Borromini's Book - The 'Full Relation oj the Building, of the Roman Oratory by Francesco Borromini and Virgilio Spada of the Oratory

摘要

'The history of architecture is not a nice tidy subject'. This authorial remark is somewhat redundant, coming on page 209 of this monumental work, by which time we have been made fully aware of the indispensability of a multi-disciplinary approach if we are to arrive at an understanding of the historical, architectural and religious context, and the thought processes, actions and achievements of those involved in the creation of one of Rome's greatest buildings. The concave curve of the facade of the Oratory of S. Filippo Neri, ineluctably directing the eye of the observer, provides one of the supreme moments of Baroque art. Placed next to the Oratorians' Chiesa Nuova (S. Maria in Vallicella), Borromini was required to make his new facade subordinate in height and materials to its neighbour. He would have liked to have made it out of one piece of terracotta without any mortar, moulding space and material like clay, but settled for thin, cut and gauged bricks with joints so narrow as to escape notice. 'How like Borromini', Kerry Downes notes, 'to seek to refine the material to which he had been restricted'.