Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #700891 in Books
• Published on: 1979-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

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. (Times Literary Supplement )

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. (New York Times Book Review )

Anthony Blunt reveals his great powers as an architectural historian. His prose is remarkably lucid and concise, even plain, yet extremely evocative? (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. (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.

Customer Reviews

the best book on borromini
This book offers an excellent introduction both to the architecture of Francesco Borromini and the architecture of the Italian Baroque. Particularly useful are the comparisons between antique and renaissance architecture (particularly Michelangelo). An indispebsable book for anyone interested in Baroque or Italian architecture in general.

Decent
This book is good for its written content, but lacks good accompanying photography. The photographs are grainy, but if you can move beyond that Anthony Blunt has definitely done his homework on Borromini.