The Erotics of Baroque Architecture

 After our venture into the Renaissance, where the use of simpler forms and pure geometries such as squares and circles were the principles of creating the perfect architecture for human proportion. Now, moving forward to Baroque where things get a lot more details and complicated. Baroque strikes me as being very ornamented and curvy with overwhelming details to the point that through such experience, it could crate such a dramatic mood and evokes our senses once we are inside. While Renaissance architecture abandoned the secular / religious viewpoint and emphasized more on the logics and proportions, strangely Baroque seems to be the opposite with it featuring sculptures and paintings. It was when religion became powerful once again.

However, Baroque architecture evokes the idea of eroticism for me because of the mystery behind the spiritual beliefs displaying on the decoration of the building, it is also quite ambiguous and therefore, mysterious since it ceases to use the Renaissance’s pure geometries of squares and circles but emphasis on the less pure geometry such as the oval, seen in not only the elevations but also the plan of the buildings. Thus, the oval presented in Baroque architecture can almost be seen as a manipulated circle, a form of a less pure geometry.

We cannot talk about Baroque without the mentioning of the almost overwhelming details of the ornaments, which really fills and defines baroque architecture. Baroque is in fact, characterized by the grand elaboration of detail and space. Architects would take classical motifs and recombined them to create a sense of drama. The use of curves is also quite dominant as seen in Borromini’s S.Carlo alle Quattro Fontane where the façade is articulated with the alternating convex and concave surfaces, this to me, is quite erotic as it is almost an illusion which lures us in to look, wonder and even interact with the building. Similar to the ornamentation as well, since the interior of Baroque is filled with decorations from architectural elements to paintings and sculptures, our vision is bombarded with so many elaborate details that is almost overwhelming, thus, in the order to extract a total experience from such buildings, we have to really look closely, at each part, “examine” each curves and niches in the order to receive the effect which is different to each person. Hence, through this impromptu interaction (visually and physically) while we run our eyes through each of the buildings curves, we, in a way, are interacting with the architecture and thus, the rise of the idea of eroticism.

The alternating curves on the facade of S.Carlo alle Quattro Fontane seems almost like an illusion.

Say goodbye to the pure forms of circles and squares and get ready to be hypnotized by the ambiguity of ovals.

Through the use of less pure geometries which teases us to wonder and the overwhelming elaboration of ornamentation, I think Baroque is a perfect example of erotic architecture, it plays with our eyes and minds, leaving such dramatic moods and effects on the inhabitants yet does it so subtly that eventually, it is us, who would continue engaging in this “man to architecture” interaction.