Baroque architecture is the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late 16th-century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church. It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow, and dramatic intensity. Common features of Baroque architecture included gigantism of proportions; a large open central space where everyone could see the altar; twisting columns, theatrical effects, including light coming from a cupola above; dramatic interior effects created with bronze and gilding; clusters of sculpted angels and other figures high overhead; and an extensive use of trompe-l’oeil, also called “quadratura,” with painted architectural details and figures on the walls and ceiling, to increase the dramatic and theatrical effect.
Whereas the Renaissance 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, a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself in response to the Protestant Reformation. Baroque architecture and its embellishments were on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and on the other hand, a visible statement of the wealth and power of the Catholic Church. The new style manifested itself in particular in the context of the new religious orders, like the Theatines and the Jesuits who aimed to improve popular piety.
The architecture of the High Roman Baroque can be assigned to the papal reigns of Urban VIII, Innocent X and Alexander VII, spanning from 1623 to 1667. The three principal architects of this period were the sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, Francesco Borromini and the painter Pietro da Cortona and each evolved his own distinctively individual architectural expression.
Dissemination of Baroque architecture to the south of Italy resulted in regional variations such as Sicilian Baroque architecture or that of Naples and Lecce. To the north, the Theatine architect Camillo-Guarino Guarini, Bernardo Vittone and Sicilian born Filippo Juvarra contributed Baroque buildings to the city of Turin and the Piedmont region.
A synthesis of Bernini, Borromini and Cortona’s architecture can be seen in the late Baroque architecture of northern Europe which paved the way for the more decorative Rococo style.
By the middle of the 17th century, the Baroque style had found its secular expression in the form of grand palaces, first in France—with the Château de Maisons (1642) near Paris by François Mansart—and then throughout Europe.
During the 17th century, Baroque architecture spread through Europe and Latin America, where it was particularly promoted by the Jesuits.
Precursors and features of Baroque architecture
Michelangelo’s late Roman buildings, particularly St. Peter’s Basilica, may be considered precursors to Baroque architecture. His pupil Giacomo della Porta continued this work in Rome, particularly in the façade of the Jesuit church Il Gesù, which leads directly to the most important church façade of the early Baroque, Santa Susanna (1603), by Carlo Maderno.
Distinctive features of Baroque architecture can include:
in churches, broader naves and sometimes given oval forms
fragmentary or deliberately incomplete architectural elements
dramatic use of light; either strong light-and-shade contrasts (chiaroscuro effects) as at the church of Weltenburg Abbey, or uniform lighting by means of several windows (e.g. church of Weingarten Abbey)
opulent use of colour and ornaments (putti or figures made of wood (often gilded), plaster or stucco, marble or faux finishing)
large-scale ceiling frescoes
an external façade often characterized by a dramatic central projection
the interior is a shell for painting, sculpture and stucco (especially in the late Baroque)
illusory effects like trompe l’oeil (an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.) and the blending of painting and architecture
pear-shaped domes in the Bavarian, Czech, Polish and Ukrainian Baroque
Marian and Holy Trinity columns erected in Catholic countries, often in thanksgiving for ending a plague
Baroque and colonialism
Though the tendency has been to see Baroque architecture as a European phenomenon, it coincided with, and is integrally enmeshed with, the rise of European colonialism. Colonialism 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, which lay primarily in the hands of 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 (1618 and 1648), Franco–Spanish War (1653), the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), and so on. The initial mismanagement of colonial wealth by the Spaniards bankrupted them in the 16th century (1557 and 1560), recovering only slowly in the following century. This explains why the Baroque style, though enthusiastically developed throughout the Spanish Empire, 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 (1619–1683), the minister of finance, had begun to industrialize their economy, and thus, were able to become, initially at least, the 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. Rome was known just as much for its new sumptuous churches as for its vagabonds.
The Low Countries
Baroque architecture in the south, Flanders and Belgium developed rather differently from in the Protestant . After the Twelve Years’ Truce, the Southern Netherlands remained in Catholic hands, ruled by the Spanish Habsburg Kings. Important architectural projects were set up in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation. In them, florid decorative detailing was more tightly knit to the structure, thus precluding concerns of superfluity. A remarkable convergence of Spanish, French, and Dutch Baroque aesthetics may be seen in the Abbey of Averbode (1667). Another characteristic example is the Church of St. Michel at Louvain, with its exuberant two-storey façade, clusters of half-columns, and the complex aggregation of French-inspired sculptural detailing.
