Renaissance Architecture

Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance architecture followed Gothic architecture and was succeeded by Baroque architecture. Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the Renaissance style quickly spread to other Italian cities. The style was carried to France, Germany, England, Russia and other parts of Europe at different dates and with varying degrees of impact. Renaissance style places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of classical antiquity and in particular ancient Roman architecture, of which many examples remained. Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters andlintels, as well as the use of semi-circular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings.

Historiography
The word "Renaissance" derived from the term "la rinascita",which means rebirth, first appeared in Giorgio Vasari's Vite de' pi eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani (The Lives of the Artists, 155068). Although the term Renaissance was used first by the French historian Jules Michelet, it was given its more lasting definition from the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, whose book, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien 1860, was influential in the development of the modern interpretation of the Italian Renaissance. The folio of measured drawings difices de Rome moderne; ou, Recueil des palais, maisons, glises, couvents et autres monuments (The Buildings of Modern Rome), first published in 1840 by Paul Letarouilly, also played an important part in the revival of interest in this period. The Renaissance style was recognized by contemporaries in the term "all'antica", or "in the ancient manner" (of the Romans). Principal phases Historians often divide the Renaissance in Italy into three phases. Whereas art historians might talk of an "Early Renaissance" period, in which they include developments in 14th century painting and sculpture, this is usually not the case in architectural history. The bleak economic conditions of the late 14th century did not produce buildings that are considered to be part of the Renaissance. As a result, the word "Renaissance" among architectural historians usually applies to the period 1400 to ca. 1525, or later in the case of non-Italian Renaissances. Historians often use the following designations:

Renaissance (ca. 14001500); also known as the Quattrocento and sometimes Early Renaissance High Renaissance (ca.15001525) Mannerism (ca. 15201600)

Quattrocento In the Quattrocento, concepts of architectural order were explored and rules were formulated. The study of classical antiquity led in particular to the adoption of Classical detail and ornamentation.

Space, as an element of architecture, was utilised differently from the way it had been in the Middle Ages. Space was organised by proportional logic, its form and rhythm subject to geometry, rather than being created by intuition as in Medieval buildings. The prime example of this is the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence byFilippo Brunelleschi (13771446). High Renaissance During the High Renaissance, concepts derived from classical antiquity were developed and used with greater surety. The most representative architect is Bramante(14441514) who expanded the applicability of classical architecture to contemporary buildings. His San Pietro in Montorio (1503) was directly inspired by circularRoman temples. He was, however, hardly a slave to the classical forms and it was his style that was to dominate Italian architecture in the 16th century. Mannerism During the Mannerist period, architects experimented with using architectural forms to emphasize solid and spatial relationships. The Renaissance ideal of harmony gave way to freer and more imaginative rhythms. The best known architect associated with the Mannerist style was Michelangelo (14751564), who is credited with inventing the giant order, a large pilaster that stretches from the bottom to the top of a faade. He used this in his design for the Campidoglio in Rome. Prior to the 20th century, the term Mannerism had negative connotations, but it is now used to describe the historical period in more general non-judgemental terms.

Characteristics
The obvious distinguishing features of Classical Roman architecture were adopted by Renaissance architects. However, the forms and purposes of buildings had changed over time, as had the structure of cities. Among the earliest buildings of the reborn Classicism were churches of a type that the Romans had never constructed. Neither were there models for the type of large city dwellings required by wealthy merchants of the 15th century. Conversely, there was no call for enormous sporting fixtures and public bath houses such as the Romans had built. The ancient orders were analysed and reconstructed to serve new purposes. Plan The plans of Renaissance buildings have a square, symmetrical appearance in which proportions are usually based on a module. Within a church the module is often the width of an aisle. The need to integrate the design of the plan with the faade was introduced as an issue in the work of Filippo Brunelleschi, but he was never able to carry this aspect of his work into fruition. The first building to demonstrate this was St. Andrea in Mantua by Alberti. The development of the plan in secular architecture was to take place in the 16th century and culminated with the work of Palladio.

Faade Faades are symmetrical around their vertical axis. Church faades are generally surmounted by a pediment and organised by a system of pilasters, arches and entablatures. The columns and windows show a progression towards the centre. One of the first true Renaissance faades was the Cathedral of Pienza (145962), which has been attributed to the Florentine architect Bernardo Gambarelli (known as Rossellino) with Alberti perhaps having some responsibility in its design as well.

Domestic buildings are often surmounted by a cornice. There is a regular repetition of openings on each floor, and the centrally placed door is marked by a feature such as a balcony, or rusticated surround. An early and much copied prototype was the faade for the Palazzo Rucellai (1446 and 1451) in Florence with its three registers of pilasters Columns and Pilasters The Roman orders of columns are used:- Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. The orders can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an integrated system. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the Old Sacristy (14211440) by Brunelleschi. Arches Arches are semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental. Arches are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental scale at the St. Andrea in Mantua. Vaults Vaults do not have ribs. They are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault which is frequently rectangular. The barrel vault is returned to architectural vocabulary as at the St. Andrea in Mantua. Domes The dome is used frequently, both as a very large structural feature that is visible from the exterior, and also as a means of roofing smaller spaces where they are only visible internally. Domes had been used only rarely in the Middle Ages, but after the success of the dome in Brunelleschis design for the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore and its use in Bramantes plan for St. Peter's Basilica (1506) in Rome, the dome became an indispensable element in church architecture and later even for secular architecture, such as Palladio's Villa Rotonda. Ceilings Roofs are fitted with flat or coffered ceilings. They are not left open as in Medieval architecture. They are frequently painted or decorated. Doors Doors usually have square lintels. They may be set within an arch or surmounted by a triangular or segmental pediment. Openings that do not have doors are usually arched and frequently have a large or decorative keystone. Windows Windows may be paired and set within a semi-circular arch. They may have square lintels and triangular or segmental pediments, which are often used alternately. Emblematic in this respect is the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, begun in 1517.

In the Mannerist period the Palladian arch was employed, using a motif of a high semi-circular topped opening flanked with two lower square-topped openings. Windows are used to bring light into the

building and in domestic architecture, to give views. Stained glass, although sometimes present, is not a feature. Walls External walls are generally of highly finished ashlar masonry, laid in straight courses. The corners of buildings are often emphasised by rusticatedquoins. Basements and ground floors were often rusticated, as modeled on the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (14441460) in Florence. Internal walls are smoothly plastered and surfaced with white-chalk paint. For more formal spaces, internal surfaces are decorated with frescoes. Details Courses, mouldings and all decorative details are carved with great precision. Studying and mastering the details of the ancient Romans was one of the important aspects of Renaissance theory. The different orders each required different sets of details. Some architects were stricter in their use of classical details than others, but there was also a good deal of innovation in solving problems, especially at corners. Moldings stand out around doors and windows rather than being recessed, as in Gothic Architecture. Sculptured figures may be set in niches or placed on plinths. They are not integral to the building as in Medieval architecture.

