The volume examines the work of Francesco Borromini (1599–1667) from a distinctive perspective, one that emphasizes the fundamental and shared characteristics of his architectural language rather than adopting a simple chronological approach. The author, Paolo Portoghesi, identifies “a set of systems that can be compared and stylistically synthesized,” which make it possible to grasp the characteristics of “a body of work as unified and coherent as Borromini’s, a production that spans only thirty years and unfolds within a static and inert social and political context.”
Borromini is one of the most important architects of all time, and his works—from San Carlino alle Quattro Fontane to the Oratorio dei Filippini, from San Giovanni in Laterano to the palaces Spada and Falconieri, and the Collegio di Propaganda Fide—bear the striking marks of the genius from which they are the product, the signs of an architectural language that dramatically lives out its own destiny and tragically expresses it in its own “modernity.”