Italian Baroque Art (Bernini vs.

Italian Baroque Art (Bernini vs. Borromini) The present paper has the purpose of analyzing two grand masters of the Italian baroque art, that is Bernini and Borromini. The main thesis to be demonstrated is that their styles and techniques can be observed in two important pieces of art and that by comparing them we are actually comparing the two representatives of Baroque Art. These two works of art are The Fountain of the four rivers, Fontana dei Quattro fiumi- build by Bernini and Borromini's St. Agnese in Agone.

In addition, the Baldacchin at St. Peters will also be analyzed. First and foremost it must be mentioned that Bernini created his works in a period characterized by a strong creative verve, marked by the revolutionary visions of Caravaggio and Rubens. Studies claim that he was influenced by the Greek sculptures, as well as by Michelangelo's latest period. His classical sculpture studies also show in his works. Besides from being a sculptor he was also an architect.

His works have a strong narrative dimension and his capacity to capture essential moments and communicate them to the viewer in a highly expressive manner is considered to be one of the main elements at the basis of his genius. It must be mentioned that besides sculpture, Bernini also painted and wrote plays. Therefore, it can be stated that his vision of a work of art was rather complex.

The striking realism of his works is also based on the fact that he knew how to properly use both architecture and painting principles in order to make sure the final result would be nothing else but perfect. His showed his skills in creating both religious art, monuments, but also secular buildings, palaces or elements which played an important part in various urban settings. Among these public works we can mention the fountains, including the Fontana dei Quattro fiumi which is set in Piazza Navona in Rome.

The fountain was ordered by pope Innocenzo the 10th in 1651. The work was both of public use, since it provided water in the area, but since it was ordered directly by the pope, it could also be considered to be a papal monument with a religious dimension. Besides this, the majesty and the beauty of the fountain was supposed to remind the people about the power, the generosity and the greatness of the pope and the religious power and authority within the state.

In other words, besides the aesthetic dimension, the fountain had a strong political dimension to it. It is safe to say that all the elements had a symbolic valence. The four rivers that were represented in the sculpture are the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube and Rio della Plata. All of them are incarnated in human appearances, which are in fact the gods of the mentioned rivers. The gods were realized by the collaborators of the artist, namely: Raggi, Poussin, Baratta and Fancelli.

The gods (the rivers) stood as symbols of the continents where they can be found and had various connotations regarding their power and their relation to Rome. On top of the fountain there was a hen pigeon made out of bronze. On the one hand the pigeon symbolized peace and the divine (it is a symbol usually associated with the holy spirit).

At the same time, taking into consideration the strength of the papal church at that time the pigeon represented a direct connection between the church and peace in the world. On the other hand, the pigeon was a symbol of the family who had desired the construction of the monument, that is the Pamphili family. The water comes out of a rock placed at the centre of the fountain. At the bottom there is a horse, a lion and a palm tree.

On top of the fountain there is an Egyptian obelisk. The Ganges river, representing Asia is personified by a strong adult man, wearing a beard. The statue's beauty is remarkable. The Nile river is represented by a strong powerful man who keeps his head covered with a piece of cloth in a manner which prevents the viewer from seeing his face. Metaphorically this is a reference to the fact that during those times the origin of the river was still unknown to the Europeans.

In addition, it could be stated that the covered head stands as a symbol for human ignorance in general. Rio della Plata is represented by a back man with coins on the ledge. Symbolically he represents the fact that the Americas were a fountain of riches. The Nile is believed to have been created inspired by a sketch of Michelangelo representing Moses. I t can be stated that the fountain, reuniting all the continents is a symbolical representation of the world.

Since it is dominated by a papal sign, one could read a further metatext. Since the fountain is dominated by papal signs, the main idea communicated by the artist is that the church is ruling over the world. Besides from being a religious argument, this can be considered a political one regarding the triumph of papacy. It is argued that the Fountain of the Four Rivers demonstrates the skills of Bernini especially from a technical point-of-view.

For a while people believed that the foundations would fall under the weight of the obelisk, but that did not happen allowing for the artist's engineering abilities to be recognized. The obelisk had been brought form the Circus of Romulus and it is believed to be an element build in order to honour a triad of Roman emperors including Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. Besides the papal sign, the peace representing dove and the four river gods, there are seven animals populating the fountain.

These are the horse, the lion, the alligator, the dolphin, the snake, the armadillo. Obviously the animals are connected with the continents and just like the gods, can be considered symbols of the continents through their characteristics. It is important to underline the fact that going around the fountain the viewer will constantly discover something new, this allowing for a beautiful an interesting contemplation experience ( a reaction which the artist had in mind when conceiving the monument).