Influences
Italy of the 15th century, and the city of Florence in particular, was home to the Renaissance. It is in Florence that the new architectural style had its beginning, not slowly evolving in the way that Gothic grew out of Romanesque, but consciously brought to being by particular architects who sought to revive the order of a past "Golden Age". The scholarly approach to the architecture of the ancient coincided with the general revival of learning. A number of factors were influential in bringing this about. Architectural Italian architects had always preferred forms that were clearly defined and structural members that expressed their purpose. Many Tuscan Romanesque buildings demonstrate these characteristics, as seen in the Florence Baptistery and Pisa Cathedral. Italy had never fully adopted the Gothic style of architecture. Apart from the Cathedral of Milan, largely the work of German builders, few Italian churches show the emphasis on vertically, the clustered shafts, ornate tracery and complex ribbed vaulting that characterise Gothic in other parts of Europe. The presence, particularly in Rome, of ancient architectural remains showing the ordered Classical style provided an inspiration to artists at a time when philosophy was also turning towards the Classical. Political In the 15th century, Florence, Venice and Naples extended their power through much of the area that surrounded them, making the movement of artists possible. This enabled Florence to have significant artistic influence in Milan, and through Milan, France. In 1377, the return of the Pope from Avignon and re-establishment of the Papal court in Rome, brought wealth and importance to that city, as well as a renewal in the importance of the Pope in Italy, which was further strengthened by the Council of Constance in 1417. Successive Popes, especiallyJulius II, 150313, sought to extend the Popes temporal power throughout Italy.

Commercial In the early Renaissance, Venice controlled sea trade over goods from the East. The large towns of Northern Italy were prosperous through trade with the rest of Europe, Genoa providing a seaport for the goods of France and Spain; Milan and Turin being centers of overland trade, and maintaining substantial metalworking industries. Trade brought wool from England to Florence, ideally located on the river for the production of fine cloth, the industry on which its wealth was founded. By dominating Pisa, Florence gained a seaport, and also maintained dominance of Genoa. In this commercial climate, one family in particular turned their attention from trade to the lucrative business of money-lending. The Medici became the chief bankers to the princes of Europe, becoming virtually princes themselves as they did so, by reason of both wealth and influence. Along the trade routes, and thus offered some protection by commercial interest, moved not only goods but also artists, scientists and philosophers. Religious The return of the Pope from Avignon in 1377 and the resultant new emphasis on Rome as the center of Christian spirituality, brought about a boom in the building of churches in Rome such as had not taken place for nearly a thousand years. This commenced in the mid 15th century and gained momentum in the 16th century, reaching its peak in the Baroque period. The construction of the Sistine Chapel with its uniquely important decorations and the entire rebuilding of St Peter's, one of Christendom's most significant churches, were part of this process. In wealthy republican Florence, the impetus for church-building was more civic than spiritual. The unfinished state of the enormous cathedral dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary did no honour to the city under her patronage. However, as the technology and finance were found to complete it, the rising dome did credit not only to the Blessed Virgin, its architect and the Church but also the Signoria, the Guilds and the sectors of the city from which the manpower to construct it was drawn. The dome inspired further religious works in Florence. Philosophic The development of printed books, the rediscovery of ancient writings, the expanding of political and trade contacts and the exploration of the world all increased knowledge and the desire for education. The reading of philosophies that were not based on Christian theology led to the development of Humanismthrough which it was clear that while God had established and maintained order in the Universe, it was the role of Man to establish and maintain order in Society. Civil Through Humanism, civic pride and the promotion of civil peace and order were seen as the marks of citizenship. This led to the building of structures such as Brunelleschi's Hospital of the Innocents with its elegant colonnade forming a link between the charitable building and the public square, and the Laurentian Library where the collection of books established by the Medici family could be consulted by scholars. Some major ecclesiastical building works were also commissioned, not by the church, but by guilds representing the wealth and power of the city. Brunelleschis dome at Florence Cathedral, more than any other building, belonged to the populace because the construction of each of the eight segments was achieved by a different sector of the city. Patronage

As in the Platonic academy of Athens, it was seen by those of Humanist understanding that those people who had the benefit of wealth and education ought to promote the pursuit of learning and the creation of that which was beautiful. To this end, wealthy familiesthe Medici of Florence, theGonzaga of Mantua, the Farnese in Rome, the Sforzas in Milangathered around them people of learning and ability, promoting the skills and creating employment for the most talented artists and architects of their day. Architectural Theory During the Renaissance, architecture became not only a question of practice, but also a matter for theoretical discussion. Printing played a large role in the dissemination of ideas. The first treatise on architecture was De re aedificatoria (English: On the Art of Building) by Leon Battista Alberti in 1450. It was to some degree dependent on Vitruvius' De architectura, a manuscript of which was discovered in 1414 in a library in Switzerland. De re aedificatoria in 1485 became the first printed book on architecture. Sebastiano Serlio (1475 c. 1554) produced the next important text, the first volume of which appeared in Venice in 1537; it was entitled "Regole generali d'architettura [...]" (or "General Rules of Architecture"). It is known as Serlio's "Fourth Book" since it was the fourth in Serlio's original plan of a treatise in seven books. In all, five books were published. In 1570, Andrea Palladio (15081580) published I quattro libri dell'architettura ("The Four Books of Architecture") in Venice. This book was widely printed and responsible to a great degree for spreading the ideas of the Renaissance through Europe. All these books were intended to be read and studied not only by architects, but also by patrons. Development of renaissance The leading architects of the Early Renaissance or Quattrocento were Brunelleschi, Michelozzo and Alberti. Brunelleschi The person generally credited with bringing about the Renaissance view of architecture is Filippo Brunelleschi, (13771446). The underlying feature of the work of Brunelleschi was "order". In the early 15th century, Brunelleschi began to look at the world to see what the rules were that governed one's way of seeing. He observed that the way one sees regular structures such as the Baptistery of Florence and the tiled pavement surrounding it follows a mathematical orderlinear perspective. The buildings remaining among the ruins of ancient Rome appeared to respect a simple mathematical order in the way that Gothic buildings did not. One incontrovertible rule governed all Ancient Roman architecturea semi-circular arch is exactly twice as wide as it is high. A fixed proportion with implications of such magnitude occurred nowhere in Gothic architecture. A Gothic pointed arch could be extended upwards or flattened to any proportion that suited the location. Arches of differing angles frequently occurred within the same structure. No set rules of proportion applied.

From the observation of the architecture of Rome came a desire for symmetry and careful proportion in which the form and composition of the building as a whole and all its subsidiary details have fixed relationships, each section in proportion to the next, and the architectural features serving to define exactly what those rules of proportion are. Brunelleschi gained the support of a number of wealthy Florentine patrons, including the Silk Guild and Cosimo de' Medici. Florence Cathedral

Brunelleschi's first major architectural commission was for the enormous brick dome which covers the central space of Florence's cathedral, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in the 14th century but left unroofed. While often described as the first building of the Renaissance, Brunelleschi's daring design utilizes the pointed Gothic arch and Gothic ribs that were apparently planned by Arnolfio. It seems certain, however, that while stylistically Gothic, in keeping with the building it surmounts, the dome is in fact structurally influenced by the great dome of Ancient Rome, which Brunelleschi could hardly have ignored in seeking a solution. This is the dome of the Pantheon, a circular temple, now a church. Inside the Pantheon's single-shell concrete dome is coffering which greatly decreases the weight. The vertical partitions of the coffering effectively serve as ribs, although this feature does not dominate visually. At the apex of the Pantheon's dome is an opening, 8 meters across. Brunelleschi was aware that a dome of enormous proportion could in fact be engineered without a keystone. The dome in Florence is supported by the eight large ribs and sixteen more internal ones holding a brick shell, with the bricks arranged in a herringbone manner. Although the techniques employed are different, in practice both domes comprise a thick network of ribs supporting very much lighter and thinner infilling. And both have a large opening at the top.[ San Lorenzo The new architectural philosophy is best demonstrated in the churches of San Lorenzo, and Santo Spirito in Florence. Designed by Brunelleschi in about 1425 and 1428 respectively, both have the shape of the Latin cross. Each has a modular plan, each portion being a multiple of the square bay of the aisle. This same formula controlled also the vertical dimensions. In the case of Santo Spirito, which is entirely regular in plan, transepts and chancel are identical, while the nave is an extended version of these. In 1434 Brunelleschi designed the first Renaissance centrally planned building, Santa Maria degli Angeli of Florence. It is composed of a central octagon surrounded by a circuit of eight smaller chapels. From this date onwards numerous churches were built in variations of these designs. Michelozzo

