Architectural History

SAN CARLO ALLE QUATTRO FONTANE : THREE ACCOUNTS ABSTRACTThese deuce-ace depicts of Borromini s church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane reveal different approaches to the committal to writing of art history Steinberg s 1960 account is formal and skilful tone down s 1979 biography is scholarly but approachable and gives the reader a context and Portoghesi s 1999 article approaches the church as a favorite icon Architectural historians Leo Steinberg , Anthony Blunt , and Paolo Portoghesi all hand over varying accounts of Rome s Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane , designed in 1634 by Francesco Borromini . Written roughly twenty years apart , the three studies discuss the building according to highly divergent methods piece Steinberg s 1960 dissertation is largely technical and self-contained , Blunt s 1979 account offers a frequently richer look at the architect and his generation , and Portoghesi s 1999 appreciation studies only one aspect of the church as a cultural iconSteinberg s intensely detailed and technical hire , written as his doctoral dissertation at parvenu York University in 1960 and republished years afterward , examines the building almost merely in and of itself doing little to create connections between it and either the respite of Borromini s work or that of his contemporaries . His central thesis is that the bravest churrigueresco architect made his first building structurally polyphonous in the service of a symbol (Steinberg , 1977 br. iii , and much of the text reads similarly . Using largely dense technical and theoretical row , Steinberg presents an account full of physical s without paying much attention to what influenced Borromini or how he connect to the architectural and artistic contexts of his eraFor example , he spends chapter one parameter about the privileged plan s shape - particularly whether it forms an interior oval with axial and lateral niches (Steinberg , 1977 ,. 18 ) or fair penetrated ellipses interlocked with a lozenge (Steinberg , 1977 ,. 24 .

Subsequent chapters discuss the birth of various surviving drawings to the finished work , the dome , and the uses of the octagon , oval , and cross motifs , all in frequently dry language . For example , in his discussion of decorate motifs , he writes , thus the oval , too , is embodied in San Carlino [an alternate trace for the church] . It determines the nature of the lateral chapels , the ambiguous transition to the diagonals , the felt telling to the walls of the dome (Steinberg , 1977 ,. 152 ) - prose that a lay reader might convalesce rather opaque . He devotes a single chapter next the end to the artist s action but does not affiliate him very closely to his times and does not provide a very enlightening contextWriting nearly twenty years later , British art scholar Anthony Blunt looks at San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in relation to the artist s era giving the reader a much clearer context and far more valuable insights into Borromini s life and personality . In his biography of the architect , Blunt devotes an complete chapter solely to this building describing in more accessible , dynamic (and less theoretical ) language what...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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