Baroque architectural rhetoric and urban structures
While the Italian origin of Baroque religious architecture is undisputable, secular architecture developed mostly under the influence of French architecture. While the Italian origin of Baroque religious architecture is undisputable, secular architecture developed mostly under the influence of French architecture, affecting everything, from ambience, structure and ornament to the way of life. From the Esterházy Palace complex in Fertőd-Eszterháza in Hungary, a maison de' plaisance, to the summer palace of the Portuguese court with a U-shaped floor-plan embracing a “French” style garden, architects introduced an element of integration in European residential architecture, following the example of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, created by the architect Louis Le Vau and the landscape architect André le Nôtre.
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Villa Mondragone, Water Theatre
1618–1619
Monte Porzio Catone, Rome, Latium, Italy
Carlo Maderno (1556, Capolago, Bissone – 1629, Rome), architect documented in Rome from 1576; Giovanni Fontana (1540, Melide – 1614, Rome), hydraulic engineer, brother of the better known Domenico, architect to Pope Sixtus V; Flemish architect: Jan van Santen (also known as Giovanni Vasanzio; c. 1550, Utrecht – died in Rome 1621)
The most significant architectural work carried out involved the gardens, which – along with the long wing of the building (manica) – make up a single group comprising different structures, including a water theatre or nymphaeum opposite the portico of the secret garden, which were built alongside the new Borghese wings.
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