Baroque (Part Three).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

English: Interior of the Parish Church of Saint Martin, 
at Gurnitz, Klagenfurt, Austria.

Deutsch: Inneres der Pfarrkirche Sankt Martin in Gurnitz, 
Marktgemeinde Ebenthal in Kärnten, Bezirk 
Klagenfurt Land, Kärnten / Österreich.

Photo: 15 May 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Johann Jaritz.

(Wikimedia Commons)

English: Interior of the Basilica of Vierzehnheiligen, 
(Basilica of The Fourteen Auxiliary Saints), 
near Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany.

Deutsch: Innenansicht Basilika Vierzehnheiligen (Germany).

Source: Own work.

Date: 5 September 2005.

Author: Asio otus.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Sacred Baroque Music from The Royal Chapel of Spain.
Available on YouTube at
http://youtu.be/CHki7gZhARM.

The Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (also Basilika Vierzehnheiligen) is a Church located near the town of Bad Staffelstein, near Bamberg, in Bavaria, Southern Germany. The Late-Baroque-Rococo Basilica, designed by Balthasar Neumann, was constructed between 1743 and 1772. It is dedicated to the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of Saints venerated together in the Catholic Church, especially in Germany, at the time of the Black Death. [Editor: Another name for these Saints is the Fourteen Auxiliary Saints.]

English: The Basilica of Vierzehnheiligen, Bamberg, Germany.

Español: Basílica de Vierzehnheiligen.

Photo: 4 September 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Schubbay.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The last phase of Baroque architecture in Italy is exemplified by Luigi Vanvitelli's Caserta Palace, reputedly the largest building erected in Europe in the 18th-Century. Indebted to contemporary French and Spanish models, the Palace is skillfully related to the landscape. At Naples and Caserta, Vanvitelli practiced a sober and classicising academic style, with equal attention to aesthetics and engineering, a style that would make an easy transition to Neoclassicism.

In the North of Italy, the Monarchs from the House of Savoy were particularly receptive to the new style. They employed a brilliant triad of architects - Guarino Guarini, Filippo Juvarra, and Bernardo Vittone - to illustrate the grandiose political ambitions and the newly-acquired royal status of their dynasty.

Guarini was a peripatetic Monk who combined many traditions (including that of Gothic architecture) to create irregular structures remarkable for their oval Columns and unconventional façades. Building upon the findings of contemporary geometry and stereometry, Guarini elaborated the concept of architectura obliqua, which approximated Borromini's style in both theoretical and structural audacity. Guarini's Palazzo Carignano (1679) may have been the most flamboyant application of the Baroque style to the design of a private house in the 17th-Century.

Church of Saint Anne in Kraków, Poland.

Photo: 14 July 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Gryffindor.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Fluid forms, weightless details, and the airy prospects of Juvarra's architecture anticipated the art of Rococo. Although his practice ranged well beyond Turin, Juvarra's most arresting designs were created for Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia. The visual impact of his Basilica di Superga (1717) derives from its soaring roof-line and masterful placement on a hill above Turin. The rustic ambiance encouraged a freer articulation of architectural form at the royal hunting lodge of the Palazzina di Stupinigi (1729). Juvarra finished his short but eventful career in Madrid, where he worked on the royal Palaces at La Granja and Aranjuez.

English: The Pilgrimage Church of Saint Anne, Haigerloch, Germany.

Deutsch: Haigerloch Wallfahrtskirche Sankt Anna.

Photo: 3 August 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Rainer Halama.

Permission: Own work, attribution required

(Multi-license with GFDL and Creative Commons CC-BY 2.5).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Among the many who were profoundly influenced by the brilliance and diversity of Juvarra and Guarini, none was more important than Bernardo Vittone. This Piedmontese architect is remembered for an outcrop of flamboyant Rococo Churches, quatrefoil in plan and delicate in detailing. His sophisticated designs often feature multiple vaults, structures within structures and Domes within Domes.

The island of Malta contains a variety of Baroque architecture, most importantly the capital city of Valletta. It was laid out in 1566 to fortify the Knights of Rhodes, who had taken over the island when they were driven from Rhodes by Islamic armies. The city, designed by Francesco Laparelli on a grid plan, and built up over the next century, remains a particularly coherent example of Baroque urbanism. Its massive fortifications, which were considered state of the art until the modern age, are also largely intact. Valletta became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

The High Altar at Wallfahrtskirche Steinhausen, 

in the village of Steinhausen,

near Bad Schussenried, Germany.

Photo: 22 October 2012.

Source: Own work (Selbst fotografiert).

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

As Italian Baroque influences penetrated across the Pyrenees, they gradually superseded in popularity the restrained classicising approach of Juan de Herrera, which had been in vogue since the Late-16th-Century. As early as 1667, the façades of Granada Cathedral (by Alonso Cano) and Jaén Cathedral (by Eufrasio López de Rojas) suggest the artists' fluency in interpreting traditional motifs of Spanish Cathedral architecture in the Baroque aesthetic idiom.

In contrast to the art of Northern Europe, the Spanish art of the period appealed to the emotions rather than seeking to please the intellect. The Churriguera family, which specialised in designing Altars and Retables, revolted against the sobriety of the Herreresque classicism and promoted an intricate, exaggerated, almost capricious style of surface decoration known as the Churrigueresque.

Toledo Cathedral, Spain, 

from the Plaza del Ayuntamiento.

Photo: 5 August 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Nikthestoned.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Within half a century, they transformed Salamanca into an exemplary Churrigueresque city. Among the highlights of the style, the interiors of the Granada Charterhouse offer some of the most impressive combinations of space and light in 18th-Century Europe. Integrating sculpture and architecture even more radically, Narciso Tomé achieved striking chiaroscuro effects in his Transparente for Toledo Cathedral.

The development of the style passed through three phases. Between 1680 and 1720, the Churriguera popularised Guarini's blend of Solomonic Columns and composite order, known as the "supreme order". Between 1720 and 1760, the Churrigueresque Column, or Estipite, in the shape of an inverted Cone or obelisk, was established as a central element of ornamental decoration. The years from 1760 to 1780 saw a gradual shift of interest away from twisted movement and excessive ornamentation toward a neoclassical balance and sobriety.

PART FOUR FOLLOWS.