Baroque Architecture between Poetry and Prose. Two ... - PATZINAKIA

Studia Patzinaka, 4/ 2007, pp. 73-84
Baroque Architecture between Poetry and Prose.
Two Possible Approaches
Cosmin UNGUREANU
Compared with the (late) Renaissance, at a certain level of interpretation, the
Baroque brought the passage from symbol to allegory 1. This process,
however, is a qualitative one, for we cannot speak of a simple sliding from
one sort of projection (transposition of the notion into image) to another 2 ,
but a conversion of this one into a mental process. In other words, the XVII th
century faces the transition from “imagined” to “imagination”; from the
symbol of the Christian Temple for San Pietro in Rome 3 , for instance, to the
allegory of the Church, through the added colonnade. The interpretation of the
two ellipsoid arms conceived by Bernini as a metaphor for an embrace is
usually invoked [ill.1]; beyond this explanation, certified by Bernini himself,
we can infer – together with Argan – a questioning that reinstates the
ideological values of the dome (after the changes performed by Maderna) 4
[ill. 2]. Michelangelo’ s cupola is doubled, enlarged, unfolded outside the
church, so that the building becomes – through the agency of the colonnade
– “an extension of the public space of the city although with a particular
sacred qualification, as the private house of God “ 5.
ill. 1 San Pietro. Bernini’s Colonade ill. 2 San Pietro. Maderna’s facade
1 Argan 1989a, p. 41.
2 If we define the symbol as “espressione ermetica accesibile solo agli iniziati” (Argan), then the
allegory would be a debased symbol, which has lost its semantic concentration, becoming
intelligible heightened instead.
3 Murray 1973, p. 50.
4 Argan 1974a, pp. 176-177.
5 Norberg-Schulz 1999, p. 78, note 33.

Cosmin Ungureanu
The symbol may (also) be seen as the mark of a certain dimension of
the knowledge (the magical thought) pre-existing the scientific revolution,
while the allegory stands for the scientific age of the XVII th century; there are
so many examples of those – such as Copernic, Galilei, even Kepler – who,
even if their discoveries and theories had transformed the world, were still
so attached to the traditional science and to religion, that could not speak
but appealing to allegory. There are, undoubtedly, infinite connections
between the domains of spirit and culture in the XVII th century 6; the baroque
architecture pays tribute not only to fashion or to aesthetic criteria, but also
to science, music, theology or literature.
One may consider Baroque architecture, once accepted this key, in a
wider sense, as transposing into form an abstract, mathematical project, the
light, the music or the ineffable celestial temple 7 . We chose to place this
creative dimension under the sign of poetry, magic, and ineffable. There is
another one, dealing with rhetoric, persuasion, and discourse; this should be
the architectural prose 8 , if we are to employ Bruno Zevi’s definition. Thus we
are inclined to extend baroque architecture in both ways, on one hand that
of the place, of the city, and on the other hand that of the altar, of the
tabernacle or the dome, of the entire universe displayed within the walls.
Thus decomposed, the architecture is reunified by the invitation to
participate, to enter and to join 9, expressed not only in the church façades, but
also in the configurations of the squares or in the vault scenes and
quadratturas 10 .
Both a methodological justification and a circumscription of the
investigated domain are necessary. The examples we resort to belong almost
exclusively to the XVII th century and to the Italian patrimony. Baroque
architecture is evidently more than that; our undertaking was not,
altoghether, an exhaustive approach, but rather the delineation of a possible
topic. The two employed terms – ”poetry” and ”prose” – denote, for the
XVII th century architecture, two credible appearances, the suspension and the
motion, which ultimately report on a meta-architecture. The first appearance
might also be related to other architectural epochs (the Middle Ages, the
6 Not only the XVIIthe century, of course. One should not forget the Renaissance the Middle
Ages. Still, since we are dealing with Baroque architecture in this study, we refer to the XVIIth century.
7 Hersey 2000, passim.
8“[…] non solo la ‘poesia’ ma soprattutto la ‘prosa’ architettonica […]“ Bruno Zevi, Architettura
in nuce, Firenze, 1972, p. 106, apud. Contardi 1978, p. 11.
9 Argan 1974a, ibidem.
10 The art of depicting false or illusionist architecture – quadrattura – is perfected by Andrea
Pozzo, towards the end of the XVIIth century. Both his painting and the treatise Perspectivae
pictorum atque architectorum had a considerable influence in the XVIIIth century; Damisch 1972,
pp. 246-247.
74

