BORROMINI, Francesco, known as Il Castello. — Born in Bissone on 27 September 1599; died in Rome in August 1667. After a stay in Milan, which could not have had any formative importance, Borromini came to Rome around 1615 and worked as a stonecutter, carving some cherubim heads on the doors of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Later, four capitals in the small dome of Sant’Andrea della Valle show him humbly engaged in work directed by Maderno, who was thus able to appreciate the abilities of the young man, who was also a distant relative. For St Peter’s he carried out many marble works in those years: the base for Michelangelo’s Pietà, numerous coats of arms, part of the revetment for the niches of the apse; he also designed with decorative liveliness the iron grilles that give light to the small chapels in the undergrounds of the piers and executed the elegant doors of the Chapel of the Sacrament. Bernini used him to translate into full-scale designs the drawings for the baldachin of St Peter’s and left him a certain freedom of action in the Palazzo Barberini, where he had succeeded Maderno after his death; there, the windows with inflexed frames flanking the loggia display a plasticity of carving and an ornamental liveliness that clearly differentiate them.
After this humble activity, Borromini began his career as an architect with the convent and church of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza (1635-1667), the oratory of the Filippini at the Chiesa Nuova (1637-1640), and the bell towers of Sant’Agnese in Agone (1652-1657). For the Scala Regia of the Vatican, Borromini was commissioned to build the convent of the Filippini at the Chiesa Nuova (1638). With admirable flexibility, he resolved the planimetric arrangement of the complex in relation to environmental needs, inserting into the simple lines of a civil building the façade with two orders, slightly concave, in which is accommodated the convexity of the lower section corresponding to the door. The example of Michelangelo, whom Borromini proclaimed his master, is truly present here—not through a generic formal derivation (though note the use of a single order)—but in the ardent lyricism that shapes his expressive means, modifies the windows, multiplies the recesses, transforms the capitals, and moves the masses in an ever-unsatisfied aspiration toward a formal freedom that conveys the fervor of inner vision. The oratory, arranged transversely and rhythmically marked by pilasters, expands under the marvelous curve of the vault, which soars airily above the attic.
Appointed in 1632 architect of the Sapienza, Borromini worked actively on the southern side, and from 1642 to 1656 he built at the far end of the courtyard the church of Sant’Ivo. The plan results from the combination of two triangles, one with convex sides and the other concave. Yet upon entering the church, one does not perceive this geometric decomposition of the plan, but only an alternation of convex and concave sections, a tight rhythm of masses that advance and recede, surfaces punctuated by a very tall order of pilasters that, compressing the interior space, accentuate the sense of centrality dominated by the high dome. The principles of illusory spatial expansion seen in Sant’Ivo are realized in a definitive vision; the strong verticalism, linked by some critics to Gothic tradition, departs from it through the centrifugal force that bursts forth from the central axis and justifies the course of the walls, as well as through the precise rationality of every spatial boundary. The spiral motion of the lantern attests to how vividly and dynamically Borromini conceived every detail of his structure.
At the death of Urban VIII, Borromini intervened in the complex disputes over the bell towers of St Peter’s designed by Bernini, demonstrating great technical skill. He was then commissioned to renew the naves of St John Lateran on the occasion of the Jubilee of 1650. In the central nave, framed by very tall piers, he placed aediculae, reliefs, and oval niches; in this work he displayed a refined decorative ability, having stucco motifs modeled in floral patterns; he also gathered in aediculae as much as possible of the monuments that had once adorned the ancient basilica.
In other works, Borromini’s contribution was diminished by the intervention of different architects. Thus at Sant’Agnese in Agone, begun by the Rainaldis, between 1652 and 1657 he linked the dome and bell towers closely, giving the façade a concave curvature in its extreme sections. He achieved an equally vigorous unity in the interior, which, in its solemn stateliness, is foreign to Borromini’s intimate convictions. At Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, the apse and the most slender bell tower adorned with winged figures rise like a miracle of statics animated by intense chiaroscuro effects. At Propaganda Fide, beyond the completion of the palace, he designed the chapel dedicated to the Magi, which reveals itself externally with a giant order, while the columns of the windows accentuate the chiaroscuro effect; inside, the measured balance of the oratory of the Filippini gives way in the central space to a more compressed vision, but the chapels already tend to detach themselves as spatial entities in their own right. The phenomenon is even more evident in the interior of the church of the Seven Sorrows, remarkable for its chiaroscuro effects and a prelude to that way of conceiving space which would become common in the following century.