Michelozzo Michelozzi (13961472), was another architect under patronage of the Medici family, his most famous work being the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, which he was commissioned to design for Cosimo de' Medici in 1444. A decade later he built the Villa Medici at Fiesole. Among his other works for Cosimo are the library at the Convent of San Marco, Florence. He went into exile in Venice for a time with his patron. He was one of the first architects to work in the Renaissance style outside Italy, building a palace at Dubrovnik. The Palazzo Medici Riccardi is Classical in the details of its pedimented windows and recessed doors, but, unlike the works of Brunelleschi and Alberti, there are no orders of columns in evidence. Instead, Michelozzo has respected the Florentine liking for rusticated stone. He has seemingly created three orders out of the three defined rusticated levels, the whole being surmounted by an enormous Romanstyle cornice which juts out over the street by 2.5 meters.

Alberti Leon Battista Alberti, born in Genoa (14021472), was an important Humanist theoretician and designer whose book on architecture De re Aedificatoria was to have lasting effect. An aspect of Humanism was an emphasis of the anatomy of nature, in particular the human form, a science first studied by the Ancient Greeks. Humanism made man the measure of things. Alberti perceived the architect as a person with great social responsibilities. He designed a number of buildings, but unlike Brunelleschi, he did not see himself as a builder in a practical sense and so left the supervision of the work to others. Miraculously, one of his greatest designs, that of the Church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua, was brought to completion with its character essentially intact. Not so the church of San Francesco in Rimini, a rebuilding of a Gothic structure, which, like Sant'Andrea, was to have a faade reminiscent of a Roman triumphal arch. This was left sadly incomplete. Sant'Andrea is an extremely dynamic building both without and within. Its triumphal faade is marked by extreme contrasts. The projection of the order of pilasters that define the architectural elements, but are essentially non-functional, is very shallow. This contrasts with the gaping deeply recessed arch which makes a huge portico before the main door. The size of this arch is in direct contrast to the two low square-topped openings that frame it. The light and shade play dramatically over the surface of the building because of the shallowness of its mouldings and the depth of its porch. In the interior Alberti has dispensed with the traditional nave and aisles. Instead there is a slow and majestic progression of alternating tall arches and low square doorways, repeating the "triumphal arch" motif of the faade. Two of Albertis best known buildings are in Florence, the Palazzo Rucellai and at Santa Maria Novella. For the palace, Alberti applied the classical orders of columns to the faade on the three levels, 1446 51. At Santa Maria Novella he was commissioned to finish the decoration of the faade. He completed the design in 1456 but the work was not finished until 1470. The lower section of the building had Gothic niches and typical polychrome marble decoration. There was a large ocular window in the end of the nave which had to be taken into account. Alberti simply respected what was already in place, and the Florentine tradition for polychrome that was well established at the Baptistery of San Giovanni, the most revered building in the city. The decoration, being mainly polychrome marble, is mostly very flat in nature, but a sort of order is established by the regular compartments and the circular motifs which repeat the shape of the round window. For the first time, Alberti linked the lower roofs of the aisles to nave using two large scrolls. These were to become a standard Renaissance device for solving the problem of different roof heights and bridge the space between horizontal and vertical surfaces.

The Spread of Renaissance Architecture

In the 15th century the courts of certain other Italian states became centres for spreading of Renaissance philosophy, art and architecture. In Mantua at the court of the Gonzaga, Alberti designed two churches, the Basilica of Sant'Andrea and San Sebastiano. Urbino was an important centre with a new ducal palace being built there. Ferrara, under the Este, was expanded in the late fifteenth century, with several new palaces being built such as the Palazzo dei Diamanti and Palazzo Schifanoia for Borso d'Este. In Milan, under the Visconti, the Certosa di Pavia was completed, and then later under the Sforza, the Castello Sforzesco was built.

In Venice, San Zaccaria received its Renaissance faade at the hands of Antonio Gambello and Mauro Codussi, begun in the 1480s. Giovanni Maria Falconetto, the Veronese architect-sculptor, introduced Renaissance architecture to Padua with the Loggia Cornaro in the garden of Alvise Cornaro. In southern Italy, Renaissance masters were called to Naples by Alfonso V of Aragon after his conquest of the Kingdom of Naples. The most notable examples of Renaissance architecture in that city are the Cappella Caracciolo, attributed to Bramante, and the Palazzo Orsini di Gravina, built by Gabriele d'Angelo between 1513 and 1549. High Renaissance In the late 15th century and early 16th century architects such as Bramante, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and others showed a mastery of the revived style and ability to apply it to buildings such as churches and city palazzo which were quite different from the structures of ancient times. The style became more decorated and ornamental, statuary, domes and cupolas becoming very evident. The architectural period is known as the "High Renaissance" and coincides with the age of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael. Bramante Donato Bramante, (14441514), was born in Urbino and turned from painting to architecture, finding his first important patronage under Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, for whom he produced a number of buildings over 20 years. After the fall of Milan to the French in 1499, Bramante travelled to Rome where he achieved great success under papal patronage. Bramantes finest architectural achievement in Milan is his addition of crossing and choir to the abbey church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan). This is a brick structure, the form of which owes much to the Northern Italian tradition of square domed baptisteries. The new building is almost centrally planned, except that, because of the site, the chancel extends further than the transept arms. The hemispherical dome, of approximately 20 metres across, rises up hidden inside an octagonal drum pierced at the upper level with arched classical openings. The whole exterior has delineated details decorated with the local terracotta ornamentation. In Rome Bramante created what has been described as "a perfect architectural gem",the Tempietto in the Cloister of San Pietro in Montorio. This small circular temple marks the spot where St Peter was martyred and is thus the most sacred site in Rome. The building adapts the style apparent in the remains of the Temple of Vesta, the most sacred site of Ancient Rome. It is enclosed by and in spatial contrast with the cloister which surrounds it. As approached from the cloister, as in the picture above, it is seen framed by an arch and columns, the shape of which are echoed in its free-standing form. Bramante went on to work at the Vatican where he designed the impressive Cortili of St. Damaso and of the Belvedere. In 1506 Bramantes design forPope Julius IIs rebuilding of St. Peters Basilica was selected, and the foundation stone laid. After Bramantes death and many changes of plan,Michelangelo, as chief architect, reverted to something closer to Bramantes original proposal. Sangallo Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, (14851546), was one of a family of military engineers. His uncle, Giuliano da Sangallo was one of those who submitted a plan for the rebuilding of St Peters and was briefly a co-director of the project, with Raphael.