Baroque Architecture between Poetry and Prose. Two Possible Approaches
Renaissance etc), while the second one (and especially their conjunction) is a
XVII th century issue.
A fundamental trait of the baroque architecture is the mathematical extent 11.
“The Nature is written in a mathematical language” asserted Galileo Galilei
in 1623 in Saggiatore, foretelling the reduction of all sciences – including the
humanist ones – to geometry and mechanics, this equivalence appearing to
be typical for the whole century 12 . What else is mathematics, as well as music
or poetry – one may ask – if not abstraction, concentration and pure essence?
Geometry obviously had, in the XVII th century, a highly different
aspect than one may envisage nowadays. It was not only a science about
numbers, volumes or figures, but also geomancy, “theory”, speculation on
their magic 13. There were hierarchies of numbers and figures and categories
like “effable” and “ineffable” that the architecture was operating with;
moreover, in Baroque times these principles and practices converge towards
a transcendental perspective of the “Cosmos architecture” 14, unto which is
otherwise heading the thought of the “modern world builders” – Galilei,
Kepler, Descartes, or Newton. If they demolish the Aristotelian universe,
preserved during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (and still resisting in
the XVII th century), thus revealing a world without God, they do so precisely
in the name of faith, of the quest of the “divine plan” 15 . Although the XVII th
century brought a real scientific revolution, the passage from the traditional,
magical thought was neither easy nor immediate.
The empyreal Ptolemaic structure remains, until its dissolution, one
made of crystals and sidereal substances, organized so that they compose a
succession of spheres; this fragile configuration has a very close connection
to planetary music, which is pure geometry, “music whose sounds have
been crystallized into the form of measurable visible spaces and solids”. The
research on heavenly harmony, undertaken by Johannes Kepler in
Harmonikes Mundi Libri V, published in 1619, represents the last extrinsic
treatment of the theory regarding the music of the spheres, and it presents
the entire world as the reflection of the Divine Idea, as the actualization of a
divine archetype 16. It is a very seducing pursuit to trace the music of
architecture; both arts use proportion, harmony and number and both of
11 “[…] Baroque architecture – above all mathematical.” Hersey 2000, p. 4.
12 Chaunu 1989, pp. 96-97. Rossi 2004, pp. 111-113. Saggiatore was written because of a dispute
with the priest Orazio Grassi and it asserts two fundamental philosophical concepts of Galilei:
the measurability of the world and its geometry; the nature is seen as having a harmonic,
geometrical structure, and expressing itself through the agency of a mathematical language.
13 Hersey 2000, p. 4.
14 Ibidem, p. 18.
15 Chaunu 1989, pp. 97-98, 129-134.
16 “Spheres music” is one specific bearing of an ancient form of cosmological thinking shaped
by Pythagoras, Plato and Ptolemeus, which has influenced to a large scale the European
knowledge; Vignau-Wilberg 1999, p. 20.
***
75

