 This lecture is entitled Carlo Moderno and the Italian Baroque and in today's lecture We're going to take a quick look at Carlo Moderno Look at two examples of his most famous building facades and try to understand what his unique role was in the Italian Baroque First thing you should understand about Carlo Moderno is that he's considered a transitional figure Transitional figure And when I say transitional figure what I mean is transitional between Renaissance and Baroque He was actually trained in the late Renaissance and his early career began at the end of the Renaissance But he sort of ushered in a new style the new Baroque He's seen as one of the main figures responsible for doing that So he kind of bridges the gap between the two worlds and is an important figure in that way connecting these two worlds Now the two images we're going to look at today are the facade of Santa Susana which you see on the left and the facade of St. Peter's Basilica, which you see on the right and These are arguably two of his most important building facades Santa Susana was one of his first commissions and The appearance of the facade is very typical of Carlo Moderno's facade With the two levels the triangular pediment at the top the scrolling volumes at the side all of these classical elements the division of space with the columns and pilasters as well as the strong focus on the central portal St. Peter's Basilica the facade is also very important Largely because of what it is. It's St. Peter's Basilica, which is the heart of the Catholic Church The heart of the counter-reformation Let me write that down really quickly heart of Counter Reformation So clearly a really important commission in that regard Now you have some reading assignments about Carlo Moderno So I'll let those speak for themselves and Santa Susana is discussed in those readings But I wanted to put it on the screen here so you can take a look at it and examine it as I discuss St. Peter's Basilica, which is the main focus of today's lecture Now as you probably remember from earlier art history courses St. Peter's was obviously a really important commission and it was built over the course of many many years And it's kind of a complicated Commission because there's the old St. Peter's which was built in the fourth century by the Emperor Constantine and then there's what's known as new St. Peter's or just St. Peter's which is what stands today and that plans for that began as early as the 16th century and What might have Made the church want to rebuild its main church. Why would they have wanted to create something new? Well, obviously again, everything goes back to the Protestant Reformation So in the 16th century as the Catholic Church is threatened by the Protestant Reformation They decide we're gonna get rid of old St. Peter's and build something new and impressive that will show our power and authority So again, it's a really complicated commission and a lot of different people worked on it, but essentially Carlo Moderna can be credited with the facade and Let's look at this facade. Let's try and See what we think is Baroque about it. What's interesting about it and we looked at this in our Lecture introducing Baroque architecture. So let's review some of the things we discussed Well, we mentioned the use of the colossal order Which I'll write down again colossal order, which if you recall is grand scale unlike over here at Santa Susana and The architecture that was more typical of the Renaissance as well We have Massive scale Architectural elements look at these columns going from the ground level all the way up to the ceiling level And what is the implication of that? What is what does that? Suggest to a person may be standing in front of it. Well, it certainly is more awesome and imposing and authoritative so that's very much in line with the goals of the Counter Reformation Church, right to prove their own authority and power and So that's one thing that we see right off the bat and I mentioned last time This is something we'll see a lot in Baroque architecture and we see it here And it makes perfect sense for the church that it's built in don't see that in Santa Susana, which is a smaller More intimate setting so it makes sense that you wouldn't see it there But the facade of St. Peter's Basilica is kind of showing us a hint of what's to come and later Baroque now another important thing that you should know about Carlo Moderna particularly and you do see this with other architects, but Carlo Moderna was famous for drawing the visitor's eye to the central portal of his church facades Let me write that down your eye to Central and that might sound like a strange thing. I mean, how does architecture draw your eye, you know It's not like there are arrows pointing at the central central Portal, but in a sense architecture can do that through other architectural elements it can Direct your attention to what it wants to direct your attention to so how exactly does he do that on both of these church facades? well in one sense he does it By creating a rhythm that that attracts you to the central portal and what I mean by that is you have All of these classical vertical elements on the facade of both of these churches kind of marching along the facade But notice how the spacing between these elements gets closer as you move towards the center And this is just a little trick that brings your eye towards the center And not only does it bring your eye towards the center, but it creates movement and liveliness in the church facade Another interesting thing he does in both of these churches is these with these same vertical elements He he moves from the flat to the more sculptural these on the outer edges are flat plasters and Then as you move towards the center They're more Defined more three-dimensional columns that are actually sticking out quite a ways from the surface of the building and to even extend that to make it more three-dimensional The wall surface of the facade behind these vertical elements moves forward as well so It seems to actually move move towards the visitor as you your eye moves from the outsides of the building towards the inside of the building so really clever manipulation of this architecture and You know, it's important to remember This is not completely unfamiliar architecture. This is still very much in the classical architectural language classical right with the columns the triangular pediment And all of this stuff that's very familiar by now and even this central portal of the church is It recalls classical temple fronts right with the columns across the front and the triangular pediment So this is Classical language, but it's being used in a very new way and that's really one of the hallmarks of Baroque architecture And much like the sculpture that we've already taken a look at Broke Italy. There's an interest in creating drama dynamism movement and really engaging not just the space around but the people who are looking at it So keep this all in mind as we move forward because these are themes of broke architecture in general