Italian Baroque Architecture Bernini & Boromini

Baroque Architecture Churches designed to show power of Catholic Church Walls curved and bulged Heavily decorated with shapes and/or color

Maderno's façade The façade designed by Maderno, is 114.69 metres (376.3 ft) wide and 45.55 metres (149.4 ft) high and is built of travertine stone, with a giant order of Corinthian columns and a central pediment rising in front of a tall attic surmounted by statues of Christ, John the Baptist, and eleven of the apostles. The inscription on the facade reads: “ IN HONOREM PRINCIPIS APOST PAVLVS V BVRGHESIVS ROMANVS PONT MAX AN MDCXII PONT VII ” (Paul V Borghese, Supreme Roman Pontiff, in the year 1612, the seventh of his pontificate, erected in honor of the Prince of Apostles) The façade is often cited as the least satisfactory part of the design of St. Peter's. The reasons for this, according to James Lees-Milne, are that it was not given enough consideration by the Pope and committee because of the desire to get the building completed quickly, coupled with the fact that Maderno was hesitant to deviate from the pattern set by Michelangelo at the other end of the building. Lees-Milne describes the problems of the façade as being too broad for its height, too cramped in its details and too heavy in the attic storey. The breadth is caused by modifying the plan to have towers on either side. These towers were never executed above the line of the facade because it was discovered that the ground was not sufficiently stable to bear the weight. One effect of the façade and lengthened nave is to screen the view of the dome, so that the building, from the front, has no vertical feature, except from a distance

120 years to build, 1506 to 1626 46,800,052 ducets = $7 billion gold Piece of the cross, Spear that pierced Jesus, Veronica’s veil, St.Andrew’s Cross

The Rivalry of Bernini and Boromini

Fountain finished a few years before the church façade so the story is false.

Bernini: Baldacchino Almost 100 feet high Baldacchino erected to mark St. Peter’s tomb and the high altar Bronze – Taken from Pantheon

Cornaro Chapel Santa Maria della Vittoria

Bernini’s Legacy

Bernini's The Throne of St. Peter

Baroque Ceiling Paintings Architecture is painted in on a flat ceiling Andrea Pozzo Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius

The Glorification of St. Ignatius, 1691-1694 Ceiling fresco Infinite horizontal Infinite vertical Heaven is opening up