Borromini - Softcover

Blunt, A

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674079264 ISBN 13: 9780674079267

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1990

Synopsis

Francesco Borromini is one of the great geniuses of Baroque architecture, perhaps the greatest in inventiveness and in use of spatial effects. Here is the first book in English to survey the whole work of the master. The author, former Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, is known internationally for his many works on French and Italian architecture and painting. In this lucid and fully illustrated account, Anthony Blunt charts Borromini's career and analyzes and assesses his art. Mr. Blunt tells of Borromini's training, relating his style to that of Bernini, under whom he worked, and to the architecture from which he learned, for example Michelangelo's. Borromini's patrons allowed him freedom to evolve his own ideas, and his originality and imagination in inventing new architectural forms become apparent as the author studies individual commissions. His imagination was apparently limitless, but his inventions evolved in terms of rigidly controlled geometry. It is this combination of revolutionary inventiveness and intellectual control that gives Borromini's work particular appeal in the twentieth century.

About this title

Review:

This full-length study by a very eminent British art historian is a valuable aid for readers interested in an up-to-date and very thorough analysis of everything Borromini did.--Raymond Sokolov "New York Times Book Review "

Blunt has made a highly significant contribution to our understanding of Borromini's work from his first ideas on paper to the finished buildings.--Bruce Boucher "Times Literary Supplement "

Anthony Blunt reveals his great powers as an architectural historian. His prose is remarkably lucid and concise, even plain, yet extremely evocative.--Edmund Leites "Art in America "

Anthony Blunt excites expectation whenever he publishes... To the delight of many readers, [his writing moves] with an absolute minimum of technical architectural vocabulary... Altogether the most lucid, sensitive, and trustworthy study of Borromini yet to appear.--Robert T. Petersson "Yale Review "

About the Author:

Anthony Blunt was for many years Professor of the History of Art at the University of London and Director of the Courtauld Institute. He has published extensively on Baroque architecture.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0674079264
• ISBN 13: 9780674079267
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240