Antonio da Sangallo also submitted a plan for St Peters and became the chief architect after the death of Raphael, to be succeeded himself by Michelangelo. His fame does not rest upon his association with St Peters but in his building of the Farnese Palace, the grandest palace of this period, started in 1530. The impression of grandness lies in part in its sheer size, (56 m long by 29.5 meters high) and in its lofty location overlooking a broad piazza. It is also a building of beautiful proportion, unusual for such a large and luxurious house of the date in having been built principally of stuccoed brick, rather than of stone. Against the smooth pink-washed walls the stone quoins of the corners, the massive rusticated portal and the stately repetition of finely detailed windows give a powerful effect, setting a new standard of elegance in palace-building. The upper of the three equally sized floors was added by Michelangelo. It is probably just as well that this impressive building is of brick; the travertine for its architectural details came not from a quarry, but from the Colosseum. Raphael Raphael, (14831520), Urbino, trained under Perugino in Perugia before moving to Florence, was for a time the chief architect for St. Peters, working in conjunction with Antonio Sangallo. He also designed a number of buildings, most of which were finished by others. His single most influential work is the Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence with its two stories of strongly articulated windows of a "tabernacle" type, each set around with ordered pilasters, cornice and alternate arched and triangular pediments. Mannerism in architecture was marked by widely diverging tendencies in the work of Michelangelo, Giulio Romano, Baldassare Peruzzi and Andrea Palladio, that led to the Baroque style in which the same architectural vocabulary was used for very different rhetoric. Peruzzi Baldassare Peruzzi, (14811536), was an architect born in Siena, but working in Rome, whose work bridges the High Renaissance and the Mannerist. His Villa Farnesina of 1509 is a very regular monumental cube of two equal stories, the bays being strongly articulated by orders of pilasters. The building is unusual for its frescoed walls. Peruzzis most famous work is the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne in Rome. The unusual features of this building are that its faade curves gently around a curving street. It has in its ground floor a dark central portico running parallel to the street, but as a semi enclosed space, rather than an open loggia. Above this rise three undifferentiated floors, the upper two with identical small horizontal windows in thin flat frames which contrast strangely with the deep porch, which has served, from the time of its construction, as a refuge to the citys poor.[ Giulio Romano Giulio Romano (14991546), was a pupil of Raphael, assisting him on various works for the Vatican. Romano was also a highly inventive designer, working for Federico II Gonzaga at Mantua on the Palazzo Te, (15241534), a project which combined his skills as architect, sculptor and painter. In this work, incorporating garden grottoes and extensive frescoes, he uses illusionistic effects, surprising combinations of architectural form and texture, and the frequent use of features that seem somewhat disproportionate or out of alignment. The total effect is eerie and disturbing. Ilan Rachum cites Romano as one of the first promoters of Mannerism[

Michelangelo Michelangelo Buonarroti (14751564) was one of the creative giants whose achievements mark the High Renaissance. He excelled in each of the fields of painting, sculpture and architecture and his achievements brought about significant changes in each area. His architectural fame lies chiefly in two buildings: the interiors of the Laurentian Library and its lobby at the monastery of San Lorenzo in Florence, and St Peter's Basilica in Rome. St Peter's was "the greatest creation of the Renaissance",and a great number of architects contributed their skills to it. But at its completion, there was more of Michelangelos design than of any other architect, before or after him.

St Peter's The plan that was accepted at the laying of the foundation stone in 1506 was that by Bramante. Various changes in plan occurred in the series of architects that succeeded him, but Michelangelo, when he took over the project in 1546, reverted to Bramantes Greek-cross plan and redesigned the piers, the walls and the dome, giving the lower weight-bearing members massive proportions and eliminating the encircling aisles from the chancel and identical transept arms. Helen Gardner says: "Michelangelo, with a few strokes of the pen, converted its snowflake complexity into a massive, cohesive unity." Michelangelos dome was a masterpiece of design using two masonry shells, one within the other and crowned by a massive lantern supported, as at Florence, on ribs. For the exterior of the building he designed a giant order which defines every external bay, the whole lot being held together by a wide cornice which runs unbroken like a rippling ribbon around the entire building. There is a wooden model of the dome, showing its outer shell as hemispherical. When Michelangelo died in 1564, the building had reached the height of the drum. The architect who succeeded Michelangelo was Giacomo della Porta. The dome, as built, has a much steeper projection than the dome of the model. It is generally presumed that it was della Porta who made this change to the design, to lessen the outward thrust. But, in fact it is unknown who it was that made this change, and it equally possible, and a stylistic likelihood that the person who decided upon the more dynamic outline was Michelangelo himself, at some time during the years that he supervised the project. Laurentian Library Michelangelo was at his most Mannerist in the design of the vestibule of the Laurentian Library, also built by him to house the Medici collection of books at the convent of San Lorenzo in Florence, the same San Lorenzos at which Brunelleschi had recast church architecture into a Classical mold and established clear formula for the use of Classical orders and their various components. Michelangelo takes all Brunelleschis components and bends them to his will. The Library is upstairs. It is a long low building with an ornate wooden ceiling, a matching floor and crowded with corrals finished by his successors to Michelangelos design. But it is a light room, the natural lighting streaming through a long row of windows that appear positively crammed between the order of pilasters that march along the wall. The vestibule, on the other hand, is tall, taller than it is wide and is crowded by a large staircase that pours out of the library in what Pevsner refers to as a flow of lava, and bursts in three directions when it meets the balustrade of the landing. It is an intimidating staircase, made all the more so because the rise of the stairs at the center is steeper than at the two sides, fitting only eight steps into the space of nine.

The space is crowded and it is to be expected that the wall spaces would be divided by pilasters of low projection. But Michelangelo has chosen to use paired columns, which, instead of standing out boldly from the wall, he has sunk deep into recesses within the wall itself. In San Lorenzo's church nearby, Brunelleschi used little scrolling console brackets to break the strongly horizontal line of the course above the arcade. Michelangelo has borrowed Brunelleschis motifs and stood each pair of sunken columns on a pair of twin console brackets. Pevsner says the Laurenziana reveals Mannerism in its most sublime architectural form. Giacomo della Porta Giacomo della Porta, (c.15331602), was famous as the architect who made the dome of St Peters Basilica a reality. The change in outline between the dome as it appears in the model and the dome as it was built, has brought about speculation as to whether the changes originated with della Porta or with Michelangelo himself. Della Porta spent nearly all his working life in Rome, designing villas, palazzi and churches in the Mannerist style. One of his most famous works is the faade of the Church of the Ges, a project that he inherited from his teacher Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. Most characteristics of the original design are maintained, subtly transformed to give more weight to the central section, where della Porta uses, among other motifs, a low triangular pediment overlaid on a segmental one above the main door. The upper storey and its pediment give the impression of compressing the lower one. The center section, like that of Sant'Andrea at Mantua, is based on the Triumphal Arch, but has two clear horizontal divisions like Santa Maria Novella. The problem of linking the aisles to the nave is solved using Albertis scrolls, in contrast to Vignolas solution which provided much smaller brackets and four statues to stand above the paired pilasters, visually weighing down the corners of the building. The influence of the design may be seen in Baroque churches throughout Europe. Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio, (150880), "the most influential architect of the whole Renaissance"', was, as a stonemason, introduced to Humanism by the poet Giangiorgio Trissino. His first major architectural commission was the rebuilding of the Basilica Palladiana at Vicenza, in the Veneto where he was to work most of his life. Palladio was to transform the architectural style of both palaces and churches by taking a different perspective on the notion of Classicism. While the architects of Florence and Rome looked to structures like the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine to provide formulae, Palladio looked to classical temples with their simple peristyle form. When he used the triumphal arch motif of a large arched opening with lower square-topped opening on either side, he invariably applied it on a small scale, such as windows, rather than on a large scale as Alberti used it at SantAndreas. This Ancient Roman motif is often referred to as the Palladian Arch. The best known of Palladios domestic buildings is Villa Capra, otherwise known as "la Rotonda", a centrally planned house with a domed central hall and four identical faades, each with a temple-like portico like that of the Pantheon in Rome. At the Villa Cornaro, the projecting portico of the north faade and recessed loggia of the garden faade are of two ordered stories, the upper forming a balcony.

