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Walls have ears: some aspects of Roman Baroque architectural decoration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Extract
In his Vite of 1730 Lione Pascoli reports the opinion of Bernini enthusiasts that Borromini, ‘out of an excessive desire to innovate in ornamentation, had on occasion gone beyond the rules’. Reading this today I think we wonder why they said only ‘on occasion’: how could theorists retain throughout the seventeenth century a conception of architectural rules sufficiently flexible for Borromini ever to be said to satisfy it? This article will examine a small and sometimes overlooked area of architectural decoration — door and window surrounds — and try to discover what such rules might be; firstly by examining the relation between architectural treatises and actual buildings, and then asking to what extent the middle ground between theory and practice can be filled in with a sort of ‘common law’ of architecture: a mixture of precedent, interpretation, and deduction from first principles. It will then attempt not so much to defend Borromini from the charge of going beyond this common law, rather to demonstrate that his innovation depends upon a subtle manipulation of it. In this way I hope to sketch out the dozen or so most important architectural first principles or ‘issues’ which generate virtually every Roman Baroque surround.
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- Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1993
References
Notes
Abbreviations
These four volumes were reissued by Gregg Press in 1972 with an introduction by Anthony Blunt.
1 ‘che il Borromini per soperchio desio di voler negli ornati troppo innovare, usciva alle volte di regola.’ Pascoli, Lione, Vite de’pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni (Rome, 1730), 1, p. 298 Google Scholar.
2 Huemer, Frances, ‘A Study of Roman Architectural Decoration of the Seventeenth Century’ (doctoral dissertation, New York Unversity, 1959), p. 224 Google Scholar.
3 Alberti, Leon Battista, De re aedificatoria, 1, 19 Google Scholar; published as L’architettura, with facing Italian translation by Orlandi, G. and preface by Portoghesi, P., 2 vols (Milan, 1966), 1, p. 69 Google Scholar.
4 ‘Historias autem plures novisse oportet, quod multa ornamenta saepe in operibus architecti designant, de quibus argumentis rationem, cur fecerint, quaerentibus reddere debent’. Vitruvius, De architectuva libridecem, 1, 1, 5, trans. Morgan, M. H., The Ten Books on Architecture (New York, 1960), p. 6 Google Scholar.
5 See Grassi, Liliana, Province del barocco e del rococò (Milan, 1966), p. 405 Google Scholar; I am very grateful for Dr Richard Schofield for bringing this example of the form to my attention.
6 See Blunt, Anthony, Bonomini (London, 1979)Google Scholar, fig. 22; Blunt, , Guide to Baroque Rome (London, 1982), pp. 113 and 125Google Scholar; Portoghesi, Paolo, Borromini (London, 1968)Google Scholar, figs cxxxiv and cxxxvii; Ricci, Corrado, Architettura barocca in Italia (Turin, 1922), p. 20 Google Scholar; London, Royal Academy, Sir Christopher Wren and the Making of St Pauls, exh. cat. (1991), p. 42, no. 56.
7 Vitruvius, , De architectura libridecem, iv, 6, ed. Barbaro, Daniele (Venice, 1567), pp. 142, 144, and 145Google Scholar; Alberti, , De re aedificatoria, vii, 12, trans. Bartoli, Cosimo (Florence, 1550), pp. 243 and 245Google Scholar; Serbo, Sebastiano, Cinque libri d’architettura (Venice, 1584), iv, pp. 144-45Google Scholar.
8 Alberti, , De re aedificatoria, VII, 12 (1966, 11, p. 619)Google Scholar: ‘Superliminari crassitudinem dedere hanc, quam in summo capite lateris invenere; et lineas ornamentorum in utrisque compares offecerunt; et iunctiones ad unguem conterminarunt’ (‘They gave the same thickness of architrave as the top of the jamb; and made the lines of ornament the same in each; and ran the two together in a perfectjoint’); Serlio, , Cinque libri (1584), III, p. 53 Google Scholar: ‘Questo telaro della porta, coiè le pilastrate dalle bande, & l’architrave sopra esse, si dice che è di un pezzo solo’ (‘It is said of this door surround, that is the jamb to the side and the architrave above, that it is all of one piece’), see also IV, p. 172; Palladio, , I quattro libri dell’architettura (Venice, 1570), i, 26, p. 55 Google Scholar: ‘Gli ornamenti, che si danno alle porte, e finestre; sono l’Architrave, il Fregio, e la Cornice. L’Architrave gira intorno la porta, e deve esser grosso quanto sono le Erte, over le Pilastrate’ (‘The ornaments given to doors and windows are the architrave, frieze, and cornice. The architrave runs around the door and has to be of the same thickness as the jambs’).