Cosmin Ungureanu
them are “ephemeral” arts (consuming and being displayed at the same
time) 17 .
One may believe that the Baroque age constructs a whole intelligible
universe, paradigmatic for the earthly world – although, paradoxically, it
stands rather under the sign of science and specialization 18 than under the
mark of speculative thinking – and may prove it with Thomas Digges’ book,
A Perfit Description of the Coelestial Orbes, according to the most Ancient Doctrine
of the Pythagoreans: Lately Revived by Copernicus, published in 1592. The terms
used in his discourse about the over-mundane edifice [ill. 3] lead us into the
field of architecture 19, while the religious building itself can only tend
towards celestial perfection, with its “many crystal domes, with their toruses
of angels, [which] compose a vast and glorious architecture” 20 ; this might
explain the prolongations and the openings – within the painting – towards
heaven, or the intricate angelic hierarchies depicted on the vaults or inside
the domes 21 [ill. 4].
76
ill. 3 Thomas Digges, 1592 ill. 4 Sant’ Ignazio, Rome
In 1607, Antonius Possevinus, in his Bibliotheca selecta de ratione
studiorum [...] recognita novissime ab eodem et aucta, disputed Vitruvius’
17 Portoghesi 2006, pp. 69-77. The origin of the entire debate concerning music and architecture
is the myth of Anfion, who is said to have built the walls of Thebes only by playing on his lyre.
18 Contardi 1978, p. 26.
19 “The orbe of starres infinetly up extendth hit selfe in altitude sphericallye and therefore
immovable the pallace of foelicitye garnished with perpetual shininge glorious lightes innumerable
for excelling our Soune both in quantitye the very court of coelestiall angeles devoid of greefe
an replenished with perfite endlesse joye the habitacle of our elect”. Hersey 2000, p. 30. Our
underline. Koyre 1997, pp. 35-37.
20 Hersey 2000, p. 30.
21 Damisch 1972, pp. 240-241. Correggio is the first to paint clouds inside a dome. Far from
“opening” the vaults towards heaven, these (painted) “celestial” domes hide it from our sight,
covering and closing the space. “[…] elles marquent bien plutôt la limite du Royaume des
Ténèbres, et ne laissent pas entrevoir grand-chose de la splendeur, de la lumière qui règnent audelà
d’elles. ”

Baroque Architecture between Poetry and Prose. Two Possible Approaches
authority, – in a concrete, historical manner – by fastening both the origin
and the pattern of religious architecture in the (heavenly) Temple of
Solomon, which, paradoxically, maintains (or perhaps announces) the same
Vitruvian categories: “[...] optimae architecturae legibus praecepta sunt:
ordinatio, dispositio, eurythmia, decor, distributio, simmetria” 22 . This
attempt is otherwise prefaced by the false architectural treatise In Ezechielem
explanationes et appartus urbis ac Templi Hierosolymitani, written between 1596
and 1604 by the Jesuit J. B. Villalpando, for whom the provenance of
architecture and the entire theory of the Vitruvian order is the Temple in
Gerusalem 23. For Johan Heinrich Alstead, whose Cursus Philosophici
Encyclopedia Libri XXVII complectens; liber decimusquintus, In quo Architectonica
was printed in 1620, the knowledge of architecture conducts inevitably “ad
coelestem illam ‘acheiropoieton’ domum cuius architectus est Deus”,
naming the same Solomon Temple 24 . In Baroque times, the world is still
conceived a gigantic mechanism designed by a God seen as an “architect” or
artisan. The Universe – just like (religious) architecture – has a geometrical
structure 25 .
Light, considered in the XVII th century to be a physical substance, a
sort of fluid or gas – just like music, quintessence, ether 26 - plays an essential
part in Baroque architecture. The erudite methods of filtering, spreading,
casting or blurring it – suffice it to mention only Santa Maria in Campitelli in
Rome 27 [ill. 5] or San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane [ill. 6] – conjugate with
certain contemporary scientific investigations in the realm of optics 28. The
beginning of the XVII th century marks an upsurge of research, projection and
even making of optical instruments. Astronomy becomes – through the
agency of the field glass, the telescope and the micrometry – the driving
force behind technical advance 29. Precisely these tools for multiplying the
senses – in a time that resorted strongly to them – might be seen in
connection with the insight into the dome designs of certain formulas used
in optics 30. In the case of San Pietro in Rome [ill. 7], the Dome of the
Invalides [ill. 8, 9] or the Pantheon in Paris, the lantern and the whole system
of vaults, rolls, pendants and calottes represent a possible colossal staging of
the lenses and of the spotlights of a microscope or telescope; the lantern
receives and distributes the light, but, more than that, it acts as a giant eye
for the humanity to look ”beyond” (the picture of the retinian image [ill. 8,
9], included in Descartes’ Dioptrica, and published in 1637 is eloquent in this
22 Oeschlin 1999, pp. 213-214.
23 Choay 1996, pp. 49-50.
24 Oeschlin 1999, ibidem.
25 Rossi 2004, pp. 146, 171 and passim; Koyre 1997, passim.
26 Hersey 2000, op. cit., p. 50.
27 Argan 1974b, pp. 264-281.
28 Hersey 2000, op. cit., p.63.
29 Chaunu 1989, op. cit., pp. 112-129.
30 Hersey 2000, p. 63.
77

