The Role of Coloristic Decoration of the Architectural Order in Shaping the Façade Tectonics in the Baroque Period

The article is dedicated to the role of polychrome solutions of the architectonic order in the concept of the Baroque façade. The ancient principles of designing architectural structures, inherited from the Renaissance were subjected to reinterpretations in order to impart different expressive values. The arrangements of façades, initially balanced or even horizontal, were replaced by ambiguous bivalent compositions. Vertical layouts began to dominate in the Baroque. Appropriately selected polychrome of the elements of the order could emphasize the compositional expression. The relationship between the layout of the polychrome in a given architectural order and the expression of a work of art has been established for quite a long time. However, the generally available data on color schemes of architectural structures in baroque buildings are still not fully organized. The paper analyses examples of Baroque façades preserved in their original state and revalorized in recent years after thorough conservator’s research in the field of architecture and color. The examples are mainly designed in the so-called great order, i.e. pertaining largely to church façades. In the Baroque, the vertical direction of the composition was strongly emphasized by multiplying or applying perspective arrangements of supports, and finally by embattled entablatures. The decisive field of change became the shaping of the coloristic decoration of the entablature – decisions regarding the material and color separation of elements of the frieze above the supports. The uniform color of all vertical elements of the façade structure guaranteed an unambiguous verticality of the composition.


Introduction
Baroque architecture affects the viewer due to the expression of its composition shaped by means of carefully selected forms, profiles, connections and proportions of the elements of the order. The ancient principles of designing architectural structures, inherited from the Renaissance and already fully known and refined, were subjected to reinterpretations as early as the late Renaissance and Mannerism in order to impart different expressive values. The arrangements of façades, initially balanced or even horizontal, were replaced by ambiguous bivalent compositions. Vertical layouts began to dominate in the Baroque. From the conceptions of Borromini and Guarini, the primacy of the compositional expression over the maintenance of faithfulness to the rules of architectural order was marked. Thus the developing trend called the aclassical baroque exposed the importance of the dynamics of forms and vertical arrangements in the façade tectonics.
In the case of the first Italian Baroque realizations, whole façades, or at least architectural details were made of stone and preserved in its natural color, and only sometimes the background of the façade was painted. However, in the further evolution of the concept, especially in the projects of South German architects, appropriately selected polychrome of the elements of the order could emphasize the compositional expression of architectural structures. The decisive field of change became the shaping of the coloristic decoration of the entablature.

Status of research. Materials and methods
For years, the issues of the coloring of Baroque façades have been dealt with by conservators, who study the preserved polychromies and reproduce them in comprehensive façade restoration projects. This information is collected in the form of reports on the work carried out. Few of the research results are presented in the form of articles (e.g. Koller 1998, Storemyr 2001, Brzezowski and Wanat 2002. There appear single studies summarizing achievements in selected thematic areas, e.g. concerning a certain group of architectural objects, or a geographical region or a single town (Knoepfli 1965, Philippot et al. 1986, Grognardi and Tagliasacchi 1988, Brzezowski 2000, Dettloff 2010, Białobłocka 2014, Koller 2017). The issue is also discussed along with general problems of restoring original coloring of historical objects (Muratore 2010). The relationship between the layout of the polychrome in a given architectural order and the expression of a work of art has been established for quite a long time (Zander 1984). However, the generally available data on color schemes of architectural structures in baroque buildings are still not fully organized.
At the beginning of the considerations, the presentation of the basic principle of shaping the structures of modern architecture, i.e. application of the architectural order, will serve to indicate the role of individual elements in forming certain compositional effects on the façades. This presentation of selected examples of solutions applied to the polychrome of architectural details of the Renaissance times will create the background for the development of concepts of the subsequent period. The paper will analyze examples of Baroque façades preserved in their original state, reflected in iconography, and revalorized in recent years after thorough conservator's research in the field of architecture and color. The examples are mainly designed in the so-called great order, i.e. pertaining largely to church façades.
The role of polychrome solutions of individual elements of the order structure in the architectural concept of the Baroque façade will be defined. Describing particular color schemes will make it possible to point out the most important differences determining deeply the changes of architectural expression. The presented methods of selecting color schemes will reveal specific Baroque solutions used to emphasize the tectonics of the building and shape artistic effects with their help. The aim will be to identify the types of solutions and to present the most probable genesis of individual design concepts of color schemes for Baroque architectural structures. At the same time it will make it possible to trace the development and transformation of artistic concepts in this area.

Architectural orders in modern times -tradition and innovation
After innovations in the development of architectural structures during the Gothic period, in the Renaissance the return to classical forms imposed a rigor on designers within which they sought new aesthetic solutions. The starting point for architects were decorative systems drawn from ancient Greek and Roman designs. The architectural order derived from antiquity, used again on the façades of buildings since modern times, has its genesis in the structure. It corresponds to the system of supports -columns and pillars, beams and arches supported by them, as well as mullions, lintels and window arches framing the entrance and window openings. As a result, it forms a system of façade vertical and horizontal divisions. Already in ancient times, in addition to its original structural use, the architectural order system was used as wall decoration. The compositions of the four basic orders, Doric (Tuscan), Ionic, Corinthian and Composite, following ancient examples, introduced a different kind of expression from the outset. Initially, the early Renaissance derived spontaneous, emotional inspiration from ancient concepts. A narrow range of possibilities for shaping the expressive charge through extremely subtle, intellectual movements in architecture, strictly observing the rules of order, was used by the masters of the mature Renaissance. Reinterpretations aiming at a sophisticated play of opposites were a design principle in Mannerism. Redefinition of classical arrangements and saturation of individual details with new solutions, changes in architectural profiles provided an opportunity to enrich the expression in the Baroque period. This method led to deformation and extreme plasticization of forms in late Baroque and Rococo.
