Carlo Maderno

The Italian architect Carlo Maderno (1556-1629) was the creator of the early baroque style in architecture.

Carlo Maderno was born at Capolago on Lake Lugano. He went to Rome before 1588 and worked for his uncle, Domenico Fontana, the architect to Pope Sixtus V. Not until 1596 did Maderno receive an important architectural commission - the church of S. Susanna; until then he lived as a stuccoworker and decorator.

The facade of S. Susanna was completed in 1603 and is considered the first baroque facade. Maderno started from the type established by Giacomo da Vignola's design for, and Giacomo della Porta's executed version of, the Church of the Gesùin Rome, but the significance of Maderno's contribution lies in his reversal of Della Porta's alterations to Vignola's design. In its original form the Gesùfacade had a slight emphasis on the center, building up from the pilasters at the edges to attached columns in the middle. But, Della Porta made a more complex design in which no really dominant accent is felt: Maderno returned to the concept of a facade as something simple but building up to a climax at the center, and he used both sculpture and decorative elements to create a simple, uncluttered, but rich impression. This is the hallmark of early baroque.

St. Peter's

S. Susanna was a great success, and in 1603 Maderno was appointed, with another uncle, Giovanni Fontana, to succeed Della Porta as architect to St. Peter's. Here he made the most significant contribution since Michelangelo, because he pulled down the remaining parts of Old St. Peter's and proceeded to transform Michelangelo's centralized Greek-cross design into a Latin cross with a long nave and chapels. This extension of the basilica was undoubtedly necessary from the point of view of practical requirements, but it destroyed Michelangelo's great conception and substituted something less impressive, since the great dome can no longer be appreciated from every point of view.

As a result of these alterations, Maderno had to design a facade which would not detract too much from the dome and, at the same time, would be worthy of its setting and also contain a central feature, the Benediction Loggia, to provide a frame for the figure of the pope when he appeared in public. These conflicting requirements were met as far as possible by Maderno's adaptation of a typical Roman palace facade, with decorative motives taken from Michelangelo's works. The plan to provide bell towers at the ends to enframe the dome in distant views had to be abandoned because the foundations gave trouble. The work, including the decoration, was completed and consecrated on Nov. 18, 1626.

Among Maderno's other works are the church of S. Maria della Vittoria (1605; facade by G. B. Soria, 1626) and the church of S. Andrea della Valle (1608-1628; facade completed by Carlo Rainaldi in 1665), which has the largest dome in Rome after St. Peter's. In 1628 he designed the huge Palazzo Barberini, altered and completed by others. He died in Rome on Jan. 30, 1629.

Further Reading

The best account of Maderno in English is in Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750 (1958; 2d ed. 1965).

Leading architect working in Rome from the mid-1570s, before Bernini, Borromini, and Cortona developed the Baroque style to its greatest potential. He started under D. Fontana, his uncle, and was involved in the re-erection of the Ancient Egyptian obelisks at Piazza di San Pietro (1586), Piazza dell'Esquilino (1587), Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano (1588), and Piazza del Pòpolo (1589). He worked on a number of engineering projects before designing his masterpiece, the remodelling of the Church of Santa Susanna on the Quirinal Hill (1593–1603), with a dramatic façade based on that of Il Gesù, but with an engaged lower Order and scrolls linking the narrower upper pilaster façade to the wider front below. Emphasis was more decisive and vertical than at Il Gesù. After the election of Pope Paul V (1605–21) Maderno was appointed Architect to St Peter's, where he constructed the nave (1609–16), began work on the decorations of the crossing, built the curving stairs leading to the confessio, designed the façade facing the Piazza (its great width was occasioned by the enforced requirement to add two campanili of which only the first two stages were built), and created the fountain (later moved to the cross-axis of the obelisk and duplicated with a twin by Bernini).

At the Mother-Church of the Theatines, Sant'Andrea della Valle, Maderno completed the nave, added the transepts and chancel, and constructed the distinguished and beautiful dome with lantern (1608–c.1628). He also designed the façade, begun in the mid-1620s, and completed with modifications by Rainaldi in the 1660s. He was responsible for the Palazzo Mattei di Giove, Rome (1598–1617), and the Villa Aldobrandini, Frascati (1603–c.1620), including the superb semicircular water-theatre featuring arched niches with grottoes and fountains fed by a chain of stepped cascades at the top of which is a pair of spiral columns. One of his last works was the Palazzo Barberini, Rome (1626–8), completed by Bernini.

