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Baroque Architecture

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Baroque architecture



 
 
Baroque architecture, starting in the early 17th century in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, took the humanist Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, in which there was a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome thought and material culture....
 and used it in a new rhetorical, theatrical, sculptural fashion, expressing the triumph of absolutist church and state. New architectural concerns for color, light and shade, sculptural values and intensity characterize the Baroque
Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
. But whereas the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 drew on the wealth and power of the Italian courts, and was a blend of secular and religious forces, the Baroque was, initially at least, directly linked to the Counter-Reformation
Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation denotes the period of Roman Catholic Church revival from the pontificate of Pope Pius IV in 1560 to the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648....
, a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself in response to the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe. It is thought to have begun in 1517 with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses and may be considered to have ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648....
.






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Baroque architecture, starting in the early 17th century in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, took the humanist Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, in which there was a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome thought and material culture....
 and used it in a new rhetorical, theatrical, sculptural fashion, expressing the triumph of absolutist church and state. New architectural concerns for color, light and shade, sculptural values and intensity characterize the Baroque
Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
. But whereas the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 drew on the wealth and power of the Italian courts, and was a blend of secular and religious forces, the Baroque was, initially at least, directly linked to the Counter-Reformation
Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation denotes the period of Roman Catholic Church revival from the pontificate of Pope Pius IV in 1560 to the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648....
, a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself in response to the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe. It is thought to have begun in 1517 with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses and may be considered to have ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648....
. The Council of Trent
Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was the 16th century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. Considered one of the Church's most important councils, it convened in Trento between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods....
 (1545–1563) is usually given as the beginning of the Counter-Reformation.

The Baroque played into the demand for an architecture that was on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and, on the other hand, a visible statement of the wealth and power of the Church. The new style manifested itself in particular in the context of new religious orders, like the Theatines
Theatines

The Theatines or the Congregation of Clerks Regular of the Divine Providence are a male religious order of the Catholic Church, with the post-nominal initials "C.R."...
 and the Jesuits, which aimed to improve popular piety. By the middle of the 17th century, the Baroque style had found its secular expression in the form of grand palaces, first in France—as in the Château de Maisons
Château de Maisons

The Ch?teau de Maisons , designed by Fran?ois Mansart from 1630 to 1651, is a prime example of French baroque architecture and a reference point in the history of French architecture....
 (1642) near Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 by François Mansart
François Mansart

Fran?ois Mansart was a France architect credited with introducing Neoclassicism into French Baroque architecture. The Encyclop?dia Britannica cites him as the most accomplished of 17th-century French architects whose works "are renowned for their high degree of refinement, subtlety, and elegance"....
—and then throughout Europe.

Il Gesu

Precursors and features of Baroque architecture


Michelangelo
Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
's late Roman buildings, particularly St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica

The Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian language as the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as St. Peter's Basilica, is located within the Vatican City....
, may be considered precursors of Baroque architecture, as the design of the latter achieves a colossal unity that was previously unknown. His pupil Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta

Giacomo della Porta was an Italy architect and sculptor, who worked for many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica. He was born at Porlezza, Lombardy....
 continued this work in Rome, particularly in the façade
Facade

A facade or fa?ade is generally one side of the exterior of a building, especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. The Word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
 of the Jesuit church Il Gesu
Church of the Gesu

The Church of the Ges? is the mother church of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order also known as the Jesuits. Officially named , its facade is "the first truly Baroque architecture fa?ade"....
, which leads directly to the most important church façade of the early Baroque, Santa Susanna
Santa Susanna

Santa Susanna is a church on the Quirinal in Rome, with a titulus at its site that dates back to about 280. The modern church, rebuilt in 1585–1603, is the English?speaking Roman parish which ministers to American Catholics living in or visiting Rome....
 by Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno

Carlo Maderno was an Italy-Switzerland architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His fa?ades of Santa Susanna, St....
. In the 17th century, the Baroque style spread through Europe and Latin America, where it was particularly promoted by the Jesuits.