Like Alberti, della Porta and others, in the designing of a church faade, Palladio was confronted by the problem of visually linking the aisles to the nave while maintaining and defining the structure of the building. Palladios solution was entirely different from that employed by della Porta. At the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice he overlays a tall temple, its columns raised on high plinths, over another low wide temple faade, its columns rising from the basements and its narrow lintel and pilasters appearing behind the giant order of the central nave. Progression of Early Renaissance to Baroque In Italy, there appears to be a seamless progression from Early Renaissance architecture through the High Renaissance and Mannerist to the Baroque style. Pevsner comments about the vestibule of the Laurentian Library that it "has often been said that the motifs of the walls show Michelangelo as the father of the Baroque". While continuity may be the case in Italy, it was not necessarily the case elsewhere. The adoption of the Renaissance style of architecture was slower in some areas than in others, as may be seen in England, for example. Indeed, as Pope Julius II was having the ancient Basilica of St. Peters demolished to make way for the new, Henry VII of England was adding a glorious new chapel in the Perpendicular Gothic style to Westminster Abbey. Likewise, the style that was to become known as Baroque evolved in Italy in the early 17th century, at about the time that the first fully Renaissance buildings were constructed at Greenwich and Whitehall in England, after a prolonged period of experimentation with Classical motifs applied to local architectural forms, or conversely, the adoption of Renaissance structural forms in the broadest sense with an absence of the formulae that governed their use. While the English were just discovering what the rules of Classicism were, the Italians were experimenting with methods of breaking them. In England, following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the architectural climate changed, and taste moved in the direction of the Baroque. Rather than evolving, as it did in Italy, it arrived fully fledged. In a similar way, in many parts of Europe that had few purely classical and ordered buildings like Brunelleschis Santo Spirito and Michelozzos Medici Riccardi Palace, Baroque architecture appeared almost unheralded, on the heels of a sort of Proto-Renaissance local style. The spread of the Baroque and its replacement of traditional and more conservative Renaissance architecture was particularly apparent in the building of churches as part of the Counter Reformation.

Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth 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 and the absolutist state. It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow and dramatic intensity. 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 Church. The new style manifested itself in particular in the context of the new religious orders, like the Theatines and theJesuits 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 their 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 andLecce. 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 Cortonas 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 seventeenth century, the Baroque style had found its secular expression in the form of grand palaces, first in Francewith theChteau de Maisons (1642) near Paris by Franois Mansartand then throughout Europe. During the seventeenth century, Baroque architecture spread through Europe and Latin America, where it was particularly promoted by the Jesuits. 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 faade of the Jesuit church Il Ges, which leads directly to the most important church faade 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 ofWeingarten 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 faade 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(is 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

Elector's Palace in Trier,Germany

Santa Susanna in Rome,Italy

Peter and Paul Cathedralin Saint Petersburg,Russia

Saints Peter and Paul Church in Krakow, Poland

The Baroque and colonialism

During the Portuguese colonization ofGoa, India brought about many churches with baroque architecture (Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church). 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, theThirty Years' War (1618 and 1648), FrancoSpanish War (1653), the Franco-Dutch War (16721678), 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 in Spain, was to a large extent, in Spain, an architecture of surfaces and faades, 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 (16191683), 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. 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 Southern Italy

A number of ecclesiastical buildings of the Baroque period in Rome had plans based on the Italian paradigm of the basilica with a crossed dome and nave, but the treatment of the architecture was very different to what had been carried out previously. One of the first Roman structures to break with the Mannerist conventions exemplified in the Ges, was the church of Santa Susanna, designed by Carlo Maderno. 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, but it still maintains rigor. The same concerns with plasticity, massing, dramatic effects and shadow and light is evident in the architectural work of Pietro da Cortona, illustrated by his design of Santi Luca e Martina(construction began in 1635) with what was probably the first curved Baroque church facade in Rome. These concerns are even more evident in his reworking of Santa Maria della Pace (1656-8). The facade with its chiaroscuro half-domed portico and concave side wings, closely resembles a theatrical stage set and the church facade projects forward so that it substantially fills the tiny trapezoidal piazza. Other Roman

ensembles of the Baroque and Late Baroque period are likewise suffused with theatricality and, as urban theatres, provide points of focus within their locality in the surrounding cityscape. Probably the most well known example of such an approach is Saint Peter's Square, which has been praised as a masterstroke of Baroque theatre. The piazza, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is formed principally by two colonnades of free standing columns centred on an Egyptian obelisk. Bernini's own favourite design was his oval church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale decorated with polychome marbles and an ornate gold dome. His secular architecture included the Palazzo Barberini based on plans by Maderno and the Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi (1664), both in Rome.

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza byFrancesco Borromini Bernini's rival, the architect Francesco Borromini, produced designs that deviated dramatically from the regular compositions of the ancient world and Renaissance. His building plans were based on complex geometric figures, his architectural forms were unusual and inventive and he employed multi-layered symbolism in his architectural designs. Borromini's architectural spaces seem to expand and contract when needed, showing some affinity with the late style of Michelangelo. His iconic masterpiece is the diminutive church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, distinguished by a complicated plan arrangement that is partly oval and partly a cross and so has complex convex-concave wall rhythms. A later work, the church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, displays the same playful inventiveness and antipathy to the flat surface, epitomized by an unusual corkscrew lantern above the dome. Following the death of Bernini in 1680, Carlo Fontana emerged as the most influential architect working in Rome. His early style is exemplified by the slightly concave faade of San Marcello al Corso. Fontana's academic approach, though lacking the dazzling inventiveness of his Roman predecessors, exerted substantial influence on Baroque architecture both through his prolific writings and through a number of architects he trained, who would disseminate the Baroque idioms throughout eighteenth century Europe. The eighteenth century saw the capital of Europe's architectural world transferred from Rome to Paris. The Italian Rococo, which flourished in Rome from the 1720s onward, was profoundly influenced by the ideas of Borromini. The most talented architects active in RomeFrancesco de Sanctis (Spanish Steps, 1723) and Filippo Raguzzini (Piazza Sant'Ignazio, 1727)had little influence outside their native country,

as did numerous practitioners of the Sicilian Baroque, including Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, Andrea Palma, and Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia.

Basilica di Superga near Turin byFilippo Juvarra The last phase of Baroque architecture in Italy is exemplified by Luigi Vanvitelli's Caserta Palace, 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 and classicizing academic style, with equal attention to aesthetics and engineering, a style that would make an easy transition to Neoclassicism. [edit]Northern Italy In the north of Italy, the monarchs from the House of Savoy were particularly receptive to the new style. They employed a brilliant triad of architectsGuarino Guarini, Filippo Juvarra, and Bernardo Vittoneto 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) to create irregular structures remarkable for their oval columns and unconventional faades. Building upon the findings of contemporary geometry and stereometry, Guarini elaborated the concept of architectura obliqua, which approximated Borromini's style in both theoretical and structural audacity. Guarini's Palazzo Carignano (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 the airy prospects of Juvarra's architecture anticipated the art of Rococo. Although his practice ranged well beyond Turin, Juvarra's most arresting designs were created for Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia. The visual impact of his Basilica di Superga (1717) derives from its soaring roof-line and masterful placement on a hill above Turin. The rustic ambiance 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 and Aranjuez. Among the many who were profoundly influenced by the brilliance and diversity of Juvarra and Guarini, none was more important than Bernardo Vittone. This Piedmontese architect is remembered for an outcrop of flamboyant Rococo churches, quatrefoil in plan and delicate in detailing. His sophisticated designs often feature multiple vaults, structures within structures and domes within domes.

