Baroque architect Francesco Borromini was born on 25 September 1559 in a town near Lugano. Renowned for his inventive architectural design and rivalry with Gianlorenzo Bernini, Borromini’s Roman churches epitomize the High Baroque with their spectacular, theatrical, and organic designs, like those for San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and Sant’Ivo. Other important projects include the Oratory of S. Filippo Neri, the Lateran Basilica, the Palazzo Barberini, and Sant’Agnese in Agone (after 1652) opposite Bernini’s Four Rivers Fountain (1651) in Piazza Navona.
For more on Borromini, see Peter Stein. “Borromini, Francesco.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web.
Further reading:
Borromini by Anthony Blunt (1979)
The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry That Transformed Rome by Jake Morrissey (2006)
Sant’Ivo, Rome, exterior.
Portrait of Borromini by an unknown artist.
Sant’Ivo, Rome, interior of cupola.
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome, exterior and interior dome.
Sant’Agnese, Rome.