Important features of Baroque architecture include:

  • long, narrow nave
    Nave

    In Romanesque architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and Church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar....
    s are replaced by broader, occasionally circular forms
  • dramatic use of light, either strong light-and-shade contrasts, chiaroscuro
    Chiaroscuro

    Chiaroscuro is a term in art for a contrast between light and dark. The term is usually applied to bold contrasts affecting a whole composition, but is also more technically used by artists and art historians for the use of effects representing contrasts of light, not necessarily strong, to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-di...
     effects (e.g. church of Weltenburg Abbey
    Weltenburg Abbey

    Weltenburg Abbey is a Benedictine order monastery in Weltenburg in Kelheim on the Danube in Bavaria, Germany....
    ), or uniform lighting by means of several windows (e.g. church of Weingarten Abbey
    Weingarten Abbey

    Weingarten Abbey or St. Martin's Abbey is a Benedictine order monastery on the Martinsberg in Weingarten near Ravensburg in Baden-W?rttemberg ....
    )
  • opulent use of ornaments (putto
    Putto

    The putto is a figure of a pudgy human baby, almost always male, often naked and having wings, found especially in Italian Renaissance art....
    s made of wood
    Wood

    Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
     (often gilded
    Gilding

    Gilding is the technique of applying a thin layer of gold to a surface. Gilding is performed through a mechanical process, known as leafing, or using one of many chemical processes....
    ), plaster
    Plaster

    The term plaster can refer to plaster of Paris, lime plaster, or cement plaster. This article deals mainly with plaster of Paris.Plaster of Paris is a type of building material based on calcium sulfate Hydrate, nominally CaSO4?0.5H2O....
     or stucco
    Stucco

    Stucco or render is a material made of an Construction aggregate, a binder , and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid....
    , marble
    Marble

    Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for Marble sculpture, as a architecture material, and in many other applications....
     or faux finishing)
  • large-scale ceiling fresco
    Fresco

    Fresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins....
    es
  • the external façade is often characterized by a dramatic central projection
    Projection

    Projection can be any of:* The display of an image by devices such as:**Movie projector**Video projector**Overhead projector**Slide projector...
  • the interior is often no more than a shell for painting and sculpture (especially in the late Baroque)
  • illusory effects like trompe l'oeil
    Trompe l'oeil

    Trompe-l'?il, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three-dimensions, instead of actually being a two-dimensional painting....
     and the blending of painting
    Painting

    Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
     and architecture
    Architecture

    The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
  • in the Bavaria
    Bavaria

    Bavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is a region located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest States of Germany of Germany by area....
    n, Czech
    Czech lands

    The "Czech lands" is an auxiliary term used mainly to describe the combination of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia.Today, those three historic provinces compose the Czech Republic....
    , Polish
    Poland

    Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
    , and Ukrainian Baroque
    Ukrainian Baroque

    Ukrainian Baroque or Cossack Baroque is an architectural style that emerged in Ukraine during the Cossack Hetmanate era, in the 17th and 18th centuries....
    , pear domes are ubiquitous
  • Marian and Holy Trinity columns
    Marian and Holy Trinity columns

    Marian columns are religious monuments built in honour of the Virgin Mary, often in thanksgiving for the ending of a Bubonic plague or for some other help....
     are erected in Catholic
    Catholicism

    Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
     countries, often in thanksgiving for ending a plague
    Pandemic

    A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region; for instance a continent, or even worldwide....


The Baroque and Colonialism


Though the tendency has been to see Baroque architecture as a European phenomenon, one must not forget that it coincided with—and is integrally enmeshed with—the rise of European colonialism
Colonialism

Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over Territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler or exploitation colony in which Indigenous people populations are direct rule, Population transfers, or Genocide....
. Colonialisms required the development of centralized and powerful governments with Spain and France, the first to move in this direction. Colonialism brought in huge amounts of wealth not only in the silver that was extracted from the mines in Bolivia, Mexico and elsewhere, but also in the resultant trade in commodities, such as sugar and tobacco. The need to control trade routes, monopolies and slavery controlled primarily by the French during the 17th century, created an almost endless cycle of wars between the colonial powers: the French religious wars, the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. The war was fought primarily in Germany and at various points involved most of the countries of Europe....
 (1618 and 1648), Franco–Spanish War (1653), the Franco-Dutch War
Franco-Dutch War

