| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Son of stone mason Giovanni Domenico Castelli, Borromini began his career as a stone mason himself, and soon moved to Milan to study and practice this activity. When in Rome ( 1619) he changed his name (from Castelli to Borromini) and started working for Carlo Maderno , his distant relative, at St. Peter's. When Maderno died in 1629, he joined the group of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, with whom he completed Maderno's Palazzo Barberini.
In 1634, his first individual commision was the reconstruction of the churchThis article is about the Christian buildings of worship. For other uses of the word, see Church (disambiguation . Stanford University. A church is a building used in Christian worship. See also altar, altar rails, confessional, dome, nave, pew, pulpit, s of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (some authors say it is here that he changed his name). The small church is master conceit of Roman baroque, with undulating and geometrically satisfying elements and rhythms, both in the nave and facade.
Borromini's works include:
For Sant'Agnese in Agone, he reverted the original plan of Girolamo RainaldiGirolamo Rainaldi ( 1570 1655, Rome) was an Italian architect in the Mannerist style. Rainaldi was responsible for brining the Mannerist style to prominence in Rome. He became the chief architect of Rome in 1602 and for the papacy in 1644. His important p (and his son Carlo RainaldiCarlo Rainaldi ( 1611, Rome 1691, Rome) was an Italian architect of the Baroque period. Rainaldi was one of the leading architects of seventeenth-century Rome, known for a certain grandeur in his designs. He worked at first with his father, Girolamo Raina), which previously had its main entrance on Via di Santa Maria dell'Anima. The façade was expanded to include parts of the bordering Pamphilii palace, gaining space for the two bell towers (each of which has a clock, as in St. Peter's, one for Roman time, the other for tempo ultramontano, European time).
Borromini lost this commission before completion due to the death of the Pope Innocent XInnocent X ne Giovanni Battista Pamphili ( May 6, 1574 January 5, 1655), Pope from 1644 to 1655, was born in Rome in 1574, attained the dignity of cardinal in 1629. With the help of French influence Cardinal Pamphili was chosen to succeed Urban VIII as Po in 1655. The new Pope, Alexander VIIAlexander VII ne Fabio Chigi ( February 13, 1599 May 22, 1667) was pope from April 7, 1655 until his death in 1667. Born Fabio Chigi in Siena, a member of the illustrious banking family and a great-nephew of Pope Paul V, he was privately tutored and event, and Prince Camillo Pamphili called back Rainaldi, but this one didn't change very much and the church is mainly considered a notable expression of Borromini's concepts.
From 1640-1650, he worked on the design of a church and courtyard at the University of La Sapienza in Rome. The site, like many in cramped Rome, is challenged for external perspectives, though the dome and spiral motifs are peculiar and reflect the idiosyncratic architectural used by Borromini in comparison to that of other architects of his time. Inside, the nave has an unusual centralized plan circled by alternating concave and convex cornices, leading to a dome decoraed with linear arrays of stars and putti. The fusion of feverish baroque excesses with a rationalistic geometry is a excellent match for a church in an institution of higher learning.
He was also called "Bissone", by the place in which he was born.
In the summer of 1667, Borromini, suffering from nervous disorders and depression), committed suicide after the completion of the Falconieri chapel (the main chapel) in San Giovanni dei Fiorentini , where he was buried.
Francesco Borromini was featured on the 100 Swiss Franc banknote current in the 1980s.