Baroque - Catholics VS Protestants

The Baroque Style replaced the late Renaissance epoch. Its level of sculpturing was beyond of what the Greeks were capable of. In this style, they would play with high realism, no symbolism, no expressionism, purely stating what it is.

During the late Renaissance, artists would play with contrasts, remember Madonna with the Long Neck by Parmigianino?

Well in Baroque, it will be more dynamic, more dramatic. But lets begin with the historical context.
In this era, Christianity had its peek, it was still strong and influential like I talked in my last blog. So what changed? Members of the christian church got more powerful and very rich. the St. Peters is a god example for that. For some people it wasn't anymore the principle of the christian church like it used to be at the beginning of its establishment. More simple, more humble, a religion for the common people.
It was in fact a opposite movement to the Religion Roman people believed at that time, which was after all, all about showing of, rich in detail, usage of expensive materials etc...
So the christian religion wanted to address more the poor people, show that they are more connected to the people, a religion in which God would care for them. So for some people that wasn't the case anymore. One of them was Martin Luther, he would oppose the christian church, start a new movement which was called the Protestant. Martin Luther, a person whose idea was to lead Christianity back to its real root.
This of course caused a lot of trouble, the catholic church had to react to the new movement.
So what they did next, I wouldn't had expected in my wildest dreams. Instead of trying to become once again humble and simple again, the pope ordered to be even more elaborate in form and detail than before.

The idea behind it was simple, showing the people how strong and influential the catholic church is, making the Protestant movement look cheap and weak.

 Martin Luther nailing his complaints on a door of a catholic church, a total no- go

So how did this change manifest itself in Architecture? For that I will talk about 3 examples. The Nave of the St.Peter's by Maderno, Sixtus V's Plan of Rome and the Plan of the St.Peter's Complex by Bernini.

The Nave was build after the St.Peter's Dome had been build. Designed by Carlo Maderno, it was basically a big F**k You to Michelangelo, since the nave is so huge, that the Dome is mostly concealed by it and from the St. Peter's place not possible to be seen.  

The Nave transformed the Church from a Greek cross plan to a Latin cross plan, making it the biggest christian church in the world. It was the Pope who commissioned it, so that it would become the greatest and biggest church of all. This all for the sake of showing the people that the catholic christian religion was the most powerful religion of them all, especially towards the new Protestant church. 

This Picture shows clearly how the Nave blocks the view of the Dome

Baroque was also the era of the concept of urban planning, making the city more beautiful. Pope Sixtus V's Masterplan for Rome was such urban plan. It was one of the first of its kind and actually realized. He wanted to control the look and view of Rome, since its condition got more and more out of the hand. Rome should become a more pilgrimage friendly place for the christian people, so that they would easily pilgrim from one church to the next one. The new roads would connect the 7 first christian churches in Rome, visually pinpointed with the reusage of obelisks from ancient Egypt. 

But there was another reason for radically change the plan of the city. Since the roads in Rome where from medieval time, there was no general outline of roads. The where lots of small roads, which where unhygienic; people living near to each other are most likely to infect each other more easily. They where also very unsecure, it  was difficult to visually see criminals / crimes, especially Protestants. With the new urban plan and the long straight street, it would become more difficult for Protestants to hide themselves.

The last example i want to talk about is the Piazza in front of the St.Peter's. Designed by Bernini, the favorite artist of the Popes and the dominant one during the Baroque time. Is is a enormous place, huge, but just good enough for a huge church after all. It is flanked by colonnades, separating the space from the surrounding buildings. In this plan we can see, that baroque artists, unlike Renaissance artists, won't go with the strict geometric form. Instead of a perfect circle, you would end up with an oval form. Instead of a perfect square, it becomes a trapeze. All for the sake of distinguish themselves from the Renaissance style and to also give dynamic and movement to the forms. Make them come more alive. 

Renaissance and it's Identity

The Renaissance period followed after the Gothic era. The period get's more related to the classical architecture again.
This era was also the beginning of the christian world to crumble, for example the discovery of America by Columbus. The Knowledge is more spread throughout the people, Humanism becomes very important in the Renaissance. It is the spirit of learning, to get back the confidence in the ability of determine what is right or wrong on their own. Florence being one of the most important city during the Renaissance development.

Brunelleschi for example discovered the way of how to construct perspective and represent it. The Dome of the Cathedral at Florence is one of his master pieces. It is a combination of both Roman and Gothic architecture, using both styles to create this dome. To be more precise, the pointed arch from the Gothic era and the usage of voids in walls from the Roman style, creating a double shell roof

Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man became important for Brunelleschi, since the drawing was kind of the recipe for beauty and showed mathematical the aesthetic proportion. As such, Brunelleschi's Ospedale degli Innocent considered to be the first early Renaissance building, was based on proportion and geometry, using logical repetition of modules, which have been carefully calculated before.

Another example from Brunelleschi would be the Pazzi Chapel, which uses, in plan, simple geometric forms, namely square and rectangle. In this way all the elements relating to each other.



Also a very important figure during the Renaissance period was Donato Bramante. The Tempietto, a centralized church, which was inspired by sketches from Da Vinci, is agood example of a concept, using something massif in the middle and let it be surrounded by more delicate buildings.  The Tempietto, which is a very perfect building in circular shape will influence the St. Peter later.

Speaking of the St. Peter's in Rome. The Building was ordered by Pope Julius II to create a bigger dome than the one from the Pantheon. In plan it uses the Renaissance typical geometric form; a square with a tilted square which creates a centralized plan with symmetry. Unfortunately Bramante died before finishing the plan. It was never accomplished, the construction of the dome was too complicate.

Bramante introduced us to the Belvedere Courtyard, a building with 3 terraces and controlled circulation, which animated people to walk slowly and enjoy the garden. As such the garden becomes a place of socializing. He also used the term perspective vista, also known as bella vista, which was typical for renaissance gardens as well. It is the one place with the most beautiful view of the whole building.

My last example is Andrea Palladio, who stated that a good building should integrate the following three principles: Firmness, Commodity and Delight.
Palladio, trained as a stone mason, included in all of his architecture a strong system of proportions, which he found by studying ancient Roman buildings. He also came up with the urban palace, which looks less than a fortress and is thus more welcoming. But the one building I want to talk about is the Villa Americo Capra, also known as La Rotonda. It is Palladio's most famous building. It is pure symmetry, all parts are the same and even the building itself looks the same on all sites.



To conclude, Renaissance architecture is based upon mathematical proportions, which had been illustrated by Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Humanism has become a major part of this era, Christianity lost a lot of its relevance as the common people became more and more self-confident. Humanism is the spirit of learning, the will to acquire knowledge, which upon people can determine on their own what is right and what is wrong. As such the christian world crumbled, as the revolution of man and science became more and more relevant, for example the discovery of American Continent by Columbus or Galileo, who fought against the christian ideology and proved, that the sun is the center of the cosmos and not the earth.

As such, also architecture changed and became more profane and less sacral.