Baroque was born in Rome, and Saint Peter’s Basilica and its square is still perhaps its most striking manifestation. However, the earliest Baroque church in the city was Il Gesù, the church of Jesus, started in 1568 (below). This was the mother house of the Jesuits, prime movers in the Counter-Reformation. They were global teachers and missionaries, and moved throughout Europe and into the New World, taking their architecture with them.

Nice, in the south of France, is a mere 25 miles from the Italian border and was disputed territory until 1860. It, too, has a rich Baroque heritage, including the cathedral of Sainte Réparate, 1650-1685 (right), whose façade features Composite order at ground level and a lighter, Corinthian order above. The niches, both here and in the façade of Il Gesù, show the Baroque fascination with the play of light and shadow, the effect intensified by the proximity of other buildings and the strong Mediterranean light. (Photos courtesy the author)

But it is inside Baroque churches that light, color and magnificence explode. The late Baroque abbey church of Neresheim in southern Germany was started in 1745, and is by Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753). It features on the cover of Baroque and Rococo, an excellent introduction to the subject, published by Feierabend (above). The open construction, with no transept and with numerous side chapels, reflects the model of Il Gesù. The dazzling white pillars and the soaring vaulting create an intensely aesthetic experience of movement and beauty.

Baroque’s powerful appeal to the senses is epitomized in the side chapel in the Eglise Saint-Jacques in Nice, 1677-1740 (p 14). The twisted “Solomonic” columns were believed to have originated in the Temple of Solomon, and are quintessentially Baroque - Bernini used many of them in Saint Peter’s in Rome. The Virgin and Child group here is remarkable for its delicate naturalness which is subordinated to the symbols of religious power above it, the holy dove emitting golden rays and surrounded by cherubim. Everything is designed to be seen from a low, awe-struck position. The white figures stand out vividly from the colored marble and gilding. The intellectual appeal of Neresheim and the sensual appeal of Saint-Jacques, replicated all over Europe and beyond, were powerful tools in winning the faithful to Rome.

Another feature of the Baroque was spectacle on the grandest scale. The chapel sponsored by the Cornaro family in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome is pure spectacle (p 15). Built by Bernini between 1647 and 1651, it commemorates the recently canonized mystic Teresa of Avila. The altar sculpture shows the saint in ecstasy while at the sides, in boxes as at the opera, sit members of the Cornaro family (mostly deceased cardinals – this dedication was all about the family’s designs on the papacy). The mural above it, attributed to Guidobaldo Abbatini, combined with the architectural friezes and pediments, puts everything into the perspective of religious power. (Photos courtesy the author)

Versailles and Louis XIV –
the Sun King

France, especially under the rule of Louis XIV, provides the best example of the role of art in establishing absolute political control over an entire country.
When Louis XIV came to the throne in 1643 at the age of 5, his late father Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu had already begun centralizing power. This continued during the regency of his mother, Anne of Austria, and her adviser Cardinal Mazarin. But it was when Louis reached his majority that things really took off. He reigned until 1715 – so long that the next monarch, Louis XV, was his great-grandson. As well as overseeing the transformation of Paris into a true capital city, he created Versailles in all its splendor and corralled his entire court there, effectively cutting them off from any power base they may have had in their own estates in the country.
Louis XIV appreciated hospitality on a lavish scale, but brooked no challenge. His finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, an immensely wealthy patron of the arts, built his château of Vaux-le-Vicomte at Melun, southwest of Paris, in 1656-61. Fouquet invited the King and his court to a magnificent feast in sumptuous surroundings, complete with water features and fireworks. Big mistake. Louis was incensed at being, as he saw it, upstaged, and sent Fouquet into exile and later to the Pignerol fortress, where he died in 1680. He then commissioned Fouquet’s architect, Le Vau, and his landscape gardener, Le Nôtre, to transform Louis XIII’s hunting lodge at Versailles into a palace.
The plans for Versailles had the palace at the centre, paths and avenues radiating off through gardens in one direction and the town in the other, the whole conceived as an entity on a vast scale. By 1682, it was ready for the court to be moved permanently into it.

Baroque furniture

The Baroque palace was planned as a suite of rooms en enfilade, through which one passed towards the King's apartments. How far one progressed was a mark of one's importance. Console tables were ideal for displaying precious objects without impeding traffic. This pair (one shown) of mid-eighteenth-century, south German, giltwood tables, 32 inches high and 25 inches wide, sold at Christie's (Paris) for $117,310 in the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre BergŽ sale in Feb. 2009. (Photo courtesy Christie's)

André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) was one of the great French ébénistes (cabinet-makers) of the period. This 1715 armoire is 121 inches tall and 76 inches wide. It is in contre-partie marquetry, where the design is laid out in turtleshell set into brass. Even though not invented by him, the technique is known as Boulle marquetry, so great was his mastery. (Photo courtesy the Wallace Collection, London)

Later in the eighteenth century, fashion turned to the Rococo, a charming, lighter and later version of Baroque. This set of mid-eighteenth-century Italian giltwood chairs are masterpieces of Rococo elegance and refinement. In the possession of politician William Collins Whitney (New York), then of his son and daughter-in-law until 1934, they later belonged to Yves Saint Laurent and Bergé. Sold by Christie's (Paris) in Feb. 2009, at the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé sale for $1,238,849. (Photo courtesy Christie's)

Further Resources

The exhibition, Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence, runs at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London through July 19, 2009. Details at www.vam.ac.uk. A magnificent book of the same title, edited by Michael Snodin and Nigel Llewellyn, price US$85, is available from Abrams at www.hnabooks.com.

London’s Wallace Collection is a five-minute walk from Bond Street subway station. Admission is free; it is open daily and, as well as a fabulous collection, has an inexpensive café in delightful surroundings, www.wallacecollection.org. A superb guide to the Wallace Collection is published by Scala, www.scalapublishers.com.

Baroque and Rococo is an excellent introduction, published in 2003. www.feierabend-unique-books.de