Italian Baroque

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Piazza of St. Peter's

Rome

1656-67

The Piazza of St Peter's was built by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Pope Alexander VII in 1656-67.  Four rows of Doric columns—300 all together—carved from Roman travertine form an oval 650 feet across the long axis marked by three monuments: laterally by fountains propelling tall jets of water and in the center by an Egyptian obelisk that had served as a turning post in the chariot races at the ancient Circus of Nero.

ST. PETER'S

 Rome

1606-12

 The brick dome 138 feet in diameter rises 452 feet above the street, and 390 feet above the floor, with four iron chains for a compression ring. Four internal piers each 60 feet square.    

BALDACCHINO

St. Peter's

Rome

1624-33

Bernini 

In 1623 Urban VIII inaugurated the Baroque embellishment of Rome. The completion of the decoration of St Peter's was to occupy most of the century, and from the start Bernini was at the centre of the plans of the Pope and the Barberini Cardinals. The Baldacchino was begun in 1624.

S. Ivo della Sapienza

Rome

1642 to 1650

Frencesco Borromini,

The small church of S. Ivo alla Sapienza is one of the great Baroque buildings.  It has a central ground plan with concave and convex walls. This was unified by giant pilasters and by a high cornice. The pilasters continue upwards in the moulding of the dome, so that in the lower part of the cupola the plan of the church is echoed, while at the top, below the lantern, the form is circular.  

French Baroque

SOUTH AND EAST SIDES

Place des Vosges

Paris

1605-12

The Place des Vosges typifies the clarity and elegance of French sensibility in the seventeenth century. Entirely unified in plan, the square is lined with blocks rowhouses. Two taller and more elaborate central pavilions are on the north and south sides. The strictly organized plantings within the square itself reflect the order of the surrounding buildings. The Place des Vosges is one of the most important examples of the improvements in Paris made by Henry IV.

PETITE GALERIE

Louvre

Paris

Pierre Lescot 

c. 1595

The Petite Galerie of the Louvre is classical in its careful symmetry and balance. The facade is harmoniously proportioned and subtly decorated with relatively plain elements. The Galerie d'Apollon has been housed in the building since the seventeenth century. Lescot planned the Petite Galerie in 1546 as a new palace for Francois Premier, but was not built until the reign of Henry IV.

GRANDE GALERIE

Louvre, Paris

1596-1608

Louis Metezeau

The more complex Grande Galerie reflects the beginning of the Baroque style in France. Its facade is rich in color and surface articulation, combining an elaborate system of ornamentation with a strictly organized overall design. The decoration of the building, especially the interiors, took many years.

BEDROOM

Chateau de Talcy

Loir-et-Cher

First half of the 17th century

In sharp contrast to the ornate style of Louis XIV, the Louis XIII style emphasizes simple and heavy shapes in relatively austere patterns. This typical bedroom is dominated by a four-poster bed. The crude exposed woodwork provides the primary decoration. The furniture fabric is subdued in design and color.

GARDEN FACADE

Chateau de Maisons

Seine-et-Oise

Mansart

1642-6

Maisons or Maisons-Lafitte is Mansart's most complete work and the purest example of his architecture in the 1640's.   It consists of a free-standing block with a prominent central section and two symmetrical flanking wings. Clearly defined rectangular masses, each simply and directly related to the whole, make up the facade.

SALON DE MUSIQUE

Hotel Lauzun

Paris

1650-8

Le Vau and Lebrun

The Salon de Musique is a superb example of the Louis XIV style. Its plasterwork, gilding, and painting create a rich and visually exciting space. This is culminated in the painted ceiling of a classical subject. The interior is typically Baroque in its unity, splendor, and drama.

EAST FRONT COLONNADE

Louvre

Paris

1667-70

Le Vau, Lebrun,

and Charles Perrault (1613-1688)

Imposing in length and mass, the Louvre colonnade established a scale appropriate for the residence of a king. Its strength and stability also derive from the impressive array of paired columns, the height of the stylobate, and the severity of the straight lines of the front. 

