Carlo Maderno

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Carlo Maderno (* around 1556 in Capolago on Lake Lugano ; † January 30, 1629 in Rome ) was an early Roman Baroque architect working in Italy from what was later to become the canton of Ticino ( Switzerland ).

The main facade of St. Peter in Rome

life and work

Maderno came from a family of masons, plasterers and builders. He was the nephew of the Roman architect Domenico Fontana ; Francesco Borromini , one of the most inventive architects of the Baroque, was his great-nephew. The sculptor Stefano Maderno was his brother. The degree of relationship with Pietro Maino Maderno , court sculptor under Emperor Ferdinand III. , is currently unclear.

Maderno stayed in Rome from 1576, where he initially trained as a plasterer and worked in the workshop of his uncle Domenico Fontana. In 1588 he received Roman citizenship. When Fontana had to leave Rome in 1594 because of alleged embezzlement, Maderno took over the workshop. In 1603, after the death of Giacomo della Porta , he received his position as chief architect at St. Peter . His duties as a papal architect also included hydraulic engineering measures, such as the construction management for the river regulation of the Tiber , well construction in Rome and the construction of aqueducts.

His first important commissions were various projects that had remained unfinished when the Roman architect Francesco Capriani da Volterra died and that Maderno finished. Since his appointment as the architect of St. Peter, Maderno was mainly concerned with the work on St. Peter's Basilica. In addition, he mainly carried out conversions and additions to palaces and churches in Rome and the surrounding area. In his last years he drafted the plans for the Palazzo Barberini , but he did not live to see them being carried out.

Maderno died on January 30, 1629. He was buried in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini .

Secular buildings

Palazzo Barberini , facade

One of the construction sites taken over by da Volterra was Palazzo Lancelotti, Maderno's first exploration of palace construction. The only palace he designed and built is Palazzo Mattei di Giove on Via dei Funari in Rome, built for Asdrubale Mattei between 1598 and 1611. This palace has a special meaning in architectural history because of the cortile . On the entrance side, two of the three storeys are designed as loggias, the rear is a closed terrace wing, while the two sides are almost without windows to allow space for the antique reliefs and busts. The courtyard was therefore used to display the owner's collection of antiques.

From 1625 Maderno was busy planning the Palazzo Barberini. The palace was to be built on a former vineyard, which was now in a central location due to the rapid expansion of the city. Nevertheless, Maderno planned it like a villa suburbana , that is, based on the model of a rural villa. When he died in 1629, Bernini and Borromini took over the project and completed it, albeit with significant changes to the original design.

Churches

Facade of Santa Susanna in Rome, (1603).

Santa Susanna

Maderno's first independent construction contract was the renovation of Santa Susanna and the erection of the facade. In architectural history, this facade is considered exemplary for Roman baroque architecture. On the front side, Maderno increases the individual structural elements from flat pilasters on the outside to columns inserted into the wall to the double columns that frame the portal. On the front side of St. Peter, Maderno has consistently developed this principle of rhythmic compression and effective enhancement through a rich and differentiated use of pilasters, columns and double columns, underlined by multiple protruding base zones, architraves and cornices . The effect of this dynamization of the facade, combined with Maderno's characteristic preference for ornamental, strongly structured building decoration, is the lively play of light and shadow on the building that is typical of later Baroque architecture.

St. Peter

Facade of St. Peter

Maderno was another master builder in the line of great architects who were involved in the construction of New Saint Peter. At the beginning of the 17th century, the building was a heterogeneous ensemble of old and new parts. Michelangelo's central building stood , including the dome. Attached to it was the old five-aisled nave of the Constantinian basilica , and there was also the Cappella Paolina , which had to be somehow integrated into the building, and the connection to the papal palace had to be arranged.

Opinions on whether the old building should be renovated or demolished, whether a central building should be retained in the sense of Michelangelo and how the Constantinian heritage should be dealt with were divided until finally Pope Paul V decided in 1605 to build a new nave which was suitable to meet the liturgical recommendations of the Council of Trent and to accommodate a large crowd. Maderno prevailed against other proposals. In 1606 he had a wooden model built. Despite violent contradictions from various cardinals, including Maffeo Barberini , who later became Pope Urban VIII, Maderno's plan was carried out. The foundations for the nave were laid from 1607, and the facade began in 1608. In 1611 the Pope then decided to frame Michelangelo's dome with two bell towers, which resulted in changes to the statics and concept of the facade. In addition, Maderno had to struggle with an unstable building site. So there was a wealth of problems to deal with.

There is still criticism of the design, in which the effect of Michelangelo's dome is impaired. Later measures, such as the construction of bell towers ordered by the Pope, which Bernini was supposed to build, Bernini's colonnades or the aisle of Via della Conciliazone , which was only cut into the old urban development in the first half of the 20th century, are also from the point of view of a "correction" at Maderno's design.

The construction of the facade turned out to be a difficult task: The main church of Christendom was to have a dignified and impressive facade, the structure of the structure prescribed by Michelangelo had to be taken into account, the view of the dome should be impaired as little as possible and finally the Benediction loggia had to be because of their important function in the exercise of the office by the Pope.

Overall, the facade can be seen as the result of compromises between technical, liturgical, local and artistic factors. Heterogeneous elements - the combination of church and palazzo façades and portico , Michelangelo's monumental visions and Maderno's preference for the decorative have merged into an overall picture, the inconsistencies of which are still criticized by architectural critics, but which have now become firmly established and well known and has become an unmistakable component in the media presentation of the Catholic Church.

buildings

Fountain

literature

  • Lara Calderari: Carlo Maderno. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . August 28, 2008 , accessed January 15, 2020 .
  • Axel Christoph Gampp: Carlo Maderno, architetto e ingegnere nella Roma barocca. In: Arte & Storia , Edizioni Ticino Management, 7th volume, number 31, Lugano 2006, pp. 70–74.
  • Howard Hibbard: Carlo Maderno and Roman Architecture 1580-1630 (= Studies in Architecture. Vol. 10). Zwemmer, London 1971, ISBN 0-302-02161-2 .
  • The Dictionary of Art. 20, 1996, pp. 43-46.
  • Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. 67, pp. 150-157.

Web links

Commons : Carlo Maderno  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Maderno, Carlo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian builder
DATE OF BIRTH 1556
PLACE OF BIRTH Capolago on Lake Lugano
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1629
Place of death Rome