Apart from the choice of the architectural order and the elaboration of the proportions of the elements, the selection of the profiles of the architectural details, in particular of the entablature, was of key importance. The development of the model of the crowning cornice, sometimes on a scale of 1:1 (e.g. Michelangelo's wooden model of the cornice of the Pallazzo Farnese in Rome from 1547, or the stone entablature of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome from 1560) (Conforti et al. 2020, Ferretti 2020, Bellini 2011, was one of the most important elements of the project. Reinterpretation of the canon of architectural orders served to shape the various expressive effects of the work. Starting with Michelangelo, designers began to study the modeling of architectural detail (linguaggio architectonico). The famous artist attempted to redefine the system of architectural decoration by using mannerist ways to unconventionally apply individual architectural details, contrary to the original assumptions, or to apply various deformations and rearrangements of the components, e.g. by inserting consoles or elongated triglyphs in place of chapiters, or by visually suspending heavy columns without a base (Portoghesi 1982, p. 131). Much more important for the development of methods of architectural design was the search, seemingly less spectacular, for enhancing the plasticity of the detail by deepening the chiaroscuro or reducing it through the use of strongly protruding, concave or convex, slightly flattened profiles in the entablature (Portoghesi 1982, pp. 141-148). Apart from classical motifs, it was Gothic and early Christian forms, which the artist studied on the basis of Roman buildings, that were his models. Theoretical considerations and realizations of his successors -designers of the Baroque period -also followed this direction. Each of them developed a characteristic set of forms. Pietro da Cortona, in contrast to strong carving used in the façade, which provided deep chiaroscuro, preserved small, balanced profiles within the details with subtle shadows, which ensured full visibility and clarity of the shapes. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed very classical sections of cornices, architraves and pedestals with sharp, expressive contour. Extremely interesting ideas were implemented by Francesco Borromini. He returned to his search based on the development of new architectural profiles, analyzing classical and Gothic forms and drawing inspiration from nature. Thanks to that his architectural decorations were varied, showing an intensity of shadow and sharpness of lines. German designers of the mature Baroque had similar interests. Balthasar Neumann designed architectural details in his buildings in a scholarly way using sophisticated modular constructions. In Bohemia (Czechia), the most innovative approach to shaping architectural profiles, which provided an opportunity to gain new means of expression, was represented by Christoph and Kilian Ignaz Dienzenhofer. They also used untypical, concave, elongated sections, referring to Gothic solutions. Thanks to that, the façades of the buildings erected by them were enriched with various chiaroscuro with deepened shadows, and the edges of the details, except for special cases, were described with a soft blurred contour (Wrabec 1991, Pavlík 2011. The appropriate selection of elements, their size, plasticity, profiling and interrelation of individual elements, as well as the saturation with decoration and arrangement on the façade determined the expressive character of the architectural composition. Small architectural details, slightly protruding from the wall, create a delicate, linear decoration. In this way, the wall receives the form of a sheet enclosing the space in a strictly defined place, both in the direct view and from a perspective. Massive, prominent forms, with a strong chiaroscuro dynamize the architecture, introduce the impression of movement of space, may blur the spatial boundaries. Entablatures, cornices, parapets emphasize horizontal features, make the objects seem lower and optically heavier, bind them to the ground and close the space. The balance of both divisions creates on the fa-interiors of the churches of San Lorenzo 1419, 1425-1445 and Santo Spirito 1434-1466, the façade of L'Ospedalle degli Innocenti 1419-1445, the Pazzi chapel 1430-1444), which became almost a design rule. Michelangelo developed this initially two-tone color principle (Medici Chapel 1520-1535). He then enriched his designs with tonal chiaroscuro effects (Laurenziana Vestibule, 1524-1534, 1571). Also in Roman architecture of the Renaissance period, two-colored solutions were used, thanks to the use of different backgrounds, usually light to brown plaster, it was possible to better expose the stone architectural details (Zander 1986, p. 28). In this way Michelangelo's Roman architectural projects were continued -the palaces on the Capitoline Hill by his students, among others Giacomo Della Porta, who used ochre plaster as a background for travertine, cream architectural order (Campisi 1986, Frommel 1995. This principle of distinguishing a single-color architectural structure against a wall of a strongly contrasting color was used throughout the Renaissance and continued well into the Baroque. Various local types of stone were used and polychromies imitating the color of precious materials were made in places where no satisfactory color material was found. Apart from exposing grey architectural details on white and cream backgrounds, the opposite solution was used -bright structures were exposed on darker; grey or ochre ground. In the area of Milan, red elements were often introduced, made of the local pietra d'Angera limestone, used in Milanese buildings since the late Middle Ages (Fant et al. 2019) or painted in this very color (e.g. architectural orders on the façades of the Milanese palaces of Landrini and Bigli, 15th/16th c.). In such several basic versions Italian artists spread bichromatic solutions of Renaissance façades all over Europe (Koller 2003a).
At the same time, the medieval tradition of using color, which is particularly evident in the colorful paintings of the Trecento and Quatrocento, was continuously developed. More expensive and more varied materials were used especially since the beginning of the Renaissance in interiors. The northern Italian regions, especially Venice, showed a particular affinity to solutions using a wide color palette. However, also in Tuscany the order architecture was enriched by using the effect of small color additions, especially the most precious gilded and blue ones. In Rome the most significant pattern was the color solutions preserved in the interior of the Pantheon, where apart from the shafts of the columns and cladding of the walls made of one of the most expensive marbles (marmor numidicum, giallo antico) (Turrini 2007, Santoro 2021), dark red porphyry frieze was introduced in the main entablature (Serlio 1540, p. XIIII). Lucca Della Robbia (1399-1481),  who collaborated with Brunelleschi and used the glazing technique he had invented,  began to introduce colored, blue backgrounds; with time also friezes and realistically  colored ornamental decorations were blue (Tabernacolo del Sacramento for the San Luca  chapel,  Also in woodcarving works, where the whiteness of the stone was replaced by gilding, as was the case with the settings of Gothic polyptychs, the frieze was colored and often decorated, and painted dentils backgrounds were introduced (Tabernacolo dei Linaioli by Fra Angelico, 1433, Museo di San Marco in Florence with a cornice attributed to Lorenzo Ghiberti; Pala di San Zeno by Andrea Mantegna, 1457-1459, Basilica of San Zeno in Verona; Pala di Pesaro by Giovanni Bellini, c. 1474Bellini, c. , c. 1472Bellini, c. -1474. Such decoration of woodcarving works, consistent throughout Europe with medieval traditions, was adopted permanently throughout the modern period. This is how, for example, altars, epitaphs and pulpits typical of Lutheran churches were finished at the end of the 16th century and in the first half of the 17th century in Saxony, Silesia and Pomerania. The varied colors of the frieze were used in polychromic interiors ( These manners of interior decoration with a colorful frieze of this architectural order were well immortalized by the paintings of the period (Masaccio's fresco "The Holy Trinity" of c. 1424, Sandro Botticelli, fresco in the Sistine Chapel illustrating the "Punishment of the Sons of Korah," 1481-1482, Carlo Crivelli, "Annunciation", 1486; interiors in Massolino's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, or Ghirlandaio in the Tornabuoni Chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence).
