Borromini e l’accademia

The widely held critical view of Francesco Borromini as an architect alienated from the Academy of St. Luke is tied to the presumed ideological aversion shown him by Giovanni Pietro Bellori, supposedly reflected in Bellori’s discourse on the ‘Idea del Bello’, presented at the Academy in 1664. Reconsidering the nature of Bellori’s 1764 discourse and the circumstances in which it was delivered, this contribution offers a less subjective interpretation of the critical components of the discourse, in regard to contemporary architecture and architects. Moreover, this contribution seeks to reconstruct the context of Borromini’s disengagement from Academy affiliations not as an exclusion based on cultural or corporative nature, but rather as the considered rejection of an artistic and professionally autonomous personality, operating entiely outside official models of accreditation.