A wayward force of the High Renaissance, Baroque was broken in by Michelangelo in Rome in the sixteenth century before being given full rein by Bernini and Borromini in the seventeenth. Characterized by curves, domes, broken pediments and a gloriously inventive play on classical detailing, at its theatrical zenith it was thrilling architectural opera – far from the chaste and graceful classicism that both preceded it and ousted it in the eighteenth century. Deeply romantic, it also had something of the subversive about it.
As did Francesco Borromini (1599–1667), architect of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, a Roman church that retains the power to provoke and thrill three-and-a-half centuries after its consecration. This was Borromini’s first independent commission, received in 1634. He created a geometrically complex and serpentine building, writhing around an exquisite oval dome inside. From the street San Carlo presents an undulating facade, both concave and convex, as if stone was a plastic material to be moulded and sculpted at will.