Six decades later, a Flemish architect, Jaime Borty Milia, was the first to introduce Rococo to Spain (Cathedral of Murcia, west façade, 1733). The greatest practitioner of the Spanish Rococo style was a native master, Ventura Rodríguez, responsible for the dazzling interior of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza (1750).
Some Flemish architects such as Wenceslas Cobergher were trained in Italy and their works were inspired by architects such as Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola and Giacomo della Porta. Cobergher’s most major project was the Basilica of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel which he designed as the center of a new town in the form of a heptagon.
The influence of the painter Peter Paul Rubens on architecture was very important. With his book “I Palazzi di Genova” he introduced novel Italian models for the conception of profane buildings and decoration in the Southern Netherlands. The courtyard and portico of his own house in Antwerp (Rubenshuis) are good examples of his architectural activity. He also took part in the decoration of the Antwerp Jesuit Church (now Carolus Borromeuskerk) where he introduced a lavish Baroque decoration, integrating sculpture and painting in the architectural program.
Northern Netherlands
There is little Baroque about Dutch architecture of the 17th century. The architecture of the first republic in Northern Europe was meant to reflect democratic values by quoting extensively from classical antiquity. Like contemporary developments in England, Dutch Palladianism is marked by sobriety and restraint. Two leading architects, Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post, used such eclectic elements as giant-order pilasters, gable roofs, central pediments, and vigorous steeples in a coherent combination that anticipated Wren’s Classicism.
The most ambitious constructions of the period included the seats of self-government in Amsterdam (1646) and Maastricht (1658), designed by Campen and Post, respectively. On the other hand, the residences of the House of Orange are closer to a typical burgher mansion than to a royal palace. Two of these, Huis ten Bosch and Mauritshuis, are symmetrical blocks with large windows, stripped of ostentatious Baroque flourishes and mannerisms. The same austerely geometrical effect is achieved without great cost or pretentious effects at the Stadholder’s summer residence of Het Loo.
The Dutch Republic was one of the great powers of 17th-century Europe and its influence on European architecture was by no means negligible. Dutch architects were employed on important projects in Northern Germany, Scandinavia and Russia, disseminating their ideas in those countries. The Dutch colonial architecture, once flourishing in the Hudson River Valley and associated primarily with red-brick gabled houses, may still be seen in Willemstad, Curaçao.
England
Baroque aesthetics, whose influence was so potent in mid-17th-century France, made little impact in England during the Protectorate and the first Restoration years. For a decade between the death of Inigo Jones in 1652 and Christopher Wren’s visit to Paris in 1665 there was no English architect of the accepted premier class. Unsurprisingly, general interest in European architectural developments was slight.
It was Wren who presided over the genesis of the English Baroque manner, which differed from the continental models by a clarity of design and a subtle taste for classicism. Following the Great Fire of London, Wren rebuilt fifty-three churches, where Baroque aesthetics are apparent primarily in dynamic structure and multiple changing views. His most ambitious work was St Paul’s Cathedral, which bears comparison with the most effulgent domed churches of Italy and France. In this majestically proportioned edifice, the Palladian tradition of Inigo Jones is fused with contemporary continental sensibilities in masterly equilibrium. Less influential were straightforward attempts to engraft the Berniniesque vision onto British church architecture (e.g. by Thomas Archer in St. John’s, Smith Square, 1728).
Although Wren was also active in secular architecture, the first truly Baroque country house in England was built to a design by William Talman at Chatsworth, starting in 1687. The culmination of Baroque architectural forms comes with Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Each was capable of a fully developed architectural statement, yet they preferred to work in tandem, most notably at Castle Howard (1699) and Blenheim Palace (1705).
Although these two palaces may appear somewhat ponderous or turgid to Italian eyes, their heavy embellishment and overpowering mass captivated the British public, albeit for a short while. Castle Howard is a flamboyant assembly of restless masses dominated by a cylindrical domed tower which would not be out of place in Dresden or Munich. Blenheim is a more solid construction, where the massed stone of the arched gates and the huge solid portico becomes the main ornament. Vanbrugh’s final work was Seaton Delaval Hall (1718), a comparatively modest mansion yet unique in the structural audacity of its style. It was at Seaton Delaval that Vanbrugh, a skillful playwright, achieved the peak of Restoration drama, once again highlighting a parallel between Baroque architecture and contemporary theatre. Despite his efforts, Baroque was never truly to the English taste and well before his death in 1724, the style had lost currency in Britain.
