Today I am going to--well actually let me step back for a

second.

I have been mentioning to you, in the last several weeks I've

been mentioning to you, more than once,

the fact that we are-- 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,

I want to make a few points.

I want to highlight what I see as the three major features 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 used the traditional

vocabulary of architecture; they used the traditional

vocabulary of architecture.

And 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 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 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 access 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 make the point that when one thinks about

Baroque architecture, in general, one thinks not of

Roman antiquity, but rather of the seventeenth

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 there 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 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 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 here--and I'll show you a number of them in the course

of the lecture today, especially Borromini's

work--but I wanted to focus right at the moment on St.

Peter's, San Pietro.

You see it here, St.

Peter's as designed--the dome is designed, as we've discussed

before, by Michelangelo.

The façade design by Carlo Maderno,

also a seventeenth-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 movement that we find

both on the façade and in the embracing arms is

characteristic of seventeenth-century Baroque

architecture.

But I want to maintain today, as I've maintained in the

course of the 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 had a huge impact on

architects like Borromini and Bernini.

And I remind you of a couple of instances of that.

Think back; 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 at Palestrina,

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'm 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 a spur to the architects of the

seventeenth century in Italy.

We have touched upon the beginnings of Roman baroque

architecture-- incipient, we might call it

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 façade,

done in paint, that represents columns with

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 B.C., and then in this case in

the '30s to 20 B.C.

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 partakes of some of these

characteristics.

But we think it's possible that there may have been,

as I mentioned then, some wooden,

some scaenae frons, with 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 move toward 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 receding and progressing bays across the

surface, which created a kind of

undulating movement across the sides of the forum.

And then you'll remember also, if you look at the frieze,

that the frieze continues along the sides of the columns as

well, and then in a relief of

Minerva, 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 exploration of this kind of

thing.

And then it comes full-blown, in the early third century

A.D., the Septizodium, the façade that was

designed for Septimius Severus to add to the Palatine Palace,

that had been built by Domitian; this incredible façade

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 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;

an interest in a very decorative surface;

and then above all 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 concrete façade,

with the exposed brick that was popular at that time.

But we focused in on the interior of the structure,

where I mentioned that through architectonic means the

architects 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,

a 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 columns and so on are no longer there,

but you can reconstruct them in your mind's eye,

underneath these capitals, and get a very good sense of

this articulation; what we might call a kind of

baroque articulation of the walls.

I mentioned already that most of our best examples of Roman,

ancient Roman baroque architecture can be found in the

eastern part of the Empire.

And I'd like to concentrate on those today;

although we'll look--we won't look at those exclusively.

I do have a couple of examples from the West as well.

I'm going to actually start in the West, at a place called

Santa Maria Capua Vetere.

And I show it to you on the map here.

It is close to all the sites in Campania that we've been talking

about this semester.

You see Pompeii and Herculaneum and Oplontis and Baia,

for example, and Benevento.

And over here Naples.

And you can see the proximity of Santa Maria Capua Vetere,

to all of those that we've already covered.

And in Santa Maria Capua Vetere has been found an extremely

well-preserved Roman tomb, and you see it here in the

center of the screen -- a Roman tomb that dates to the

late first century A.D. It is very clear that it is made of