Rome was the capital of baroque style, as seventeenth century popes spent freely on buildings and art. But you have to know where to go to see the best.
Rome was a great centre of the Baroque style. Caravaggio created an entirely new vision for painters, while Borromini and Bernini competed – and sometimes cooperated - to build ever more wilful and impressive churches and palaces. While some of the great works of the baroque period – St. Peter’s for example – are on everybody’s list of ‘must sees’, others are hidden away in the back streets.
If you want a quick way to see the stylistic differences between Borromini and Bernini, two churches on Via del Quirinale encapsulate their distinctive versions of the Baroque. San Carlino was Borromini’s first church, and he’s created a wonderful façade full of curves; the undulating frontage and the contrast of concave and convex surfaces are characteristic of his style. Inside, he has created an unusual lozenge shaped plan with an oval dome, and light pouring in from above.
Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, just down the road, is Bernini’s work. Superficially similar – it too plays with concave and convex areas in the façade, and has an oval dome – it’s far more theatrical and less meditative in its effect. Where Borromini suffuses the entire church with light, Bernini plays with intense colour – red and pink marble, an inlaid pavement, yellow stained glass giving the whole church a warm golden cast.
Another Borromini church worth visiting is Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, the church of the university, just off Piazza Navona. It’s wonderfully light, with its massive pillars thrusting upwards, and its intriguing helical lantern. But it’s not often open – your best bet is to turn up for morning mass on Sunday.
A Chapel Becomes a Baroque Theatre
Bernini was also a sculptor; perhaps his most famous work is the Cornaro chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, a masterpiece of the Italian Baroque. His altarpiece shows Saint Teresa of Avila in ecstasy, an angel holding a lance that pierces her body. Bernini shows the almost sexual surrender of the saint, her body going limp, her lips slightly parted. But in true baroque style, he’s framed the sculpture as a sort of dramatic entertainment, putting figures of the Cornaro family in what look like theatre boxes along the walls of the chapel. And don't miss the figure of the little skeleton inlaid in the pavement, indicating that this was a burial chapel for the Cornaros.
Since Dan Brown mentioned this church in Angels and Demons, it’s been thronged with tourists. But you can get a Bernini all to yourself in the church of San Francesco a Ripa, over the Tiber in Trastevere. Here, the blessed Ludovica Albertoni lies on her deathbed, clutching her breast, her head thrown back, her mouth open and gasping; her turbulent draperies seem to reflect the agonies of death. It’s an impressive sculpture and yet hardly anyone ever goes to see it.
Baroque Painting Creates Drama From Shadows
Baroque Rome isn't just about architecture and sculpture; you’ll find superb baroque painting too, notably the works of Caravaggio. In San Luigi Francese, not far from the Corso, you can see his three paintings of the life and martyrdom of Saint Matthew. The painting where St Matthew is called by Jesus is particularly interesting; it looks like a genre scene of gamblers in a tavern, till you see the figure of Jesus in the darkness at the right hand of the painting, reaching a hand out towards Matthew. Nearby in Sant’Agostino, his Madonna di Loreto was criticised for its realism, showing a barefoot Madonna.
Perhaps the greatest treasury of baroque art in the whole city – apart from St Peter’s, of course – is Santa Maria del Popolo. Here, Bernini completed Raphael’s Chigi chapel, answering Raphael’s two calm statues of prophets with his own more dramatic and emotional pair. And here too you’ll find Caravaggio’s masterpieces, the martyrdom of St Peter and the Conversion of St Paul, in which Caravaggio’s typical chiaroscuro creates a murky universe in which just a few points of light illumine the scene.
