Palazzo Barberini

Item

Title
Palazzo Barberini
Alternative Title
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica
Creator
Carlo Maderno (Italian architect, ca. 1556 - 1629)
Francesco Borromini (Italian architect, 1599-1667)
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian sculptor, architect, 1598-1680)
Drafter
J. J. Olivier and Huguenet, Jacques Joseph (French engraver, 1815-after 1864)
City
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Address
Rione Trevi
Piazza Barberini
GPS
54.393889
Location
Italy
Building Creation Date
1628-1633 (creation)
1671-1679 (alteration)
Century
17th century
Description
elevation of main facade located on the side of Via delle quattro fontane
ground floor plan
view of the vestibute
first floor plan, elevations
plans
interior perspectives
The Palazzo Barberini, begun in December 1628, was the last and most complex of Maderno's palace designs, although it was largely executed by others. The basic idea for this palace, with two separate wings in an H-plan, was conceived by its owner, Taddeo Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII. The site is sloping and the piazza lies on a lower level. Although many others contributed to the design, Maderno was in charge of design development. Here again can be seen his characteristic planning of eminently functional suites, closed axes (most notably in the deep, apsed entrance portico, the passage through which was cut only in the 1670s), the complex, three-dimensional arrangement of rooms on the several levels of the palace and the linking stairs. The great three-storey, seven-bay loggia of the west façade is surprising in the context of Maderno's oeuvre (or that of any other Roman architect in the 1620s), but the whole exterior is rendered in his distinctive style with such details as columns set within channels in the walls, splayed jambs (resembling those at the stair entrance in the Palazzo Mattei) in the third storey of the loggia, and the superimposed frames of the north portal. Between 1671 and 1679 the palace was extensively remodelled, apparently under the direction of Angelo Torrone.
Techniques
line drawings (drawings)
Classification
Architectural Documentation
Documentation Type
plans
elevations
details
Style/Period
Baroque
Cultural Context
Italian
Subject
architectural exteriors
rulers and leaders
Urban VIII, Pope, 1568-1645
Source
Letarouilly, Paul Marie. Edifices de Rome Moderne. Paris: A. Morel, 1868, 182.
Access Rights
Public Domain
creator
Maderno, Carlo
Borromini, Francesco
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo

Carlo Maderno (Italian architect, ca. 1556 - 1629), Francesco Borromini (Italian architect, 1599-1667), and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian sculptor, architect, 1598-1680), “Palazzo Barberini”, Arch Design Images, accessed November 14, 2024, https://exhibits.lib.ttu.edu/s/archlib/item/19112