The statues are partially hidden by the central rock, therefore you never know what you are going to get when moving to the left or to the right. The surprise element is another factor which supports the opinion according to which the Fontana dei Quattro fiumi can be considered as the most relevant work ever to have been done by Bernini. Its metaphorical and allegorical meaning are further elements which ca be considered relevant in this direction.

The importance of the fountain must also be judged taking into account the period in which it was conceived and constructed. The jubilee that took place in 1650 implied a huge number of people passing by in that area. Therefore, the fountain was an ideal means of communication. The obelisk is the symbol of the sun which can be associated with reason, but also with the truth.

since the dove is on top of it, there is a natural connection to be made between the two elements and the only conclusion that one can draw is that the church, through its divine dimension is in possession of the absolute truth. And this is the reason why the church rules over the four continents. The rocks and the caves are also metaphors. The caves stand for darkness and if we are to interpret them from a religious point-of-view, we could state that they are a symbol of sin.

The rocks on the other hand come to be the symbol of the church. The rocks being upon the caves, the message that must be understood is that the church has surpassed the sinful stage. In other words the church is a means through which people can escape sin. Since the fountain is the place where the four rivers have their origin, it could be stated that the fountain stands for a sort of earthly paradise.

In addition, since the religious connotation is so strong, the rivers could stand for the diffusion of faith throughout the world. While it has been argued that the hidden head of the Nile stands either for ignorance, either for the fact that the origin of the river was still unknown, it can also be argued that the veil is a metaphor for the mysteries hidden by the Egyptian science and philosophy, mysteries which the Europeans have not yet been able to understand.

"The Nile's head remains half veiled (although Pedro Pais had discovered the river's source in 1618) to emphasize the mystery of the Egyptians' ancient wisdom. The Rio della Plata is represented as a bearded man with a circlet on his thigh, enlightened by apostolic revelation, with a dragon-like armadillo, the Guarani "tatu" at its feet. The Danube is old, like Europe. The Gange River statue stands with a rudder in its hand.

In between the Nile and the Ganges, a palm tree, a symbol of the Phoenix, is bent by the wind. There is a kaleidoscopic plurality of symbols and links among them, but it is easier to decipher the central meaning of the whole: the spiritual supremacy of the pope.

Thus a political program was transformed into a beautiful masterpiece." (Findlen) Bernini believed that in architecture the main focus was on the material and the invention, then on the manner in which the parts were ordered and finally on the "perfection of grace and delicacy" (Ingraham). Under these circumstances it can be argued that Bernini's statues are architecturally-oriented and this contributes to their elevate expressivity, distinguishing him from other baroque sculptors. Another important sculptor associated with the Italian baroque current is Borromini.

It is said that Bernini and Borromini were direct rivals and they competed for projects as well as for glory. One of the most important works of Borromini is represented by the St. Agnese in Agone church. The work is situated in Piazza Navona. Since his rival's work, the Fontana dei Quattro fiumi is situated right in front of the church this gas given rise to numerous legends regarding the rivalry between them.

It has been argued that one of the river gods performs a gesture with his elbow as if to defend himself from the fall of Borromini's church, but the dates of construction of the edifice prove this is no more than small talk. Saint Agnese is believed to be a young girl who died during the times of Domiziano in the very same location where the church was later constructed.

Just like in the case of The fountain of the four rivers, the person issuing the order to have the church built was pope Innocenzio the tenth. The first project of the church was handed to Girolamo Rainaldi. After the pope died, the project was removed from Borromini and given to another architect but the modifications brought afterwards were rather small. The actions of the sculptor focused mainly on the interior of the church, the paintings of which present the saint in different hypostases.

It has been argued that "Francesco Borromini succeeded in creating, through purely architectonic means, an din open air, something which is equivalent to the mild chiaroscuro of his contemporary, Rembrandt, at work on his own last paintings at this same time." (Giedion) If Bernini is very careful about a variety of details which he included in the fountain, his rival is more oriented towards simplicity. The techniques employed by him are said to make the stone appear as if it had changed into a flexible, elastic material.

Unlike Bernini who would also paint and have architectural skills as well, Borromini focused on building only. He did not actually sculpt any statue or bust. His expressiveness was to be found rather in the simple decorative elements which he endowed churches with, such as the abstract spirals. From this point-of-view one could state that he employed modern means of expression. " Borromini's chief interest was always the molding of space.

