Baroque Architecture Triumphs - Brief Article

At The National Gallery of Art, a major exhibition examining sum of two units centuries of European architectural history and the greatest in quantity famous architects of the baroque era, is upon view until Oct. 9. It travels nearest to the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, France, from Nov. 17-March 4 2001

Entitled "The Triumph of the Baroque," the exhibit features 27 original architectural prototypes made between 1600 and 1750 along with 40 related paintings, drawings, prints and medals. The originals which were usually made of grove and often decorated with paint or plaster, labor for as valuable records of an architect's original vision. They were ofttimes submitted to competitions for architectural commissions, or they acted as a three-dimensional guide while construction workers were building the mode of building Because they are extremely fragile, real few have survived.

Among the highlights in the present to view are models of Rome's celebrated baroque fountains, famed for their ambitious designs and rushing waters. Gian Lorenzo Bernini's throw out for the Four Rivers Fountain (c 1650) in the Piazza Navona is exhibited by an original architectural prototype in wood and terracotta as well as a painting of the complet remembrancer Also on view are examples of English and Russian baroque architecture, including Sir Christopher Wren originals for the Royal Naval Hospital in Greenwich; James Gibbs' 1721 made of wood model for St.-Martin-in-the-Fields in London; and Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli's flamboyant Smol'ny abbey in St. Petersburg, Russia, abounding with colorful and gilt-laden details.

A major inspiration for the exhibit, according to Earl A. Powell III, director of the museum, came from the desire to recognize "the achievements of baroque architecture, which was disdained for years as excessively exuberant: The emerging see the verb of the new architecture coincided with the rise in absolute authority of leaders and the renewed might of the popes in Rome These changes were throw backed in the architecture with a novel sense of grandeur and dynamism, aimed to overwhelm the faculty of perceptions and emotions. Baroque architects also mastered the unification of the visual arts into their designs, incorporating painting, plastic art architecture, garden design and urban planning.

The exhibition is coordinated through Henry A. Millon, dean of the Center for Advanced research in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery, and is sponsored by means of EduCap Inc. A 621-page catalogue is available.

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