San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane

Rome, Italy

Baroque church

presented by John Van Hezewyk

Francesco Borromini

(1565 - 1676)

Francesco Borromini was born in Bissone, Lugano in 1599. He learned stone cutting from his father, Giovanni Domenico Castelli. While still a child, he moved to Milan to continue studying stone cutting. In 1619 he moved to Rome where he worked as a craftsman on St. Peters. At this time, he changed his name from Castelli to Borromini.

Initially Borromini worked as a stone mason under Carlo Maderno, the official architect to St. Peter's. By 1620 he was drafting and designing. When Maderno died in 1629, Borromini joined the workshop of Bernini. Under Bernini he gained more experience as a draftsman and designer. In 1634 he began work as an independent architect with his reconstruction of the monastery and church of St. Carlo Borromeo.

Borromini's architecture "springs from the contrast between convention and freedom." Borromini used tradition as a basis for design but did not view it as an ultimate, unalterable law.

Borromini died in Rome in 1667.

References
Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-8230-2539-X. NA40.I45. p26-27.