Ii Renaissance Architecture in Spain

II. RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN Towards the latter part of the 15th century, the decorative motives of the Italian Renaissance began to make their appear ance in the ornamentation of Spanish buildings. The prosperity which followed the conquests of Peru and Mexico and the national exaltation which accompanied the end of the long wars with the Moors had found expression in the construction of great Gothic cathedrals, but for the decoration of these, and especially for the construction of minor works of architecture such as tombs, altars, retablos and rejeria (iron screens), Italian artisans were employed. These artisans, bringing with them many examples of Renais sance design, taught their art to the Spanish and Moorish crafts men. The patronage of wealthy ecclesiastics who, travelling in Italy on some business of the Church, had fallen under the spell of Italian art, gave an added impetus to this new school of orna mentalists. From the chapels of the cathedrals the new style was introduced into the palaces of the archbishops and into the uni versities and hospitals established by the Church; the wealthy families of Burgos, Toledo and Salamanca soon adopted it for the decoration of their patios and the facades of their houses ; and by the second decade of the i 7th century it had become the accepted style of ornament throughout Spain, profoundly modi fying the character of Spanish architecture.

Plateresque.

This decoration, which in its delicacy of scale and the exquisite perfection of its workmanship resembles silver smith's work—the work of artisans rather than of architects— has been called Plateresque (from platero, silversmith). The motives used are the arabesque, the rinceau, the grotesque, the candelabrum shaft, the panelled pilaster and the richly moulded entablature ; and with these Italian forms there are mingled the geometric patterns inherited from the Moors and, not infrequently, Gothic forms such as the pinnacle, the crocket, cresting and the pierced balustrade. Moorish influence is felt, also, in the use of elaborate wood carvings, especially on the ceilings which are splendidly enriched with carved ornament and colour, and in the use of tiles, in superb coloured patterns, for walls and for stairs. Gothic influence survives in the occasional use of the ribbed vault. The use of the undraped human figure is infrequent except in the forms of children, but representations of animals in action, accurately observed and vigorously executed, are used in great profusion. Heraldry is also a source of many ornamental enrich

ments.

The exuberance of ornament, the fine craftsmanship and the refinement in modelling, in line and in the distribution of light and shade, are the architectural expression of a wealthy and proud aristocracy, which had discovered in Italy a new vocabulary of pleasure-giving forms. These forms were employed, oftentimes, with little understanding of their relation to structure ; nor were they used, as in Italy, to give accent and significance to a composi tion in mass or space. They were used rather to enliven and enrich the textures of walls—an embroidery applied to surfaces—as if the house, or the tomb, were an added garment worn by its owner to express his taste and his importance. Like the costumes of the time, the buildings are embellished with rich patterns, applied with an exquisite tact and with a fine feeling for rhythm and con trast in spacing. The masterpiece of the period is undoubtedly the Ayuntamiento, or city hall, of Seville (1527-35), a building whose ornament is not excelled in Europe in fertility of invention or in facility of execution.

Second Phase.

The Plateresque architecture in Spain re sembles the 15th century architecture of Lombardy and Venetia, and, like it, was succeeded by a colder and more monumental manner of building more correctly based upon Roman precedents. This change was due in part to the increasing knowledge of Roman art and to an admiration for the splendid monumental achievements of the i6th century masters, Bramante, Sangallo and Sanmichele, newly revealed to Spain. Her armies had overrun Italy; she had taken, and sacked, the city of Rome itself. But the change is also due to a change in the temper of the Spanish aristoc racy. An architecture that was merely an embroidery applied to buildings could not, however lovely in itself, satisfy men who were masters of the world and who desired to express in an enduring form the grandeur and permanence of the political fabric that they had created. The colder and more abstract architecture of ancient Rome, vast in scale and in weight, an architecture, not of ornament but of mass and of proportion, seemed more in keeping with the arrogant imperialism of Charles and Philip.