GARDEN FRONT

Versailles

1669-85

Le Vau and Mansart

The palace at Versailles is a monument to the greatness and ambition of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Perhaps the most famous view is the garden front, today a central block seen across water and fountains with vast wings on either side. Le Vau's original facade consisted of only the central block, with the middle eleven bays set back behind a terrace. Mansart's additions of the Galerie des Glaces and the wings destroyed the effect of varied depth and harmonious proportions. For its immense vision and sheer size, the palace remains overwhelming.

MARBLE COURT

Versailles

1631-4, 1665, 1678

New buildings were constructed at Versailles while older sections of the palace were remodeled. The Marble Court dates from the reign of Louis XIII. Originally a rather simple brick and stone structure, Louis XIV added the busts, balconies, and elaborate frontispiece in an attempt to make it grander and more impressive. The interior was also extensively reworked.

STABLE FACADE, Detail

Versailles

1679-86

Mansart

The stables are built in the grand style of the residential buildings. In two identical crescents with a fine sense of proportion and detail, they fill the space between three long avenues. The facades are simple- only in the central frontispiece is the decoration prominent.

ROOM IN THE STYLE OF LOUIS XIII

c. 1630

The simple furniture is typical of the Louis XIII style. Chairs are straight backed with rectilinear shapes and turned legs. The octagonal central table also has turned legs.

ARMCHAIR

c. 1680

Musee des Arts Decoratifs

Paris

Ample and square proportions and rich carving and gilding are basic characteristics of many chairs of the Louis XIV period. In this armchair other typical features include the flaring legs, the bold curve of the arms sweeping into the terminal hand-holds, and the elaborate saltire stretchers.

TABLE

c. 1690

Chateau de Versailles

Much of the furniture of the Louis XIV period is monumental in size and conception. This imposing console table displays the flaring square legs and symmetrical carving typical of the period. Central to its design is a cartouche on the skirt bearing the royal monogram.

CABINET

Domenico Cucci

c. 1680-3

Alnwick Castle

This cabinet made at Gobelins by the Italian master-craftsman, Domenico Cucci, demonstrates the magnificence of furniture designed especially for the king. The piece contains strong elements of Baroque classicism. Its most notable decoration is the rich inlaid stone patterns of fruit and flowers. This type of work is called pietre dure.

COMMODE

Andre-Charles Boulle

c. 1708-9

Chateau de Versailes

When this furniture was made for the Trianon in 1708-9, the commode was still a new form. Its decoration was also new to France. Brass intricately inlaid into a ground of tortoiseshell is now commonly known as Boulle-work, named after the man who developed the process and made this commode. The commode is further embellished with rich gilt-bronze fixtures of winged female heads, dog's feet, and acanthus leaves.

English Baroque

FACADE

Banqueting House

Whitehall, London

Inigo Jones (1573-1652)

1619-22

The Banqueting House is an entirely original interpretation of the Palladian town palace. Particularly distinctive is Jones's emphasis on generous breadth. This results in a beautifully balanced and proportioned two-story facade which is topped by a flat balustraded roof. Characteristically the architect gives great attention to detail. Notice the alternation of segmental and triangular pediments, the swags carved at capital level, and the finely rusticated stone. The Banqueting House was commissioned by James I and was Jones's first important building.

INTERIOR

Banqueting House

Whitehall, London

Jones

1619-22

Despite the appearance of two stories on the facade, the interior is a single large room with the proportions of a double cube. A gallery marks the place of the first entablature outside, and the columns and pilasters of the exterior are repeated on the interior wall. The entrance is at the side of the building, set off by pairs of Ionic columns. The ceiling painting by Peter Paul Rubens was put up in 1635.

NORTH FRONT

Queen's House

Greenwich

Jones

1617-8,

Completed 1629-35

The north front contains the most important rooms. It is simple and severe, with little ornamentation to soften the block like mass of the building. The double curved staircase is the one graceful curvilinear element in the predominantly rectilinear design.

