As someone who grew up in a Catholic family and Catholic schools for almost my entire life, I’ve been to a cathedral or two when travelling on school trips or just vacations with my family. One of the many cathedrals I’ve visited during my high school’s music trip is the Notre Dame De Quebec which had aspects of baroque architecture and decor as well as the Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral.
Now what makes baroque architecture unique? It was essentially made to be overly decorated, heavily detailed and dramatic. To enhance this “dramatic” feel, they would use strong light and shade contrasts creating a chiaroscuro effect, or an even light using windows. In churches they made naves broader and circular, external walls often characterized by a dramatic central projection and the interior a canvas for more decoration and quite a few more attributes.
While there are cathedrals in Quebec that portray the techniques of baroque architecture, it actually originated in Rome, Italy in the 16th century. Carlo Maderno was one of the first architects to assist in the solidification of the baroque style of architecture as he designed the Santa Susanna church which contained aspects of the baroque architectural style like column patterns which gave it a central mass along with condensed central decoration. However still containing aspects of renaissance architecture. This then inspired other architects to design with the baroque style like Pietro da Cortana with the Santa Maria della Pace.
During this time, the scientific revolution was happening as well. Greek views of nature were overtaken by abandoning assumptions about nature and observing with an open mind. This period brought forth many developments towards biology, math, astronomy etc. which were essentially building blocks for knowledge we know today and continue to build upon. An architect by the name of Robert Hooke worked alongside Newton to develop proof of the elliptical forms of orbiting planets.
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