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Baroque & Roccoco Architecture A lecture by Tanushree Das Date : 06.03.2014 A lectutre by Tanushree Das

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Page 1: Baroque & Rococo architecture

A lectutre by Tanushree Das

Baroque & Roccoco ArchitectureA lecture by

Tanushree DasDate : 06.03.2014

Page 2: Baroque & Rococo architecture

A lectutre by Tanushree Das

Baroque EraPeriod of artistic style started in 16th century in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe

Encouraged by Roman catholic church

A response to the protestant reformation

often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and the absolutist state

The late Baroque style is often referred to as Rococo or, in Spain and Spanish America, as Churrigueresque.

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Period for Baroque

Roughly 3 phase :

Early Baroque ( AD 1590 to AD 1625 ) High Baroque (AD 1625 to AD 1660 ) Late Baroque (AD 1660 to AD 1725)

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Baroque architectureArchitectural style originating in late 16th-century Italy and lasting in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, until the 18th century. It had its origins in the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church launched an overtly emotional and sensory appeal to the faithful through art and architecture.Precursor and features

Michenlengelo’s late Roman buildings, particularly St. Peter’s Basilica, may be considered precursor to Baroque architecture.

 

His pupil Giacomo della Porta continued this work in Rome, particularly in the façade of the Jesuit church Il Gesù, which leads directly to the most important church façade of the early Baroque, Santa Susanna (1603), by Carlo Maderno

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Precursor and featuresDistinctive features of Baroque architecture:

Bold massive colonnade and domes Broader naves and sometimes oval formsFragmentary or deliberately incomplete architectural elements Bold play of volumes and voidsDramatic 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 of Weingarten Abbey) Opulent use of colour and ornaments (figures made of wood (often gilded), plaster or stucco, marble or faux finishing)Large-scale ceiling frescoesAn external façade often characterized by a dramatic central projectionThe interior is a shell for painting, sculpture and stucco (especially in the late Baroque)Illusory effects like trompe l'oeilThe blending of painting and architecturePear-shaped domes in the Bavarian, Czech, Polish and Ukrainian Baroque

A lectutre by Tanushree Das

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Precursor and featuresComplex architectural plan shapes, often based on the oval, and the dynamic opposition and interpenetration of spaces were favoured to heighten the feeling of motion and sensuality.

Other characteristic qualities include grandeur, drama and contrast (especially in lighting), curvaceousness, and an often dizzying array of rich surface treatments, twisting elements, and gilded statuary.

Architects unabashedly applied bright colours and illusory, vividly painted ceilings.

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Significant architect of Baroque eraOutstanding practitioners in Italy included Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Carlo Maderno (1556–1629), Francesco Borromini, and Guarino Guarini (1624–83). Classical elements subdued Baroque architecture in France. In central Europe, the Baroque arrived late but flourished in the works of such architects as the Austrian Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656–1723).

Its impact in Britain can be seen in the works of Christopher Wren.

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List of Baroque architecture

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Roccoco Rococo is a subset of Baroque ( late Baroque of 18th century) in the field of Panting, Sculpture , architecture , interior design and decoration, literature , music and theatre

• Display shapes of nature – leaves, shells, scrolls (floral elements) in surface ornament • More simplified forms• Painted Details over built forms• Compiled with Painting to create illusion of depth• Predominately used in Secular Buildings• France, Germany, Austria, 18th Century

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Famous buildings in Roccoco

Igreja de São Francisco de Assis in São João del Rei, 1749–1774, by the Brazilian master Aleijadinho

Czapski Palace in Warsaw, 1712–1721, reflects rococo's fascinations of oriental architecture St. Andrew's

Church in Kiev, 1744–1767, designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli 

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalySt. Peters Cathedral

• Michelangelo imparts his mannerisms onto the design and creates a large dome. (Mannerisms hint at freedom of expression) He died in 1564. Giacomo Della Porta finishes his dome.• Carlo Maderno Finishes the Cathedral in Baroque Fashion (adds onto nave & Creates transept narthex with colonnade 1607 – 1626• Gianlorenzo Bernini in 1624 begins work on the Baldacchino & the Piazza Colonnade

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalySt. Peters Cathedral

Michelangelo broke the rules first. Pilasters broke the Classical Mold. The addition of the sculpture broke the classical mold. It gave license to the other architects to begin to break the rules of the Renaissance

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyGianlorenzo Bernini (1598 – 1680)

An Italian artist and a prominent architect who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture.Bernini's architectural works include sacred and secular buildings and sometimes their urban settings and interiors. He made adjustments to existing buildings and designed new constructions. Amongst his most well known works are the Piazza San Pietro (1656–67), the piazza and colonnades in front of St. Peter's Basilica and the interior decoration of the Basilica.