The Franco-Dutch War, often called simply the Dutch War was a war fought by the France, the Swedish Empire, the Bishopric of M?nster, the Archbishopric of Cologne and the Kingdom of England against the Dutch Republic, which was later joined by Holy Roman Emperor, Brandenburg and Spain to form a Quadruple Alliance....
 (1672–1678) and so on. The initial mismanagement of colonial wealth by the Spaniards led them into bankruptcy in the 16th century (1557 and 1560), recovering only slowly in the following century. This explains why the Baroque style, though enthusiastically developed in Spain, was to a large extent, in Spain, an architecture of surfaces and façades, unlike in France and Austria where we see the construction of numerous huge palaces and monasteries. In contrast to Spain, the French, under Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert served as the Controller-General of Finances from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of Louis XIV of France. He was described by Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de S?vign? as "Le Nord", because he was cold and unemotional....
 (1619–1683), the minister of finance, had begun to industrialize their economy and thus were able to become initially at least the prime benefactors of the flow of wealth. While this was good for the building industries and the arts, the new wealth created an inflation, the likes of which had never been experienced before. Basically, the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. Rome was known just as much for its new sumptuous churches as for its vagabonds.

Rome and South Italy


The sacred architecture of the Baroque period had its beginnings in the Italian paradigm
Paradigm

The word paradigm has been used in linguistics and science to describe distinct concepts.To the 1960s, the word was specific to grammar: the 1900 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines its technical use only in the context of grammar or, in rhetoric, as a term for an illustrative parable or fable....
 of the basilica
Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a ancient Rome public building , usually located in the Forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC....
 with crossed dome
Crossed dome

File:Crossed dome.jpgThe constructional logic of the crossed-dome system that had arisen in the Hellenistic east. A crossed dome marks the intersection between the nave and the transept....
 and nave
Nave

In Romanesque architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and Church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar....
. One of the first Roman structures to break with the Mannerist conventions exemplified in the Gesù
Church of the Gesu

The Church of the Ges? is the mother church of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order also known as the Jesuits. Officially named , its facade is "the first truly Baroque architecture fa?ade"....
, was the church of Santa Susanna
Santa Susanna

Santa Susanna is a church on the Quirinal in Rome, with a titulus at its site that dates back to about 280. The modern church, rebuilt in 1585–1603, is the English?speaking Roman parish which ministers to American Catholics living in or visiting Rome....
, designed by Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno

Carlo Maderno was an Italy-Switzerland architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His fa?ades of Santa Susanna, St....
. The dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, central massing, and the protrusion and condensed central decoration add complexity to the structure. There is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic design, still maintaining rigor. They had domed roofs.

The same emphasis on plasticity, continuity and dramatic effects is evident in the work of Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona, byname of Pietro Berrettini was an Italian artist and architect of High Baroque. He is best known for painting fresco ceilings, a pursuit in which he had ample competition in the Rome of his day, but he was equally adept and masterful with architectural design....
, illustrated by San Luca e Santa Martina (1635) and Santa Maria della Pace
Santa Maria della Pace

Santa Maria della Pace is one of the churches of Rome Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. The current building was built on the foundations of the pre-existing church of Sant'Andrea de Aquarizariis in 1482, commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV....
 (1656). The latter building, with concave wings devised to simulate a theatrical set, presses forward to fill a tiny piazza in front of it. Other Roman ensembles of the period are likewise suffused with theatricality, dominating the surrounding cityscape as a sort of theatrical environment.