DOUBLE-CUBE ROOM

Wilton House

Wiltshire

Jones

c. 1635-53

The extraordinarily rich interior contrasts with the simple exterior. This is a characteristic of Jones's work. The remarkable Double-Cube Room, perfectly preserved in its original form, was specifically designed to display the paintings of Anthony Van Dyck which still hang on the walls today. The room is an important variation on the double-cube theme of the Banqueting House. Here Jones reduces the effect of height by lowering the cornice and putting in a cove which leads to the flat of the ceiling. All of the furniture, except the large sofa against the far wall, is by Thomas Chippendale and William Kent. Originally carpets would have covered the floors.

KING CHARLES BLOCK

Greenwich Palace

Greenwich

John Webb (1611-1672)

1665-9

The King Charles Block of the Greenwich Palace is John Webb's only public building and his most important work. The one completed part of a grand scheme for the Greenwich Palace, it later was incorporated into Greenwich Hospital and now is used by the Royal Naval College. Indebted to Jones's style in many ways, the building is unique in its unrelenting horizontal structure and the way it unites the double-story front with giant orders.

WEST FACADE

St. Paul's Cathedral

London

Wren

1675-1710

St. Paul's, the Cathedral of London, is dedicated to the city's patron saint. Its rebuilding was Wren's most important commission. Here on a monumental scale Wren combines a longitudinal and central plan. The enormous dome dominates the exterior. From the west it is framed by the twin towers of the two-story facade. Wren's original design of a single giant order was replaced by the superimposed porticos of paired Corinthian columns.

QUEEN ANNE'S DRAWING ROOM

Hampton Court Palace

Wren and Verrio

1698-1700

Queen Anne's drawing room, the central room on the east front of Hampton Court, is one of the most important public rooms in the palace. Like the other state rooms, it is richly decorated with complex allegorical scenes painted by Verrio. The paintings depict episodes from Anne's reign, each set within a fictive frame. This furniture is not original and the floor would have been heavily carpeted.

WAINSCOT CHAIR

c. 1620

The wainscot chair was named for its structural relationship to joined paneling or wainscot. This beautiful oak example is built in the English Renaissance tradition. The chair's primary decorative feature is the symmetrical carved panel of stylized floral patterns. Front legs and arm supports are turned. The overall heaviness and solidity is typical of the early years of the century.

FARTHINGALE CHAIR

c. 1650

Vidtoria and Albert Museum

London

Simple and unpretentious, this oak chair typifies the furniture produced in England during Cromwell Vs Commonwealth, when a puritanical sensibility rejected all forms of luxury. The low and armless chair is an outgrowth of earlier forms. Before 1600 a low back had been added to stools. Legend has it that the form was kept armless and simple to accommodate elaborate farthingale skirts, from which the chair derives its name.

ARMCHAIR

c. 1680

This armchair is closely related in form to French chairs of the same period (see P.78). In England the style is known as the Charles II or Restoration style. Characteristically simple, it is made of natural wood in place of gilded wood; here the wood is walnut. Also turning has supplanted carving as a form of ornament.

SLEEPING CHAIR

c. 1675

Ham House

Surrey

The Charles II sleeping chair was designed for comfort. The wings are intended to trap the heat from a fireplace and to protect the sitter from drafts. The chair's Baroque heritage is evident in the spiral-turned armrests and the elaborate symmetrically carved stretcher decorated with putti and fruit. Typical of the period are the brocade upholstery worked with silver thread and the fringe around the seat, arms, and back.

SILVER FURNITURE

From the King's Bedroom

c. 1675-80

Knole

Kent

This silver furniture exemplifies the most extravagant work in seventeenth century England. The heavy frame of the mirror and the S-shaped table supports are typical of the period. Extraordinary is the finely worked sterling silver finish applied all over the surfaces.

FALL-FRONT WRITING CABINET

c. 1695

Saltram

Devon

Simplicity is combined with impressive mass in this William and Mary walnut writing cabinet. Characteristic details of the William and Mary style include the rich veneer, the bun feet, the teardrop hardware, and the bolection molding at the cornice. The front of the cabinet, which hides various drawers and compartments, falls to provide a writing surface.

CHEST OF DRAWERS

c. 1700

By the late seventeenth century, the chest of drawers had replaced the chest in popularity. The veneer on this example, known as oystering, is formed from cross sections of moderately sized limbs. The fine floral marquetry reveals Dutch influence. This is a typical transition piece into the 18th century furniture styles.

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