Holy Roman Empire
In the Holy Roman Empire, the Baroque period began somewhat later. Although the Augsburg architect Elias Holl (1573–1646) and some theoretists, including Joseph Furttenbach the Elder already practiced the Baroque style, they remained without successors due to the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War. From about 1650 on, construction work resumed, and secular and ecclesiastical architecture were of equal importance. During an initial phase, master-masons from southern Switzerland and northern Italy, the so-called magistri Grigioni and the Lombard master-masons, particularly the Carlone family from Val d’Intelvi, dominated the field. However, Austria came soon to develop its own characteristic Baroque style during the last third of the 17th century. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach was impressed by Bernini. He forged a new Imperial style by compiling architectural motifs from the entire history, most prominently seen in his Karlskirche in Vienna. Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt also had an Italian training. He developed a highly decorative style, particularly in façade architecture, which exerted strong influences on southern Germany.
Frequently, the Southern German Baroque is distinguished from the Northern German Baroque, which is more properly the distinction between the Catholic and the Protestant Baroque. In the Catholic South, the Jesuit church of St. Michael in Munich was the first to bring Italian style across the Alps. However, its influence on the further development of church architecture was rather limited. A much more practical and more adaptable model of church architecture was provided by the Jesuit church in Dillingen): the wall-pillar church, a barrel-vaulted nave accompanied by large open chapels separated by wall-pillars. As opposed to St. Michael’s in Munich, the chapels almost reach the height of the nave in the wall-pillar church, and their vault (usually transverse barrel-vaults) springs from the same level as the main vault of the nave. The chapels provide ample lighting; seen from the entrance of the church, the wall-pillars form a theatrical setting for the side altars. The wall-pillar church was further developed by the Vorarlberg school, as well as the master-masons of Bavaria. This new church also integrated well with the hall church model of the German late Gothic age. The wall-pillar church continued to be used throughout the 18th century (e.g. even in the early neo-classical church of Rot an der Rot Abbey), and early wall-pillar churches could easily be refurbished by re-decoration without any structural changes, such as the church at Dillingen.
However, the Catholic South also received influences from other sources, such as the so-called radical Baroque of Bohemia. The radical Baroque of Christoph Dientzenhofer and his son Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, both residing at Prague, was inspired by examples from northern Italy, particularly by the works of Guarino Guarini. It is characterized by the curvature of walls and intersection of oval spaces. While some Bohemian influence is visible in Bavaria’s most prominent architect of the period, Johann Michael Fischer (the curved balconies of some of his earlier wall-pillar churches), the works of Balthasar Neumann, in particular the Basilica of the Vierzehnheiligen, are generally considered to be the final synthesis of Bohemian and German traditions.
Protestant sacred architecture was of lesser importance during the Baroque, and produced only a few works of prime importance, particularly the Frauenkirche in Dresden. Architectural theory was more lively in the north than in the south of Germany, with Leonhard Christoph Sturm’s edition of Nikolaus Goldmann, but Sturm’s theoretical considerations (e.g. on Protestant church architecture) never really made it to practical application. In the south, theory essentially reduced to the use of buildings and elements from illustrated books and engravings as a prototype.
Palace architecture was equally important both in the Catholic South and the Protestant North. After an initial phase when Italian architects and influences dominated (Vienna, Rastatt), French influence prevailed from the second decade of the 18th century onwards. The French model is characterized by the horseshoe-like layout enclosing a cour d’honneur (courtyard) on the town side (chateau entre cour et jardin), whereas the Italian (and also Austrian) scheme presents a block-like villa. The principal achievements of German Palace architecture, often worked out in close collaboration of several architects, provide a synthesis of Austro-Italian and French models. The most outstanding palace which blends Austro-Italian and French influences into a completely new type of building is the Würzburg Residence. While its general layout is the horseshoe-like French plan, it encloses interior courtyards. Its façades combine Lucas von Hildebrandt’s love of decoration with French-style classical orders in two superimposed stories; its interior features the famous Austrian “imperial staircase”, but also a French-type enfilade of rooms on the garden side, inspired by the “apartement semi-double” layout of French castles.
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The first Baroque structure in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was the Corpus Christi Church build between 1586 and 1593 in Nieśwież (present day Niasvizh, Belarus). The church also holds a distinction of being the first domed basilica with a Baroque façade in the Commonwealth and Eastern Europe.
