Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture, starting in the early 17th century in Italy, took the humanist Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture 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.

Michelangelo's late Roman buildings, particularly St. Peter's Basilica, 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 continued this work in Rome, particularly in the facade of the Jesuit church Il Gesu, which leads directly to the most important church facade of the early baroque, Santa Susanna by Carlo Maderno. 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 naves are replaced by broader, occasionally circular forms
• dramatic use of light, either strong light-and-shade contrasts, chiaroscuro effects (e.g. church of Weltenburg monastery), or uniform lighting by means of several windows (e.g. church of Weingarten monastery)
• opulent use of ornaments (puttos made of wood (often gilded), plaster or stucco, marble or faux marbling)
• large-scale ceiling frescos
• the external facade is often characterized by a dramatic central projection
• the interior is often no more than a shell for painting and sculpture (especially in the late baroque)
• illusory effects like trompe l'oeil and the blending of painting and architecture
• in the Bavarian and Suebian baroque, onion domes are ubiquitous

The sacred architecture of the baroque was mainly influenced by Italy, especially Rome and the paradigm of the basilica with crossed dome and nave. The centre of baroque secular architecture was 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 (built 1615-1620) by Salomon de Brosse that established the paradigm of baroque architecture.

For the first time, the Corps des Logis was emphasized as the representative main part of the building, while the side wings were lower. The tower has been completely replaced by the central projection. The next step of development was the integration of the gardens in the composition of the palace, as is exemplified by Vaux-le-Vicomte (built 1656 - 1661) near Paris, where the architect Louis Le Vau and the gardener André Le Nôtre complemented each other. The same two artists scaled this concept to monumental proportions in the royal hunting lodge and later main residence of Palace of Versailles (extended 1661 - 1690). Versailles was the model of many other European residences including Mannheim, Nordkirchen, and Caserta, among others.

In Central Europe, the baroque period began somewhat later. Although the Augsburg architect Elias Holl (1573 - 1646) and the most important theorist of the time, Wendel Dietterlin (c. 1550 - 1599) already practiced the baroque style, they remained without successors due to the ravages of the Thirty Years War. From about 1650 on, construction work resumes, and secular and profane architecture are of equal importance. 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 Vorarlberg school, responsible for the Jesuit church of St. Michael in Munich and the Jesuit church in Dillingen, soon developed the model of the pilaster church, which remained popular throughout the period. The works of Balthasar Neumann, however, continue the traditions of the Bohemian radical baroque. The difference between the two schools is illustrated by a comparison of Zwiefalten Abbey (pilaster church with curved projecting galleries) by Johann Michael Fischer und Neresheim Abbey (curvilinear architecture based on oval structures) by Neumann.

Protestant sacred architecture was of lesser importance during the baroque, and produced only a single work of prime importance, namely the Frauenkirche in Dresden. In addition to the classical French model of the three wing palace, profance architecture the develops town palaces with several courtyards (Munich Residence, Berlin Town Palace, and the Hofburg in Vienna), however.

In England the culmination of Baroque architecture comes with Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Many examples of Baroque architecture and town planning are found in other European towns, and in the Spanish Americas. Town planning of this period featured radiating avenues intersecting in squares, which took cues from Baroque garden plans.

Examples of typical baroque architecture (sorted by date)

I

St Peter's Basilica	Rome (Italy)	1506-1615	Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta, Carlos Maderno
Château de Versailles	Versailles (France)	1661-1774	Louis Le Vau, André Le Nôtre (gardens)
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane	Rome (Italy)	1665-1676	Francesco Borromini
San Lorenzo	Turin (Italy)	1666-1679
St. Pauls Cathedral	London (England)	1675-1710	Christopher Wren
Dome des Invalides	Paris (France)	1679-1708	Jules Hardouin Mansart
Stift Melk	Melk (Austria)	1702-1736	Jakob Prandtauer
Blenheim Palace	Woodstock (England)	1705-1722	Sir John Vanbrugh
Zwinger Palace	Dresden (Germany)	1709- c. 1732	Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann
Pommersfelden castle	Pommersfelden (Germany)	1711-1719	Johann Dientzenhofer
Karlskirche	Vienna (Austria)	1715-1737	Johann Fischer von Erlach
Frauenkirche	Dresden (Germany)	1726-1738	Georg Bähr
Trevi Fountain	Rome (Italy)	1732-1762	Nicola Salvi
the High Street screen of Queen's College	Oxford (England)	1733-1736	Nicholas Hawksmoor