Baroque

architecture

SUBMITTED BY
PALAK KALRA
BHUMIKA LAMBA

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

INTRODUCTION
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe
the building style of the Baroque era, begun in
late sixteenth century Italy.
The term baroque is derived from a Spanish
word barrueco meaning an irregularly shaped
pearl.
. It was characterized by new explorations of
form, light and shadow and dramatic intensity.

Long , narrow naves are replaced by broader,

occasionally circular forms.
Dramatic use of light.
Opulent use of ornaments.
Large-scale ceiling frescoes.
The external facade is often characterized by a
dramatic central projection.
The interior is often no more than a shell for
painting and sculptures.

Baroque

architecture

IMPORTANT FEATURES

Palaces
Churches

BAROQUE PALACE OF
CHURCHESVERSAILLES,FRANCE
:

The undulating wall strikes one immediately as the

outstanding feature of baroque churches.
Giant orders, usually two storeys high, and giant
walls dominate the exteriors.

Baroque

architecture

BUILT FORM TYPES

Large windows are rectangular, and smaller

are circular, semi circular or oval.
Ground plan is often oval, which is the most
fluid of all geometrical forms nd the one
which most readily creates a sense of
movement.
The oval form is used throughout the building.
The interior walls are covered by baldachin.
( Baldachin : It is very much like a canopy, often
dome-shaped, and supported on four
elaborately carved columns.)
Light enters Baroque churches from very few
sources, mainly from the central dome and any
subsidiary domes.
The combined efforts of architect, painters and
sculptors produce in Baroque churches a
remarkably homogenous effect.

Baroque

architecture

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

As u enter the church, the sense of theatre becomes

even stronger.
Balconiec, a natural feature of theatre are also found
in baroque churches, some with elaborate iron work.
Some of the churches are so richly decorated that it is
possible to feel that the whole wealth of the church is
on display. This perhaps was the intention too.
The rules of linear perspective, formulated in the
renaissance, were well known to baroque architects
and they used thie knowledge to give illusion of
greater depth or length to parts of church.

The undulating facades, the

fluid lines both in construction
and decoration, and the rich
and ornate nature of the whole.
Monumental staircases are an
important feature of Baroque
palaces and villas.
In country houses, and in town
houses with space around
them, the formal gardens were
an integral part of the whole
design.
Fountains were very elaborate
and were richly decorated with
groups of figures

Baroque

architecture

PALACES:

3 Principal architects of this period were

sculptor:
Gianlorenzo Bernini
Francesco Borromini
Pietro da Coranta

Baroque

architecture

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

GIAN LORENZO BERNINI Amongst his

most well known works is the
Piazza San Pietro (165667), the piazza and
colonnades in front of St Peter's and the
interior decoration of the Basilica.
Amongst his secular works are a number of
Roman palaces: following the death of Carlo
Maderno, he took over the supervision of the

The open space which lies before the basilica was

redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to
1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an
appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest
number of people could see the Pope give his blessing,
either from the middle of the faade of the church or
from a window in the Vatican Palace" .

ST PETERS SQUARE

SANTA BIBIANA

Santa Bibiana is a
small church in Rome,
devoted to St Bibiana.
The present facade was
designed and built by
then 26 year old
Gian Lorenzo Bernini in
1624-1626

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

The church houses a

statue of the titular saint
, also by Bernini (1626).
It shows St. Bibiana
holding the palm leaf of
martyrs, standing next
to the column to which
she was to be martyred.

Santi Luca e Martina

it was rebuilt by the
painter and architect,
Pietro da Cortona, in the
seventeenth century.

The plan of the upper church is almost a Greek

cross with nearly equal arms and the centre is
crowned by the dome. Large Ionic columns,
supporting a large entablature, cluster around the
crossing and populate the wall spaces of the
apsidal transepts, choir and nave. The windows
in the apsidal vaults are each surmounted by a
split pediment with a head in a scallop shell with
octagonal coffering above, motifs which Cortona
used in his fresco painting

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE
FRANCESCO BORROMINI
MAJOR WORKS

2.1 San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (San Carlino)

2.2 Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri (Oratorio dei
Fillipini)
2.3 Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza
2.4 Sant'Agnese in Agone
2.5 The Re Magi Chapel of the Propaganda Fide

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

Borromini received his

first major independent
commission to design
the church, cloister and
monastic buildings
ofSan Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE
Borromini devised the complex ground plan of the
church from interlocking geometrical
configurations, a typical Borromini device for
constructing plans. 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

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

In the late sixteenth

century, the
Congregation of the
Filippini (also known as
the Oratorians) rebuilt
the church of Santa
Maria in
Vallicella (known as the
Chiesa Nuova -new
church) in central Rome

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE

The striking brick curved facade adjacent to

the church entrance has an unusual pediment
and does not entirely correspond to the oratory
room behind it. The white oratory interior has
a ribbed vault and a complex wall arrangement
of engaged pilasters along with freestanding
columns supporting first level balconies. The
altar wall was substantially reworked at a later
date.

Baroque

The arts during this time

reflect excessive
ornamentation, contrasts,
tensions and energy
The purpose of the art is
to
reject the limits of
previous styles
This period also seeks to
restore the power of the
monarchy and the church

architecture

Baroque Art

Baroque art is
characterized by
dynamic, often
violent movement,
flamboyant emotion,
unusual curving
compositions,
swirling figures,
dramatic lighting and
exaggerated gestures.

Baroque

architecture

Baroque Art contd

Painting in the Baroque style appealed to the emotions and a desire for
magnificence through luxurious ornamentation. At the same time, it was
comprised of a systematic and rational composition where the
ornamentation was unified because of variation on a single theme.

Realism (lifelikeness) replaced beauty as the objective for painting. In

much of Baroque art, sophisticated organizational schemes merge one part
into the next to create a complex but unified whole.

The human figure, as an object or focus in painting, could be monumental

in full fashion, but it could also now be a miniscule figure in a landscape,
part of, but subordinate to, a vast universe. Baroque style often exhibited
intensely active compositions that emphasized feeling rather than form and
emotions rather than the intellect.

Baroque exalted intuition, inspiration and the genius of human creativity as

reactions against the rationalistic classicism of the Renaissance.

Baroque

architecture

Painting in Baroque Style

It glorified the Church and religious

sentiment, both Catholic and Protestant;
it portrayed the magnificence of secular wealth,
both noble and bourgeois and
it stressed the themes of absolutism and individualism
as well.

This style of painting was used by most European artists

during the period 16001725.

architecture

Baroque

Baroque painting had a variety of

applications:

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