Christian F. Otto
Space into Light: The Churches of Balthasar Neumann.
The Architectural History Foundation, New York/The MIT Press, 1980. Second printing. 0262150190 294 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 8.5" x 10.5", is bound in light brown cloth, with dark brown lettering stamped on spine. Book and dust jacket are new. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
"Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753) was, according to Kenneth Clark, "the greatest architect of the 18th century." The son of a Bohemian weaver, he trained as a metal founder, a military officer, and an architect. The Schönborn dynasty of political and church leaders -- the most active European patrons of art since the Medici -- supported him as their family architect, and for them he produced some of the "most ingenious pieces of architectural design ever conceived" (Nikolaus Pevsner). Churches like his Vierzehnheiligen and Neresheim are high points in the tradition of space-intense architecture, launched during the early 17th century in Italy and France.
"Space into Light" is the first ample history and analysis of Neumann's church architecture to be published in English. Based on exacting research, it abandons scholarly abstraction to recreate the living situation of 18th-century design and construction practice. Neumann was one of Europe's most prolific architects; among his many building types churches provide the most dramatic examples of his transparent, light-saturated space. In them, walls are carved away and the necessary structural parts reduced to elegant frames. Space is transformed by light spilling through huge windows onto areas of brilliant color and exuberant sculpture. In the words of the author, "These interiors seem suspended above the earth, not supported by it. The church building appears to be a miraculous and splendid event."