Meanwhile, Borromini worked on the Palazzo Falconieri (1645), adding the loggia facing the Tiber and decorating the rooms with stuccoes of marvelous lightness; he intervened in the construction of the Palazzo Pamphilj with various designs and added the main portal to the Palazzo Giustiniani; he arranged the Spada Chapel in San Girolamo della Carità, which features a marble drapery supported by angels as its balustrade; he finally worked on the baptistery of the Lateran and on the small temple of St John in Oleo. He concluded his activity with the façade of the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, where the convex-concave curvature is accentuated within the brevity of the space, the chiaroscuro becomes tight and insistent through the use of free-standing columns, and the surfaces are reduced to a minimum by the rich decorations. Surpassing the dynamic concentration of mature Baroque, Borromini glimpsed the future directions of architecture, and with the modulated pictorial vibrations of the façade of San Carlo he created a model that would inspire architects of the eighteenth century in Rome and beyond.
His enmity with Bernini, the subject of many anecdotes, resolves critically into a real opposition, or rather a different orientation within the single realm of the Baroque. Bernini starts from the overall vision and arrives at the detail only when he wishes; he strikes the observer’s imagination with color and the preciousness of materials, surrenders to creative impulse but, by an inner law, reins in his momentum and composes himself into a serene classical idealism grounded in a lively taste for plasticity. Borromini, instead, attentive, measured, and precise, torments a plan or a profile with the same insistence, arrives at the overall effect through infinite refinements; he often uses the humblest materials, scorns polychromy or restricts it to very narrow limits; he places no limits on his lyrical vision, does not submit to pre-established formulas, but like Michelangelo creates his own language and imparts to his work that inner tension which translates into a particular mode of spatial dynamism. Borromini’s imprint is so distinctive that it is easy to recognize his works even in the most modest fragments.
For Sant’Ivo: G. B. Passeri, op. cit.; G. G. Bottari, op. cit.; A. G. G. Masson, op. cit.; R. Papini, op. cit.; W. Lotz, op. cit.
For the Palazzo Barberini: G. B. Passeri, op. cit.; G. G. Bottari, op. cit.; A. G. G. Masson, op. cit.
For the Chiesa Nuova: G. B. Passeri, op. cit.; G. G. Bottari, op. cit.; A. G. G. Masson, op. cit.; R. Papini, op. cit.
For Sant’Agnese in Agone: G. B. Passeri, op. cit.; G. G. Bottari, op. cit.; A. G. G. Masson, op. cit.; R. Papini, op. cit.
For Propaganda Fide: G. B. Passeri, op. cit.; G. G. Bottari, op. cit.; A. G. G. Masson, op. cit.; R. Papini, op. cit.
For the Palazzo Falconieri: G. B. Passeri, op. cit.; G. G. Bottari, op. cit.; A. G. G. Masson, op. cit.; R. Papini, op. cit.
For the Spada Chapel: G. B. Passeri, op. cit.; G. G. Bottari, op. cit.; A. G. G. Masson, op. cit.
For the Lateran Baptistery: G. B. Passeri, op. cit.; G. G. Bottari, op. cit.; A. G. G. Masson, op. cit.
For San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane: G. B. Passeri, op. cit.; G. G. Bottari, op. cit.; A. G. G. Masson, op. cit.; R. Papini, op. cit.; W. Lotz, op. cit.
BORROMINI, FRANCESCO – Interior of S. Carlino alle Quattro Fontane – Rome
(photo by Alinari)
BORROMINI, FRANCESCO – Lateran Basilica – Rome
(photo by Alinari)
BORROMINI, FRANCESCO – Façade of the Oratory of the Filippini at Chiesa Nuova – Rome
(photo by Alinari)
BORROMINI, FRANCESCO – Lateran Basilica – Rome
(photo by Alinari)
BORROMINI, FRANCESCO – Lateran Basilica – Rome
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)
(photo by Alinari)