Arrangements with a variety of colors appeared much less frequently on the external façades of buildings. In most cases, even when the walls had rich polychromies, the elements of architectural order remained monochromatic (e.g. the façade of the Oratorio di San Bernardino in Perugia, 1457-1461; the already mentioned façades of the Milanese palaces of Landrini and Bigli). However, the medieval methods of marquetry marble decoration were continued. Apart from Florence, façades finished with stone marquetry appeared in the Renaissance primarily in Venice and its provinces and Lombardy. However, different colors were still used primarily as a background for single-colored elements on façades (S. Maria del Fiore; Certosa di Pawia, 1473-1525). Sometimes areas of frieze made of colored marble were also introduced, as in interior architecture (in Venice: Scuola S. Marco; Scuola S. Rocco; Ca' Vendramin Calergi). Exceptional variations in color were made in small elements of the entablature, e.g. individual moldings (S. Maria Novella, Alberti, 1452-1456) (Desogus 2006). Colored column bases were also used. The multi-colored façade of the Coleoni Chapel in Bergamo (Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, 1470-1476) is a unique example. The architectural structure was in this case multicolored, made of a variety of stones -pink cornices and architraves of marble from Zandobbio, white and grey columns of marble from Candoglia and deep purple in the rosette elements of the pietra simona (Bugini and Folli 2005).
Colored marbles started to be fashionable especially since the pontificate of Pope Paul III -Alessandro Farnese (1534-1549). Marquetry was added to precious objects; walls and floors were decorated. Colorful column bases also appeared quite often. At first, especially in Roman architecture, granite shafts of columns and pilasters from spolia were used (in Palazzo Canceleria; in Bramante's works such as Tempietto and stairs in Cortile di Belvedere; loggias and porticoes in Palazzo Farnese; vestibule of Palazzo Farnese; courtyard of Palazzo Borghese) (Waters 2016). Then colored marbles were used or their imitations were painted in buildings that were decorated for the pope and his family, as in the halls and staircase of Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola or Villa Farnesina in Rome. In the last quarter of the 16th century the fashion from the papal court became widespread in the design of interiors, especially sacral interiors in all Italy. Expensive, multi-colored marbles coming not only from European quarries (marmor taenarium, rosso antico, portasanta from Chios) but also from Asia or Africa (marmor numidicum, gi-allo di Numidia, astracane from Tunisia), coming mainly from spolia (Catalogo 2005-2007), were used for interior decoration. Colored marbles were used for wall backgrounds and the faces of friezes in architectural orders (Licciardello 2008(Licciardello /2009). The method of marble marquetry, with the full range of possibilities used in utilitarian objects and furnishings, was introduced into the decoration of the Chapel of the Madonna di Trapani (1597-1599) (Vona 2020), in the Church of Del Gesù in Palermo, also known as Casa Professa, by Camillo Camilliani (mentioned between 1574-1603). In addition to illusory columns with twisted, richly decorated shafts, he also introduced a frieze with marquetry ornamentation.
Simultaneously with the return of the fashion for colored marbles, the use of colored stuccos and marbling began to spread. The techniques known in antiquity and sometimes still used in the Middle Ages began to be reintroduced. Initially certain types of stucco were used in quattrocento bas-relief, particularly models, but also realizations, even those decorating architecture (works by Donatello, Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia, Antonio Rossellino) (Bulfone Gransinigh and Amendolagine 2017). Deepening the knowledge of stucco and marbled works and their popularization, especially on the basis of discoveries of ancient works and information from the books of Pliny the Elder and Vitruvius (Book VII), made it possible to popularize the use of colorful solutions in interiors at much lower costs than stone marquetry. The dissemination of stucco, in particular by Raphael's associates Giovanni da Udine and Perino del Vaga, simultaneously influenced a much wider use of color in ornamental detail. Initially, however, all elements of architectural orders, except for the shafts of columns and pilasters, were made of white stone (Villa Madama, 1518-1523; Logge, 1518-1527). Later on, stone profiles started to be enriched with gilding. In the Vatican Stanzas (1508-1527), gilded astragals and cymatia (cymatium, ovolo) were applied, as well as the backgrounds of friezes and the shafts of pilasters decorated with ornaments (Kummer 2010). Giulio Romano in Loggia di Davide (1532-1534) in Palazzo del Te e.g. decorated elements of cymatium and astragal on the vault with gilding but kept the entablature in uniform color. Similar decorations were made by Giovani da Udine in interiors decorated in Venice (e.g. Palazzo Grimani). In Rome, Perino del Vaga used even more golden color, he introduced gilded backgrounds of friezes, consoles and dentils e.g. in the Regia di Vaticano Hall completed in 1573. Chapiters of pilasters were also often gilded e.g. in Galleria dei Carracci in Palazzo Farnese (1597-1600). In the entablature of Salone Sistino (The Sistine Hall) of the Vatican Library (1588), Domenico Fontana emphasized all the small details and ornaments with gilding.
