Baroque & Rococo

Gives an idea about the Baroque and Rococo Architecture

2. Baroque
The name is derived from Baroque pearls - pearls with
unusual, odd shapes

Baroque Style spread throughout Europe
 Italy, Holland, France, Spain, and England.

Compared to Renaissance art, it was considered to be
“over-dramatic”
 The architecture, “overly decorated”.

The term Baroque once had a negative meaning.

3. The baroque period covers some 150 years
from about 1600 to 1750

Divided into three phases
Early Baroque c 1600-1625
High Baroque c 1625-1675
Late Baroque and Rococo 1675-1750.

4. Europe: political restructuring
30 years war 1618-48
All of Europe & Ottomans

Secularization of Government
Friction between Catholic and Protestant
Treaty of Westphalia1648: Freedom of Religion
Divine Right of Kings replaces Pope

Consolidation of power
Advanced military needs more bureaucracy


Political Context

5. Roman Catholic Church supported Baroque Art
in response to the Protestant Reformation (movement to
reform Catholic Church)
communication of religious themes with viewer's for
a direct and emotional involvement

Aristocracy adopted Baroque style
 to impress visitors and to express triumphant power
and control

6. Exploration of the Universe Intellectual and Rational
approach

Galileo, Descartes, Hobbes

Astronomy, anatomy, Physics -Isaac Newton

7. Characteristics of Baroque Architecture
Architecture of theatre
A strong movement in 17th& 18thcenturies
Elaborate ornaments and exuberance.. e.g. Beauty & The
Beast
Interplay of natural lighting, lighting & shadow
spatially complex composition

8. Characteristics of Baroque Architecture
Blurred physical boundaries between building elements
Hiding of structural features
Expansive curvaceous form –swirling movements to
create dynamic movements
Plasticity of materials
Sense of mass, complex interplay of geometry
Combination of architecture, painting & sculpture

9. Early baroque
Church Il Gesu- sometimes called pre-baroque or proto-baroque.
The church has a single nave without aisles, so attention is focused
on the high altar. In place of aisles there are a series of identical
interconnecting chapels behind arched openings. The most striking
feature of the interior decoration is the ceiling fresco-Triumph of the
Name of Jesus by Giovanni Battista Gaulli.

10. •Nave of Il Gesu: Dedicated
to St. Ignatius Loyol

•Quintessential Baroque:
fusion of architecture,
sculpture, painting and
music

11. Horizontal and vertical
articulation;
Disappearance of the all
surface by increasing
sculptural richness,
cartouches, niches, statuary
Dynamic movement
horizontally as well as
structurally
Façade of Santa Suzanna completed in 1603 by Carlo
Maderno

12. It was Carlo Maderno, too, who completed the building of
St Peters. The original plan for St Peters by Bramante
completed in 1506 was for a centrally planned church.

Michelangelo simplified Bramante’s plan but preserved the
centralized character when he redesigned the structure in
1546.

One of the first of the baroque Popes, Paul V, decided to
alter the centralized plan and add a great nave. Maderno
began the great nave in 1607, completing it in seven years;
and completed the façade in five years.

13. Michelangelo’s vision vs. Carlo Maderno
Bramante 1505,

14. Rejection of Central plan (pagan) now longitudinal
Addition of 3 nave bays
Pushed dome back from new façade

16. High Baroque
Covers the fifty years from 1625 to 1675.
The outstanding genius of the period was
Gianlorenzo Bernini, sculptor, architect and
painter.
Bernini’s Calennalli before St Peters built
between 1624 and 1633, set new standards in
axial planning, and was of immense influence in
the emergence of the monumental and majestic
vistas associated with baroque planning

17. Bernini

18. •Example of Baroque art - the first
masterpiece by Bernini for St.
Peter's Basilica.

•It is a fantastic, sumptuous bronze
canopy supported by four spiral
columns, richly decorated with gold,
as it majestically rises upward.

•It is the largest known bronze
artwork.

•He spent most of his life working on
St. Peter’s Cathedral

Baldachin of St. Peter’s
Cathedral

19. Emphasized
height of a
long, low
building
Trapezoid with
oval Wings:
brings building
closer to viewer
Christ as
realized in the
welcoming
arms of the
church

20. Bernini’s Piazza of St. Peter’s in Rome

22. The great staircase of the Vatican,
in which the diminishing width of
the corridor is disguised as it rises
towards the landing by his
monumental order of Roman
iconic columns.

Connects papal quarters
with Narthex of St. Peters
Stairway to heaven

Rationality: use of architectural
perspective

23. It is the High Baroque revision
based on the centralized plan of
St Peters.
The dome has elegant ribs and
lantern tower and placed it on a
much higher drum, and recessed
the central portion of the façade
so that instead of hiding the
dome, as the Madern’s façade
does at St Peters the dome itself
becomes almost a visual part of
the façade. It s flanked by to
elegant towers which frame the
dome and give height and grace
to the building.

24. Baroque characteristics:
Undulating motion
Convex and concave
Oval
Sculptural
Not segmented like renaissance

25. Borromini, Sant’Ivo della sapienza, interior
of dome 1642
Renaissance dome:
separate unit
placed on a
supporting block
Baroque: organic
part that evolves
out of the walls
Complicated design
translated into a
unified structure

26. Guarini, Guarino Palazzo Carignano 1679-92
West facade
Dynamic and
emotional,
Sculptural,
undulating forms
Use of the oval,
convex and
concave
Large scale
Theatrical effects
of lighting and
motion
Renaissance
segmented;
Baroque flowing

27. Upper level only
Convex and concave
Dome rises from the base

30. There is a theatrical sense of
excitement and drama
Sculpture is integrated into
the architectural setting
Multisensory
Figures are caught in the
middle of doing something
Different textures are used to
identify the quality of the
stone and the smoothness of
flesh

31. The difference between the Renaissance, Mannerist and early Baroque
architecture which had preceded it is based upon his system of
proportioning.

