Lecce Baroque
The architectural style known in art history as Lecce Baroque (also Salentine Baroque) is a regional special form of the European Baroque style , which developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in the Apulian city of Lecce .
In Lecce, apart from the great Italian baroque cities of Naples and Rome, an independent style development took place that still shapes the face of the old town today. While sacred architecture in Italian Baroque art preferred oval floor plans and curved facades as special features, the Lecce churches of the 17th and 18th centuries were laid out in the originally Byzantine shape of a Latin cross and retained their straight facades. Characteristic of the Lecceser style are the opulent facades with a variety of three-dimensional decorations. The Lecces architects reveled in the baroque decoration - but did not lose the feeling for the harmony and lightness of the design.
The basilica Santa Croce (founded in 1549) in Lecce with the adjoining Celestine convent, where the typical facade design with its lavish but proportioned decorations is particularly successful , is considered a masterpiece by Gabriele Riccardi, the "father of the Lecce Baroque" . Another notable example is the facade of Gallipoli Cathedral .
literature
- Maurice Ashley : The Age of Baroque. Europe between 1598 and 1715. Dtv, Munich 1983. ISBN 3-423-05941-9
- Hermann Bauer: Baroque. Art of an era. Reimer, Berlin 1992. ISBN 3-496-01095-9