Antonio Gherardi: The Forgotten Baroque Architect Who Defied Bernini and Borromini

Antonio Gherardi (1638–1702), a Baroque painter and architect from Rieti, is best known for his intimate chapel designs in Rome that rival the works of Bernini and Borromini. Trained under Pietro da Cortona and Pier Francesco Mola, Gherardi created two remarkable chapels: the Avila Chapel in Santa Maria in Trastevere (1678) and the Chapel of Santa Cecilia in San Carlo ai Catinari (1695). Both feature innovative double domes and dramatic use of natural light, described by architect Paolo Portoghesi as "light as a constructive factor of the image." The Avila Chapel includes a small perspective gallery that magnifies Gherardi's own painting of Saint Jerome (1680), while the Santa Cecilia Chapel integrates a painted altarpiece with stucco angels and an oval balustrade. Art historian Claudio Strinati noted that Gherardi "lived with involved conviction the debate on the purposes and meaning of the arts that runs through the entire second half of the 17th century, but lived it in a creative rather than theoretical sense." The key reference text is "Antonio Gherardi. Un genio bizzarro nella Roma del Seicento" edited by Lydia Saracca Colonnelli (Artemide, Rome, 2003).