Monday, January 23, 2017

PALACE OF THE KNOWLEDGE (second part) - LIBRARY OF ALEXANDER

BibliotecaAlessandrina
1959/65 Francesco Borromini (1599/1667) for Alexander VII Chigi (1655/67) on the second floor to the left of the church
“It remains like Borromini had designed it. The great hall of the library is three stories high and the recessed shelves, also designed by the master, form an important part of the architecture. This was a new and important idea that he had not yet conceived when he built the library on top of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri some twenty years earlier. It was precisely this new concept that made the Biblioteca Alessandrina the prototype of the great libraries of the eighteenth century” (Rudolf Wittkower)
VAULT
“Triumph of Religion with the three theological virtues, the four evangelists and four doctors of the Church” 1662/65 by Clemente Maioli (1634/73) from Ferrara influenced by Pietro da Cortona and close to the style of Giovanni Francesco Romanelli
“Bust of Alexander VII” in 1661 by Domenico Guidi (1625/1701) embedded into a frame of golden stucco designed by Borromini

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