Bibliography

• Hibbard (1971)
• P.Murray (1969, 1986)
• Placzek (ed.) (1982)
• Jane Turner (1996)
• van Vynckt (ed.) (1993)
• Waddy (1990)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Façade of St. Peter's Basilica.

Carlo Maderno (1556 - January 30, 1629) was an Italian-Swiss architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were of key importance in the evolution of the Italian Baroque. He is often referred to as the brother of sculptor Stefano Maderno, but this is not universally agreed upon.

Biography

Born in Capolago, Ticino (an Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland), Maderno began his career in the marble quarries of the far north, before moving to Rome in 1588 with four of his brothers to assist his uncle Domenico Fontana. He worked initially as a marble cutter, and his background in sculptural workmanship would help mold his architecture. His first solo project, in 1596, was an utterly confident and mature façade for the ancient church of Santa Susanna (1597–1603); it was among the first Baroque façades to break with the Mannerist conventions that are exemplified in the Gesù. The structure is a dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, with a protruding central bay and condensed central decoration add complexity to the structure. There is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic design, still maintaining rigor.

The Santa Susanna façade won the attention of Pope Paul V, who in 1603 appointed him chief architect of St Peter's. Maderno was forced to modify Michelangelo's plans for the Basilica and provide designs for an extended nave with a palatial façade. The façade (completed 1612) is constructed to allow for Papal blessings from the emphatically enriched balcony above the central door. This forward extension of the basilica (which grew from Michelangelo's Greek cross to the present Latin cross) has been criticized because it blocks the view of the dome when seen from the Piazza, often ignores the fact that the approaching avenue is modern. Maderno would not have had liberties to design this building as much as in other structures.

Most of Maderno's work continued to be the remodelling of existing structures. The only building designed by Maderno and completed under his supervision was the little Santa Maria della Vittoria (1608— 20), where Maderno's masterwork is often ignored in favor of Bernini's Cornaro Chapel and its Ecstasy of St Theresa and where the churches' public façade is not by Maderno.

The façade of Santa Susanna, Rome.

Even Maderno's masterpiece, the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, is not entirely his. There he designed the façade and executed the dome, the second largest in the Roman skyline. The church itself had been designed for the Theatines by Giuseppe Francesco Grimaldi and Giacomo della Porta in 1540: it follows a familiar Jesuit plan, cruciform, its wide nave without aisles, with chapels beyond arched openings. The crossing contains the high altar, lit under Maderno's dome (frescoed by Giovanni Lanfranco 1621—25) on its high windowed drum. The earliest design is of 1608; construction took from 1621 to 1625. At Maderno's death, the façade remained half built; it was completed to Maderno's original conception by Carlo Fontana. In this façade, the standard formula established at Il Gesù is given more movement and depth—in the varying planes of the frieze and cornice—and increased chiaroscuro —as in the whole columns embedded in snug dark recesses that outline their profiles with shadow—, and in similar elements that are re-grouped for a tighter, more sprung rhythm.

His other works include the Roman churches of Gesù e Maria, San Giacomo degli Incurabili, Santa Lucia in Selci and San Giovanni dei Fiorentini (where he is buried). In addition, he worked on the Quirinal Palace, the Papal palace in Castel Gandolfo,and the Palazzo Barberini and for the Barberini Pope Urban VIII (1628 and completed 1633; much remodeled since). In the Palazzo Barberini at Quattro Fontane, Maderno's work is overshadowed at times by details added by Bernini and Borromini. His design of palaces is best represented by his design of Palazzo Mattei (1598-1616).

Maderno was called upon to design chapels within existing churches, the Chapel of St Lawrence in San Paolo fuori le Mura and the Cappella Caetani in Santa Pudenziana.

He designed the base supporting the Marian column in front of Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, which later served as a model for numerous Marian columns in many Catholic countries.

References

• Hibbard, Howard (1972). Carlo Maderno and Roman Architecture 1580–1630. 
• Chris Nyborg, "Churches of Rome: Carlo Maderno"
• Vitruvio site: Carlo Maderno
• Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). Pelican History of Art, Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750. 1980. Penguin Books Ltd. pp. 110–115. 
• "Carlo Maderna". Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09512b.htm. 

External links

• Works by or about Carlo Maderno in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

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