He worked with wavelike lines and surfaces, with the sphere, with the spiral and with still more unusual shape sin the wire sculptures on the points of his towers. In his hands all the inherited forms took on a new flexibility. He took nothing for granted and almost from the beginning of his work he was accused of cultivating the bizarre and allowing himself to great liberties." (Giedion) St.

Agnese in agone can be considered as one of the most relevant works of art that he created because it illustrates not only all these principles, but also demonstrates his architectural skills and his engineering capacities. Both of them are important representatives of the Italian baroque movement. Since the current was deeply influenced and promoted by the catholic church, this implied that art had to serve a more pragmatic purpose than the purely aesthetic one. Its role was to transmit a message to the illiterate.

This is why art becomes even more narrative than before, because its role is an educational one. Some might argue that from this point-of-view, Bernini did a better job with his Fountain of the four rivers than his rival with the Saint Agnese in agone church. It is true that the fountain is full of details and symbols.

It is also true that there are numerous and various connections which can be made between them and it is true that the river gods are metaphors which can easily be understood by the large audience. However, since the work of art was supposed to teach the masses which had little education, it can be assumed that most of the people did not really understand all the present symbols, nor made all the possible connections between the existing element.

The surprise factor which has been discussed before may be the element which reinforces the fountain as a means o communication. In managing to transmit a strong emotion associated with the beauty and expressivity of the fountain, the artist succeeds in transmitting the idea that the church is somehow to be associated with beauty (and therefore goodness). The message that Bernini manages to communicate is most likely to be recorded like this. Borromini on the other hand focuses less on the symbolical elements he might include in his sculptures.

It is difficult to judge the two artists through a comparison which involves two pieces of art which do not belong to the same category. It is easier to be expressive through the conception and the construction of statues.

It is more difficult to transmit detailed ideas through the creation of a building, especially when the focus of the creator is not on small visual details, but on how to succeed in transforming the space's harshness while turning it into a more fluid element and yet preserving its initial properties as well. Judging them from the perspective of the role that Baroque art was meat to perform, one might argue that Borromini succeeded in doing his job better than Bernini.

Baroque art concentrate upon touching the senses and communicating a message both at emotional and reason level. The iconographic representations were supposed to be simple and dramatic. From this point-of-view, both sculptors are important representatives of the art trend under discussion. The idea that a work of art could surprise the viewer and provide him with new elements which appeared when the viewing angle changed is very obvious in Bernini's work The fountain of the four rivers.

As far as baroque architecture is concerned, it can be easily stated that Borromini is an important representative. Volume and void are important baroque concepts which he managed to create and interpret. The St. Agnese in agone church is a relevant example in this direction. The colonnades of the church, but more importantly the light and shade effect inspired by the chiaroscuro paintings are important proofs of Borromini's skills. The rivalry between the two sculptors was only natural to occur.

They were both very talented and they both wanted to develop themselves and have the opportunity to create works of art that clearly demonstrated their potential. I do not think that it can be stated that one was better than the other because they did not benefit from the same opportunities. Bernini's character and the circumstances allowed him to become the protege of important rich families who ordered him various artistic works, such as the Fountain of the four rivers.

His social status, not only his beautiful works contributed to him achieving popularity and fame. At the same time it can very well be stated that Borromini had a complex and difficult character. He did not have the opportunity to become the protege artist of a rich and relevant family and he often offered his work for free. It is easy to understand how this might have affected his morals and his self-esteem. His tragic suicidal ending might tell us something about the situation.

In my opinion, the number of works which he realized are a clear proof of his skills and his genius. The chosen pieces of art are the best symbols of the rivalry between the two of them because of the context they are situated in. They were both ordered by the same papal authority, pope Innocenzio the tenth, which means that they had to respect the same quality standards. In addition, they are both situated in the same location, piazza Navona, close to one another.

The fact that they are physically close allows for an immediate comparison. Symbolically the geographical position might suggest direct rivalry. Nevertheless, it can be stated that the chosen works are artefacts which reflect clearly both the technical skill and the talent of both artists, therefore allowing room for comparison. While the two works of art allow for the comparison to be made, I do not believe that they are relevant enough in order to decide if one is better than the other.

Their other creations, as well as the social context which had helped them or not are also to be taken into consideration. Further on, we can discuss another piece by Bernini in order to demonstrate his skill regarding baroque art, namely the baldachin at Saint Peter's. While the Fountain of the four rivers is important for a variety of reasons, the baldachin marks the transformation of baroque art. The baldachin which was meant to serve as a marking point for St. Peter's tomb is important through.