Reflections on Baroque

Rating:
Summary: A Charming Book on the Baroque Spirit
Review: Robert Harbison is well-known for his architectural criticism and, in particular, for an excellent book he wrote several years ago titled ECCENTRIC SPACES. That book dealt in part with gardens and other spaces of the 17th century, and this volume happily picks up where that one left off. Harbison explores here both the whimsy and playfulness of the Baroque sensibility and its more sober grounding in the Counter-Reformation. He looks at how the Baroque spread beyond Europe to the Americas, to Asia, and to Africa over the course of several centuries, and he examines diverse subjects ranging from bizarre gardens that go nowhere to the novel designs of architects Borromini, Bernini, and Wren. A great pleasure to read.