In the subsequent years of the early 17th century, Baroque architecture spread over the Commonwealth. Important Baroque churches build during this early phase of the style included the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków, the Vasa Chapel in the Wawel Cathedral (which was the Baroque equivalent to a neighboring Sigismund’s Chapel build years earlier in the Renaissance style), and the Visitationist Church in Kraków. Most of these early Baroque churches followed a design pattern set by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola’s Church of the Gesù in Rome. Other important Baroque churches and chapels erected in the mid-17th century were St. Casimir’s Chapel in the Vilnius Cathedral, St. Peter and Paul Church and St. Casimir’s Church in Vilnius, Pažaislis monastery in Kaunas, the Dominican Church and St. George’s Church in Lwów (present day Lviv, Ukraine). Examples from the late 17th-century include the Jesuit Church in Poznań, St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Grodno, Royal Chapel in Gdańsk (which incorporates an eclectic architectural style based on a mix of Polish and Dutch building traditions), and Sanctuary of St. Mary in Masuria (build in the Tyrolean Baroque style). Notable examples of residential Baroque architecture from this time period include the Ujazdów Castle, Kazanowski Palace (destroyed), Wilanów Palace and Krasiński Palace in Warsaw.
The monumental castle Krzyżtopór (ruins), built in the style palazzo in fortezza between 1627 and 1644, had several courtyards surrounded by fortifications. Also, Late baroque fascination with the culture and art of China is reflected in Queen Masysieńka’s Chinese Palace in Zolochiv. 18th-century magnate palaces represents the characteristic type of baroque suburban residence built entre cour et jardin (between the entrance court and the garden). Its architecture, a merger of European art with old Commonwealth building traditions, is visible in Potocki Palace in Radzyń Podlaski, Raczyński Palace in Rogalin and Wiśniowiecki Palace in Vyshnivets.
During the late 17th century, the most famous architect in the Commonwealth was the Dutch-born Tylman van Gameren, who, at the age of 28, settled in Poland (the Crown of the Commonwealth) and worked for Queen Marie Casimire and King John III Sobieski. Tylman left behind a lifelong legacy of buildings that are regarded as gems of Polish Baroque architecture, they include among others, the Ostrogski Palace, Otwock Palace, Branicki Palace, St. Kazimierz Church and the Church of St. Anne.
By the end of the century, Polish Baroque influences crossed the Dnieper river into the Cossack Hetmanate, where it gave birth to a particular style of architecture, known as the Cossack Baroque. Also, a notable style of baroque architecture emerged in the 18th century with the work of Johann Christoph Glaubitz who was assigned to rebuild the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s capital of Vilnius. The style was therefore named Vilnian Baroque and Old Vilnius was named the “City of Baroque”. The most notable buildings by Glaubitz in Vilnius are the Church of St. Catherine started in 1743, the Church of the Ascension started in 1750, the Church of St. John, the monastery gate and the towers of the Church of the Holy Trinity. The magnificent and dynamic Baroque facade of the formerly Gothic Church of St. Johns is mentioned among his best works. Many church interiors including the one of the Great Synagogue of Vilna were reconstructed by Glaubitz as well as the Town Hall build in 1769. Notable buildings of Vilnian Baroque in other places are Saint Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk, Belarus (rebuilt between 1738 and 1765), Carmelite church in Hlybokaye, Belarus and the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Berezovichi, Belarus (built in 1776, and 1960s-1970s).
Ukraine (Cossack Hetmanate)
Ukrainian Baroque is an architectural style that emerged in Ukraine during the Hetmanate era, in the 17th and 18th centuries. Ukrainian Baroque is distinct from the Western European Baroque in having more moderate ornamentation and simpler forms, and as such was considered more constructivist. One of the unique features of the Ukrainian baroque, were bud and pear-shaped domes, that were later borrowed by the similar Naryshkin baroque. Many Ukrainian Baroque buildings have been preserved, including several buildings in Kiev Pechersk Lavra and the Vydubychi Monastery. The best examples of Baroque painting are the church paintings in the Holy Trinity Church of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Rapid development in engraving techniques occurred during the Ukrainian Baroque period. Advances utilized a complex system of symbolism, allegories, heraldic signs, and sumptuous ornamentation.
Russia
In Russia, Baroque architecture passed through three stages—the early Moscow Baroque, with elegant white decorations on red-brick walls of rather traditional churches, the mature Petrine Baroque, mostly imported from the Low Countries, and the late Rastrelliesque Baroque, which was, in the words of William Brumfield, “extravagant in design and execution, yet ordered by the rhythmic insistence of massed columns and Baroque statuary.”