In addition to polychrome and tinted plasters, striking imitations of expensive stone materials could be used in order architecture. The technique of marbling became particularly widespread in and around Venice, where Istrian limestone (pietra d'Istria), used for sculpture and stone cladding, also proved to be an excellent base material for marbling (Piana 2006). Marbling and hard stucco commonly used in the Venetian quattrocento (Bulfone Gransinigh and Amendolagine 2017) gained popularity and fame through its use in the works of famous artists such as Jacopo Sansovino, Andrea Palladio, and Vincenzo Scamozzi (Paternò 2016). They appeared in the halls and vestibules of the Doge's Palace, the Nuova Procuratia, the Foscari villa called Malcontenta, the Maser and Rotonda villas, in the Loggecta of San Marco in Venice or in the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, as well as in the decoration of sacral interiors in Venice, with the most famous Palladian churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore at the forefront (Piana 2006). When designing architectural orders these artists usually remained with a two-color early-Renaissance solution (e.g. Palladio, Il Redentore, Sansovino Loggetta San Marco) or a monochromatic one (Palladio, San Giorgio).
In Sicily, where interior decoration received an unusually rich coloring, in addition to the shafts of the pilasters, colorful decorations were also introduced within the entablature. In the cornices and architraves the moldings were decorated in color or gilded, colorful backgrounds of cymatia and astragals as well as dentil bands and consoles were used, and the friezes and shafts of the supports were covered with colorful marbling, sometimes ornamented with marquetry or convex stucco. Antonio Ferraro and his sons applied decoration in convex stucco to the dark background of the frieze in the architectural order framing the walls of the choir of the church of San Domenico in Castelvetrano (1574-1580). Marble marquetry, marbling and stucco used together or even in a combined technique made it possible to create from the 1540s to the 1560s one of the richest decorative programs of sacral interiors in the Del Gesù Church. Similar programs were created later in other churches of Palermo and Trapani (Antista 2009).
Over time, marbling and its variant called scagliola became famous in northern Lombardy, particularly in the Valle Intelvi (Val d'Intelvi) in the Como region (Martinelli Braglia 1995, Mander 2005). Marbling techniques using colored materials were mainly applied to make furnishings, altars and tabernacles for churches. The effect of smoothed marble was particularly valuable. However, it was more difficult to ensure an expected color (Kurzej 2018, pp. 29-33, Wedekind 2010). Already at the turn of the 17th century intensely colored stuccos were used in this area in the entablature decorating the interiors of local churches (e.g. Oratorio-santuario di S. Pancrazio or S. Benedetto in Ramponio Verna, Como). Also in Bergamo, from about the middle of the 17th century, Giovanni Angelo Sala with his son Gerolamo made interior decorations by introducing to cornices and architraves painted backgrounds for gilded elements of palmettes, cymatia and astragals (S. Maria Maggiore) (Spiriti 2009). These regions and the neighboring ones, e.g. Ticino, abounded in stucco artists, but also stonemasons, builders and architects who erected representative buildings throughout Central Europe and further to Lithuania and Russia in the 16th and 17th centuries, up to the early 18th century. The earliest examples of Renaissance interior decoration north of the Alps are associated with the work of Italian stucco makers. White stucco prevailed (palace of Hvezda, near Prague, a Munich residence, Neugebaude palace, a chateau in Buczowice in the years 50s-80s of the 16th century) (Rinn 2010, Schmid 2010). However, we can also find the use of gilding and colored background, usually black or blue, for the elements of entablature, cymatia, astragals or ornaments on the friezes, in the rooms of the Town Hall in Landshut, e.g. in the hall of Italian Building (1536) or in the interior of the Boim Chapel in Lvov (1609-1615). The stuccos were only exceptionally painted to look like precious stones (Koller 1979 However, gilding and colorful ornamentation of architectural elements and decorations appeared on façades only in exceptional circumstances. This was mainly the case with portals treated as a kind of separate work. Polychromic portals on tympana, but also within the richly carved entablature and pilaster chapiters appeared in the Como area, such as the works of Tommaso Rodari on the façades of the Cathedral of Como (Moizi 2020). Richly decorated portals became the most common architectural element of residential or urban buildings in Central Europe rebuilt or erected in this period by sculptors and stone masons from northern Italian regions. Most often made of sandstone, they were decorated with varied polychrome of colorful moldings, quarter rounds and other profiles, colorful backgrounds in cymatium and astragal stripes or consoles and dentils, as well as colorful fields of friezes. The richest used the most precious pigments: gold and blue. Earthy shades of yellow, red and black were commonly used. An example of such polychrome portals, mainly internal, are the works of Italian masters dating back to the beginning of the 16th century until the 30s. at the royal castle on Wawel Hill in Cracow (Grodzicka 1960, Stępień 1995. Recently, portals of tenement houses in Görlitz from the 20-80s of the 16th century or of the University in Helmstadt (1576-1597) have been reconstructed. In the same way the coloring of the entablature on the façades of the Schönhof in Görlitz (after 1526) (Bauer 2020) or the colorful background of the architectural ornaments on several other tenement houses in this town were reconstructed (until 2005) with multicolor details. Conservators established that elements of this type of polychrome may have been introduced even in Rome: in the entablature on the façade of Palazzo Pamphilij, probably designed by Carlo Rainaldi (until 1648), an astragal appeared on a grey-blue background (Leone 2016). Such solutions of Renaissance origin were still used in the second half of the 17th century, as it was established in the case of façades of monasteries in Henryków and Kamieniec Ząbkowicki in Silesia (Brzezowski and Wanat 2002), or the monastery in Lubiąż. In the architectural orders of the Renaissance and Mannerism, color was used to bring out the details; to highlight the elements of the entablature, to mark the borders of cornices and architraves with moldings, to emphasize the decorative details or to strengthen the ornament on the frieze background. The richest polychrome solutions used color to highlight all architectural elements of classical order systems: astragals, cymatia, dentils and consoles.