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The Baroque & Rococo in Italy

Apollo and Daphne

David

Ecstasy of saint teresa

The Rape of Proserpina 

Aeneas and Anchises,

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyGianlorenzo Bernini (1598 – 1680)

Amongst his secular works are a number of Roman palaces: following the death of Carlo Maderno, he took over the supervision of the building works at the Palazzo Barberini from 1630 on which he worked with Borromini; the Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo Montecitorio)(started 1650); and the Palazzo Chigi (now Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi) (started 1664).His first architectural projects were the façade and refurbishment of the church of Santa Bibiana (1624–26) and the St. Peter's baldachin (1624–33)

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalySt. Peter's Square - Altar Canopy - 1624 – 33 AD

The Baroque sculpted bronze canopy (or baldachin) located at the centre of the crossing and directly under the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome. Designed by the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, it was intended to mark, in a monumental way, the place of Saint Peter's tomb underneath. Under its canopy is the High Altar of the basilica. Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII, the work began in 1623 and ended in 1633

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyPope Urban VIII put him in charge of all the ongoing architectural works at St Peter's. However, due to political reasons and miscalculations in his design of the bell-towers for St. Peter's, of which only one was completed and then subsequently torn down, Bernini fell out of favor during the Pamphili papacy of Innocent XBernini then regained a major role in the decoration of St. Peter's with the Pope Alexander VII Chigi, leading to his design of the piazza and colonnade in front of St. Peter'sFurther significant works by

Bernini at the Vatican include the Scala Regia, (1663–66) the monumental grand stairway entrance to the Vatican Palace and the Cathedra Petri, the Chair of Saint Peter, in the apse of St. Peter's.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyScala Regia or Royal Staircase is a flight of steps in the Vatican City and is part of the formal entrance to the Vatican. It was built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in the early 16th century, to connect the Apostolic Palace to St. Peter's Basilica, and restored by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1663 to 1666. The site for the stairs, a comparatively narrow sliver of land between church and palace, is awkwardly shaped with irregular converging walls.

Bernini used a number of typically theatrical, baroque effects in order to exalt this entry point into Vatican. Above the arch at the beginning of this vista is the coat of arms of Alexander VII, flanked by two sculpted angels.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyHe fulfilled three commissions for new churches, designed the structure and decorate the interiors in a consistent manner. Best known is the small oval baroque church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale.

Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, 1658-70, Rome; commissioned by Cardinal Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili for the nearby Jesuit seminary

Inside, the main entrance is located on the short axis of the church and directly faces the high altar.

The oval form of the main congregational space of the church is defined by the wall, pilasters and entablature, which frame the side chapels, and the golden dome above.

Large paired columns supporting a curved pediment differentiate the recessed space of the high altar from the congregational space.

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The Baroque & Rococo in Italy

Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, 1658-70, Rome; commissioned by Cardinal Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili for the nearby Jesuit seminary

Unlike San Carlo, Sant’Andrea is set back from the street and the space outside the church is enclosed by low curved quadrant walls. An oval cylinder encases the dome, and large volutes transfer the lateral thrust.

The main façade to the street has an aedicular pedimented frame at the center of which a semicircular porch with two Ionic columns marks the main entrance. Above the porch entablature is the heraldic coat of arms of the Pamphili patron.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyFrancesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli (25 September 1599 – 2 August 1667),[was an architect from Ticino who, with his contemporaries Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.

A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of Antiquity, Borromini developed an inventive and distinctive, if somewhat idiosyncratic, architecture employing manipulations of Classical architectural forms, geometrical rationales in his plans and symbolic meanings in his buildings. He seems to have had a sound understanding of structures, which perhaps Bernini and Cortona, who were principally trained in other areas of the visual arts, lacked.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyMajor works of Francesco Borromini:

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (San Carlino)In 1634, Borromini received his first major independent commission to design the church

Situated on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, the complex was designed for the Spanish Trinitarians, a religious order. The monastic buildings and the cloister were completed first after which construction of the church took place during the period 1638-1641 and in 1646 it was dedicated to San Carlo Borromeo.

The church is considered by many to be an masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture.

