The term Baroque can be literary taken to mean a “misshapen pearl”. The word Baroque came up during this period of architecture because the style was considered to be very old. Baroque architectures emerged during the Renaissance architecture long ago in Italy. The architects of the Baroque were Borromini and Bernini. The first sculpture for Bernini was medium. In this case, many sculptures were incorporated into his buildings. A mason and sculptor, Frencescor Burromini went to Italy in 1614 to train under Bernini.

The Late Roman buildings are considered to be precursors to Baroque architecture. Indeed, the design achieved a colossal unity that was unknown previously. The Renaissance architects got bored with the same old forms and symmetry in 1600. These forms had been used for more than 200 years hence needed a change. Consequently, they started to create unsymmetrical building, curving, bold with ornate decorations.

The facades were made up of several curves, and mainly used double curve out in the middle and at the sides, which were highly decorated. Sometimes the tips were gilded and turned into scrolls. Between the two examples, St Moise in Venice had more façade as opposed to St Ignatius in Mainz. This notwithstanding, however, the interior of St Ignatius is Rococo. It should be noted that the discrete shape of Baroque is oval. The baroques architects made use of gilt, bronze and marble abundantly in the interior. The interiors are mainly surrounded by several gilded puttos and some life sized ones.

The domes and ceilings mainly contained large murals or frescos, and this was known as “Trompe l’oeil” painting. This is  an art  technique  which involved  realistic  imagery  so as to create  an optical  illusion  that depicted  objects have three dimensions rather than being a  two dimension painting. The Baraque was on high demand by architects and was more accessible to the emotions.

In mid-17^th century, the Baroque style was given a secular expression in form of grand palaces. This was first started in France but later spread throughout in Europe. The baroque was more restrained in France. Although lavish details were widely used, the French buildings were orderly and symmetrical. The Versailles Place was a good example. Builders in Mexico, South Africa and Spain combined with exuberant sculptures and Baroque ideas, Moorish details, and very high contrast between dark and light. The Spanish baroque architecture was used in the better part of 1700s, and it continued to be initiated later on. In Austria, Germany, Russia, and Eastern Europe, the Baroque ideas were applied with a very light touch. Curving shell shapes and pale colors gave building infrastructures an appearance of a frosted cake. The word Rococo describes the softer versions of the Baroque style.

In the Polish Lithuanian, the first Baroque church was the Corpus Christ Church established in 1586-1593. It is also the first domed basilica that had   the Baroque façade in the Commonwealth countries, and the first Baroque form of art in the Eastern Europe. By early 17^th century, the baroque form of art had spread across the Commonwealth. Some of the baroque churches include the SS .Paul and Peter (1597-1619) which were constructed in the baroque style that followed the Vignolas pattern. Other major  examples  include the  profusely  decorated Jesuit Church which had  a theatrical decoration from  the inside, the Xavier Cathedral in Hrodna (1678–1705), the Royal Chapel (1678–1681) in Gdańsk, a mixture of Dutch and Polish patterns and Święta Lipka in Masuria (1681–1693), the northernmost Tyrolean Baroque building”[1]

The  monumental castle  which was built  in the palazzo style  between 1626b and 1645 had a lot of  courtyards  that were surrounded  by the  fortifications. The baroque fascinations with the art and culture of the “central nation” are reflected in the Chinese Palace in Queen Masysienka. The magnate palaces in the 18th century are a representation of a characteristic baroque residence. Its architecture  is “a merger of European art with old Commonwealth building traditions, is visible in Wilanów Palace, Branicki Palace in Białystok and in Warsaw, Potocki Palace in Radzyń Podlaski, Raczyński Palace in Rogalin and Wiśniowiecki Palace in Vyshnivets”[2].  Some of the architects like Johann Christoph Glaubitz played a key role in creating the distinctive Vilnius Baroque style that cuts across the nation.

Notable baroque style architecture was established in the 18^th century, and this was enhanced by Johann Christopher who was given the mandate to build Vilnius, which was the capital city of the Commonwealth. The style was named Vilnian Baroque. The dynamic and magnificent façade of the Gothic church is among the best works ever done.

The Baroque architecture underwent three major stages in Russia the stages included the

Moscow Baroque, which had white decorations on the red brick walls, the mature Petrine Baroque which was borrowed from lower nations, and the Rastrelliesque Baroque, which as claimed by William Brumfield, “Extravagant in design and execution, yet ordered by the rhythmic insistence of massed columns and Baroque statuary”[3]

The Petrine Baroque  name  was applied  by the  historians of art to a style of  the  baroque architecture  which  favored by  Peter the Great  and was meant to design  buildings  in the Russian capital  and the Russian monarch  and the immediate successors. On the other hand, the Ukraine baroque is far much different from the European Baroque. In this case, it has more moderate and simpler forms of ornamentation. As a result, therefore, it is considered to be more constructivists. The Ukrainian baroque is unique in its own way in that it has a peer and bud-shaped domes. Most of these buildings have been preserved and a good example of these includes the various buildings in the Vydubychi Monastery and the in Kiev Pechersk Lavra. It is alleged that the Baroque architecture was mainly used in palaces that were near to the Golden Horn and Bosphorus. The famous streets of Nisantasi, Istiklal Avenue, Cntaddesi and Banklar consist of these architectures style apartment. On the other hand, the Ottoman flavor provides it with a unique atmosphere, which distinguishes it from the “colonial” Baroque style, which was mainly used in Lebanon and other parts of Middle East. Later on  there were  other  forms of mature  Baroque  in Istanbul, and can be found  in the Dolmabahce  Palace,  and this had   an “eastern” flavor  combining  Oriental, Romantic, Baroque architecture.