Borromini rejected the classical principles of planning by means of
modules: that is by multiplying and dividing a basic arithmetical unit,
such as the diameter of a column.

He designed by means of geometric units. In the one case the plan and
its divisions was achieved by adding module to module; in the other by
taking a particular geometric figure and dividing it into coherent
geometric subunits.

Borromini was able to develop complex spatial geometric surfaces. The
dome of S. Carlo is oval; the dome of the church S Ivo della
Spaienza,Rome, is a complex star-hexagon structure.

32. Baroque and Rococo Architecture
Undulating Forms

33. Complexity of Forms

34. Many Domes

35. Grandiose in Size

36. Ornate Interiors

37. Ornate Interiors

38. Ornate Interiors

39. Ornate Interiors

40. Palace of Versailles in France (Louis XIV)

41. Palace of Versailles in France (Louis XIV)

42. Palace of Versailles in France (Louis XIV)

43. Palace of Versailles in France (Louis XIV)

44. Palace of Versailles in France (Louis XIV)

46. Rococo was a very playful and decorative style of art that started
in France around 1700 before spreading throughout Europe.

It developed in the early part of the 18th century in Paris,
France as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry and strict
regulations of the Baroque, especially that of the Palace of
Versailles.
Evanescent of Late Baroque –dynamism & geometric complexity
of the 17thcentury Italian architecture & post Louis XIV France

Official style of architecture –dignity & solemn grandeur of the
new France and later spread to Germany & Austria

47. Derived from the word “rocaille” which means misshapen pearl in
French

Rococo artists opted for a more jocular, florid and graceful
approach to Baroque art and architecture.

It was ornate and made strong usage of creamy, pastel-like
colours, asymmetrical designs, curves and gold.

48. Rococo architecture, was a lighter, more graceful, yet also
more elaborate version of Baroque Architecture, which was
ornate and austere.

Whilst the styles were similar, there are some notable
differences between both Rococo and Baroque architecture,
one of them being symmetry, since Rococo emphasised the
asymmetry of forms, whilst Baroque was the opposite.

The styles, despite both being richly decorated, also had
different themes; the Baroque, for instance, was more serious,
placing an emphasis on religion, and was often characterized
by Christian themes (as a matter of fact, the Baroque began in
Rome as a response to the Protestant reformation

49. Rococo architecture was an 18th-century, more secular, adaptation
of the Baroque which was characterized by more light-hearted and
jocular themes.

Other elements belonging to the architectural style of Rococo
include numerous curves and decorations, as well as the usage of
pale colours.

Unlike the more politically focused Baroque, the Rococo had more
playful and often witty artistic themes.

The Rococo additionally played an important role in theatre. In the
book The Rococo, it is written that there was no other culture which
"has produced a wittier, more elegant, and teasing dialogue full of
elusive and camouflaging language and gestures, refined feelings
and subtle criticism" than Rococo theatre, especially that of France.

50. Diffuse light flooded the building volume;

Violent surface relief was replaced by smooth flowing
masses with emphasis only at isolated points.

Mirror surfaces multiplied & angles softened

Ornament –natural forms, branches, garlands, acanthus

Abstract sinuosity –scrolis, interlace & arabesques

51. Churches and palaces still exhibited an integration of
three arts, but the building structure was lightened to
render interiors graceful and ethereal.

Interior and exterior space retained none of the bravado
and dominance of the Baroque but entertained and
captured the imagination by intricacy and subtlety.

52. The origins lie in the late Baroque architectural work
of Borromini (1599–1667) and Guarini (1624–1683)
mostly in Northern Italy but also in Vienna, Prague,
Lisbon, and Paris.

 Italian architects of the late Baroque/early Rococo were
wooed to Catholic (Southern) Germany, Bohemia and
Austria by local princes, bishops and prince-bishops.

Inspired by their example, regional families of Central
European builders went further, creating churches and
palaces that took the local German Baroque style to the
greatest heights of Rococo elaboration and sensation.

53. Examples include the Catherine Palace, in Russia, the Queluz
National Palace in Portugal, the Charlottenburg palace in
Germany, as well as elements of the Chateau de Versailles in
France.

Architects who were renowned for their constructions using
the style include Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, an Italian
architect who worked in Russia and who was noted for his
lavish and opulent works, Philip de Lange, who worked in
both Danish and Dutch Rococo architecture.

Rococo architecture also brought significant changes to the
building of edifices, placing an emphasis on privacy rather
than the grand public majesty of Baroque architecture, as well
as improving the structure of buildings in order to create a
more healthy environmen

54. Basilica at Ottobeuren (Bavaria):
Architectural spaces
flow together and
swarm with life

55. The Catherine Palace, Russia
It is of the northernmost
Rococo building

56. It was one of the last Rococo buildings to be built in Europe.

57. Problem: Two original
buildings formed an 80 degree
angle



Solution:
Model a the design after the
human body
Add a third building
Central axis w/ focal point
Trapezoid and oval
Balance and symmetry