San Carlino is remarkably small given its significance to Baroque architecture; it has been noted that the whole building would fit into one of the dome piers of Saint Peter's

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyMajor works of Francesco Borromini:

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (San Carlino)The site was a corner site and the space was limited. Borromini positioned the church on the corner of two intersecting roads. Although the idea for the serpentine facade must have been conceived fairly early on, probably in the mid-1630s, it was only constructed towards the end of Borromini's life and the upper part was not completed until after the architect's death

Borromini devised the complex ground plan of the church from interlocking geometrical configurations. The resulting effect is that the interior lower walls appear to weave in and out, partly alluding to a cross form, partly to a hexagonal form and partly to an oval form. Illuminated by windows hidden from a viewer below, interlocking octagons, crosses and hexagons diminish in size as the dome rises to a lantern with the symbol of the Trinity.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyMajor works of Francesco Borromini:Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri (Oratorio dei Fillipini)The Oratorio dei Filippini (Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri) is a building located in Rome and erected between 1637 and 1650 under the supervision of architect Francesco Borromini. The oratory is adjacent to the Chiesa Nuova Santa Maria in Vallicella, the mother church of the congregation.

The facade the oratory (1720 engraving)

The congregation of the Filippini already had one of the most well-decorated Baroque churches in Rome, and the order had planned to build an oratory, as well as residential quarters, adjacent to the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella (Chiesa Nuova) located in crowded central Rome. Borromini won a competition for designing the structure against many including Paolo was employed in the task for 13 years, often a testy process. By 1640, the oratory was in use, and by 1643, the library, called the Biblioteca Vallicelliana, was complete.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyMajor works of Francesco Borromini:Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri (Oratorio dei Fillipini)The striking facade adjacent to the church entrance has little regard for the structures behind. Inside the oratory is articulated by half columns and a complex rhythm of pilasters.The facade provides a summary of Borromini's characteristics of innovations style, both austere and technically rigorous. The main body is divided into five parts by pilasters following a concave curve. In the central part, a dialectic set appears between the lower level, whose curve moves outward. At the corner of the oratory, on the Piazza dell'Orologio, Borromini raised a turret with a clock (1647-1649).

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyMajor works of Francesco Borromini:

Sant' Ivo alla SapienzaIt is a Roman Catholic church in Rome. Built in 1642-1660 by the architect Francesco Borromini, the church is a masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture.In the 14th century,

there was a chapel here for the palace of the University of Rome. The University is called La Sapienza, and the church was dedicated to Saint Yves (patron saint of jurists). When a design was commissioned from Borromini, he adapted to the already existing palazzo. He choose a plan resembling a star of David, and merged a curved facade of the church with the courtyard of the palace. 

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyMajor works of Francesco Borromini:

Sant' Ivo alla SapienzaIt is a Roman Catholic church in Rome. Built in 1642-1660 by the architect Francesco Borromini, the church is a masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture. The complex rhythms of the interior

have a dazzling geometry to them. It is a rational architecture- intricate to view, but on paper the overlap of a circle on two superimposed equilateral triangles creates a basis for a hexagonal array of chapels and altar in a centralized church. The undulations, both concave and convex of the interiors, create a jarring yet stunning appeal. The rotunda of Sant'Ivo is contrived of distinct shapes, a triangle

with its three angles cut as if bitten off, and semi-circles located in between the triangle’s three lines.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyMajor works of Francesco Borromini:

Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza

Despite the shift from the smooth geometrical alignments of San Carlino to the sharper abrupt geometrical bends in Sant'Ivo, both buildings exhibit harmony between the sharp edges and the curves and spheres. Borromini utilized curves (semi-circles) and edges (clipped triangle tips) in equal amounts to define the shape of the rotunda. This blending of edges and curves is arguably Borromini’s most distinguishable signature.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyMajor works of Francesco Borromini:

Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza ( exterior) The church rises at the end of the alley of buildings so that the façade can be seen throughout the alleyway; this suggests a decentralized planning on Borromini’s part. Baroque architecture differed from renaissance in moving from centralization to different orientations, shifting the buildings; such as churches, from the main stage to the background while maintaining similar importance in society. This is specially true for Sant'Ivo, hidden within the confines of its encapsulating alley.