9 Vitruvius, , De architectura libri decem, iv, 6, trans. Castello, Francesco (Como, 1521), p. LXIX Google Scholar; Alberti, , De re aedificatoria, vii, 12 (1966, 11, p. 623)Google Scholar; fig. 3 from Bartoli’s 1550 translation, p. 246.
10 See Boëthius, Axel and Ward-Perkins, J. B., Etruscan and Roman Architecture (Harmondsworth, 1970), pls 115, 165-66Google Scholar; and also Palladio’s drawing, RIBA xii/16.
11 ‘Ancora che Vitruvio ne gli suoi scritti faccia mention di un sol modo di porta nell’ordine Dorico: & anco, come ho dimostrato, molto confusamente al parer mio; a me par conveniente cosa, che non solo di una sorte si debbia usare: ma di variate maniere, per arrichir una fabrica & per satisfare a diversi voleri’. Serlio, , Cinqui libri (1584), iv, p. 146 Google Scholar.
12 Vitruvius, , De architectura, with commentary by Philander, G., (Rome, 1544), pp. 106-07Google Scholar.
13 Vitruvius, , De architectura, iv, 6, 3Google Scholar; ed. D. Barbaro (1567), p. 144.
14 Alberti, , De re aedificatoria, vii, 12 (1550), pp. 243 and 246Google Scholar.
15 Palladio, , Quattro libri (1570), 1, 1, p. 7 and 1, 26, p. 56Google Scholar.
16 Serlio, , Cinque libri (1584), iv, pp. 144-45 (Doric)Google Scholar; iv, p. 163 (Ionic); iii, p. 53 and iv, pp. 172-73 (Corinthian).
17 Palladio, Quattro libri (1570), pl. LXVIII, see also the drawing for this plate (Museo Civico, Vicenza, no. D4v) and other Palladian drawings after ancient surrounds of more precisely Vitruvian proportions (RIBA ix/16-17); the Codex Coner is now in Sir John Soane’s Museum.
18 Alberti, , De re aedificatoria, vii, 12 (1550, p. 246)Google Scholar.
19 Serlio, , Cinque libri (1584), vi, p. 146 Google Scholar.
20 Palladio, , Quattro libri (1570), 1, 20, p. 52 Google Scholar.
21 ‘ponendo i correnti sopra alla apertura, perche patiscono men peso: le mensole sopra il sodo delle pil[a]strate, le quali sostengono tutto il peso del frontispicio: & questa cosa, al parer mio, serva il decoro, & è gratiosa all’occhio’. Serlio, , Cinque libri (1584), iv, p. 147 Google Scholar; see also Palladio, , Quattro libri (1570), 1, 20, p. 52 Google Scholar.
22 Vitruvius, , De architectura, iv, 6 Google Scholar; (Venice, 1511), p. 41; (Como, 1521), p. LXIX.
23 Serlio, , Extraordinario libro di architettura (Lyons, 1560)Google Scholar, no. 13 of Porte diiicate. The panel within the entablature derives from a couple of antique examples then visible in Rome: the Portico of Octavia at Sant’Angelo in Pescheria; and the Money-Changer’s Arch at S. Giorgio in Velabro, where the novelty of the feature was commented upon by Serlio himself (Cinque libri (1584), iii, p. 101).
24 ‘Le dua mezze colonne dalli lati la arrichiscono assai, nondimeno si puote fare senza esse. Et chi non vorrà quelle tabelle disopra, lassarà correre l’opera, & sarà più perfetta’. Serlio, Extraordinario libro (1560), no. 13 of Porte dilicate.
25 Lauro, Giacomo, Antiquae urbis splendor (Rome, 1612), p. 30 Google Scholar.
26 See Lyttelton, Margaret, Baroque Architecture in Classical Antiquity (London, 1974), p.61 Google Scholar; Blunt, Borromini, p.41.
27 See De Rossi 1, pp. 25 and 30.
28 Blunt, Anthony, Artistic Theory in Italy, 1410-1660 (Oxford, 1962), p. 75 Google Scholar.
29 Thelen, Heinrich, Francesco Bonomini. Die Handzeichnungen, v. Zeitraum von 1620-32 (Graz, 1967), p. 17 Google Scholar, no. 14.
30 See Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, p. 170; Goldscheider, Ludwig, Michelangelo (London and New York, 1953), pl. 165 Google Scholar.
