Unclassical forms of late Roman architecture and the Roman Baroque: Francesco Borromini and the new classical tradition

This chapter examines aspects of classical tradition in the17th century Roman Baroque architecture focusing on the work of Francesco Borromini. The architect from Ticino was not only a profound innovator of architectural form and space, but his work is often characterized by stimulating references to ancient architecture, especially Hadrian-era examples. Typology and late-antique forms provided him with a range of elements he knowingly isolates, elaborates and transforms to create a highly original architecture. The late-antique tradition provided Borromini with the inspiration for designs of the elements of architectural orders, the sequence of elevations, the geometries of ornaments inside vaults, the genesis of oval plans and representative verticalisms of new urban focal points. Finally, the contribution aims to shed new light on the Borromini’s approach to ancient architecture, distinguishing between models Borromini could have examined personally in Rome and its environments (Orti Liciniani and S. Costanza, for example), or through manuscripts and published works (such as the Antichità Romane by Pirro Ligorio, and texts by Sebastiano Serlio, Giovanni Battista Montano and Fioravante Martinelli).