Travel to Italy: Rome: More Churches: Photo 56

Just time for one more this busy weekend: San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, whose facade was added by Borromini in 1667, 30 years after the church was built. Grundmann writes, "There were no prototypes for this in ancient times. For the first time ever, the stone wall became an elastic material" (p. 209-10). Not everyone has been so sympathetic: Burckhardt's Cicerone compares the facade to apple peelings, and Keith Miller reminds us that the word "baroque" originally denoted deformity, which is why works like this one, like those of Bernini, were condemned as "morally as well as aesthetically dubious" (p. 91). Alas, the door's locked. Have to wait for another cheap airfare.

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