Probably the best known example of such an approach is trapezoidal Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square

Saint Peter's Square is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the pope enclave and exclave within Rome ....
, which has been praised as a masterstroke of Baroque theatre. The square is shaped by two colonnades, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini was a pre-eminent Baroque sculpture and architect of 17th Century Rome....
 on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and provide emotions of awe. Bernini's own favourite design was the polychromatic oval church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale

Sant'Andrea al Quirinale is the church of the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill in Rome.It was designed by Bernini and Giovanni Battista de Rossi over two decades ....
 (1658), which, with its lofty altar and soaring dome, provides a concentrated sampling of the new architecture. His idea of the Baroque townhouse is typified by the Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini

Palazzo Barberini is a palace in Rome, on the Piazza Barberini in Rione.The sloping site had formerly been occupied by a garden-vineyard of the Sforza family, in which a palazzetto had been built in 1549....
 (1629) and Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi (1664), both in Rome.

Romasivosapienzacupola
Bernini's chief rival in the papal capital was Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini

Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was a prominent and influential Italy Swiss born Baroque architect in Rome....
, whose designs deviate from the regular compositions of the ancient world and Renaissance even more dramatically. Acclaimed by later generations as a revolutionary in architecture, Borromini condemned the anthropomorphic approach of the 16th century, choosing to base his designs on complicated geometric figures (modules). Borromini's architectural space seems to expand and contract when needed, showing some affinity with the late style of Michelangelo
Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
. His iconic masterpiece is the diminutive church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

The Church of Saint Charles at the Four Fountains is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, designed by the architect Francesco Borromini and was his first independent commission....
, distinguished by a corrugated oval plan and complex convex-concave rhythms. A later work, Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza
Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza

The Church of Saint Yves at the Sapienza is a Roman Catholic churches of Rome Rome. The church is considered a masterpiece of Roman Baroque church architecture, built in 1642-1660 by the architect Francesco Borromini....
, displays the same antipathy to the flat surface and playful inventiveness, epitomized by a corkscrew lantern dome.

Following the death of Bernini in 1680, Carlo Fontana
Carlo Fontana

Carlo Fontana was an Italy architect, who was in part responsible for the classicizing direction taken by Late Baroque Roman architecture....
 emerged as the most influential architect working in Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
. His early style is exemplified by the slightly concave façade of San Marcello al Corso
San Marcello al Corso

San Marcello al Corso is a churches of Rome Rome, devoted to Pope Marcellus I. It is located in via del Corso, the ancient via Lata, connecting Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo....
). Fontana's academic approach, though lacking in the dazzling inventiveness of his Roman predecessors, exerted substantial influence on Baroque architecture both through his prolific writings and through a number of architects whom he trained and who would disseminate the Baroque idioms throughout 18th-century Europe.

The 18th century saw the capital of Europe's architectural world transferred from Rome to Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. The Italian Rococo
Rococo

Rococo is a style of 18th century French art and interior design. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings....
, which flourished in Rome from the 1720s onward, was profoundly influenced by the ideas of Borromini. The most talented architects active in Rome — Francesco de Sanctis
Francesco de Sanctis

Francesco de Sanctis was an Italy literary critic, considered the most important scholar of Italian language and literature in the 19th century....
 (Spanish Steps
Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinit? dei Monti, dominated by the church of Trinit? dei Monti....
, 1723) and Filippo Raguzzini
Filippo Raguzzini

Filippo Raguzzini was an Italy architect of the eighteenth century late-Baroque or Rococo period, mostly active in Rome.Among his designs are the hospital and church of San Gallicano and Piazza Sant'Ignazio in Rome....
 (Piazza Sant'Ignazio, 1727) — had little influence outside their native country, as did numerous practitioners of the Sicilian Baroque
Sicilian Baroque

Sicilian Baroque is the distinctive form of Baroque architecture that took hold on the island of Sicily, off the southern coast of Italy, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries....
, including Giovanni Battista Vaccarini
Giovanni Battista Vaccarini

Giovanni Battista Vaccarini was a Sicily architect, notable for his work in the Baroque style in his homeland during the period of massive rebuilding following the earthquake of 1693....
, Andrea Palma
Andrea Palma

Andrea Palma was an 18th century Sicily architect, born in Palermo, working in the Baroque style. He is credited with being one of the most notable architects of the Sicilian Baroque movement....
, and Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia
Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia

Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia was an Italy architect.He received his first training in his native Palermo. This was followed by a period in Rome from 1747 to 1759....
.