Cosmin Ungureanu
respect) or, equally, the microscope that investigates the small earthly
reality 31 [ill. 10]. This analogy might also include the traditional
astronomical-astrological instruments; for instance, the armilar sphere, with
its network of concentrical circles arranged according to precise angles,
represents a very sensitive apparatus to examine obscure cosmic throbs 32 .
Guarini, (spectacular astronomer, mathematician, theologian, philosopher
and architect) draws such laboratory structures on a page of his book
Caelestis mathematicae [ill. 11] published in 1683 33 . Moreover, he designs
complicated vault systems that transform the church into such a vast
utensil 34 [ill. 12].
ill. 5 Santa Maria in Campitelli, Rome
31 Hersey 2000, pp. 65-66.
32 “[…] they present the unseen geometric framework, and the motions, through that
framework, of the Universe’s many luminous bodies [...] they demonstrate the tracks along
which these glowing globes travel, interware, approach each other and withdraw”. Hersey
2000, p. 72.
33 Wittkower 1975, p. 181.
34 “[...] looking up into Guarini ‘s dome we are put, as it were, inside an armillary sphere”.
Hersey 2000, p. 73.
78
ill. 6 San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome
ill. 7 San Pietro, Rome

ill. 10 San Pietro, Rome
ill. 11 Caelestis mathematicae, Guarini
Baroque Architecture between Poetry and Prose. Two Possible Approaches
ill. 8 Descartes, Dioptrica, 1637; the Dome of the Invalides, Paris
ill. 9 Descartes, Dioptrica, 1637; San Pietro, Rome
ill.12 San Lorenzo, Torino, Guarini
79

Cosmin Ungureanu
***
The ”poetic” dimension of Baroque architecture, with its complexity and all
the ramifications anchored in other provinces of the spirit, is an ineffable
one. The other side of Bruno Zevi’s definition is the “prose”, or, more
adequately, the “rhetoric”.
Heinrich Wölfflin, when theorizing the essential difference between
Renaissance and Baroque, made use of two notions: the plenitude of Being –
attained during the era of humanism – and the becoming for the Baroque
age 35. This duality, from my point of view, is perfectly coherent with the
ontological dichotomy characterizing Baroque architecture: weightless,
absolute, when identified with θεωρία, contemplation, when being a vehicle
towards other reality and subject to change, inconstant when related to
discourse.
The discursiveness of Baroque architecture is obvious at every level
of its expression. It covers the urban scale: the way Piaza del Popolo [ill. 13]
is organized, opening the most significant route in Rome, Via del Corso,
might be seen as a captatio benevolentiae, placed at the beginning of a
persuasive address 36. It also covers the object scale: inside the “planned-text”
of Santa Maria in Campitelli, the disposal of the columns is emphasizing and
punctuating the church discourse [ill. 5] while the design of Santa Maria
della Salute in Venice is “deciphered” in three steps equivalent to the three
almost closed, independent spaces 37 [ill. 14].
ill. 13 Piazza del Popolo, Rome
35 Wölfflin 1967, p. 82.
36 “[...] creating an impressive piazza which would greet the traveler on entering Rome by the
Porta del Popolo”; Wittkower 1982, p. 283.
37 The architect of Santa Maria della Salute was specifically required to accomplish three
conditions: “first, on entering the church the worshipper should be able to take in the whole
space with an unobstructed view. Secondly, bright light should be evenly distributed
throughout the interior, and, thirdly, the view from the entrance should be dominated by the
high altar and as it is approached the side altars should come into view”. See Cannon-Brookes
1969, p. 82.
80
ill. 14 Santa Maria della Salute, Venice

