Baroque Architecture

Boulevard

The fortress wall on the interior of Paris were tore down and made into a ring road. Tree lined on the side.

Grand Vista

Ceremonial road, from the king's palace in Paris.

Baldachin

Marks the tomb of St. Peter. Designed by Bernini. Lies directly underneath the dome. Made of bronze, a sculpture at building scale. 100ft high. Tomb and relics of Peter lie below it. Bronze came from the bronze doors of the Parthenon in Athens. Twisted columns are based on the Early Christian era. Normally for special occasions and are temporary. The Barbarini bees and laurel from their coat of arms were sculpted in the columns.

Enfillade system of rooms

Means in a row. Rooms lined up in the door, with no corridor. Door near the wall. Walk from room to room, no hallways. No privacy.

Ponte St. Angelo

Bridge, patron was Pope Urban, and Bernini was the designer. Spans across the Tiger River, by the Vatican. Process of entry to St. Peters. Had to cross this bridge to get from Rome to the Vatican. Originally, an ancient Roman bridge. Would add statues of angles by Bernini (his workshop). Signaling that you are going to a holy place.

Le Vau

Came from a family of builders. Was a member of parliament. He got to know important members of the court. Later became an architect. Designs carelessly without details.

Versailles

Colbert hires La Vau and his team to design the palace of Louis XIV. Same principles as Vaux le Vicomte. Larger then Vicomte. Garden façade - wing and pavilion. Mansardi's alteration to the garden facade. Hall of mirrors - Has throne room at the end. Arched windows face the garden. Other side has same arch windows, but with mirrors. Details are gilded. Chandeliers are made from crystal. Lots of light.

Chair of Peter. Reliquary

Designed by Bernini. Contains relics. Combines architecture, sculpture and painting into totality. Designed in bronze and wood. Designed around a window. Highlights the sculpture. Pieces of wood from a chair where St. Peter sat at was held in the reliquary.

Colonnade and Piazza of St. Peter's (Piazza San Pietro)

Designed by Bernini. Had temporary awning constructed to provide shelter, before the colonnade was built. Large open space. Colonnade wrapping around the space, with geometries. Choice an oval. Oval more flexible, won't be in the way of the existing area. Takes an equal measurement from the obelisk to the colonnade. Oval was two circles. Original plan was a section of colonnade between two arms of colonnade, never built. He did not want you to see the facade from the street. Used full scale models. Final design was single columns with statues with travertine marble. Three passage in colonnade. Center for carriages = barrel vaulted. Outer passages for foot traffic = coffered. More narrow.

Coronaro Chapel at Santa Maria dell Vittoria

Designed by Bernini. The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa of Avilla. Has an oval stage projecting off the wall. Wall around the stage. Has a curve and counter curve design. A lot of movement and curves in Baroque architecture. Oval shape more prominent in Baroque design. Has a dome in the ceiling with a scene of heaven. Scene, Saint Teresa saw god and faints in ecstasy. Cupid comes to pierce her heart with love. Wood dals gilded. Members of the Coronaro family on the sides of the chapel.

Sta Susanna, Rome

Designed by Carlo Maderno. Proportions are being tightened up. Taller. Staircase is just at the single door way. Greater focus on the central axis. Starts with a single pilaster, then to another, then to an engaged column. Moves faster to the center in layers. The scrolls are tightened upwards. Layering of planes. 3 planes. Façade is attached to the building. Proportions are with the facade itself, not the actual building. Sharp corners are contrasted with the pilasters and other smooth shapes.

Façade of Il Gesu Rome

Designed by Giacomo della Porto. Layering of forms on the facade. Tend to Monumentality. First level is pilasters of Corinthian order projected on it. Has pilasters projecting further. Engaged columns project even further. Facade steps out towards the center. More 3-D. Dramatizes the lower level. Two story facade, with a temple front. Stair case across the whole facade.

St. Peter's Facade

Designed by Maderno. His original design had two bell towers and façade was more 3-D then the actual building. Had to keep the original proportions. The width of the facade is fixed, as well as the height. Fixed proportions. Got criticism for the design of the façade and the proportions. Has two pilasters that are bonded together and a pilaster and engaged column bonded together. Has a temple front. Uses Travertine marble. He also designed the cupolas, lanterns that allowed light into the nave. Can't see them from the ground. Has a benedictional loggia.

Church of the Sorbonne Paris, Le Mercier

First church in Paris with a Roman facade. Built in 1614 for a cardinal. Has two facades. Sandwiched between two buildings. Layering with structural details. Dome on drum. Creates an intense vertical axis. Street facade - Innovation: Roman type facade in planes.

Benedictional loggia

French window with a balcony. Where the pope would come and appear to masses outside, where he would say a sermon.

Terrace

Garden in levels, different heights.

Parterres

Garden looking down in, flat.

Nicolas Fouquet

Minister of finance to Louis XIV. Expelled from the kingdom of France for embezzlement and relationship with the King's mistress (neither proven). Patron of Vaux le Vicomte.

Colbert

New finance minister for Louis XIV. Tells the king to design a better palace. He assembled teams of artists and architects to work for the king's commissions. Gets La Vau's team in build on the site of a country house at Versailles. Interested in supporting the arts. The arts should not be left to apprenticeships, but to academies. Established the first academy of architecture. Later becomes the super attendant of building.

Vaux le Vicomte

Patron was Fouquet. Design team was La Vau (architect), Le Notre (landscape), and Le Brun (artist). Has a long vista, Axes and cross axes, parterres, terraces, and pause points. There is a moat around the palace. Only kings build castles and fortifications. Shows his status. Bi-laterally symmetrical building. Entry way has a wing and pavilion system. Dramatic shifting of planes. New arrangement of spaces. Back has an oval shaped dome and three pavilions.

Avenues (allees)

Roads coming out of the city walls to the market place, for farmers.

Two significant innovations in religious architecture in France

Roman type church facade and dome with drum.

Bernini

Started as a sculptor. Father was a sculptor. Worked with his father with sculpting. At age 8 his sculptors were better than grown men. Father taught him classical sculptors. 17 received commissions from the pope. 23 - Head of the Roman academy of St. Luke. School for artists, beyond internships. Pope Urban the 8th - thought he was the next Michelangelo.

East façade of the Louvre

Supervised by Colbert and designed by La Vau. Design team was Le Vau, Le Brun, and Perrault - gentleman architect. Roman, imperial grandeur, scale. Technical aspects more innovative than aesthetic aspects. Wing - pairs of columns in a colonnade. Problem is space between supports (Columns). Solution is three fold. Hidden relieving arches. Flat arches out of vouissors. Not a solid stone lintel. Pediment. Metal reinforcements. Only used were structurally advantageous, not on exterior. Tie bars.

Apartment system of rooms

System created by Le Vau at Vaux le Vicomte. Method of creating privacy in certain rooms and creating easy circulation in a collection of rooms. Layers of privacy.