Good morning everybody. Today I am going to, well actually let me step back for a second. I have been mentioning to you, the last several weeks I've been mentioning to you more than once, the fact that we are, that we have been beginning to see what I've described as the Baroque element in Roman architecture. The Baroque element in Roman architecture. And I want to concentrate on that particular aspect of Roman architecture today which is why I've called the lecture Baroque Extravaganzas. I want to make, at the beginning, at the outset, a few points, I want to highlight what I see as the three major features of of Baroque architecture in the Roman period. The first of these is that those buildings that are Baroque, or at least the architects and patrons who designed buildings that we think of today as Baroque, or we might define as Baroque buildings they, they use the traditional vocabulary of architecture. They use the traditional vocabulary of architecture. And by what, by that I mean the traditional vocabulary of Greek and Etruscan architecture for the most part. I'm speaking now of columns, I'm speaking of pediments and I'm also speaking of lintels and entablatures and the like. They use all of that traditional vocabulary, but they use it in a very different way. That's number one. Number two is that Baroque Roman, Bar-, Roman, ancient Roman Baroque buildings tend to be decorated in a very ornate fashion, almost too ornate. In fact we'll see that these buildings are covered with decoration. So much so that they seem to dematerialize some of the architectural elements, including those ones that make up that traditional vocabulary of architecture. The third and in some respects the most important is the fact that they use these traditional elements of architecture to, they use them in a way to enliven the surface. To create motion, to create a sense of undulation and that in and out the in and out projection and recession that I've mentioned on a few occasions. We see that interjected into these works of architecture of the so-called Baroque style. So keep those three, those three characteristics in mind as we look at a host of buildings today. I also want to mention that we'll focus primarily today on the Eastern part of the empire where we see a particularly large number of these Baroque buildings. In large part because there was a strong tradition in that part of the world for using that traditional vocabulary of architecture because of the very strong impact of Greece and of Greek architecture. And of the very of, of access to to high quality marble from that part of the world which of course is needed for columns and the like. So we'll focus on the Eastern part of the empire. I also want to want to make the point that one, when one thinks about Baroque architecture, in general, one thinks not of Roman antiquity but rather of the 17th century in Italy. One thinks in particular of two master architects, two great architectural giants who were on the world stage at that particular time. And that is Bernini, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and also Francesco Borromini, Francesco Borromini. Bernini and Borromini. Who were themselves rivals, architectural rivals. Put up buildings in fact that are often in dialogue with one another. I think in particular of the Piazza Navona, where we have Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain and Borromini' s church of Sant'Agnese in Agone and the way in which they were set up to speak to one another. I don't know if any of you, I'm sure many of you know of the Four Rivers Fountain, where one of the rivers has his hand up like this, to protect himself. And the implication is he needs to protect himself, he's facing Bernini's building. he's, he's facing, excuse me, he's facing Borromini's church. And he needs to protect himself. That is, Bernini's river needs to protect himself from Borromini's church. The implication being that if he doesn't, he needs to hold up his hand because Borromini's church is going to collapse because it's so poorly executed. So this very interesting dialogue between the two men. And again, we think of that primarily when we think of Baroque. And just a couple of examples I show you here, and I'll show you a number of them in the course of the lecture today, especially Borronini's work. But I wanted to focus right at the moment on on Saint Peters San Pietro. You see it here. The Saint Peters as designed, the dome is designed as we discussed before by Michelangelo. The facade designed by Carlo Moderno, also 17th century architect. But most interesting are the embracing oval arms of Bernini's colonnade. And you can see that so well in the view on the upper left. The embracing arms of that colonnade and all the motion and the in and out mo-, mo-, movement that we find both on the facade and in the embracing arms is characteristic of 17th century Baroque architecture. But I want to maintain today as I've maintained in the course of this semester that the Romans, there wasn't anything that the Romans didn't do first. And that it is Roman Baroque architecture as we're going to define it today that a huge impact on architects like Borromini and Bernini. As I remind you of a couple of instance of that, think back. I mean this, the whole idea of using hemicycles, curves in architecture is begun by the Romans of course, in such buildings as the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, Pallastrino where you see one of the hemicycles up there. And you'll remember that from our discussion of the paper topics, that in Gerasa there was an oval piazza or oval forum well before the oval colonnade of Bernini. So again, what I am going to try to demonstrate today is how important this Baroque architecture in Roman antiquity is, not only in its own right but also as a model and the spur to the architects of the 17th Century in Italy. We have touched upon the the beginnings of Roman Baroque Architecture, incipient, you might call in incipient Roman Baroque architecture in a few instances and I just want to remind you of those today. Think back to second style Roman wall painting, I remind you of the Room of the Masks in the House of Augustus where you see this theatrical facade, done in paint. That represents columns with a, with projecting in, projecting elements or lintels on either side and then a kind of a pediment up above. We saw our first explorations of this kind of thing in painting already in 60 to 50 BC. And then in this case In the thirties to 20 BC. And we maintained at that point that there was probably a direct relationship between theatrical architecture and these kinds of paintings. But we don't have much in the way of preserved built architecture at that time that part takes some of these characteristics of what we think is possible, that there may have been, as I mentioned then, some wooden, some some skani fronds with this, these kinds of effects done in wood that no longer survive today. You'll remember also that we looked at the Forum Transitorium in Rome. The forum first of Domitian and then completed by Nerva, and I show you a detail of that again. And this is when we really begin to see, in built architecture this, this this mo-, move towards what we're defining today as the Baroque in Roman architecture. And you can see that what we have here are the traditional, the traditional vocabulary of architecture columns, in this case Corinthian columns with projecting entablatures on top. Creating a system of receiving and progressing bays, across the, across the surface, which created a kind of undulating movement across the sides of the forum. And then you'll remember also if you'll look at the frieze that the frieze continues along the sides of the columns, columns as well and then in the in relief of Manerva up on top. It's not quite, I wouldn't call it overly ornate quite yet but it is ornate And you'll remember that during the Flavian period for example, there was a lot of interest in ornate decoration. So, we're beginning to see some ex-, exploration of this kind of thing. And then it comes full blown in the early third century AD. The Septizodium, the facade that was designed for Septimius Severus for the Pala-, to add to the Palatine palace that had been built by Domitian. This incredible facade that is more show than anything else. We think it may also have served as a fountain, as I mentioned. Very much looking like a theater set with two, with three very large niches columns on the curve. And then a series of columns placed in three tiers, with wings on either side. And we have a sense that this too was quite decorative. So, all of those elements, the use of the traditional language of architecture, columns, lintels and so on. a, an interest in a very decorative surface, and then above all this this interjection of motion into the structure. Projecting bay, receding bay, projecting bay, receding bay, all using the traditional language of architecture. The traditional vocabulary of architecture, namely columns and the like. Then I also showed you the tomb, the second century tomb of the Caetennii, under the Vatican in Rome. And we looked at this axonometric view in Ward-Perkins showing the brick-faced con-, brick, brick-faced concrete facade with expro-, with expose, the exposed brick that was Popular at that time. But we focused in on the interior of the structure where I mentioned that through archetectonic means. The architects had, had had, had embellished this surface and created, interesting motion in that surface. And you see here this same idea of split, as we see in the paintings of the second style, triangular pediment has been split apart to reveal another triangular pediment inside with a niche as you can see. And the rest of the wall, embellished with columns. So once again, this sense of, in and out movement, across the sides of that wall, walls. And here you see a view of it as it looks today. The ar-, the columns and so on are no longer there, but you can reconstruct them in your minds eye underneath these captials and get a very good sense of this articualtion. What we might call a kind of Baroque articulation of the walls.