Baroque Architecture between Poetry and Prose. Two Possible Approaches
The connection between the architecture of this epoch and the
Aristotelian Rhetoric is not a fortuitous one. At the beginning of the XVII th
century oratory was resuscitated in a broader context, inside of which the
two urgencies – “di gendarme dell’endoxa e di diffusione dell’ideologia” –
were closely bind with the rhetorical practices 38 . The considerable
importance and growth they acquired were due to their diffusion inside the
Jesuit colleges; for them rhetoric soon became the goal of all pedagogic
efforts 39 . Yet, the difference behind this peculiar revival of persuasion stands
in the (isolated) function: if ancient Greeks focused rhetoric on politic issues,
two thousand years later the principles of ars oratoria were supposed to help
the preacher, Orator Christianus 40 . He uses theatrical means in order to
convince; since the passion for theater characterizes the entire century that
inclines to turn the ceremony into a scenic arrangement 41, and since the
Baroque religious edifice is one of the propaganda strategies, it might not
seem unusual to understand architecture sub specie theatri 42 .
The innovating element that Baroque architecture introduces is the
equivalence between dream and wake, between phantasm and reality. This
ambiguity was nourished by the perspective illusions and the ostensible
concreteness of false domes and apses, and also by the illusory openings
(other rooms and views equally deceptive) between the rope molding
columns; it was nourished, on the other hand, by stage designing and
papier-mâché, devices and installations displayed during pageantry and
celebration 43. An analogous propensity for envelopment, concealment,
pushing one element behind another is enunciated by Wölfflin 44 , refearing
instead to the “column dance” of Santa Maria in Campitelli.
There is a philosophical meaning behind the equivalence between
reality and appearence: the entering – i.e. driving – of the beholder from this
parity into the ideal receptaculum; the desertion of the real world 45 . This
should be the theatricality of the baroque architecture: mistifying, producing
(even for a short time) a sequence of ideal time inside which the praying
beholder encounters the saint 46 , in the same way in which the spectator
enters the actor’s time during the play. Therefore, the façade is frequently
the only adorned part of the building [ill. 15-17] and lacks an organic
38 Contardi 1978, p.43.
39 G. Snyders, Rhétorique et culture au XVIIe siècle, apud. ibidem, p. 36.
40 Orator Christianus, Caroli Regii e Societate Iesu, Romae, MDCXII. In a letter from 28 of May
1613 we read “il nostro P. Carlo Regio per ordine nostro ha scritto un’ ottimo et copioso libro
per aiuto e instructione di nostri predicatori”, apud Contardi 1978, p.132, note 21.
41 Ibidem, p. 85.
42 Per Bijurtsröm, Baroque Theater and the Jesuits in Baroque Art: The Jesuit Contribution, New York,
1972, p. 99, apud Contardi 1978, p. 88, note 10.
43 Assunto 1983, p. 150.
44 Wölfflin 1967, p. 75.
45 Assunto 1983, p.150.
46 “[...] la Capella Cornaro [...] il meccanismo psicologico della doppia ripetizzione (noi siamo
spettatori che guardano altri spettatori che guardano) suggerisce, anzi rende probabile la
suposizione che la serie iniziata continui, ovviamente all’ indietro [...]“,Contardi 1978, pp. 91-92.
81

Cosmin Ungureanu
relation with the inner space 47 because it is actually a “curtain” behind which
the liturgical drama is actualized. The façade is a fatto visivo; without the
internal organisation of the edifice, it is only demonstrative, created in order
to communicate and not to close 48 , just like the curtain obstructs only
temporarly the stage view.
Perhaps the most obvious “theatrical” place in Rome is Sant’Ivo
della Sapienza [ill. 18]. Here, the theatre allegory reaches its own margins, as
there not only the ”stage” and the ”curtain” are represented, but also the
”hall” and the ”boxes”. This slide between sacred and secular stands under
the sign of ”rhetoric”, in other words, of architectural ”prose”.
ill. 15 San Marcello al Corso, Rome ill. 16 Santa Maria della Pace, Rome
ill. 17 Fontana di Trevi, Rome
47 Wölfflin 1967, p. 204.
48 Argan 1989b, p. 103.
82
ill. 18 Sant’ Ivo della Sapienza, Rome