The first baroque churches were built in the estates of the Naryshkin family of Moscow boyars. It was the family of Natalia Naryshkina, Peter the Great’s mother. Most notable in this category of small suburban churches were the Intercession in Fili (1693–96), the Holy Tritity church in Troitse-Lykovo (1690–1695) and the Saviour in Ubory (1694–97). They were built in red brick with profuse detailed decoration in white stone. The belfry was not any more placed beside the church as was common in the 17th century, but on the facade itself, usually surmounting the octagonal central church and producing daring vertical compositions. As the style gradually spread around Russia, many monasteries were remodeled after the latest fashion. The most delightful of these were the Novodevichy Convent and the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, as well as Krutitsy metochion and Solotcha Cloister near Riazan. Civic architecture also sought to conform to the baroque aesthetics, e.g., the Sukharev Tower in Moscow and there is also a neo-form of this style like the Principal Medicine Store on Red Square. The most important architects associated with the Naryshkin Baroque were Yakov Bukhvostov and Peter Potapov.
Petrine Baroque is a name applied by art historians to a style of Baroque architecture and decoration favoured by Peter the Great and employed to design buildings in the newly founded Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, under this monarch and his immediate successors. Unlike contemporaneous Naryshkin Baroque, favoured in Moscow, the Petrine Baroque represented a drastic rupture with Byzantine traditions that had dominated Russian architecture for almost a millennium. Its chief practitioners—Domenico Trezzini, Andreas Schlüter, and Mikhail Zemtsov—drew inspiration from a rather modest Dutch, Danish, and Swedish architecture of the time. Extant examples of the style in St Petersburg are the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Twelve Colleges, the Kunstkamera, Kikin Hall and Menshikov Palace.The Petrine Baroque structures outside St Petersburg are scarce; they include the Menshikov Tower in Moscow and the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn.
Scandinavia
During the golden age of the Swedish Empire, the architecture of Nordic countries was dominated by the Swedish court architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and his son Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. Their aesthetic was readily adopted across the Baltic, in Copenhagen and Saint Petersburg.
Born in Germany, Tessin the Elder endowed Sweden with a truly national style, a well-balanced mixture of contemporary French and medieval Hanseatic elements. His designs for the royal manor of Drottningholm seasoned French prototypes with Italian elements, while retaining some peculiarly Nordic features, such as the hipped roof (säteritak).
Tessin the Younger shared his father’s enthusiasm for discrete palace façades. His design for the Stockholm Palace draws so heavily on Bernini’s unexecuted plans for the Louvre that one could well imagine it standing in Naples, Vienna, or Saint Petersburg. Another example of the so-called International Baroque, based on Roman models with little concern for national specifics, is the Royal Palace of Madrid. The same approach is manifested is Tessin’s polychrome domeless Kalmar Cathedral, a skillful pastiche of early Italian Baroque, clothed in a giant order of paired Ionic pilasters.
It was not until the mid-18th century that Danish and Russian architecture were emancipated from Swedish influence. A milestone of this late period is Nicolai Eigtved’s design for a new district of Copenhagen centred on the Amalienborg Palace. The palace is composed of four rectangular mansions, originally owned by four of Denmark’s greatest noble families, arranged across the angles of an octagonal square. The restrained façades of the mansions hark back to French antecedents, while their interiors contain some of the finest Rococo decoration in Northern Europe. Amalienborg Palace has served as the residence of the Danish royal family since the late 18th century.
Turkey
Istanbul, once the capital of the Ottoman Empire, hosts many different varieties of Baroque architecture. As reforms and innovations to modernize the country came out in 18th and 19th century, various architecture styles were used in Turkey, one of them was the Baroque Style. As Turkish architecture (which is also a combination of Islamic and Byzantine architecture) combined with Baroque, a new style called Ottoman Baroque appeared. Baroque architecture is mostly seen in mosques and palaces built in this centuries. The Ortaköy Mosque, is one of the best examples of the Ottoman Baroque architecture.
The Tanzimat Era caused more architectural development. The architectural change continued with Sultan Mahmud II, one of the most reformist sultans in Turkish History. One of his sons, Sultan Abdülmecid and his family left the Topkapı Palace and moved to the Dolmabahçe Palace which is the first European-style palace in the country.
Baroque architecture in Istanbul was mostly used in palaces near the Bosphorus and Golden Horn. Beyoğlu was one of the places that Baroque and other European style architecture buildings were largely used. The famous streets called Istiklal Avenue, Nişantaşı, Bankalar Caddesi consist of these architecture style apartments. The Ottoman flavour gives it its unique atmosphere, which also distinguishes it from the later “colonial” Baroque styles, largely used in the Middle East, especially Lebanon. Later and more mature Baroque forms in Istanbul can be found in the gates of the Dolmabahçe Palace which also has a very “eastern” flavour, combining Baroque, Romantic, and Oriental architecture.
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