HSTARC2: Baroque Architecture

Reflecting on Baroque style of architecture is like reflecting on the architecture that the Spanish Era left the Philippines. An earthquake proof like church in a “barrio” or community shows the high influence of the style. These churches display the picture of Philippine history, not only because of Christianity in the country, but in serving as the political backbone of Spanish colonial rule, when Church and State were regarded as one. The word baroque is derived from the Portuguese word `barocco', meaning irregular pearl. Until nineteenth century the word baroque was used mostly as a fancy synonym for `absurd' and `grotesque'. The characteristic feature of this style is energy, lack of harmony, attraction for the ornate and an explosive elaboration, which almost conceals the underlining order or pattern.

It started when the Roman Catholic Church reacted on a movement that was spreading through out Europe and many nations started to establish their dominance of wealth and power, the Protestants. Still the many great minds of the time didn’t stop from changing the face of Europe and impacted the face of politics, religion, architecture and the arts.
The Reformation was a movement in which protestant reformers rejected the use of religious icons in churches and so there was a wave of iconoclasm in which stained glass windows were smashed, statues broken, paintings of saints destroyed and organs removed from the churches.

The Catholic Church responded to this with a form of art that opposed the severity of the protestant reformers. This form of art and architecture was called Baroque. The Baroque period was a very important time in the history of art. It was the period after the High Renaissance. The Baroque period was the result of the dramatic change in the High Renaissance. The Baroque was the result of a counter reformation from the protestant movement.



Paoay Church, Ilocos Norte, Philippines


The key points and characteristics of the Baroque era were energy, great amounts of tension and a sense of movement from the buildings. Its architecture evolved from mannerism and broke away from the rules of contemporary architecture, they demanded freedom to plan, design and decorate their buildings with what they wanted. Columns had twisted shafts that were placed in front of pilasters surrounded by cornices and covered with curved and broken pediments. Interiors had gilded sculptures often in awkward poses. The architecture was noted for its curved lines. Many of Baroques additions were finished in bronze, marble, gold and silver. Baroque had a dynamic look and feel to its design. It was a useful classification for separating the tendencies and products of stylistic change. It was seen as spacious, brilliant, theatrical, passionate, sensual, ecstatic, extravagant, versatile and virtuoso. It was an age of expansion following on an age of discovery, its expansion led to still further discovery about architectural design and decoration.

This era was a great change. In no other buildings of the period is the simple geometrical shapes developed with greater creativity, complexity and effect. The buildings of the era are always described as dramatic but maybe the term spectacular, in the sense of creating a spectacle of exaggerating or overwhelming, capture the architecture of the period with greater accuracy. The language of architecture had grown rich and varied based on the enduring Classical tradition creatively adapted for a range of new solutions by means of individual, cultural and national interpretations.