Baroque Architecture between Poetry and Prose. Two Possible Approaches
The author – 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 16, 17
Koyré 1997 – 3
Argan 1989 – 5, 12, 13, 15
Hersey 2000 – 8, 9
Wittkower 1975 – 11, 14
Cannon-Brookes 1969 – 18
Photo credits
Bibliographical Abbreviations
Argan 1974a – Giulio Carlo Argan, Studi e note dal Bramante al Canova, Mario
Bulzoni Editore (“Retorica şi arhitectura”, Giulio Carlo Argan,
De la Bramante la Canova, traducere de George Lăzărescu,
Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1974).
Argan 1974b – Giulio Carlo Argan, Studi e note dal Bramante al Canova, Mario
Bulzoni Editore (“Santa Maria in Campitelli”, Giulio Carlo
Argan, De la Bramante la Canova, traducere de George
Lăzărescu, Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1974).
Argan 1989a – “Il monumento”, Giulio Carlo Argan, L’arte barocca, Skira
Newton Compton, Roma, 1989.
Argan 1989b – “La facciata”, Giulio Carlo Argan, L’arte barocca, Skira
Newton Compton, Roma, 1989.
Assunto 1983 – Rosario Assunto, Infinita contemplazione. Gusto e filosofia dell’
Europa barocca, Società Editrice Napoletana (Universul ca
spectacol, traducere de Florica Nicolae, Meridiane, Bucureşti,
1983).
Cannon-Brookes 1969 – P. And C. Cannon-Brookes, Baroque Churches, The
Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, 1969.
Chaunu 1989 – Pierre Chaunu, La civilisation de l’Europe classique, Paris,
Arthaud, 1966 (Civilizaţia Europei clasice, traducere de Irina
Mavrodin, Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1989).
Choay 1996 – Françoise Choay, La règle et le modèle. Sur la théorie de
l’architecture et l’urbanisme, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1996.
Contardi 1978 – Bruno Contardi, Retorica e l’archittetura del Barocco, Bulzoni
Editore, Roma, 1978.
Damisch 1972 – Hubert Damisch, Théorie du nuage. Pour une histoire de la
peinture, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1972.
Hersey 2000 – George L. Hersey, Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the
Baroque, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2000.
83

Cosmin Ungureanu
Koyré 1997 – Alexandre Koyré, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe,
The John Hopkins Press, 1956 (De la lumea închisă la universul
infinit, traducere de Vasile Tonoiu, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1997).
Murray 1973 – Peter Murray, L’ architecture de la Renaissance, Electa & Weber,
Paris, 1973.
Norberg-Schulz 1999 – Christian Norberg-Schulz, “The Baroque and its
Buildings” in The Triumph of the Baroque, Henry Millon (ed),
Thames & Hudson, London, 1999.
Oeschlin 1999 – Werner Oeschlin, “Architectura est scientia aedificandi:
Reflections on the Scope of Architectural and Architectural-
Theoretical Literature” in The Triumph of the Baroque, Henry
Millon (ed), Thames & Hudson, London, 1999.
Portoghesi 2006 – „Musica e architettura”, Paolo Portoghesi, Leggere e capire
l’architettura, Newton Compton editori, Roma, 2006.
Rossi 2004 – Paolo Rossi, La nascita della scienza moderna in Europa, Gius.
Laterza & Figli, Roma-Bari, 1997 (Naşterea ştiinţei moderne în
Europa, traducere de Dragoş Cojocaru, Polirom, Iaşi-Bucureşti,
2004).
Vignau-Wilberg 1999 – “Harmony of the Spheres and Choirs of Angels”,
Thea Vignau-Wilberg, Music for a While. Music and Dance in 16 th-
Century Prints, Staatliche graphische Sammlung München,
1999.
Wittkower 1975 – “Guarini the man”, Rudolf Wittkower, Studies in the Italian
Baroque, Thames & Hudson, London, 1975.
Wittkower 1982 – Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, 160-1750,
London, 1982.
Wölfflin 1967 – Heinrich Wölfflin, Renaissance und Barock, Benno Schwabe et
Co, Bâle, 1961 (Renaissance et Baroque, traduction de Guy
Ballangé, Le Livre de Poche, Paris, 1967).
84