Catholic Italy / Borromini       Borromini Francesco Borromini is born in 1599, in Lombardy near Lugano. From the age of nine he is an apprentice sculptor in Milan; he then goes to Rome in 1615. Trained by the papal architect Carlo Maderno, who orients him toward baroque art, he becomes his draughtsman and then his assistant. Later he holds equivalent posts with Bernin, and participates in the work on the colonnade of “ St Peter's Square ” and on the “ Barberini Palace ”, but the two men do not get along. In 1634, he ends these years of collaboration and offers his services to a Spanish order for which he directs the building of a convent on the Quirinal. This first commission already draws attention to his work and demonstrates his strong personality. His work on volumes, his complex plans and refined decors will all become evident in the many churches that he undertakes in the following years. Of these, “ St. Yves of Sapience ” is one of the best examples along with “ St. Charles of the Four Fountains ”, only completed at the end of his life. Under Innocent X , he becomes the Pope's official architect and replaces Bernini in this position. Then he undertakes the modernisation of “ St. John of Latran ”. This is the only pontificate under which he is retained in an exclusive manner, but Borromini also works for private clients, alternating between the edification of villas and churches. He notably builds a small curiosity in the Spada Palace by creating a gallery that reveals his illusionist tastes. This proud and susceptible bachelor pleads all his life for creativity, which he wishes to be untamed. Bernini, his principal rival, qualifies his architecture as “ licentious and heretical ”. In fact, his buildings define a baroque conception, which is less monumental, but lighter and full of grace and rhythm. Thus Borromini favours trompe l'œil, surprises, curves and oblique lines, astonishing plans, singular and swift articulations, and generous volumes that remain human. He refuses all imitation and justifies his ideas in a work Opus Architectonicum in which he explains how he uses antique culture. His exuberance and quest for the liberation of space have a reverberation in baroque architecture as a whole, but his influence will only be felt later. It lies notably at the origin of the Rococo style of the 18th century.