal lighting
Johann Balthasar Neumann into the interior
☆​ Born in Bohemia in 1687 and migrated ➔​ The development of the Christian church
to Wurzburg, Germany in 1711 starting with the Early Christian basilica
☆​ Initially focused his talents on military came to the peak in this church
engineering until a wealthy patron
family, Schonborgs, discovered his
talents leading to a variety of building Romanticism
commissions
☆​ Developed freshwater supply for
Background
Wurzburg (1730), built a glass and
mirror factory (1733) and taught
engineering at University of Wurzburg ➔​ It is the artistic, literary and intellectual
movement that originated in Europe
during the second half of the 18th
century, which became attached to
Wursburg Residence, Germany (1744) politics, echoing people's fears, hopes
and aspirations
➔​ Its design ➔​ Imagination as the supreme faculty of the
also involved mind
other Baroque ➔​ In reaction to the Industrial Revolution and
architects like the aristocratic and political norms of the
Lucas Von Age of Enlightenment
Hildebrandt and
Maximilian Von Return to Classicism
Welsch
➔​ An extension of the French and English
➔​ Commissioned by the Prince-Bishop of Baroque's stiffer, more geometrically
Wurzburg Johann Von Schonborg and his regular and more academic forms
brother Friedrich in 1720 ➔​ Tendencies used towards "perfection":
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a.​ Stereometric shapes or volumes ➔​ Church's solid unbroken walls isolate
as points of departure, interior and exterior
b.​ Universal envelope with repetitious
elements like columns and Neoclassicism
entablature
➔​ Prevalent in Europe, America and
THEORIES OF LODOLI & LAUGIER European colonies during the late 18th
Carlo ○​ promoted the modernist and early 19th centuries
Lodoli notions of functionalism
➔​ Architects' believed in the ideals of
absolute beauty from Ancient Greeks and
and truth to materials Romans led them to study, measure
buildings and imitate them as closely as
Marc ○​ Illustration of MarcAntoine possible
Antoine Laugier's interpretation of a.​ St. George's Hall, Liverpool,
Laugier's true and natural England, 1841 by Harvey Elmes &
architecture Sir Charles Cockerell
b.​ Brandenburg Gate, Berlin,
Germany, 1789-1793 by Carl
Etienne-Louis Boullee (1728-1799) Gotthard Langhans

➔​ Paris-born teacher and theorist who

became the chief architect of Frederick Il
of Prussia Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841)

☆​ a surveyor to the Prussian Building

Commission, he redesigned the city
with a series of buildings that
expressed Prussia's cultural and
national pride
☆​ Used a Neo-Greek style that
symbolized political and moral freedom
of Athenian Greece

➔​ Discerned in symmetrical solids and

believed that the sphere is the only
perfect architectural shape COLOR PALETTE
○​ "Oh Newton, you have defined the
form of the earth through the
greatness of your wisdom and
magnificence of your genius. It
was my idea to surround you with
your discovery." - Boullee

Claude Nicholas Ledoux (1736-1806)

title
☆​ One of the early exponents of French
Neoclassical architecture, who used his ☆​ xmxeimdiemdei
theories in the design of domestic
buildings and in town planning
☆​ His two-fold contribution to modern
architecture:
a.​ Value for geometric shapes
placed in light
b.​ Concept of the building must be
something symbolic

Ledoux's Ideal Town of Chaux (1790)

➔​ Circular in layout with church at the center
➔​ "Ideal" church is a cross within a square
plan with circular dome reminiscent of the
Palladian Villa