Antique heritage and monochrome
Ancient monuments, even if they once had the polychrome, have been preserved in the colors of natural stone until modern times; surface damage has often obscured the original color of the material. Such a form, strongly unified in terms of color, was accepted as the canon in force in antiquity. Only the chiaroscuro gave diversified tonal shades. This is how the objects were inventoried and in a similar form the project drawings were made (e.g. Giuliano da Sangallo, Michelangelo) (Elam 2017). Printing techniques imposed a graphic black and white form of presentation of architectural patternsfirst of all of orders in treatises from the earliest illustrated Renaissance (Serlio 1537, Pal-ladio 1581) illustrations to the works of Vitruvius and Alberti, up to works from the end of modern times. White elements or ornaments shown on a shaded background (Serlio), or then emphasized with chiaroscuro modeling of the form (Palladio, A. Pozzo), became a well-remembered figure of architectural norms.
Palladio, though emphasizing the special value of white in his treatise, contrary to the common belief, used quite a wide range of colors in his works (Paternò 2016). However, when using colorful backgrounds or column bases, e.g. quite intensive, made of facing brick, in the study of Loggia del Capitanio (combined with white stucco decoration and Istrian stone used in the ordering elements) or in the church of S. Giorgio in Venice (reddish columns of lesser order inside), he kept the entablature uniform, with facing of precious stone or plastered and with the polychrome in white or cream. In the case of the church of Il Redentore in Venice (1577-1586), white marble was used for the façade, while inside, for reasons of modesty dictated by the Capuchin rule, the order decorations, made of brick and plastered, pretended to be elements of white stone. Some of those artists consequently opted for monochromatic solutions also in interior design. Pietro da Cortona always designed decorations of sacral interiors in light stone (mainly travertine) and stucco, e.g. the interior of the church SS. Luca e Martina (Castelli Gattinara 2015). Borromini also preferred such a coloristic conception (Blunt 1979), which is best seen in the case of the interior of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, where the rich chiaroscuro offer a diverse range of shades made of light stucco architectural details. When cheaper or more convenient solutions were applied, with only constructional parts of order systems made of stone, most often a lighter shade of plaster, almost identical with the color of stone, was chosen for the background of walls and sometimes covering of friezes, e.g. in the work of F. Borromini S. Ivo della Sapienza (Acanto Restauri 2020c) or joint works of C. Rainaldi The use of monochromatic solutions for the entire façade or the complete structure of the architectural order concentrated the design task on solving the light contrasts defining the limits of the forms, the ornamental drawing and the curvature of the profiles. Renaissance stone façades made it possible to precisely recreate ancient patterns. However, beginning with the works of Mannerists, it became more and more important to use chiaroscuro effects on profiled elements, operating with a stain, differentiating in perception the architectural forms. Gradual departure from linearism resulted in simultaneous simplification and dynamization of architectural forms, at the expense of removing small ornamental details: astragal and cymatium, and in time also dentil bands and consoles, as well as resignation from triglyphs and metopes and ornate frieze. According to the preserved antique models, the use of small details decorating the elements of architectural order such as palmettes, astragal and cymatium was recommended by Palladio in his treatise. He also used them in his own projects (Hemsoll 2016). The decoration of sima profiles with palmettes was abandoned as early as in the Renaissance. Michelangelo, in spite of willing modifications of classical patterns, preserved small decorations in the entablature of Sagrestia Nuova or in the cornice of Palazzo Farnese (1534-1548). Most Mannerist architects; Venetian, e.g., Jacopo Sansovio and Vincenzzo Scamozzi (Biblioteca Marciana 1537-1560, completed 1582-1586) or Roman, such as Domenico Fontana (Lateran palace, Quirinal palace, S. Trinita dei Monti), designed all the ornamentation in the entablature along with dentil bands and consoles. Some, such as Giacomo Della Porta, began to dispense with ornamental strips, usually retaining only the dentils and consoles under the cornices. Early Baroque artists also opted for simplified ornamental decoration of the entablature, e.g. C. Maderna (Vatican basilica, S. Sussana) and G.L. Bernini (S. Andrea al Quirnale) introduced only dentils and cymatia. Fr. Borromini usually limited himself to the preservation of consoles under the cornice, however in the cornice crowning the dome of S. Ivo della Sapienza, in a mannerist manner, he designed a cymatium, decorated with the heads of angels with wings instead of the egg-and-dart ornaments (DecArch 2014). Pietro da Cortona resigned from all such decorations. In his designs, cornices and architraves took the form of homogeneous strips, with the already mentioned subtle but clear chiaroscuro. This way was continued by the artists of mature and late Baroque, who differentiated and enriched chiaroscuro effects by means of extended, plastic profiles.  Often, however, when stone construction elements were complemented with stucco ornaments or when only brick construction was used and covered with plasters and stuccowork, bichromatic solutions were introduced in colors. Usually, architectural details made of stone or stucco were unified in one color that stood out against a plaster or brick background, sometimes only with chapiters of pilasters made in another material. Plasters imitating the colors of stone or brick were used. Some solutions are associated with early Renaissance Florentine concepts, such as the façades of Jesuit churches in Innsbruck (1627-1646), where dark sandstone elements were exposed against a white background, or in Lucerne, where additionally granite capitals were used

Color breakdown of the horizontal entablature. Distinguishing the colour of the frieze
In classically elaborated order decorations an inscription frieze, often with gilded or dyed letters, sometimes replaced with ornamental belt, became an artistic element diversifying architecture. Such friezes can be observed both on façades and in interiors of the most famous Roman churches such as St. Peter's Basilica, churches of Il Gesù, S. Andrea della Vale or S. Ignazio. The frieze, like other elements of the entablature, was made of stone with engraved or carved surfaces. In solutions using bricks and stucco, which replaced those expensive materials, they were usually imitated with colors. Architectural orders treated in this manner became popular especially with the so-called Jesuit façade pattern. On most of the church façades designed according to this model, inscription friezes were used in the main entablature, similar to triumphal arches. Sometimes in the higher stores the frieze was ornamentally decorated, e.g. on the Jesuit church of St. Charles Borromeo in Antwerp (1626), where the superposition of three orders was used and accordingly, according to the rules, triglyphs and metopes, ornamental and console friezes were applied.  2012a and b, Repishti 2003), and on the façade of the church in Certosa di Garegnano the same stone was used in three shades for the red cor-nice, the white architrave, and the yellowish frieze; in this color the walls were also finished.