Malta

Melliea Parish Church dedicated to Our Lady in Malta The island of Malta contains a variety of Baroque architecture, most importantly the capital city of Valletta. It 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. Spain As Italian Baroque influences penetrated across the Pyrenees, they gradually superseded in popularity the restrained classicizing approach of Juan de Herrera, which had been in vogue since the late 16th century. As early as 1667, the faades of Granada Cathedral (by Alonso Cano) and Jan Cathedral(by Eufrasio Lpez de Rojas) suggest the artists' fluency in interpreting traditional motifs of Spanish cathedral architecture in the Baroque aesthetic idiom.

The most impressive display of Churrigueresque spatial decoration may be found in the west faade of theCathedral of Santiago de Compostela).

Royal Palace of La Granja In contrast to the art of Northern Europe, the Spanish art of the period appealed to the emotions rather than seeking to please the intellect. The Churriguera family, which specialized in designing altars and retables, revolted against the sobriety of the Herreresque classicism and promoted an intricate, exaggerated, almost capricious style of surface decoration known as the Churrigueresque. Within half a century, they transformed Salamanca into an exemplary Churrigueresque city. Among the highlights of the style, the interiors of the Granada Charterhouse offer some of the most impressive combinations of space and light in 18th-century Europe. Integrating sculpture and architecture even more radically, Narciso Tom achieved striking chiaroscuro effects in his Transparente for theToledo Cathedral. The development of the style passed through three phases. Between 1680 and 1720, the Churriguera popularizedGuarini's blend of Solomonic columns and composite order, known as the "supreme order". Between 1720 and 1760, the Churrigueresque column, or estipite, in the shape of an inverted cone or obelisk, was established as a central element of ornamental decoration. The years from 1760 to 1780 saw a gradual shift of interest away from twisted movement and excessive ornamentation toward a neoclassical balance and sobriety. Two of the most eye-catching creations of Spanish Baroque are the energetic faades of the University of Valladolid(Diego Tom, 1719) and Hospicio de San Fernando in Madrid (Pedro de Ribera, 1722), whose curvilinear extravagance seems to herald Antonio Gaud andArt Nouveau. In this case as in many others, the design involves a play of tectonic and decorative elements with little relation to structure and function. The focus of the florid ornamentation is an elaborately sculptured surround to a main doorway. If we remove the intricate maze of broken pediments, undulating cornices, stucco shells, inverted tapers, and garlands from the rather plain wall it is set against, the building's form would not be affected in the slightest. Spanish America and the Philippines

Catedral Metropolitana, Mexico City, started in 1573 The combination of the Native American and Moorish decorative influences with an extremely expressive interpretation of the Churrigueresque idiom may account for the full-bodied and varied character of the Baroque in the American colonies of Spain. Even more than its Spanish counterpart, American Baroque developed as a style of stucco decoration. Twin-towered faades of many American cathedrals of the 17th century had medieval roots and the full-fledged Baroque did not appear until 1664, when a Jesuit shrine on Plaza des Armas in Cusco was built. Even then, the new style hardly affected the structure of churches. To the north, the richest province of 18th-century New SpainMexicoproduced some fantastically extravagant and visually frenetic architecture known as Mexican Churrigueresque. This ultra-Baroque approach culminates in the works of Lorenzo Rodriguez, whose masterpiece is the Sagrario Metropolitano in Mexico City. Other fine examples of the style may be found in remote silver-mining towns. For instance, the Sanctuary at Ocotln (begun in 1745) is a top-notch Baroque cathedral surfaced in bright red tiles, which contrast delightfully with a plethora of compressed ornament lavishly applied to the main entrance and the slender flanking towers. The true capital of Mexican Baroque is Puebla, where a ready supply of hand-painted ceramics (talavera) and vernacular gray stone led to its evolving further into a personalised and highly localised art form with a pronounced Indian flavour. There are about sixty churches whose faades and domes display glazed tiles of many colours, often arranged in Arabic designs. The interiors are densely saturated with elaborate gold leaf ornamentation. In the 18th century, local artisans developed a distinctive brand of white stucco decoration, named "alfenique" after a Pueblan candy made from egg whites and sugar. The Peruvian Baroque was particularly lavish, as evidenced by the monastery of San Francisco at Lima (1673). While the rural Baroque of the Jesuit Block and Estancias of Crdoba in Crdoba, Argentina, followed the model of Il Gesu, provincial "mestizo" (crossbred) styles emerged in Arequipa, Potos, andLa Paz. In the 18th century, architects of the region turned for inspiration to the Mudjar art of medieval Spain. The late Baroque type of Peruvian faade first appears in the Church of Our Lady of La Merced in Lima. Similarly, the Church of La Compaia, (Quito) suggests a carved altarpiece with its richly sculpted faade and a surfeit of spiral salomnica.

San Agustin Church, Manila Portugal And Portuguese Empire Nothwithstanding a prodigality of sensually rich surface decoration associated with Baroque architecture of the Iberian Peninsula, the royal courts of Madrid and Lisbon generally favoured a more sober architectural vocabulary distilled from 17th-century Italy. The royal palaces of MadridLa Granja, Aranjuez, Mafra, and Queluzwere designed by architects under strong influence of Bernini and Juvarra. In the realm of church architecture, Guarini's design for Santa Maria della Divina Providenza in Lisbon was a pace-setter for structural audacity in the region (even though it was never built). In Portugal, the first fully Baroque church was the Church of Santa Engrcia, in Lisbon, designed by royal architectJoo Antunes, which has a Greek cross floorplan and curved facades. Antunes also designed churches in which the inner space is rectangular but with curved corners (like the Menino de Deus Church in Lisbon), a scheme that is found in several 18th century churches in Portugal and Brazil. The court of John V, on the other hand, favoured Roman baroque models, as attested by the work of royal architect Ludovice, a German who designed the Royal Palace of Mafra, built after 1715. By the mid-18th century, northern Portuguese architects had absorbed the concepts of Italian Baroque to revel in the plasticity of local granite in such projects as the surging 75-metre-high Torre dos Clrigos in Porto. The foremost centre of the national Baroque tradition was Braga, whose buildings encompass virtually every important feature of Portuguese architecture and design. The Baroque shrines and palaces of Braga are noted for polychrome ornamental patterns, undulating roof-lines, and irregularly shaped window surrounds. Brazilian architects also explored plasticity in form and decoration, though they rarely surpassed their continental peers in ostentation. The churches of Mariana and the Rosario at Ouro Preto are based on Borromini's vision of interlocking elliptical spaces. At So Pedro dos Clrigos, Recife), a conventional stucco-and-stone faade is enlivened by "a high scrolled gable squeezed tightly between the towers". Even after the Baroque conventions passed out of fashion in Europe, the style was long practised in Brazil by Aleijadinho, a brilliant and prolific architect in whose designs hints of Rococo could be discerned. His church of Bom Jesus de Matozinhos at Congonhas is distinguished by a picturesque

