Lara Bezich The Baroque and Rococo – Essay Test Prof. Earle 2/27/06
1. St. Peter’s Cathedral, designed by Michelangelo in the High Renaissance, has a design language of geometry and human form that expressed the rational and humanistic spirituality of the period. The design is classical in nature, with simple and clear forms, each part independent from one another. It seeks to establish an ideal order, seeking a deeper truth of understanding in the world, attempting to go beyond the disorder of appearances. It wants to present the world/life as calm and rational. It is a design of restraint, which lends itself to an overall feeling of calmness, and an almost frozen, static quality.
In the Baroque period, shifts occurred among all aspects of life, all sharing an underlying current of expansion, extension, and dynamism. For example, in the realm of science, the telescope was invented, allowing people to see beyond the eye’s range. Politically, Kings and popes asserted and expanded their power into the rest of the world through exploring new territory and combining their influence. Changes occurred in the Church, included the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Along with all these shifts developed a design language that expressed their qualities of expansion and dynamism, as well as grand-scale drama. Unlike the simple order of the
Renaissance, the baroque is a complex design language. It does not seek an ideal order, it seeks to show multiplicity.
The forms, though still geometric, cannot be isolated from one another. They are associated, and therefore must be viewed as one unit. Relating to the changes of their time, the forms of the Baroque are dynamic and active. They are not meant to be “perfect”. In expressing the very concept of change, they cannot be. In fact, the word
“baroque” was originally used by jewelers to denote an irregular pearl.
Michelangelo’s St. Peter’s Cathedral, an epitome of classic high renaissance design, was transformed into a dramatic, outwardly expressive theatrical setting through additions in the baroque period. The original building was a grounded, calm center from which the expansive Baroque energy could burst forth. The original perfectly symmetrical, flower-like shape of the building was extended and elongated with the addition of a nave at the front.
In front of this entrance was added a grand-scaled round courtyard, created with half-circle shaped colonnades embracing the space like giant arms. It is as though the cathedral was reaching out into space beyond
“itself.” The space has an inherent sense of drama. It functioned as a place for an audience to gather to hear the
Pope speak, who would stand in front of the cathedral’s façade, which acted like a stage backdrop for his
“performance.”
The façade was designed to increase the dramatic feeling. It features a row of columns that, starting on the outer edges as pilasters, gradually become less and less engaged until in the center they are fully rounded, and lighter in color, the rhythm creating a visual crescendo.
In the center of the courtyard was an obelisk shaped marker, literally “marking” the center of the Christian world. The fact that it is an abstract shape rather than a figural sculpture gives it a more all-encompassing power.
Rather than focusing on one individual, like a figural sculpture would solicit, the abstract obelisk transfers one’s focus to the world beyond. Unlike other courtyards that were enclosed and contained, this courtyard was open on the ends, and open through the colonnades to the adjoining streets and buildings, a quality that gives the courtyard a look as though it had been burst through with a bomb.
This sunburst form shows up in the interior of the cathedral as well. In the farthest back nave was built a sculptural installation of a “chair” in which the bishop would sit. In fact, this chair is larger than life, and so high off the ground that it would be rather difficult to climb into. The grand scale is typical of Baroque style, lending it a sense of drama. Above the chair, an oval shaped, golden hued stained-glass window represents the sun and the light of God, connecting the interior space with the world beyond. Alternatively, one could say the interior space is engaging with the world beyond. Also, since light is always changing, the window brings an added layer of dynamism to the work. Surrounding this window are “rays” made of gold, as though the light rays were captured and frozen in a single moment in time, giving them a sense of action, and thus drama. In this way, that one moment engages with future moments and future viewers of the work, reaching beyond its time, extending into future time. This is in contrast to the classically inspired works of the Renaissance, which emphasized a feeling of timelessness.
Another contrast, in addition to this contrast of timelessness and single-moment drama, is the contrast between the powerful, dramatic forms of the light rays and the staid, still columns of the original cathedral that frame them. The columns’ presence allows the rays to carry even more power and punch.
2. One king that was particularly successful in consolidating power in the baroque period was King Louis XIV.
He had a tremendous ego, (he called himself the “Sun King”) and as a testament to his power, he built a megawork palace in Paris called Versailles. Louis was the ultimate performer, and as such, built this place as a great theatrical setting, a place to “see and be seen.”

The exterior facades of the palace building are not particularly baroque in style, their main stylistic flair comes from the ornamental detail at the top. But what makes the palace building baroque is the enormous scale. It seems to just go on and on.