Renaissance architects adopted different distinguished features of Roman architecture. Over the times, however, the purposes and forms of buildings have changed. This is reflected in the sixteenth century and classical forms. The major features of this century structures, which fused Renaissance aesthetics with Roman technique were based on various foundational architect concepts: columns and pillars, facades, domes, vaults, walls and windows. The study of ancient Romans is an important aspect of the Renaissance architectural theory. Indeed, the style becomes more ornamental and decorative. In this case, there were a widespread of domes, statuary and cupolas.

Pilaster

 The rectangular column projects from the wall from which it is attached to. The appearance given is for the support as well as for the decoration.

Renaissance Architecture

The renaissance architecture was popular in the period of between 15th and 17th centuries in different countries of Europe. It demonstrated a conscious development and revival of different elements of ancient Roman and Greek thought and culture. The renaissance architecture borrowed from the Gothic architecture style but was later succeeded by Baroque architecture.

Pediment

“A classical architectural element consisting of a triangular section or gable found above the horizontal superstructure which lies immediately upon the columns”[4] The renaissance buildings have a symmetrical, square appearance and its proportions are normally based on various foundational architectural concepts such as pilasters and columns, facades, vaults, arches, walls, windows and domes.

The renaissance facades are symmetrical in their vertical axis. In this case, the church facades are surmounted by pediments and are organized in the system of arches, entablatures and pilasters. The windows and columns show progressiveness towards the centre. “One of the first true Renaissance façades was the Cathedral of Pienza (1459–62), which has been attributed to the Florentine architect Bernardo Gambarelli[5]”

The renaissance architects incorporated pilasters and columns. In this case, it used the Roman order of columns. These included the Doric, Tuscan, Corithian, Composite and the Ionic. The orders were either structural, therefore, supporting architrave or an arcade, or purely decorative. During the renaissance, the main aim of most architects was to use pilasters, entablatures and columns as an integrated system. It should be noted that one of the major buildings o use pilasters was the Old Sacristy in 1422-1420 by Brunelleschi. Arches are segmental structures that are semi-circular and are mainly used in arcades, and are supported on columns or piers with capitals. The Renaissances vaults are segmental or semicircular and do not have ribs. This is as opposed the Gothic vaults that are rectangular. “The dome is used frequently in this period, both as a very large structural feature that is visible from the exterior, and also as a means of roofing smaller spaces where they are only visible internally”[6]

Domes were rarely used during the middle ages. However, after the dome succeeded in Brunelleschi’s design, the dome become popular and was an indensible element in the architecture of the church.

The windows were set and paired within the semicircular arch, and had square lintels and segmental or triangular pediments. Notably, these were alternately used. The windows were used to give views in domestic architecture and bring lights into a building. The external reinaissance walls were of highly ashlar masonry. The corners of most buildings were emphasized mainly by rusticated quoins. Grounds and basements floors were rusticated. The internal walls were plastered smoothly and surfaced with white chalk paint. Moreover, the internal surfaces were decorated with the frescoes.

The baroque architecture started early in the 17^th century and took a humanist Roman vocabulary known as the Renaissance architecture. The vocabulary was used in a new theatrical, rhetorical and sculptural fashion. It expressed the triumph of absolute state and church. Notably, there were concerns for light, shade and color as well as the intensity that characterize the Baroque. Although the Renaissance drew on power and wealth of courts, and was a religious and secular forces. The baroque was linked directly to the Counter-Reformation movement within the Catholic Church. “The Baroque played into the demand for an architecture that was on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and, on the other hand, a visible statement of the wealth and power of the Church”[7]. The baroque style manifested itself in a context of religious orders such as the Jesuits and treaties, whose major aim was to improve the popular piety. By mid seventeenth century, the baroque style had made a secular expression in grand palaces. It first started in France and then spread out across Europe.

The Caserta Palace is the last phase of architecture in Italy and probably the largest building that was erected in Europe in the 18^th century. The palace is indebted to contemporary Spanish and French models and it is related skillful to the landscape. At Caserta and Naples, Vanvitelli engineering and aesthetics practiced a classical academic style, with equal attention given to engineering and aesthetics. This style made the neoclassical transition easy

On the other hand, the monarchs in the north Italy were receptive to the new style. Arguably, “they employed a brilliant triad of architects Guarino Guarini, Filippo Juvarra and Bernardo Vittone to illustrate the grandiose political ambitions and the newly acquired royal status of their dynasty”[8]. Guarin  was  regarded as a peripatetic  monk who was capable of  combining  many  traditions such as  the Gothic architecture so as to  build  irregular  for  unconventional  facades  and oval  columns. “Building upon the findings of contemporary geometry and stereotomy, Guarini elaborated the concept of architectural obliqua, which approximated Borromini’s style in both theoretical and structural audacity. Guarini’s Palazzo Carignano (1679) may have been the most flamboyant application of the Baroque style to the design of a private house in the 17th century”[9]
Weightless details, fluid forms and airy prospects of architecture anticipated the Rococo art. It should be noted that the visual impacts of the Basica di Superra are derived from the soaring roofline. The piedmontese architects can be remembered for the flamboyant Rococo churches. The sophisticated designs feature multiple structures, vaults within domes and structures.

In conclusion, the pediment was regarded as a crowning feature especially on the Greek temple front. Notably, the triangle wall of the pediment surface or tympanum was heavily decorated with the sculptures. Pediments were adopted by the Romans purely as decorative forms meant to finish windows, doors and series. It sometimes used   “a series of alternating triangular and segmental curved pediments, a motif revived in the Italian High Renaissance. Baroque-era designers developed many varieties of broken, scrolled, and reverse-curved pediments”[10]