In spite of the preference for monochromatic solutions in Mannerism and Baroque, varied color schemes were also constantly used in the decoration of architectural orders in interiors. This mainly concerned, apart from colorful backgrounds, the use of colorful friezes and shafts of supports. In designs based on classical patterns, backgrounds were still introduced to emphasize minor decorations of architectural detail such as cymatium or astragal. However, as in the case of monochromatic stone or plaster architecture, over time, with the Baroque influences, continuity and plasticity were sought after, reducing and simplifying ornamental forms in favor of architectural profiles characterized by rich chiaroscuro.
As a sculptor and interior decorator, Bernini appreciated the possibility of shaping expression through color effects. He combined precious marble and travertine materials and complemented them with stucco (Progetto di intervento 2015). He used colorful wall cladding, colorful column bases made of precious marbles, while in the case of the entablature, like the early Renaissance artists, he limited himself to using white or cream cornices and architraves, and only colorful friezes. He was particularly fond of the Cottanello marble (reddish-brown or orange) (Funiciello and Mattei 1991, Gasparini and Pensabene 2017), known as the material for the pillars of the columns of St. Peter's Basilica, which gained popularity again at that time. He used it in the form of a colorful orange-brown frieze between the white profiles of the cornice and the architrave in the decoration of the Cornaro chapel (works lasted until 1651), red in the interior of the church of S. Andrea al Quirinale (1658-1670), or red brown in the casing of the tomb of Pope Alexander VII (executed by his collaborators in 1672-1678) (Koortbojian 1991, Bernstock 1988. And in Sant'Agnese in Agone (1666-1668), he applied grey-blue frieze, and red shafts of columns. During this period also in interior decoration in the form of stucco, colored uniform or ornamentally decorated colored friezes were used, e.g. in the case of marbled and stuccoed interior of the church of Ss. Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari in Rome, probably by Domenichino (the author of the frescoes on the dome at the same time, 1627-1630), where an ochre frieze appeared in the main order, and in the entablature under the dome an inscription frieze with gold letters on a blue background (Eures Arte 2013). Such color schemes were adopted with the development of marbling techniques, at first mainly used for furnishings, then more and more commonly for wall decoration, including the finishing of the surface of order elements: column shafts and pilasters, but also colored friezes and wall backgrounds.
Colorful friezes made of marble or marbling were used in most architectural altars. Throughout the Baroque period they also appeared in interiors, both sacral and secular. Such solutions were realized as often as monochromatic, usually used with white stuccowork (Kurzej 2018). In many of his designs for altars and interiors they were used by Carlo Rainaldii (1611-1691) When various materials were used for wall structures and their plaster, stucco and paint finishes, and particularly when materials for the entablature were varied, it was common to treat the frieze, and sometimes also the shafts of the supports, as a background, contrasted with cornices, architraves and chapiters. In the most frequently introduced two-color systems, cornices, architraves and chapiters were made in one color of natural stone or one color of paint, and their background and the frieze area in another color. Both in Mannerism and early Baroque, slight chromatic differences were used. In one of his first architectural works, the façade of the church of S. Bibiana in Rome  Prague  (1665-1670). In the latter case, according to a recent restoration, the detail was very colorful. In Tirol, entire façades were often polychromed in white and the architectural order was decorated in yellow with an isolated white frieze, an example being the pilgrimage church near Salzburg Maria Plain, designed by Giovanni Antonio Dario with a façade completed in 1674. On the façade of the church of St Teresa in Vilnius (1654), whose design is attributed to Constantine Tencalla, from the Ticino region, the architectural order with stone capitals is distinguished by white belts of cornices and entablature and a dark frieze, now grey, and in this color, slightly lighter, the shafts of the pilasters or St. Anne's Collegiate Church in Cracow, with cream-colored walls with sandstone and limestone detail (Tylman of Gameren 1689-1695). In the eighteenth-century Baroque, as mentioned, architects, especially Viennese court architects, most often used uniformly colored entablature, and more often whole façades in white or cream. However, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, when designing the façades of the churches in Salzburg, used a subtle two-tone arrangement with a frieze in the color of the walls, in the case of the façade of the Holy Trinity Church (1694-1702) -a white order on a light grey background, and the Kollegienkirche (Collegiate Church) (1696-1707) -a grey order, light background and stucco decorations (Koller 1998). A similar solution was probably proposed for the façades of the Church of St. John of Nepomuk in Prague-on-the-Hradany (1720-1729) and St. Magdalene in Karlovy Vary (1732-1736) by Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer. The façade of the Priesterseminarkirche in Linz, designed by Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt (1718) and completed by the builder Johann Michael Prunner in 1725, was painted in equally subtle but warm tones with a white background and friezes in this color. The monastery church in Jablonné (Gabel, 1699), designed by Hildebrandt, was instead given a colorful façade with red cornices and architraves embracing white friezes and grey pilaster shafts (perhaps a contribution by Domenico Perini, who completed the construction). In the Asam brothers' designs, for example, the façade of their church in Munich, the so-called Asamkirche (1733-1746), was decorated with marbled friezes, the orange color between the white elements of the cornice and architrave in the main entablature, and the other way round, white between the red stripes of the order profiles in the torn tympanum (Reichwald 1976). Another façade of the Maria de Victoria Church in Ingolstadt, built according to their concept, was similarly colored. Such two-colored combinations within the entablature and usually different colored shafts of supports were used by late Baroque Italian architects, e.g. In some circumstances, architraves were also used in a different color than the rest of the entablature elements, which usually resulted from the difference in the material. Initially, this was the case with multi-colored elements of entablature in continuation of Renaissance and Mannerist solutions, e.g. in Milan, where differently colored stone elements, red, yellow and white, were used. Similarly it was imitated in painted entablature e.g. in the case of architectural order in Henryków monastery. A few examples can also be found in the late Baroque. Probably due to the material used, especially spolia, a distinctive colorful architrave was introduced on façades at that time. Examples from Catania can be invoked here, a granite architrave in the Cathedral of S. Agata or local light stone, the so-called pietra giurgiulena (pietra bianca di Siracusa), in the church of Santa Maria dell'Elemosina.

