Maderno, Carlo

Maderno, Carlo (c.1556–1629). Leading architect working in Rome from the mid-1570s, before Bernini, Borromini, and Cortona developed the Baroque style to its greatest potential. He started under D. Fontana, his uncle, and was involved in the re-erection of the Ancient Egyptian obelisks at Piazza di San Pietro (1586), Piazza dell'Esquilino (1587), Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano (1588), and Piazza del Pòpolo (1589). He worked on a number of engineering projects before designing his masterpiece, the remodelling of the Church of Santa Susanna on the Quirinal Hill (1593–1603), with a dramatic façade based on that of Il Gesù, but with an engaged lower Order and scrolls linking the narrower upper pilaster façade to the wider front below. Emphasis was more decisive and vertical than at Il Gesù. After the election of Pope Paul V (1605–21) Maderno was appointed Architect to St Peter's, where he constructed the nave (1609–16), began work on the decorations of the crossing, built the curving stairs leading to the confessio, designed the façade facing the Piazza (its great width was occasioned by the enforced requirement to add two campanili of which only the first two stages were built), and created the fountain (later moved to the cross-axis of the obelisk and duplicated with a twin by Bernini).

At the Mother-Church of the Theatines, Sant'Andrea della Valle, Maderno completed the nave, added the transepts and chancel, and constructed the distinguished and beautiful dome with lantern (1608–c.1628). He also designed the façade, begun in the mid-1620s, and completed with modifications by Rainaldi in the 1660s. He was responsible for the Palazzo Mattei di Giove, Rome (1598–1617), and the Villa Aldobrandini, Frascati (1603–c.1620), including the superb semicircular water-theatre featuring arched niches with grottoes and fountains fed by a chain of stepped cascades at the top of which is a pair of spiral columns. One of his last works was the Palazzo Barberini, Rome (1626–8), completed by Bernini.

Bibliography

Hibbard (1971);
P. Murray (1969, 1986);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Jane Turner (1996);
van Vynckt (ed.) (1993);
Waddy (1990)