Mg K Basilica Superga1
The last phase of Baroque architecture in Italy is exemplified by Luigi Vanvitelli
Luigi Vanvitelli

Luigi Vanvitelli was an Italian engineer and architect. The most prominent eighteenth-century architect of Italy, he practiced a sober classicizing academy Baroque style that made an easy transition to Neoclassicism....
's Caserta Palace
Caserta Palace

The Royal Palace of Caserta, in Italian language Reggia di Caserta, is a former royal residence in Caserta, constructed for the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples....
, reputedly the largest building erected in Europe in the 18th century. Indebted to contemporary French and Spanish models, the palace is skillfully related to the landscape. At Naples and Caserta, Vanvitelli practiced a sober classicizing academic style, with equal attention to aesthetics
Aesthetics

Aesthetics or esthetics is commonly known as the study of senses or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste ....
 and engineering, a style that would make an easy transition to Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to quite distinct Cultural movement in the Decorative art and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture ....
.

North Italy


In the north of Italy, the monarchs from the House of Savoy
House of Savoy

The House of Savoy was formed in the early eleventh century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy until the end of the Second World War....
 were particularly receptive to the new style. They employed a brilliant triad of architects—Guarino Guarini, Filippo Juvarra
Filippo Juvarra

Filippo Juvarra, was an Italy architect and scene designer with a cosmopolitan outlook....
 and Bernardo Vittone
Bernardo Vittone

Bernardo Antonio Vittone was an Italy architect of the Rococo period, active mainly in his natal region of the Piedmont....
—to illustrate the grandiose political ambitions and the newly acquired royal status of their dynasty.

Guarini was a peripatetic monk who combined many traditions (including that of Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
) to create irregular structures remarkable for their oval columns and unconventional façades. Building upon the findings of contemporary geometry and stereotomy, Guarini elaborated the concept of architectura obliqua, which approximated Borromini's style in both theoretical and structural audacity. Guarini's Palazzo Carignano
Palazzo Carignano

Palazzo Carignano is a historical building in the centre of Turin which currently houses the Museum of the Risorgimento ....
 (1679) may have been the most flamboyant application of the Baroque style to the design of a private house in the 17th century.

Fluid forms, weightless details and airy prospects of Juvarra's architecture anticipated the art of Rococo
Rococo

Rococo is a style of 18th century French art and interior design. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings....
. Although his practice ranged well beyond Turin
Turín

Tur?n is a municipality in the Ahuachap?n Department Departments of El Salvador of El Salvador....
, Juvarra's most arresting designs were created for Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia
Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia

Victor Amadeus II, Italian language Vittorio Amedeo II was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of marquis of Saluzzo, marquis of Monferrato, prince of Piedmont, count of Aosta, Moriana and Nizza....
. The visual impact of his Basilica di Superga (1717) derives from its soaring roofline and masterful placement on a hill above Turin. Rustic ambience encouraged a freer articulation of architectural form at the royal hunting lodge of the Palazzina di Stupinigi (1729). Juvarra finished his short but eventful career in Madrid, where he worked on the royal palaces at La Granja
La Granja (palace)

The Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso is a residence of the King of Spain. The palace is in the town of San Ildefonso , eighty km north of Madrid; it is the site of the baroque palace set in gardens in the French manner and sculptural fountains, that was built for Philip V of Spain....
 and Aranjuez
Palacio Real de Aranjuez

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez is a residence of the King of Spain, located in the town of Aranjuez . The palace is open to the public as one of the Spanish royal sites....
.

Among the many who were profoundly influenced by the brilliance and diversity of Juvarra and Guarini none was more important than Bernardo Vittone
Bernardo Vittone

Bernardo Antonio Vittone was an Italy architect of the Rococo period, active mainly in his natal region of the Piedmont....
. This Piedmontese architect is remembered for an outcrop of flamboyant Rococo
Rococo

Rococo is a style of 18th century French art and interior design. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings....
 churches, quatrefoil in plan and delicate in detailing. His sophisticated designs often feature multiple vaults, structures within structures and domes within domes.

