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| Image: GoogleMaps |
Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza (University of
Rome) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, built between 1642-1660 by Francesco Borromini. It was built
in the Roman Baroque style and is well known to be a masterpiece of its time.
It stands and the end of a courtyard at 40 Corso del Rinascimento and is now
used by the Archives of the City of Rome.
During the fourteenth century, there was a
chapel dedicated to Saint Ivo for the palace of the University of Rome in the
cite. When Borromini’s design was commissioned in the seventeenth century, he
choose a six-pointed star plan, resembling the Star of David (at the time, it
was recognized as the Star of Solomon, symbolizing wisdom). He merged a curved
facade of the church with the courtyard of the palace. The corkscrew lantern of
the dome was unique and the complex rhythms of the interior have a dazzling
geometry to them. The main artwork of the interior is the
altarpiece by Pietro da Cortona portraying St. Yves.
The church rises at the end of the Giacomo
della Porta courtyard, The façade is concave, molding the church into the
courtyard as if completing it. The façade itself looks like a continuation of
the courtyard arches besides for minor openings where doors and windows have
been placed. Above the façade is a large parapet structure allowing only the
higher portions of the church to been seen past the façade. A key exterior aspect is the top of the
church, where the lantern of Sant'Ivo stands with a spiral shape, topped by a Cross.
The interior of Sant'Ivo is more
interesting than the exterior. Borromini was well known for combining geometrical shapes as well as his pairing of
columns in order to facilitate curves. However, in this project, Borromini did
not blend the shapes- the church is made up of distinctly different geometries.
As seen in the image above, the floor scheme is a triangle with its corners cut
off and semi-circles in between the triangle’s three lines. Borromini utilized
curves and edges in equal amounts to define the shape of the rotunda. The windows
associated with the round sections of the dome are larger than those associated
with the edges. Sunlight illuminates the dome through an oculi in the lantern. Borromini
had a talisman with the shape of a bee installed in the roof of the lantern as the
symbol of the family of Urban VIII Barberini who commissioned the construction
of this church.
The aisles of arches surrounding the right
and left wings of Sant'Ivo are not halted by the church. The space between the
arches and the walls in the aisles still continue past the church’s sides. Each
aisle has a single lateral entrance to the church. These side entrances lead to
hexagonal rooms; these rooms are connected to the rotunda. Behind the Altar is two
more hexagonal rooms with windows aligned on the back.
The inside walls and dome of the rotunda
were covered by Borromini with sculptures and motifs. On each section there are
columns of stars leading up to an angel’s face with wings.
Sources:
1- Watkin, David. A History of Western Architecture: Sixth ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1986. Print.
2- http://www.bluffton.edu/homepages/facstaff/sullivanm/italy/rome/stivo/stivo.html
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