31 I am grateful to Dr Paul Davies for drawing this example to my attention. A dramatic anticipation of the Tempietta occurs with the doorway superimposed on to the peristyle at the Temple of Bel, Palmyra, again with the order of a larger scale than the frame — in fact as if Fig. 2 illustrated a door in front of columns, rather than the other way around (see Lyttelton, Baroque Architecture in Classical Antiquity, p. 97, fig. 107). But, as mentioned above, there is no possibility that a modern Roman architect had seen Palmyra and no reason to assume that an ancient Roman architect repeated the form. The similarity must thus be the result of architects independently approaching similar problems.
32 See Palladio, , Quattro libri (1570), I, 20, p. 52 Google Scholar.
33 Serlio, Extraordinario libro (1560), no. 13 of Porte dilicate.
34 Wittkower, Rudolf drew attention to ambiguous or inconsistent overlapping when spread over the larger compass of complete church façades: see Studies in the Italian Baroque (London, 1975), pp. 20–23 Google Scholar.
35 See De Rossi I, pp. 56-57 and 59.
36 See De Rossi I, p. 133; Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, p. 125.
37 See De Rossi I, p. III.
38 See De Rossi I, p. 113; II, p. 6, and III, p. 3.
39 Hempel, Eberhard, Francesco Borromini (Vienna, 1924), pl. 117 Google Scholar; see also Portoghesi, Paolo, Roma Barocca: the History of an Architectural Culture (Rome, 1970)Google Scholar, fig. 165.
40 Vitruvius, , De architectura, IV, 6, 1–3 Google Scholar; Alberti, De re aedificatoria (1550), p. 246. The dotted line in Borromini’s drawing probably indicates a simple inner frame for the actual window with straight sides.
41 Alberti, , De re aedificatoria, XI, I (1966, II, p. 787)Google Scholar. If not buffalo the terms’ heads here may be lions.
42 See Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, fig. 19.
43 See De Rossi I, p. 13; Goldscheider, Michelangelo, pl. 163.
44 See De Rossi I, pp. 45, 64-66, 73-76, and 85; Opus architectonicum equitis Francisci Boromini (Rome, 1725), pl. x.
45 See De Rossi I, pp. 93 and 95-96; Opera del Cavai. Francesco Boromino (Rome, 1720), pls XXI-XXII and XLIII; see also Borromini’s drawing (Albertina 909), Portoghesi, Bonomini, fig. cxxi.
46 Alberti, , De re aedificatoria, VI, 12 (1966, 11, p. 517)Google Scholar.
47 ‘ed indicare più tosto i membri, e parti dell’Architettura, che ornarli, e perfezzionarli’. Opus architectonicum (1725), p. 11 (Chapter VII).
48 ‘Die einfache Linie der sich in die Fläche einzeichnenden Volute genügte vollkommen, um für den oberen Balkon einen Stützpunkt zu gewähren’. Hempel, Borromini, p. 120.
49 ‘An Stelle der isolierten Formen, de einzelnen Konsolen, Giebelfragmente und dergleichen tritt der ununterbrochene flüssige Linienzug, der als Profil das Fenster umläuft und sich zu Ohren ausweitet’. Hempel, Borromini, p. 31.
50 See De Rossi I, p. 90.
51 Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, p. 194.
52 See De Rossi I, p. 48.
53 See De Rossi I, p. 104 and II, p. 21; Blunt, Borromini, fig. 57.
54 See De Rossi I, pp. 69, 98, 100, and 11, p. 18; Howard, Elizabeth, The Falconieri Palace in Rome: the Role of Borromini in its Reconstruction (Garland, 1981), pp. 28–30 Google Scholar, figs 16-18 and p. 205, fig. 125; Opus architectonicum (1725), pls XVIII, XXVII, and LX; Portoghesi, Bonomini, fig. xliv, and also pls 277 ff. for a collection of photographs of Borromini’ears’. The window in the vault of the convex bays of S. Ivo (see Opero del Boromino (1720), pi. XLIII) also appears in note 45; its presence in both contexts confirms the influence of Michelangelo’s archive door at the Conservatori Palace (Fig. 10), which it copies in every respect except for the hint of a volute hung with a rope of foliage.
55 See De Rossi I, pp. 55, 122, 134, and 140-41.
56 ‘naturam optimam formarum artificem sibi fore imitandam indixere. Ea re leges, quibus ilia in rebus producendis uteretur, quoad hominum industria valuit, collegerunt suasque ad rationes aedificatorias transtulerunt.’ Alberti, , L’archittetura, IX, 5 (1966, 11, p. 817)Google Scholar; the English translation comes from Leoni, James, The Architecture of Leon Battista Alberti (London, 1755), p. 195 Google Scholar; see also 1, 10 and VII, 6 (1966, I, p. 71 and II, p, 567); and Opus architectonicum (1725), p. 10 (Chapter VI).