France


Chateau De Maison Lafitte
The centre of Baroque secular architecture was France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, where the open three wing layout of the palace was established as the canonical solution as early as the 16th century. But it was the Palais du Luxembourg by Salomon de Brosse
Salomon de Brosse

Salomon de Brosse was the most influential early 17th-century France architect, a major influence on Fran?ois Mansart. Salomon was from a prominent Huguenot family, the grandson through his mother of the designer Androuet du Cerceau and the son of the architect Jean de Brosse....
 that determined the sober and classicizing direction that French Baroque architecture was to take. For the first time, the corps de logis
Corps de logis

Corps de logis is the architecture term which refers to the principal block of a large, usually Classical architecture, mansion or palace. It contains the principal rooms, state apartments and an entry....
 was emphasized as the representative main part of the building, while the side wings were treated as hierarchically inferior and appropriately scaled down. The medieval tower has been completely replaced by the central projection in the shape of a monumental three-storey gateway.

De Brosse's melding of traditional French elements (e.g. lofty mansard roof
Mansard roof

A Mansard or Mansard roof in architecture refers to a style of hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its four sides with the lower slope being much steeper, almost a vertical wall, while the upper slope, usually not visible from the ground, is pitched at the minimum needed to shed water....
s and complex roofline) with extensive Italianate quotations (e.g. ubiquitous rustication, derived from Palazzo Pitti
Palazzo Pitti

The Palazzo Pitti , in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the Arno River, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio....
 in Florence
Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
) came to characterize the Louis XIII style
Louis XIII style

The Louis XIII style or Louis Treize was a fashion in France art and architecture, especially effecting the visual arts and decorative arts....
. Probably the most accomplished formulator of the new manner was François Mansart
François Mansart

Fran?ois Mansart was a France architect credited with introducing Neoclassicism into French Baroque architecture. The Encyclop?dia Britannica cites him as the most accomplished of 17th-century French architects whose works "are renowned for their high degree of refinement, subtlety, and elegance"....
, a tireless perfectionist credited with introducing the full Baroque to France. In his design for Château de Maisons
Château de Maisons

The Ch?teau de Maisons , designed by Fran?ois Mansart from 1630 to 1651, is a prime example of French baroque architecture and a reference point in the history of French architecture....
 (1642), Mansart succeeded in reconciling academic and Baroque approaches, while demonstrating respect for the gothic-inherited idiosyncrasies of the French tradition.
Vaux Le Vicomte Panorama
The Château of Maisons (illustration) demonstrates the ongoing transition from the post-medieval chateau
Château

A ch?teau is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally - and still most frequently - in French language-speaking regions....
x of the 16th century to the villa-like country houses of the 18th. The structure is strictly symmetrical, with an order applied to each story, mostly in pilaster
Pilaster

A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
 form. The frontispiece, crowned with a separate aggrandized roof, is infused with remarkable plasticity and the whole ensemble reads like a three-dimensional whole. Mansart's structures are stripped of overblown decorative effects, so typical of contemporary Rome. Italian Baroque influence is muted and relegated to the field of decorative ornamentation.

The next step in the development of European residential architecture involved the integration of the gardens in the composition of the palace, as is exemplified by Vaux-le-Vicomte
Vaux-le-Vicomte

The Ch?teau de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French chateau located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne d?partement in France of France....
), where the architect Louis Le Vau
Louis Le Vau

Louis Le Vau was a French Classical architect who worked for Louis XIV of France. He was born and died in Paris.He was responsible, with Andr? Le N?tre and Charles Le Brun, for the redesign of the ch?teau of Vaux-le-Vicomte....
, the designer Charles Le Brun
Charles Le Brun

Charles Le Brun was a French Painting and Aesthetics, one of the dominant artists in 17th century France....
 and the gardener André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre

