Unit 2: General characteristics of Baroque -St Peter/s Piazza by Bernini and Rococo styles-

Hermitage Winter Palace in St. Petersburg

Transitional period-A brief account of the situations before the changeover to
modernarchitecture, in Europe. REVIVALS: Palladia revival in Britain-Chiswick House,
London, Mereworth castle, Kent, Greek revival -St Pancras Church, London,British
Museum, London and Gothic revival-West Minister Palace, London, Strawberry Hill
House, London

Baroque
◼ Baroque architecture evolved out of Renaissance architecture in Italy.
◼ In the 1600's, the renaissance architects began to get bored with the symmetry and
same old forms they had been using for the past 200 years.
◼ Meaning of the term Baroque :
-extravagantly ornate, florid, and convoluted in character or style: the baroque prose of
the novel's more lurid (loud, bright) passages.
-irregular in shape: baroque pearls
◼ They started to make bold, curving, with ornate (elaborate) decorations.
◼ They started to make curving facades, and used the double curve on many
different buildings.
◼ In Italian, the word barocco means bizarre and Baroque architecture certainly was
extravagant. Buildings in the Baroque style have many of these features:
• Complicated shapes
• Large curved forms
• Twisted columns
• Grand stairways
• High domes
• Trompe l'oeil paintings (visual deception, especially in paintings, in which
objects are rendered in extremely fine detail emphasizing the illusion of tactile
and spatial qualities)
Architectural characteristics and Architects
◼ 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.
◼ The domes on many churches were oval shaped, but some were circular.
◼ Two main architects of the baroque era were Carlo Maderno, Bernini and
Borromini.
◼ Bernini's first medium was sculpture. He liked to incorporate lots of it into his
buildings.
◼ A sculptor and mason, Francesco Borromini went to Rome in 1614, and trained
under Bernini and Carlo Maderno. Lots of Borromini's buildings incorporated
many shapes and different forms

◼ Early Baroque -1600-25-Maderno (facade of St Peter's)

◼ High Baroque 1625-60- Bernini
 St Peter's baldachin (a permanent ornamental canopy, as above a freestanding altar or
throne. ) and colonnades, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
◼ Late Baroque-1660-1725 -chateaus (especially Versailles)
The Baroque style of architecture first clearly emerged with Carlo Maderno, whose
foremost work is the facade of St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.
Sculpted classicism is achieved via alternating pilasters and depressions
"Pope Paul V (r. 1605 - 1621)... commissioned Maderno in 1606 to complete Saint
Peter's in Rome.
The preexisting core of an incomplete building restricted Maderno, so he did not have the
luxury of formulating a totally new concept for Saint Peter's.
Maderno's plan for Saint Peter's ... departed from the central plans designed for it by
Bramante and, later, Michelangelo."
By extending the nave he transformed Michelangelo’s Greek-cross plan into a
longitudinal one
His facade has been both criticized for impairing the effect of Michelangelo’s dome and
admired for its forceful grouping of huge engaged columns.
Piazza (1656 - 1667) Saint Peter's.
◼ "The design of Saint Peter's finally was completed (except for details) by
Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598 - 1680).
◼ Bernini was an architect, a painter, and a sculptor - one of the most important and
imaginative artists of the Italian Baroque era and its most characteristic and
sustaining spirit.
◼ Bernini's largest and most impressive single project was the design for a
monumental piazza (plaza; 1656 - 1667) in front of Saint Peter's. ...
◼ Bernini had to adjust his design to some preexisting structures on the site - an
ancient obelisk the Romans had brought from Egypt and a fountain Maderno
designed.
◼ He used these features to define the long axis of a vast oval embraced by
colonnades joined to the Saint Peter's facade by two diverging wings.
◼
◼ Four rows of huge Tuscan columns make up two colonnades, which terminate in
severely Classical temple fonts.
◼ The dramatic gesture of embrace the colonnades make as viewers enter the piazza
symbolizes the welcome the Roman Catholic Church gave its members during the
Counter-Reformation.
◼ Bernini himself referred to his design of the colonnade as appearing like the
welcoming arms of the church.... By its sheer scale and theatricality, the complete
Saint Peter's fulfilled Catholicism's needs in the seventeenth century by presenting
an awe-inspiring and authoritative vision of the Church."
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, Rome by Bernini 1658-70
The facade is comprised of a large aedicule, with giant Corinthian pilasters, which frames
a curving portico supported by two free-standing Ionic columns. Semi-circular steps
continue the outward circular flow. The entrance aedicule is repeated inside by an
aedicule framing the altar recess
The forward flow of the portico and steps is countered by the concave walls extending
outwards and then by the opposite curvature of the church. This dynamic contrapuntal
motion is characteristic of Italian Baroque architecture
Plan
This small church has an oval plan with the transverse axis longer than the main axis
between the entrance and altar.
 Rococo Architecture
◼ Rococo architecture was a variation of baroque. It began in the eighteenth century
at Versailles. It was lighter, more graceful, and more subdued than baroque
architecture. Rococo got its name from the French word rocaille, meaning rocks
and shells. Most of the rococo decorations were natural forms such as tree
branches, clouds, flowers, sea shells, surf, coral, seaweed, spray, and scrolls.
Many colors that were used were pastels, but they also used lots of gold.
◼ Most rococo rooms were rectangular with rounded corners, and the walls were
mostly flat, and smooth. Doors and woodwork had minor carvings; the carvings
were not deep like in baroque buildings. The often-had decorations and gilding on
the walls, doors, and draperies. Windows, wall panels, and doors often went all
the way from the floor to the ceiling. Mirrors were also common.
◼ Rococo architecture was common among the French aristocracy. For that reason,
it was unpopular among the common people, and did not last long.
◼ Rococo architecture is actually late version of the Baroque style, and is most
often found in Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe, and Russia.
Features of Rococo Architecture include:
◼ Elaborate curves and scrolls
◼ Ornaments shaped like shells and plants
◼ Intricate patterns
◼ Delicate details
◼ Complex, asymmetrical shapes
◼ Light, pastel colors
Hermitage Winter Palace in St. Petersburg
 1754-1762: The 16th century architect Rastrelli created the most famous building
of imperial St. Petersburg, the Rococo style Hermitage Winter Palace.
 The green-and-white palace is a lavish confection of arches, pediments, columns,
pilasters, bays, balustrades, and statuary.
 Three stories high, the palace has 1,945 windows, 1,057 rooms and 1,987 doors.
 The Winter Palace is now serving as the renown Hermitage Museum.
 The interiors of the Winter Palace were spectacular and designed to impress. They
were richly decorated in marble, gilt, silk and parquet.
 The palace is a brilliant example of the synthesis of architecture and decorative
plastic art.
 All the facades are embellished by a two-tier colonnade.
 Forming a complex rhythm of verticals, the columns soar upwards, and this
motion embraces the numerous statues and vases on the roof.
 The abundance of moulded decoration - fanciful cornices and window
architraves, cartouches, rocailles and a variety of pediments - creates an extremely
rich play of light and shade that invest the building's appearance with
magnificence.