In front of the palace is a grand garden. In plan view, one can get a sense for the size of this garden. It seemingly dwarfs the very large palace. The garden layout contains interconnecting pathways, many of which radiate out from central points, creating starburst shapes. This is a common form of the Baroque period, as it expresses the expansive and dynamic energy of the time. Other forms used in the garden are C and S curves,
(created by trimming shrubs and flower beds), which are characteristic of French design, stemming from the Gothic period’s freeform, organic lines. Here they are put in a more classical context, arranged symmetrically and boxed in with geometric shapes, creating a balance. Frames were used in a similar way indoors, to contrast all of the curvy, busy decorative detail. Contrast and high-key colors such as gold and red were used because they are intense and bold, and gave the dramatic effect desired. Contrast was used to emphasize diagonal lines on stairways, because diagonal lines, evolutionarily, are related to movement. It also serves to disconnect and separate individual parts, which relates to the Baroque period’s focus on individuality. Other details that added to an active energy in the space were mirrors in the corners, which created spatial diagonals, and flowery chandeliers, which recalled the water fountains in the garden; their effect is dramatic and enlivens the space around them.
Mirror glass technology was improved during the Baroque, and Louis took advantage of this and had an entire wall in a long hall covered in mirrors. The effect was twofold. For one, it underscored the sense of being on display and partaking in a grand theatrical setting, and secondly, it opened up the view of the garden, with views as far as the eye can see, to both sides of the room. It created a virtual garden. The room was reaching out and engaging with the world beyond. It exemplifies the baroque world view of the individual having a (sometimes intense) relationship with the world.
Versailles, in many ways, embodies the Baroque. It is a composite, a multiplicity of parts, combined into one mega-work. This bringing together of different arts - including interior design, architecture, landscape design, and even theatre or set design – makes each one more compelling, and the work as a whole achieves greater power.
After Louis XIV dies, changes occurred. People were tired of the grand theatricality that embodied the baroque period, they were tired of always being on display and putting on a show. They retreated into the privacy of the home, and into smaller, more intimate social realms. Whereas the baroque design language is one of purpose, intensity, and drama, as though it were shot out of a cannon, the following design language that developed in reaction to this intensity is softer, dreamier, and fantasy like; the Rococo. It started out in home interiors in France.
Emphasis was shifted from the world out there to the world inside, to the interior realm. The exterior became an architecture of fatigue, a blatant, boring copy of previous periods. It was inside that the Rococo style flourished.
Along with style, the content of art changed. A new attention to the love between individuals, lovers specifically, was given in place of the relationship between individual and God or the world.
The Germans, however, used Rococo style to express their spirituality in a different way. It’s fantastical, dreamy qualities were employed in their religious buildings to transport one into a state of religious reverie, emphasizing a more private, intimate relationship with God. The Residenze at Wurzburg is an example of this.
Like Versailles, it is a palace and home, but being a home to bishops, it has religious overtones. Whereas the gardens at Versailles expressed the expansiveness of the baroque, reaching out into the land, the grounds of the
Residenze express the retraction from the world that characterized the Rococo, as they are walled off and contained.
The building design of the Residenze is a mix of Rococo style and eastern influences, having dome-ish roofs that nonetheless give it a soft, fantasy quality that meshes well with the intent of Rococo design. Inside, the fantasy feel is pushed to the limits. Whereas the baroque is characterized by use of high contrast, in rococo style contrast is minimized, with pastel colors prevalent, to create a dreamy atmosphere. Here at the Residenze, lack of contrast is pushed to the limits, and in the main hall only white is used. Because decorative ornament was still in heavy use, the effect is like frosting on a cake. Ornamental details flowed in organic patterns in such a way that they could not be distinguished as individual elements, floating across surfaces like vines on a wall. Traditional column shapes were constructed of vein-streaked marble, the pattern undercutting the independent identity of the column form.
3. Design forms are used to heighten and express the underlying spiritualities of a period. In the rococo, Die
Wiess church is one such example. It is a charming little church set in a beautiful mountain meadow in Germany.
In plan view, one can see there is no hard edged geometry – the walls are all rounded with smooth corners. These curves indicate a fluidity of form and a blurriness of parts that was employed to create an atmosphere of fantasy and dreaminess.
Curves were also used in the baroque church San Carlo alla Quattro Fontane, but with different intent.
Here, the wavy, rippled walls are used to create an intense drama. The reason for this was to engage the occupant in a relationship with the church and with God, whereas at Die Wiess the curves were designed to transport one into a state of religious reverie, having a more private, intimate relationship with God.