Andr? Le N?tre was a landscape architect and the gardener of King Louis XIV of France from 1645 to 1700. Most notably, he was responsible for the construction of the park of the Palace of Versailles....
 complemented each other. From the main cornice to a low plinth, the miniature palace is clothed in the so-called "colossal order", which makes the structure look more impressive. The creative collaboration of Le Vau and Le Nôtre marked the arrival of the "Magnificent Manner" which allowed to extend Baroque architecture outside the palace walls and transform the surrounding landscape into an immaculate mosaic of expansive vistas.
Invalides
The same three artists scaled this concept to monumental proportions in the royal hunting lodge and later main residence at Versailles
Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal ch?teau in Versailles, the ?le-de-France region of France. In French language, it is known as the Ch?teau de Versailles....
). On a far grander scale, the palace is a hypertrophied and somewhat repetitive version of Vaux-le-Vicomte. It was both the most grandiose and the most imitated residential building of the 17th century. Mannheim
Mannheim

Mannheim is a city in Germany. With 327,318 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-W?rttemberg after the capital Stuttgart....
, Nordkirchen
Nordkirchen

Nordkirchen is a municipality in the Coesfeld , in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Nordkirchen's most famous site is the castle Nordkirchen, built in the 18th century for a local bishop and known as the Versailles of Westphalia....
 and Drottningholm
Drottningholm Palace

The Drottningholm Palace is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. It is located in Drottningholm. It is built on the island Lov?n , and is one of Royal Palaces in Sweden....
 were among many foreign residences for which Versailles provided a model.

The final expansion of Versailles was superintended by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, whose key design is the Dome des Invalides), generally regarded as the most important French church of the century. Hardouin-Mansart profited from his uncle's instruction and plans to instill the edifice with an imperial grandeur unprecedented in the countries north of Italy. The majestic hemispherical dome balances the vigorous vertical thrust of the orders, which do not accurately convey the structure of the interior. The younger architect not only revived the harmony and balance associated with the work of the elder Mansart but also set the tone for Late Baroque French architecture, with its grand ponderousness and increasing concessions to academicism.

The reign of Louis XV saw a reaction against the official Louis XIV style in the shape of a more delicate and intimate manner, known as Rococo
Rococo

Rococo is a style of 18th century French art and interior design. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings....
. The style was pioneered by Nicolas Pineau
Nicolas Pineau

Nicolas Pineau was a French carver and ornamental designer, one of the leaders who initiated the exuberant asymmetrical phase of the high Rococo....
, who collaborated with Hardouin-Mansart on the interiors of the royal Château de Marly
Château de Marly

The Ch?teau de Marly was located in what has become Marly-le-Roi, the commune in France that existed at the edge of the royal park. The town that originally grew up to service the ch?teau is now a dormitory community for Paris....
. Further elaborated by Pierre Le Pautre and Juste-Aurèle Meissonier, the "genre pittoresque" culminated in the interiors of the Petit Château at Chantilly
Château de Chantilly

The Ch?teau de Chantilly is a historic ch?teau located in the town of Chantilly, Oise, France. It comprises two attached buildings; the Grand Ch?teau, destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s, and the Petit Ch?teau which was built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency....
 (c. 1722) and Hôtel de Soubise
Hôtel de Soubise

The H?tel de Soubise is a city mansion entre cour et jardin, located at 60 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, in the IIIe arrondissement of Paris....
 in Paris (c. 1732), where a fashionable emphasis on the curvilinear went beyond all reasonable measure, while sculpture, paintings, furniture, and porcelain tended to overshadow architectural divisions of the interior.

Malta

Valletta
Valletta

Valletta is the Capital of Malta. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the Malta Island and has a population of 6,315.Valletta, the Citt? Umilissima, is essentially Baroque architecture in character, with elements of Mannerist_architecture#Mannerist architecture, Neoclassical architecture and Modern architecture in sele...
, the capital city of Malta
Malta

Malta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed country European microstates microstate in the European Union....
, was laid out in 1566 to fortify the Knights of Rhodes, who had taken over the island when they were driven from Rhodes by Islamic armies. The city, designed by Francesco Laparelli on a grid plan, and built up over the next century, remains a particularly coherent example of Baroque urbanism. Its massive fortifications, which were considered state of the art, until the modern age, are also largely intact. Valletta became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.