Italian Baroque Architecture: Bernini and Borromini
**Baroque Architecture**
The Baroque building is conceived as a single block that is integrated as a whole, with elliptical, oval, or complex geometry. It features curved lines and surfaces, undulating walls, entablatures, and walls. It is an open-minded move, undulating and with a giant order, in addition to five orders of traditional architecture (enriched and complicated with exuberance and fantasy).
- Scrolls and fins (scroll-shaped buttresses)
- Mixtilinear oval-bow (a combination of straight and curved parts)
- Barrel vaults and thick, fine architectural decoration, which contributes to the movement
Dramatization of the atmosphere is achieved by studying the light, with violent chiaroscuro contrasts between outgoing and incoming pronounced suddenly. The gaze is guided by light in a certain direction. There is an obsessive pursuit of effect, not hesitating to create optical tricks: if there is no marble, wood becomes marble; if there is no gold, plaster is browned. The mirrors of the galleries alter the outlook and make it unrecognizable; flat roofs become vaults thanks to the cool reflection of the water, affecting the outside.
**Gian Lorenzo Bernini**
Gian Lorenzo Bernini laid out the principles of Italian Baroque architecture, reflecting the desire for power of the Church. The Counter-Reformation posed a new way of approaching the faithful: this premise led to a stage designed to thrill. The Colonnade of St. Peter’s shows highlights of the Baroque: functionality, symbolism, and scenic characterization. It was also raised as a union between the basilica and the city. The elliptical arms of the colonnade respond to the new concept of open architecture, dynamic and fully integrated into its urban environment. The free-standing columns, raised as large sculptures, exhibited a strong architectural chiaroscuro (the column between the columns clearly contrasts with the dark, while when approached, the space between the columns became clear and the stem, in contrast, dark). Once through the colonnade, ensuing admiration: the visitor is faced with the grand and spectacular view of the facade of the basilica, surmounted by the splendid dome.
**Francesco Borromini**
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane was the first exclusive project of Francesco Borromini. Borromini’s vital anguish was present in a plot that was irregular, very complicated by its small size and its orientation in the corner determined by the four fountains that give the church its name. The result turned Borromini into a renowned architect, especially appreciated by the religious orders.
Borromini’s architectural style is characterized by a tormented and always dissatisfied technique, the audacious fusion of architecture and sculpture, the clutter that does not allow the eye to rest, the use of perspective to reduce the space rather than enlarge it, and the constant search for difference, playing with the curve, a reverse, the ellipse, and the concave and convex spaces provided to serve the movement.
**Typology and Urban Architecture**
- Churches (representing ecclesiastical power)
- Palaces (representing royal power)
The Palace of Versailles is the most representative of Le Grand Siècle in France, due to the magnificence of its interiors and the balance and harmony in their field. Versailles established the so-called open planning and set the standard in contemporary palaces throughout Europe. In Spain, it was strongly felt in the Royal Palace of Madrid. No one has personified absolute power as Louis XIV. He actually governed as the Sun King.
Squares and avenues articulate the city. The squares, chaired by symbolic buildings or fountains, are the source of flooding. The palace gardens, especially French, articulate the premises. Fountains integrate monumental architecture, sculpture, and water.