silhouette and dark ornamental detail on a light stuccoed faade. Although Aleijadinho was originally commissioned to design So Francisco de Assis at So Joo del Rei, his designs were rejected, and were displaced to the church of So Francisco in Ouro Preto instead. France 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 by Salomon de Brosse that determined the sober and classicizing direction that French Baroque architecture was to take. For the first time, the corps de logis 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 roofs and a complex roof-line) with extensive Italianate quotations (e.g. ubiquitous rustication, derived from Palazzo Pitti in Florence) came to characterize the Louis XIII style. Probably the most accomplished formulator of the new manner was Franois Mansart, a tireless perfectionist credited with introducing the full Baroque to France. In his design forChteau de Maisons (1642), Mansart succeeded in reconciling academic and Baroque approaches, while demonstrating respect for the gothic-inherited idiosyncrasies of the French tradition. The Chteau of Maisons demonstrates the ongoing transition from the post-medieval chateaux of the 16th century to the villa-like country houses of the 18th. The structure is strictly symmetrical, with an order applied to each storey, mostly in pilaster form. The frontispiece, crowned with a separate aggrandized roof, is infused with remarkable plasticity and the 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), where the architect Louis Le Vau, the designer Charles Le Brun and the gardener Andr Le Ntre complemented one another. 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 Ntre 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. The same three artists scaled this concept to monumental proportions in the royal hunting lodge and later mainresidence at Versailles. On a far grander scale, the palace is an exaggerated 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,Nordkirchen and Drottningholm 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. The style was pioneered by Nicolas Pineau, who collaborated with Hardouin-Mansart on the interiors of the royal Chteau de Marly. Further elaborated by Pierre Le Pautre and Juste-Aurle Meissonier, the "genre pittoresque" culminated in the interiors of the Petit Chteau at Chantilly (c. 1722) and Htel de Soubise 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. The Low Countries Southern Netherlands Baroque architecture in the Southern Netherlands developed rather differently than in the Protestant North. 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 CounterReformation. 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 faade, 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 faade, 1733). The greatest practitioner of the Spanish Rococo style was a native master, Ventura Rodrguez, 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 Pieter 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 selfgovernment 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, Curaao. England Baroque aesthetics, whose influence was so potent in mid-17th century France, made little impact in England during the Protectorate and the firstRestoration 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 (15731646) 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 resumes, and secular and ecclesiastical architecture are 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 Imperialstyle by compiling architectural motifs from the entire history, most prominently seen in his church of St. Charles Borromeo in Vienna. Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt also had an Italian training. He developed a highly decorative style, particularly in faade 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 Wrzburg Residence. While its general layout is the horseshoe-like French plan, it encloses interior courtyards. Its faades 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 Frenchtype enfilade of rooms on the garden side, inspired by the "apartement semi-double" layout of French castles.

PolishLithuanian Commonwealth
The first Baroque church in the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth was the Corpus Christi Church in Niasvizh, Belarus (15861593).[8][9] It also holds a distinction of being the first domed basilica with Baroque faade in the Commonwealth and the first Baroque piece of art in Eastern Europe. In the early 17th century, the Baroque style spread over the Commonwealth. Important Baroque churches include the SS. Peter and Paul (15971619) constructed in the early Baroque style following the pattern of the Vignola's il Ges, the Vasa Chapel (16441676) of the Wawel Cathedral, Baroque equivalent to neighbouring renaissance Sigismund's Chapel, St. Anne (16891703) and the Visitationist Church (16921695) in Krakw, St. Casimir's Chapel (16231636) of the Vilnius Cathedral, another inspiration of Wawel's Sigismund's Chapel,[11] SS. Peter and Paul Church (16681676) and St. Casimir's Church (16041618, 17501755) in Vilnius, Paaislis monastery (16671712) in Kaunas inspired by examples from northern Italy, the Dominican Church (17441769) modelled after St. Charles's Church in Vienna and St. George's Church(17461762) in Lviv. Others significant examples include profusly decorated Jesuit Church inPoznao (16511701) with almost theatrical decoration inside, the Xavier Cathedral in Hrodna (16781705), the Royal Chapel (16781681) inGdaosk, a mixture of Dutch and Polish patterns[ and wita Lipka in Masuria (16811693), the northernmost Tyrolean Baroque building. In Warsaw, which before World War II was filled with Baroque residences, churches, and houses, and where Tylman van Gameren was active, survived few important buildings Wilanw Palace (16771696), Krasioski Palace (16771683), Bernardines Church in Czerniakw (16901693) as well as late-baroque Visitationist Church(16641761), Holy Cross Church (16821757) and St. Kazimierz Church (16881692). The magnates throughout the country competed with the kings. The monumental castleKrzytopr, built in the style palazzo in fortezza between 1627 and 1644, had several courtyards surrounded by fortifications. Late baroque fascination with the culture and art of the "central nation" is reflected in Queen Masysieoka'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 Wilanw Palace, Branicki Palace in Biaystok and in Warsaw, Potocki Palace in Radzyo Podlaski, Raczyoski Palace in Rogalin and Winiowiecki Palace in Vyshnivets. Architects such as Johann Christoph Glaubitz were instrumental in forming the so-called distinctive Vilnius Baroque style, which spread throughout the region. By the end of the century, Polish Baroque influences crossed the Dnieper into the Cossack Hetmanate, where they gave birth to a particular style of Orthodox architecture, known as the Cossack Baroque. Such was its popular appeal that every medieval church in Kiev and the Left-Bank Ukraine was redesigned according to the newest fashion. A notable style of baroque arhitecture emerged in XVIII century with work of Johann Christoph Glaubitz who was assigned to rebuild the Commonwealth capital city 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 (1743), the Church of the Ascension (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 (1749) 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 in 1769. Notable buildings of Vilnian Baroque in other places are Saint Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk, Belarus (rebuilt in 1738-1765), Carmelite church inHlybokaye, Belarus (1735) and the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Berezovichi, Belarus (built in 1776, the 1960s and 1970s), its replica was constructed in Biaystok in the 1990s.

Russia
In Russia, Baroque architecture passed through three stagesthe 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 ofNatalia Naryshkina, Peter the Great's mother. Most notable in this category of small suburban churches were theIntercession in Fili (169396), the Holy Tritity church in Troitse-Lykovo (1690-1695) and the Saviour in Ubory (169497). 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 asKrutitsy 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 Bukhvostovand 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 Schlter, 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 inMoscow and the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn.

Ukraine
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 similarNaryshkin baroque.[19] Many Ukrainian Baroque buildings have been preserved,

including several buildings in Kiev Pechersk Lavra and theVydubychi 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.

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 Drottningholmseasoned French prototypes with Italian elements, while retaining some peculiarly Nordic features, such as the hipped roof (steritak). Tessin the Younger shared his father's enthusiasm for discrete palace faades. His design for theStockholm 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 isNicolai Eigtved's design for a new district of Copenhagen centred on the Amalienborg Palace. The palace is composed of four rectangular mansions for the four greatest nobles of the kingdom, arranged across the angles of an octagonal square. The restrained faades of the mansions hark back to French antecedents, while their interiors contain some of the finest Rococo decoration in Northern Europe.

Hungary and Romania

In the Kingdom of Hungary, the first great Baroque building was the Jesuit Church of Trnava built by Pietro Spozzo in 162937, modelling the Church of the Gesu in Rome. Jesuits were the main propagators of the new style with their churches in Gyr (16341641), *Koice+ (1671 1684), Eger (17311733) andSzkesfehrvr (17451751). The reconstruction of the territories devastated by the Ottomans was carried out in Baroque style in 18th century. Intact Baroque townscapes can be found in Gyr, Szkesfehrvr,Eger, Veszprm, Esztergom and the Castle District of Buda. The most important Baroque palaces in Hungary were the Royal Palace in Buda, Grassalkovich Castle in Gdll, and Esterhzy Castle in Fertd. Smaller Baroque castles of the Hungarian aristocracy are scattered all over the country. Hungarian Baroque shows the double influence of Austrian and Italian artistic tendencies as many German and Italian architects worked in the country. The main characteristics of the local version of the style were modesty, lack of excessive decoration, and some "rural" flavour, especially in the works of the local masters. Important architects of the Hungarian Baroque were Andrs Mayerhoffer, Ignc Oraschek and Mrton Wittwer. Franz Anton Pilgram also worked in the Kingdom of Hungary, for example on the great Premonstratensian monastery of Jsz. In the last decades of the 18th century Neo-Classical tendencies became dominant. The two most important architects of that period were Menyhrt Hefele and Jakab Fellner. Some representative Baroque structures in Transylvania (Romania) are the Bnffy Palace in Cluj, the Brukenthal Palace in Sibiu and the Bishopric Palace in Oradea. Besides, almost every Transylvanian

town has at least a Baroque church, the most representatives of which being St. George's Cathedral of Timioara, Saint John the Baptist Church of Trgu Mure, the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Blaj and the Piarist Church of Cluj.

