| Francesco Borromini |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT FRANCESCO BORROMINI | |
| italian architects | |
| borromini, francesco | |
| swiss architects | |
| baroque architects | |
| people from ticino | |
| 1599 births | |
| 1667 deaths | |
| architects who committed suicide | |
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EARLY LIFE AND FIRST WORKS Son of stone mason Giovanni Domenico Castelli, Borromini began his career as a stone mason himself, and soon moved to Milan to study and practice this activity. He was also called " Bissone ", by the place in which he was born (near Lugano , in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland ). When in Rome ( 1619 ) he changed his name (from Castelli to Borromini) and started working for Carlo Maderno , his distant relative, at St. Peter's . When Maderno died in 1629, he joined the group under Gian Lorenzo Bernini , completing the facade and expansions of Maderno's Palazzo Barberini . INDEPENDENT WORKS In 's Sant'Andrea Al Quirinale , which lies just down the street. That latter church has a sculptural drama embedded into the architecture, as a form of ''bel composto''. In San Carlino, the drama is geometric. The undulating elements in the façade (completed late in his life), are also masterful {Link without Title} . For Sant'Agnese In Agone , he reverted the original plan of Girolamo Rainaldi (and his son Carlo Rainaldi ), which previously had its main entrance on Via di Santa Maria dell'Anima. The façade was expanded to include parts of the bordering Pamphilij palace, gaining space for the two bell towers (each of which has a clock, as in St. Peter's, one for Roman time, the other for ''tempo ultramontano'', European time). Borromini lost this commission before completion due to the death of the Pope Innocent X in 1655. The new Pope, Alexander VII , and Prince Camillo Pamphilj recalled Rainaldi, but this one didn't change very much and the church is mainly considered a notable expression of Borromini's concepts. From 1640-1650, he worked on the design of the church of Sant'Ivo Alla Sapienza and its courtyard, near University Of Rome La Sapienza palace. The site, like many in cramped Rome, is challenged for external perspectives. The dome and cochlear steeple are peculiar, and reflect the idiosyncratic architectural motifs that distinguish Borromini from contemporaries. Inside, the nave has an unusual centralized plan circled by alternating concave and convex cornices, leading to a dome decorated with linear arrays of stars and putti. The fusion of feverish baroque excesses with a rationalistic geometry is an excellent match for a church in a papal institution of higher learning. He is purported to be a strong influence on the Turin architect, Camillo-Guarino Guarini . DEATH AND EPITAPH |
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