The Italian architect Carlo Maderno (1556-1629) was the creator of the early baroque style in architecture.

Carlo Maderno was born at Capolago on Lake Lugano. He went to Rome before 1588 and worked for his uncle, Domenico Fontana, the architect to Pope Sixtus V. Not until 1596 did Maderno receive an important architectural commission--the church of S. Susanna; until then he lived as a stuccoworker and decorator.

The facade of S. Susanna was completed in 1603 and is considered the first baroque facade. Maderno started from the type established by Giacomo da Vignola's design for, and Giacomo della Porta's executed version of, the Church of the Gesù in Rome, but the significance of Maderno's contribution lies in his reversal of Della Porta's alterations to Vignola's design. In its original form the Gesù facade had a slight emphasis on the center, building up from the pilasters at the edges to...