Baroque and Rococo - Architecture and Decoration

The spirit of the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Revival that followed it found expression in a new style of architecture that was dynamic, emotional and dramatic. It is only in recent years that this style has begun to be appreciated and understood by the layman as well as the scholar. By bringing together in one comprehensive volume the whole subject of Baroque in its historical context and illustrating it with the brilliant photographs of Wim Swaan, Anthony Blunt has produced a wide-ranging and authoritative study, fresh for the specialist and a sure guide for the general reader to its complex and powerful features. Anthony Blunt starts by tracing the origin of Baroque architecture in Rome during the first half of the 17th century through the genius of Bernini, Borromini and Pietro da Cortona.