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 Ortaky Mosque, is one of the best examples of 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 Abdlmecid and his family left the Topkap Palace and moved to theDolmabahe 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. Beyoluwas one of the places that Baroque and other European style architecture buildings were largely used. The famous streets called Istiklal Avenue, Nianta, 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 Dolmabahe Palace which also has a very "eastern" flavour, combining Baroque, Romantic, and Oriental architecture.

Rococo architecture
Rococo architecture, was a lighter, more graceful, yet also more elaborate version of Baroque architecture, which was ornate and austere. Whilst the styles were similar, there are some notable differences between both Rococo and Baroque architecture, one of them being symmetry, since Rococo emphasised the asymmetry of forms, whilst Baroque was the opposite. The styles, despite both being richly decorated, also had different themes; the Baroque, for instance, was more serious, placing an emphasis on religion, and was often characterized by Christian themes (as a matter of fact, the Baroque began in Rome as a response to the Protestant Reformation); Rococo architecture was an 18th-century, more secular, adaptation of the Baroque which was characterized by more light-hearted and jocular themes. Other elements belonging to the architectural style of Rococo include numerous curves and decorations, as well as the usage of pale colours. There are numerous examples of Rococo buildings as well as architects. Amongst the most famous include the Catherine Palace, in Russia, theQueluz National Palace in Portugal, the Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces, Brhl, the Chinese House (Potsdam) the Charlottenburg Palace in Germany, as well as elements of the Chteau de Versailles in France. Architects who were renowned for their constructions using the style includeFrancesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, an Italian architect who worked in Russia[ and who was noted for his lavish and opulent works, Philip de Lange, who worked in both Danish and Dutch Rococo architecture, or Matthus Daniel Pppelmann, who worked in the late Baroque style and who contributed to the reconstruction of the city of Dresden, in Germany.

Rococo architecture also brought significant changes to the building of edifices, placing an emphasis on privacy rather than the grand public majesty of Baroque architecture, as well as improving the structure of buildings In French, the word rocaille refers to rocks, shells, and the shell-shaped ornaments used on fountains. During the 1700s, a highly ornamental style of art, furniture, and interior design became popular in France. Called Rococo, the lavish style combined the delicacy of Frenchrocaille with Italian barocco, or Baroque, details. Rococo architecture is actually late version of the Baroque style, and is most often found in Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe, and Russia. While there are many similarities between the Baroque and the Rococo styles, Rococo buildings tend to be softer and more graceful. Colors are pale and curving shapes dominate.

Features of Rococo Architecture include:

Elaborate curves and scrolls Ornaments shaped like shells and plants Intricate patterns Delicate details Complex, asymmetrical shapes Light, pastel colors

Archbishop's Palace at Prague Castle, Czech Republic

Exterior of Sanssouci Palace near Berlin, an example of the Rococco style in central Europe. Source: Wikipedia Commons

Baroque style trompe-l'oeil ceiling in the Church of St. Ignazio in Rome, painted by Andrea Pozzo late 17th century. Source: Wikipedia

Rococo vs. Baroque in Architecture and Design

In France, the Baroque and Rococo were adjacent stylistic periods that ensconced two entirely distinct sensibilities; one was heavy-handed and provocative while the other expressed lightness and playfulness within elaborate decoration. Differences in the temperament of the two ages had profound influence on their artistic/decorative movements yet the Baroque era stretched across the 17th century, while the Rococo style was fleeting in comparison, spanning more or less from the 1730s to the 1760s (during the reign of Louis XV). Rococo style had its inception in France unlike the Baroque that had beginnings in Italy than moved to other parts of Europe. The Rococo style was not one applied to exterior architecture as was the Baroque, but was an expression of art and the interior; Baroque decoration was commonly applied to church interiors outside of Germany and Austria - yet the Rococo style was not. And while the Baroque embraced formality and ceremony, the society under Louis XV were concerned with comfort, warmth, privacy and informality and this inclination was expressed in decorative arts.

The Baroque aesthetic was generally a serious and somber one while the Rococo embraced frivolity, elegance and fantasy. Baroque colors were bold, contrasting; the Rococo tended towards ubiquitous gold and white and pastels. Artificial light and use of mirrors continued to be a component of interior design. The Baroque emphasized bold contrasts by using highlighting and shadow; lighting was

important in Rococo style but it was used to create feelings of warmth and intimacy sometimes by way of French windows decorated with tasseled curtains and with artificial light sources inherited from the Baroque, in the form of candlesticks, wall brackets, candelabra, and chandeliers. As in the Baroque, interiors were often decorated with mirrors, but in the Rococo, they become larger in scale and more extensively used. In the Baroque, a two story salon was common; in the Rococo period, a one story salon was preferred. Room size began to decrease as people wanted to be comfortable and were not as concerned in impressing their guests. The Rococo also leaned towards the asymmetric not only in dcor, by embracing curved lines and corners, but also in room shape; the Htel dAmerlot, designed by Gabriel-Germaine Boffrand, included a pentagonal anteroom and stair hall designed for privacy and convenience, or what the French called, convenance, referring to the functional relationships between rooms. The Rococo conceptualized the interior design of a space in conjunction with function, form, and utility. Classicism waned during the Rococo period after being so extensively executed in the Baroque. The Roman orders were mostly abandoned in so far as Rococo interior architecture. Baroque rigidity and precision was replaced. In Baroque interiors, pilasters lined the walls set with frames and panels and an entablature would encircle the room above a dado and frieze. The design was geometric and balanced. Ornamentation in stucco and wood often included scrollwork, arabesques, and grotesque designs and paintings and frescoes were in situ or trompe loeil - they were illusionary, sometimes depicting religious scenes. Tapestry was used and chimneypieces were prominent and lavish. In the Rococo, decoration was used to create a sense of flow with abstract and asymmetrical detail. The dado is lower and less commonly used. Walls would not have a full entablature and the angle between wall and ceiling were eliminated by plaster covers in the corners. Rococo surface decoration, on ceiling and walls, favored shallow relief and depressed or semi-circular arches. Decoration was asymmetrically styled, yet unified, with meandering and wistful s-scrolls and wave like lines. Rococo dcor was about dreams and the fantastic stucco and carvings included shapes and images of flowers, shells, bats wings, festoons, garlands, fountain jets, swags (stylized natural forms) and also chinoiseries and singeries. Baroque sensibilities delineated common people from royalty but Rococo admired, if not idealized humanistic and even carnal inclinations of life. Even the furniture of the Rococo was more delicate and light, as seen for example in the use of the cabriole leg instead of bulbous thick legs of the Baroque.

Sources: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0860693.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_architecture http://arch-texture.com/his-ren.html http://heroek.hubpages.com/hub/Rococo-vs-Baroque-in-Architecture-and-Design http://architecture.about.com/od/periodsstyles/ig/Historic-Styles/Rococo.htm http://www.learn.columbia.edu/ha/html/baroque.html