Baroque Rome

Rome is known for its layered architectural history, but of any movement that colors one’s experience of Rome, is that of the Baroque. This has much to do with the fact that the Baroque was born or “created in Rome”[1] (approximately 1620-70).  It grows out of the late Italian Renaissance with Mannerist influences as part of the Counter Reformation.  Its’ architects “preferred curves to straight lines and complex forms to those which were regular and simple.”[2] It colors everyone’s experience of Rome because most buildings from prior periods have Baroque additions or embellishments added during the time of the Counter Reformation.  There is nothing like the curvaceousness and complexity of these structures.  Exploring them first had with a sketchbook is exciting, as drawing requires more time to observe the geometric complexities in space.

[1] Anthony Blunt, Roman Baroque, (London: Pallas Athene, 2018) 7.

[2] Blunt, Roman Baroque, 13

Photo: Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza, by Borromini: Dome