penthesileas: The shift from Mannerism to the Baroque was not so much a change of school as an expre
penthesileas: The shift from Mannerism to the Baroque was not so much a change of school as an expression of this dramatisation of life, closely connected to the search for new expressions of Beauty: things amazing, surprising, apparently out of proportion. With the church of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza [top], Borromini amazed his contemporaries by designing a structure cunningly concealed within the inner courtyard of the Palazzo della Sapienza. The surprise effect was achieved through a play of contrasting concave and convex structures that hide the inner cupola, the whole thing being topped by a spiral lantern of extremely bold design. Shortly after this, Guarini designed the amazing chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin [bottom], whose cupola—thanks to a structure composed of superimposed hexagons—opens up to form a twelve-pointed star.— On Beauty, Umberto Eco -- source link
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