Borromini: Stretching the Limits of All’antica Architecture

• In Event: Interpreting the Antique 1500–1675 II: Architects Face the Antique II

Abstract

Paradoxically Borromini was an avid student of antiquity but at heart a modern. He accepted ancient rule in theory but believed in the right of the creative architect to invent new forms, just as the best ancients had. When he seems to us to be looking directly at antiquity he is often looking at its Renaissance interpreters, in their books, manuscripts and buildings. He admired fine Roman brickwork but also sought out the most elaborate architectural decoration of the high empire; in this sense he was a spiritual ancestor of Piranesi. The more he studied ancient ornament the closer it brought him to Nature, fecund and growing. “I would never have entered this profession only to become a copyist,” he proclaimed while exploring antiquity in profound ways.

Author

• Joseph Connors, Harvard University