57 ‘Dico adunque, che essendo l’Architettura (come anche sono tutte le altre arti) imitatrice della Natura; niuna cosa patisce, che aliena & lontana sia da quello, che essa Natura comporta …’ Palladio, , Quattro libri (1570), I, 20, p. 51 Google Scholar; the English translation comes from Ware, Isaac, The Four Books of Architecture (London, 1738), p. 25 Google Scholar.
58 See Vitruvius, , De architectura, IV, 1, 7 Google Scholar; Alberti, , De re aedificatoria, VII, 6 (1966, II, p. 565)Google Scholar.
59 Alberti, , De re aedificatoria, VII, 12 and VII, 9 (1966, II, pp. 623 and 763)Google Scholar and Bartoli’s 1550 edition, pp. 244 and 315. I am grateful for Dr Richard Schofield for drawing this to my attention.
60 See De Rossi I, pp. 49-50.
61 Hempel, Borromini, p. 31 (quoted at note 49 above).
62 See De Rossi I, p. 41.
63 I am grateful to Dr Paul Davies for suggesting this idea to me. For the original functions of the façades see Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, p. 164.
64 See De Rossi I, p. 55.
65 Thelen, , Borromini. Die Handzeichnungen, I, pl. 57 Google Scholar; see also Blunt, Anthony, ‘The Palazzo Barberini’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 21 (1958), 256–87 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, p. 163.
66 Palladio, , Quattro libri (1570), I, 20, p. 52 Google Scholar; Vitruvius, , De architectura, IV, 6, 1–3 Google Scholar.
67 See De Rossi I, pp. 7 and 12-13; Goldscheider, Michelangelo, pl. 163.
68 See Opus architectonicum (1725), pl. XXXVII.
69 See De Rossi I, pp. 12 and 32; Blunt, Borromini, fig. 22; Goldscheider, Michelangelo, pl. 165.
70 See Opus architectonicum (1725), pl. LII; and also the Borromini drawing (Albertina 311), Portoghesi, Borromini, fig. xlviii.
71 See De Rossi I, p. 8.
72 See De Rossi I, pp. 50, 76, 81, and II, p. 39; Opus Architectonicum (1725), pl. x.
73 See Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, p. 122.
74 See Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, p. 126; De Rossi IV, p. 25.
75 See Portoghesi, Borromini, pls 145-46; Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, p. 188; De Rossi I, p. 85.
76 See Opus architectonicum (1725), pl. XXXIII.
77 See Wittkower, Studies, fig. 20; Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, fig. 19.
78 See De Rossi I, p. 94; Opus architectonicum (1725), pl. x.
79 See De Rossi I, pp. 8, 74, 76, and 81; Portoghesi, Borromini, pl. 34; Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, p. 75.
80 See Blunt, Borromini, figs 23, 59, and 78.
81 See Thelen, , Borromini. Die Handzeichnungen, I, pp. 75–76 Google Scholar, no. 64; De Rossi I, p. 52.
82 Blunt, Borromini, p. 34.
83 See De Rossi I, p. 45.
84 See De Rossi I, p. 48 and II, p. 37; see also Borromini drawings (Albertina 921, 921a, 922), Portoghesi, Borromini, figs cxvii, cxviii and cxx.
85 See De Rossi I, p. 46.
86 I am grateful to Dr Paul Davies for drawing this source to my attention. An example of the form closer to home occurs at the Canopus of Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli. Unfortunately it is not certain that this was known in the seventeenth century. Similarly, in the absence of further evidence, the presence of antique hat-shaped hoods at Baalbek and elsewhere in Asia Minor must be regarded as a coincidence, in spite of the astonishing echo of their narrow-brimmed form seen in the windows in the drum of Cortona’s S. Maria della Pace and on the façade of Rainaldi’s S. Maria in Campitelli (see Lyttelton, Baroque Architecture in Classical Antiquity, pls 4, 13, 132-33, 144, and 174-75; De Rossi III, p. 3; Wittkower, Studies, fig. 1).
87 See De Rossi I, pp. 41, 65, 73, 92, and 101.
88 See De Rossi I, pp. 41 and 82-83.
89 See De Rossi I, pp. 47-48.
90 See De Rossi I, p. 69.
91 See De Rossi I, p. 98.
92 See De Rossi I, pp. 76-77 and 81; Opus architectonicum (1725), pl. x.
93 See De Rossi I, pp. 32, 90, 141; and IV, p. 9.
94 Opus architectonicum (1725), p. 5 (Introduction).
95 Blunt, Borromini, pp. 16-17.
96 Passeri, Giambattista, Vite de’pittori, scultori ed architetti che hanno lavorato in Roma (Rome, 1722), p. 384 Google Scholar.