GENOA. During the second half of the sixteenth century a remarkable series of palaces was erected in Genoa, especially notable for their great courts and imposing staircases. These last were given unusual prominence owing to differences of level in the courts, arising from the slope of their sites on the hillside. Many of these palaces were by Galeazzo Alessi (1502–72); others by architects of lesser note; but nearly all characterized by their effective planning, fine stairs and loggias, and strong and dignified, if sometimes uninteresting, detail (P. Balbi, Brignole, Cambiasi, Doria-Tursi [or Municipio], Durazzo [or Reale], Pallavicini, and University).
FIG. 173.—INTERIOR OF SAN SEVERO, NAPLES.
THE BAROQUE STYLE. A reaction from the cold classicismo of the late sixteenth century showed itself in the following period, in the lawless and vulgar extravagances of the so-called Baroque style. The wealthy Jesuit order was a notorious contributor to the debasement of architectural taste. Most of the Jesuit churches and many others not belonging to the order, but following its pernicious example, are monuments of bad taste and pretentious sham. Broken and contorted pediments, huge scrolls, heavy mouldings, ill-applied sculpture in exaggerated attitudes, and a general disregard for architectural propriety characterized this period, especially in its church architecture, to whose style the name Jesuit is often applied. Sham marble and heavy and excessive gilding were universal (Fig. 173). C. Maderna (1556–1629), Lorenzo Bernini (1589–1680), and F. Borromini (1599–1667) were the worst offenders of the period, though Bernini was an artist of undoubted ability, as proved by his colonnades or atrium in front of St. Peter’s. There were, however, architects of purer taste whose works even in that debased age were worthy of admiration.
FIG. 174.—CHURCH OF S. M. DELLA SALUTE, VENICE.
BAROQUE CHURCHES. The Baroque style prevailed in church architecture for almost two centuries. The majority of the churches present varieties of the cruciform plan crowned by a high dome which is usually the best part of the design. Everywhere else the vices of the period appear in these churches, especially in their façades and internal decoration. S. M. della Vittoria, by Maderna, and Sta. Agnese, by Borromini, both at Rome, are examples of the style. Naples is particularly full of Baroque churches (Fig. 173), a few of which, like the Gesù Nuovo (1584), are dignified and creditable designs. The domical church of S. M. della Salute, at Venice (1631), by Longhena, is also a majestic edifice in excellent style (Fig. 174), and here and there other churches offer exceptions to the prevalent baseness of architecture. Particularly objectionable was the wholesale disfigurement of existing monuments by ruthless remodelling, as in S. John Lateran, at Rome, the cathedrals of Ferrara and Ravenna, and many others.
PALACES. These were generally superior to the churches, and not infrequently impressive and dignified structures. The two best examples in Rome are the P. Borghese, by Martino Lunghi the Elder (1590), with a fine court arcade on coupled Doric and Ionic columns, and the P. Barberini, by Maderna and Borromini, with an elliptical staircase by Bernini, one of the few palaces in Italy with projecting lateral wings. In Venice, Longhena, in the Rezzonico and Pesaro palaces (1650–80), showed his freedom from the mannerisms of the age by reproducing successfully the ornate but dignified style of Sansovino (see [p. 301]). At Naples D. Fontana, whose works overlap the Baroque period, produced in the Royal Palace (1600) and the Royal Museum (1586–1615) designs of considerable dignity, in some respects superior to his papal residences in Rome. In suburban villas, like the Albani and Borghese villas near Rome, the ostentatious style of the Decline found free and congenial expression.