Color breakdown of the frieze in vertical arrangement. Colors of pseudo-imposts
Changes in architectural dynamics during the late Renaissance, Mannerism and early Baroque consisted in a transformation of the balanced layout in favor of bivalent composition, and then the predominance of verticalism. It was largely connected with the breaking of the optical continuity of the entablature, embattled above the supports.
The layout with cornices protruding above the columns was already known from Roman architecture, especially from the triumphal arches, especially the best-preserved ones: Titus, Septimius Severus and Constantine. It was already used by Alberti (Tanaka 1992).
From the very beginning of his designing activity, Michelangelo made use of embattled entablature, which strengthened the expression of forms. They appeared in the decoration of the inner façades of the New Sacristy and the enclosures of the Medici tombstones located there (erected until 1534) and the vestibule of Laurenziana (1524-1534). This treatment introduced a kind of structural unease, particularly in the case of the library vestibule, where the entablature was set back rather than forward above the columns in niches. Jacopo Sansovino used this solution, taken from triumphal arches, like many other sculptors of the period, in the architectural decoration of tombstones. He also introduced the motif based on the architecture of the Arch of Constantine with a strongly embattled entablature into the design of the Loggia Campanilia in Venice  (1537-1549). Apart from the connection with typically Mannerist expression in architecture, such a structure could emphasize the vertical arrangement in the composition, and for this reason it was probably associated with Gothic forms. The embattling of the cornice changed the way the frieze was made, it was necessary to strengthen a fragment of the frieze above the capitals; the frieze was made entirely of stone or strengthened in this part where the frieze was fragmented. Initially, efforts were made to obliterate the traces of differentiation. According to the late Renaissance, Palla-dian tradition and later the models of Roman architecture, the white or light color, imitating the natural colors of stone, was preserved within the whole entablature by means of unification with plaster and polychrome. However, with time the introduction of stone elements within the frieze that differed from the rest of the plastered frieze resulted in a change of color of these fragments. Such construction techniques appeared in northern Italian regions, Lombardy. It may have resulted from the implementation of local construction traditions to classical architectural solutions but most of all from saving precious building material which in that region was stone. This is how local Lombard architects, active in the first half of the 17th century, executed the façades according to their designs. Simultaneously with the development of dynamics of architectural forms in the Baroque, compositions were often made vertical. It was connected with interest in Gothic heritage, present in works of Northern Italian Mannerists and their continuators, e.g. Borromini himself, taken up by Baroque artists working in territories with still strong Medieval traditions. It manifested itself in the use of architectural profiles referring to Gothic forms, sometimes with literal quotations (best seen in the works of e.g. J.B. Santini Aichel), but also in the use of structural solutions (e.g. Czech Dientzenhofers implemented a solution with buttresses inside). However, the most visible manifestation was accentuation of façades with strongly visible, often multiplied elements of vertical divi-sions -half-columns and pilasters or lesenes. Such solutions were of particular importance in the works of mature and late Baroque architects working in Bavaria, the Habsburg Empire, Bohemia and Silesia, and later their students and followers, who came to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, such as Jan Krzysztof Glaubitz from Świdnica in Silesia. In addition to these two-color systems with light architectural details and wall backgrounds in ochre, sometimes beige, or the other way round, with darker details on a light background, we can also find three-color polychromes with the use of colors unprecedented in the earlier period, such as, for example, in the Lower Austrian pilgrimage church in Mariahilfberg near Gutenstein (1724-1727) where a pink frieze between the white cornice and architrave and grey pilaster shafts were used (Koller 2007). Occasionally there was a return to the Renaissance color scheme; with a red outline of order elements on a white background, as on the façade of St. Wenceslas Church in Vysočany (1734-1738) by O. Broggio (restored in 1998).
Such a color scheme of architectural order structure was commonly used by late Baroque and Rococo designers, such as Dominikus Zimmermann, Johann Michael Fischer or Jan Krzysztof Glaubitz. All façades of buildings, both public and sacred, designed by D. Zimmerman were painted to emphasize vertical articulation -e.g., the highly ornamental front of the town hall in Landsberg am Lech (1719), the pilgrimage church in Steinhausen (1729), or the more modest parish church in Buxheim (1729). Among Fischer's works with such an order painting using a two-color scheme of grey and white are the tower façades of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Deggendorf

Discussion. The role of color arrangement of the components of architectural order in shaping compositional expression
During the early Renaissance, architectural detail introduced into the façades became a linear element defining compositional divisions. The most important task was to guarantee its legibility, which could be achieved by contrasting order structures against the background of walls. The simplest method was the bicolor juxtaposition of profiles and the façade face, which differed significantly in shade or color. Bichromatic contrasting of grey or red entablature and supports against a pale wall was the most common solution. The earliest examples of the use of antique-inspired arrangements of entablature show the treatment of the frieze area as the surface of the wall, which emphasized the role of horizontal divisions in the structure of the façade decoration. A more thorough knowledge of antique architecture and distinction of principles binding in designing specific architectural orders resulted in introduction of much richer, multi-element profiles, ornamentally decorated, varied with dentil bands and consoles under the cornice as well as cymatia and astragals. The forms and ornaments could be highlighted by means of polychrome, as it was done in antiquity. Gilding and then polychroming of architectural decorations started and was mainly applied in case of stuccowork in interiors. It served the purpose of emphasizing small details and highlighting decorativeness. Thus, it made it possible to bring out the linear drawing in the elaboration of the elements of the order system. Colored backgrounds and moldings were a specific continuation of the medieval interest in details, which was revealed in the paintings of the Italian quattrocento or the art of the early Dutch Renaissance. Even with very rich color versions, used mainly in interiors, with marquetry and marbling or multicolored polychromes, the color decoration of architectural orders was left with these two tasks -compositional influence, emphasizing the horizontality of the layout and precise linearity, characteristic features of the Renaissance.
