The Baroque Church And Style

The Baroque Church and style

The baroque style begins to emerge with the works of the late 16th century, as is the case of the Church of the Jesuits of Della Porta. This artist broke with the rules of classical architecture, used in the Renaissance, to be able to create effects that call the viewer’s attention, in fact the term "baroque" referred to artistic products that were irregular and extravagant. This idea begins to develop in the first half of the seventeenth century, artists begin to include more striking elements and increasingly complex decorations, but always for the same purpose, attract attention.

In order to understand the birth of this style and its lavish and extravagant decoration we have to know the historical context. There was a crisis in Europe and Christianity had suffered a theological division, the counter -reform, between Roman Catholics and Protestants led by Martin Luther. Therefore, the Church of Rome used art as the ideal medium of propaganda of Catholicism in addition to indoctrinating and evangelization.

Baroque architecture is characterized by theatricality, by not following a rigor when drawing the lines without the use of classical forms, as I have mentioned above, straight lines and curves are mixed generating different forms, also an interest inThe concave and convex forms mix them. As a result, the use of space changes and architectural elements are equipped with movement, this last characteristic becomes fundamental.

Despite the aforementioned characteristics, as time went by the artists had to create more amazing and complicated decorations to continue maintaining the surprise factor. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Baroque had reached its total boom.

The interest in the beautification of the city of Rome leads to highlighting the patronage of the different potatoes, which commissioned works to the various artists of the moment, such as Carlo Maderno, Francesco Boromini, Pietro Da Cortona or Gian Lorenzo Bernini .

This last artist was a Napolitan painter, painter and architect, who worked mainly in Rome and is considered the best sculptor of the moment. He receives numerous orders from the papacy such as the famous Plaza de San Pedro, La Capilla Cornaro, El Baldaquino de San Pedro or the Fuente de los Cuatros Ríos. Within his sculptural works, Apollo and Dafne and the ecstasy of Santa Teresa stand out, among others.

The work I have chosen for this essay is the church of San Andrés del Quirinal whose architect is Bernini with the help of other artists, was built for the Jesuit congregation between 1658 and 1670 .

In this work, Bernini creates a synthesis of the three artistic branches, painting, sculpture and architecture, in fact it is considered one of the best examples of baroque architecture since it uses a game of lights that highlights the theatricality of the whole.

Inside, an elliptical plant is observed with a short radius and a dome in the center. The first thing that is seen when entering, the entrance is located in the minor axis, is the main altar chaired by the Holy Holder of the Building, a work by the French painter Guillaume Coutois. It is delimited by four Corinthian columns, two on each side, and has a great natural light source thus underlining the effect of theatricality. The interior is a central space with several chapels around. Then the gaze travels to the dome, being able to observe at the same time the history of the saint, through sculptures and paintings apart from architecture. This story culminates with the rise to the sky represented by the golden dome, composed of stucco cassetones with a hexagonal shape and the different axes that form the dome have plant motifs, referring to the rays of. This idea is highlighted with the flashlight where the crystals are yellow.

The structure of the church, as I said before, is elliptical and the dome is based on the basis of the building. The weight is distributed by large brick scrolls that are located between the chapels abroad.

Outside, there is a outgoing facade surrounded by two concave walls on both sides. This is crowned with a large fronton in its base, creating chiaroscuro effects, on two Corinthian pilasters and under it is the entrance with a semicircular outgoing porch on two Jonic columns, we can observe the influence of San Pietro in Montorio de Bramante. This portic. To access the interior you have to ascend through some steps with convex shape. These steps contrast with the concave walls of the sides, thus giving the feeling of open arms inviting to go to church.

The material that predominates abroad is the limestone and inside different marbles such as the contanello marble used for the columns of the chapels and the marble of Carrara of the entablature that runs through the church. For the structure, masonry and carved stone are used.

After analyzing the building we obtain the certainty that it is a great example of baroque architecture, since the different forms present create a contrast between straight and curves achieving dynamism and movement in the various architectural elements, in addition to observing a contrast between the materials and ordersUsed to obtain an extravagant decoration that manages to surprise and capture the viewer’s attention, in this case Bernini tries to catch him in an area of spirituality.