Palazzo Barberini Helicoidal Staircase
Borromini, Francesco
Download1A1-BF-PBHS-A4_cp.jpg (413.3Kb)
Alternative Title
Palazzo Barberini Scala Elicoidale
Date
1625-1630Description
Detail, square column bases turning and sitting on wedge shaped blocks angled on the turn of the spiral; Flanking the hall, two sets of stairs lead to the piano nobile, a large squared staircase by Bernini to the left and a smaller oval staircase by Borromini to the right. It is not easy to distinguish the share of Borromini in the Palazzo Barberini, but he was certainly responsible for the oval spiral staircase in the right wing, which is a variant of Mascarino's staircase in the Quirnal. In one of the preliminary drawings the steps are shaped in very elongated S-curves, a form which Borromini was frequently to use later, but the architect abandoned this idea and, as built, the steps are straight within the oval spiraling case. Source: Blunt, Anthony; Borromini, Cambridge MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979 (978-0674079267) (accessed 7/28/2012)
Type of Work
stairSubject
architecture, stairs, oval, ovoid, spiral, Baroque
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only