Initially, the same compositional values were sought to be emphasized on monochromatic façades. During the mature Renaissance, the focus was on reproducing classical designs as closely as possible in balanced architectural structures. Mannerist architects, largely limiting themselves to completely monochromatic façades or an architectural order maintained in one color against a different wall background, tried to emphasize the expression of form through nuances of chiaroscuro, tonal effects rather than col-or. These measures were analogous to those used in the sculpture of the period, and partly also in the painting of Tenebrism. Significant for the architectural solutions adopted was the background of architects who simultaneously worked as sculptors or painters, such as Michelangelo, Bernini or Pietro da Cortona (Payne 2014). The ability to operate with such sophisticated effects was also determined by excellent knowledge of the material. One can cite the example of Borromini, who worked as a stonemason in his youth. At the same time, the influences of his work as a stucco artist were also important and, in particular, were widely reflected in his work (Blunt 1979).
In spite of the creation of various artistic effects of the façades, sometimes extremely dynamic, both in the Mannerist and early Baroque periods, the basic principle was to maintain or even emphasize the continuity of the elements of the entablature. This was also important when introducing bichromatic or polychromatic solutions within the architectural order structures on the façades. The special role that the inscription frieze gained in the iconographic program of the façades of sacral buildings (but also in their interiors) and the heritage of the Renaissance experience in its decoration influenced the decision to emphasize this field with a different color. Even more frequently, material savings limiting the use of stone to the elements of cornices and architraves determined the decision to make the frieze in brick and plaster. The chromatic solutions of the façades followed two basic courses: continuation of the tonally or color-contrasted two-color scheme, or enrichment of the scale of chiaroscuro effects by subtle color differentiation of the walls and friezes with decorative details. The continuity of horizontal stone and later stucco elements created clear belt arrangements on the façades. In the Mannerist period, simultaneous introduction of accented, especially large-order, vertical components of structures in the form of supports, most frequently pilasters, in front of the wall face, resulted in the typical for that period double character of artistic expression. In the Baroque, the vertical direction of the composition was strongly emphasized by multiplying or applying perspective arrangements of supports, and finally by embattling cornices. However, in the system of façade tectonics, the moment of stopping the upward flight of the eyes in the form of horizontal massive strips of crowning entablature remained. This weakened the dynamics of the structure, but emphasized its monumentality. A change was brought about only by decisions regarding the material and color separation of elements of the frieze above the supports within the embattled entablature, the type of imposts above the chapiters of semi-columns or, more frequently, pilasters. The uniform color of all vertical elements of the façade structure, sometimes interrupted only by a small, very decorative fragment of differently treated capitals, guaranteed an unambiguous verticality of the composition. It is characteristic that from the very beginning, the introduction of successive stages of this solution, from molding of the cornice to color separation of the pseudo-imposts, was connected with the influence of the medieval tradition, e.g. with the designs of the Milan Cathedral façade, or with the introduction of the concept of post-Reformation church façade in the countries where until then the Gothic forms dominated in architecture. It also depended on the personal inspiration of the designers with strongly expressive Gothic structures, as in the case of the artists of the mature and late Baroque of Central Europe. These decisions on the disposition of colors within the entablature in the architectural order had a particularly significant influence on the final expression of the work.
In most cases, the question of whether the color solution was developed by the architect or one of the contractors remains unresolved. However, even if it was the choice of one of the executors, in the case of Baroque buildings he repeatedly demonstrated a thorough understanding of the architectural expression of the façade structures. It is interesting that this applies not only to the works of the most eminent artists, but also to more modest buildings from more provincial areas. Perhaps this was due to a very conscious copying of patterns and an understanding of the artistic intent of the designers.

Conclusions. Significance of conservators' decisions in the field of coloring and shaping the compositional effect of Baroque architecture
It is also uncertain whether all solutions of color schemes originate from the times when the buildings were constructed or resulted from careful stratigraphic research conducted by conservators. Some polychromes may have been lost permanently; sometimes the later layers are wrongly interpreted as the original ones, which is reflected in decisions on radical changes of the architectural color scheme restored after the latest research. In recent times great emphasis was put on correct identification of original polychrome. It seems, however, that in some cases it is limited to determining the colors and pigments used, and not their exact distribution on all fragments of the façade. Often the upper parts of the building are heavily damaged, which makes it difficult to decipher correctly the coloring of the entablature, and in particular to resolve the issue of the color split of the frieze field.
As it can be seen from the presented considerations, and what we mostly realize (Philippot [1988] 1998), the meaning of the impact of an architectural work in the surrounding space is significantly influenced by the choice of color. However not everyone is probably aware how important for the expression of baroque façades is the decision concerning the color continuity of the frieze or the introduction of pseudo-imposts distinguished in color above the supports of the architectural order. This can be illustrated by examples, where the vertical ordering of the architectural structure is changed to an arrangement with an accentuated entablature by the uniform color of the frieze (e.g. on the façade of the parish church of St. Nicholas and St. Francis Xavier in Otmuchów), or without the possibility of research, in the case of reconstructed buildings it is decided to introduce a pattern with colorful imposts (the Jesuit church in Warsaw, where in 2008 a polychrome arrangement was designed, referring to analogous color solutions, probably without realizing that it would be one of the earliest examples of this solution).
Of course it is inevitable that design decisions concerning the restoration of the color scheme of baroque façades are based on conservation research, which cannot answer all the questions due to its limited possibilities. It is necessary to use general knowledge, information drawn from analogous projects, or those created in a similar circle of artists, place or time. Perhaps this article will be a contribution to such considerations in the field of solving the color scheme of architectural order structures.