19 Facts About Francesco Borromini

Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli, was an Italian architect born in the modern Swiss canton of Ticino who, with his contemporaries Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.

Francesco Borromini seems to have had a sound understanding of structures, which perhaps Bernini and Cortona, who were principally trained in other areas of the visual arts, lacked.

Francesco Borromini appears to have been a self-taught scholar, amassing a large library by the end of his life.

Unlike Bernini who easily adopted the mantle of the charming courtier in his pursuit of important commissions, Francesco Borromini was both melancholic and quick in temper which resulted in his withdrawing from certain jobs.

Francesco Borromini's conflicted character led him to a death by suicide in 1667.

Francesco Borromini was born at Bissone, near Lugano in today's Ticino, which was at the time a bailiwick of the Swiss Confederacy.

Francesco Borromini was the son of a stonemason and began his career as a stonemason himself.

Francesco Borromini soon went to Milan to study and practice his craft.

Francesco Borromini moved to Rome in 1619 and started working for Carlo Maderno, his distant relative, at St Peter's and then at the Palazzo Barberini.

In 1634, Francesco Borromini received his first major independent commission to design the church, cloister and monastic buildings of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane.

Francesco Borromini positioned the church on the corner of two intersecting roads.

Francesco Borromini devised the complex ground plan of the church from interlocking geometrical configurations, a typical Francesco Borromini device for constructing plans.

However, with the help of his Oratorian friend and provost Virgilio Spada, Francesco Borromini documented his own account of the building of the oratory and the residence and an illustrated version was published in Italian in 1725.

Francesco Borromini had been initially recommended for the commission in 1632, by his then supervisor for the work at the Palazzo Barberini, Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Francesco Borromini was one of several architects involved in the building of the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone in Rome.

The foundations were laid and much of the lower level walls had been constructed when the Rainaldis were dismissed due to criticisms of the design and Francesco Borromini was appointed in their stead.

Francesco Borromini began a much more innovative approach to the facade which was expanded to include parts of the adjacent Palazzo Pamphili and gain space for his two bell towers.

In 1657, Francesco Borromini resigned and Carlo Rainaldi was recalled who made a number of significant changes to Francesco Borromini's design.

The College of the Propagation of the Faith or Propaganda Fide in Rome includes the Re Magi Chapel by Francesco Borromini, generally considered by architectural historians to be one of his most spatially unified architectural interiors.