The façade of San Ivo alla Sapienza is concave, molding the church into the alleyway as if completing it rather than disrupting it. The façade itself looks like a continuation of the alley arches except with the openings filled in with small windows, a door, and a larger glass window above the door. Above the façade is a large parapet structure which adds towards the effect of the almighty dome by hindering it just a little more so that only the higher stages of the church is seen past the façade.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyCarlo MadernoCarlo Maderno (1556 – 30 January 1629) was a Swiss-Italian architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were of key importance in the evolution of the Italian Baroque. He worked initially as a marble cutter, and his background in sculptural workmanship would help mold his architecture. His first solo project, in 1596, was an utterly confident and mature façade for the ancient church of Santa Susanna (1597–1603); it was among the first Baroque façades to break with the Mannerist conventions that are exemplified in the Gesù. The structure is a dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, with a protruding central bay and condensed central decoration add complexity to the structure. There is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic design, still maintaining rigor.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyCarlo Maderno

The Santa Susanna façade won the attention of Pope Paul V, who appointed him chief architect of St Peter's. Maderno was forced to modify Michelangelo's plans for the Basilica and provide designs for an extended nave with a palatial façade. The façade (completed 1612) is constructed to allow for Papal blessings from the emphatically enriched balcony above the central door. 

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalyCarlo MadernoMost of Maderno's work continued to be the remodeling of existing structures. The only building designed by Maderno and completed under his supervision was the little Santa Maria della Vittoria(1608–20) The church is the only structure designed

and completed by the early Baroque architect Carlo Maderno, though the interior suffered a fire in 1833 and required restoration. Its façade, however, was erected by Giovanni Battista Soria during Maderno's lifetime, 1624–1626, showing the unmistakable influence of Maderno's Santa Susanna nearby.Its interior has a single wide nave under a low segmental vault, with three interconnecting side chapels behind arches separated by colossal Corinthian pilasters with gilded capitals that support an enriched entablature. Contrasting marble revetments are enriched with white and gilded stucco angels and putty in full relief.

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The Baroque & Rococo in UKSir Christopher Michael Wren

(20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710.Following the Great Fire of 1666, which had hopelessly damaged most of the City of London. Christopher Wren proposed within 10 days an ideal plan for the City calling for straight streets, etc, which was deemed impractical.Later, however, Christopher Wren was active in establishing new safety regulations for buildings and, significantly, was busy as the chief architect for the rebuilding of over 40 parish churches,His principal work, the evolutionary design and construction of the new St. Paul's Cathedral, started soon after 1670 (although Christopher Wren had proposed a reconstructed dome for the former edifice shortly before the fire' and was eventually completed in 1711.

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The Baroque & Rococo in UK Sir Christopher Michael WrenSt Paul's Cathedral :

St Paul's went through five general stages of design.

The first survives only as a single drawing and part of a model. The scheme (usually called the First Model Design) appears to have consisted of a circular domed vestibule (possibly based on the Pantheon in Rome) and a rectangular church of basilica form. The plan may have been influenced by the Temple Church. It was rejected because it was not thought "stately enough“.Wren's second design was a Greek cross, which was thought by the clerics not to fulfill the requirements of Anglican liturgy.St Paul's Cathedral (old) :

It sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. The present church, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its construction, completed within Wren's lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme which took place in the city after the Great Fire of London.

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The Baroque & Rococo in UKSir Christopher Michael WrenSt Paul's Cathedral :

The Greek Cross Design

Wren's third design is embodied in the "Great Model" of 1673. The model, made of oak and plaster, cost over £500 (approximately £32,000 today) and is over 13 feet (4 m) tall and 21 feet (6 m) long. This design retained the form of the Greek Cross design but extended it with a nave. The design was declined as being too dissimilar from other English churches to suggest any continuity within the Church of England

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The Baroque & Rococo in UKSir Christopher Michael WrenSt Paul's Cathedral Warrant Design :

Wren's fourth design is known as the Warrant design because it was affixed a Royal warrant for the rebuilding. In this design Wren sought to reconcile Gothic, the predominant style of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture." It has the longitudinal Latin Cross plan of a medieval cathedral. It is of one and a half storeys and has classical porticos at the west and transept ends. It is roofed at the crossing by a wide shallow dome supporting a drum with a second cupola from which rises a spire of seven diminishing stages.

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The Baroque & Rococo in UKSir Christopher Michael WrenSt Paul's Cathedral (Final design):The final design as built differs

substantially from the official Warrant design. Wren received permission from the king to make ornamental changes" to the submitted design, and Wren took great advantage of this. Many of these changes were made over the course of the thirty years as the church was constructed, and the most significant was to the dome: He raised another structure over the first cupola, a cone of brick, so as to support a stone lantern and he covered and hid out of sight the brick cone with another cupola of timber and lead; and between this and the cone are easy stairs that ascend to the lantern. The final design was strongly rooted in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The saucer domes over the nave were inspired by François Mansart's Church of the Val-de-Grâce, which Wren had seen during a trip to Paris in 1665.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalySir Christopher Michael WrenSt Paul's Cathedral :

St Paul's Cathedral is built in a restrained Baroque style which represents Wren's rationalization of the traditions of English Medieval cathedrals with the inspiration of Palladio, the Classical style of Inigo Jones, the Baroque style of 17th-century Rome, and the buildings by Mansart and others that he had seen in France.

