Baroque and Rococo Architecture
Baroque and Rococo architecture used dynamic space, curving forms, dramatic light, and lavish decoration to move and impress, flourishing in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe.
Definition
The study of the dynamic, richly decorated architecture of Baroque and Rococo Europe, from roughly 1600 to the mid-eighteenth century.
Scope
This topic covers the Baroque of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and the lighter, more playful Rococo that followed, including the work of Bernini, Borromini, Guarini, and the architects of central European churches and palaces. It examines the manipulation of space and light, undulating walls and oval plans, the fusion of architecture with sculpture and painting, and the role of these styles in church and court.
Core questions
- How did Baroque architecture create dramatic spatial effects?
- What distinguishes the Rococo from the Baroque?
- How did architecture, sculpture, and painting combine in these styles?
- How did religion and absolutist courts shape this architecture?
Key theories
- Baroque as dynamic space
- Christian Norberg-Schulz's interpretation of Baroque architecture as the creation of dynamic, expanding, and interpenetrating spaces that engage and move the beholder.
- Unity of the arts
- The understanding, developed in surveys such as Blunt's, of Baroque and Rococo interiors as total works in which architecture, sculpture, painting, and decoration fuse into a single theatrical effect.
History
The Baroque emerged in early seventeenth-century Rome with Bernini and Borromini, spread across Catholic Europe and Latin America, and reached extravagant heights in central European and Iberian building; the Rococo developed in early eighteenth-century France and Germany as a lighter, more intimate and ornamental phase before Neoclassicism reacted against it.
Debates
- Baroque as excess or as order
- Critics have debated whether Baroque architecture represents an irrational, excessive break with classical order or a sophisticated, rule-based extension of it, a judgment colored by changing taste.
Key figures
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini
- Francesco Borromini
- Guarino Guarini
- Christian Norberg-Schulz
Related topics
Seminal works
- blunt1982
- norbergschulz1971
- kostof1995
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between Baroque and Rococo?
- The Baroque is grand, dramatic, and often religious or monarchical, while the Rococo is lighter, more delicate and playful, favoring asymmetry, pastel colors, and intimate interiors.
- Who were leading Baroque architects?
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini in Rome are the central figures, with Guarino Guarini and later central European architects extending the style.