It has much emphasis on its facade, which has been designed to define rather than conceal the form of the building behind it.

St Paul's is comparatively long for its width, and has strongly projecting transepts.

In section St Paul's also maintains a medieval form, having the aisles much lower than the nave, and a defined clerestory

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalySir Christopher Michael WrenSt Paul's Cathedral : Interior

Internally, St Paul's has a nave and choir each of three bays.

The entrance from the west portico is through a square domed narthex, flanked on either side by chapels: the Chapel of St Dunstan to the north and the Chapel of the Order of St Michael and St George to the south side.

 The nave is 91 feet (28 m) in height and is separated from the aisles by an arcade of piers with attached Corinthian pilasters rising to an entablature.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalySir Christopher Michael WrenSt Paul's Cathedral :

The cathedral is some 574 feet (175 m) in length (including the portico of the Great West Door), of which 223 feet (68 m) is the nave and 167 feet (51 m) is the choir. The width of the nave is 121 feet (37 m) and across the transepts is 246 feet (75 m).The cathedral is thus slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul's.

The bays, and therefore the vault compartments, are rectangular, but Wren has ingeniously roofed these spaces with saucer-shaped domes and surrounded the clerestorey windows with lunettes.

The vaults of the choir have been lavishly decorated with mosaics by Sir William Blake Richmond.

 The dome and the apse of the choir are all approached through wide arches with coffered vaults which contrast with the smooth surface of the domes and punctuate the division between the main spaces.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalySir Christopher Michael WrenSt Paul's Cathedral :

ExteriorFrom the exterior, the most visible and most notable feature is the dome, which rises 366 feet (108 m) to the cross at its summit, and still dominates views of the City. St Paul's was until the late 20th century, the tallest building on the city skyline, designed to be seen surrounded by the delicate spires of Wren's other city churches. The dome is described by Banister Fletcher as "probably the finest in Europe", Wren drew inspiration from Michelangelo's dome of St Peter's Basilica, and that of Mansart's Church of the Val-de-Grâce which he had visited. Unlike those of St Peter's and Val-de-Grâce, the dome of St Paul's rises in two clearly defined storeys of masonry, which, together with a lower unadorned footing, equal a height of about 95 feet.

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The Baroque & Rococo in ItalySir Christopher Michael WrenSt Paul's Cathedral : Above the peristyle rises the second stage surrounded by a

balustraded balcony called the "Stone Gallery". This attic stage is ornamented with alternating pilasters and rectangular windows which are set just below the cornice, creating a sense of lightness.

Above this attic rises the dome, covered with lead, and ribbed in accordance with the spacing of the pilasters. It is pierced by eight light wells just below the lantern, but these are barely visible. They allow light to penetrate through openings in the brick cone, which illuminates the interior apex of this shell, partly visible from within the cathedral through the ocular opening of the lower dome.

The lantern, like the visible masonry of the dome, rises in stages.

The most unusual characteristic of this structure is that it is of square plan, rather than circular or octagonal. The tallest stage takes the form of a tempietto with four columned porticos facing the cardinal points.

Its lowest level is surrounded by the "Golden Gallery" and its upper level supports a small dome from which rises a cross on a golden ball. The total weight of the lantern is about 850 tons.

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French Baroque architectureFrench Baroque architecture is the name given to the French architecture during the reigns of Louis XIII (1610–43), Louis XIV (1643–1715) and Louis XV (1715–74).The three most important and notable baroque architects in France in the 17th century were Jacques Lemercier (1580/5-1654), a man who was a master of delicate elegant line and graceful silhouettes which he ingeniously combined with forceful mass. He was most noted for his work on the Church of the Sorbonne. Next is Francois Mansart (1598-1666), a man who’s exteriors and interiors, composed with scrupulous purity and infinite stability, make him in architecture the cornerstone of French Baroque Classicism. He was best known for his work on the Ste Marie de la Visitation and Chateau of Blois. Finally Louis Levau (1612-1670), a man who emphasized on terraced, parterres, pools, fountains, all to provide an axial relationship to his work. He was best known for his work on the Chateau and Gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte and College des Quatre Nations.