and reined it in still further, creating a rare austere
period of Spanish architecture, a long way from the
elaborate decoration of Plateresque. Juan de Herrera
was the pioneer of the new severity, Roman in its
inspiration, and San Lorenzo de El Escorial was his
masterpiece. Viewed as a whole (you’ll need to be
airborne), the palace-cum-monastery of El Escorial is a
mammoth rectangle with inner courtyards, a basilica,
palace and mausoleum. Close up you can sense the
dry classicism, although only cupolas, porticos and the
odd sculptural figure really speak of the building’s
Renaissance connections.This was the Renaissance
stripped back to basics; 16thcentury Spain’s military
muscle and spiritual sobriety translated into the prime
architectural mode of the era. Perhaps we should
marvel that it only took 21 years to build, completed by
Herrera in 1584 after the initial plans had been laid by
another architect, Juan Bautista deToledo. El Escorial’s
unadorned style carried to other buildings by Herrera,
notably the unfinished cathedral at Valladolid, but also
evolved in the work of younger architects. His student,
Juan Gómez de la Mora, was responsible for the
arcades and façades of Madrid’s Plaza Mayor.
Alright on the surface: Spanish Baroque
Spanish architecture mirrored Italian trends once again
in the 17thand 18thcenturies, slowly reacting to the
constraints of classicism with something showier.
The new style, Baroque, didn’t so much herald a wave
of new buildings (although there were some) as a surge
of jaunty additions to older structures. Indeed, Baroque
often fell closer to sculpture than to architecture. And,
as per the Spanish usual, the full blown Baroque style
never felt wholly at home in Iberia; even when used, it
was subject to the routine rigours of local, religious and
ethnic taste.
155
- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
University of
Salamanca
Spain found the
Renaissance through
the fancy stuff of
Plateresque, and this, in
a city blessed with the
results, is a sumptuous
example.
Palace of Carlos V
The best Iberian
interpretation of the
High Renaissance is
often undersold because
of its location – inside
Granada’s Alhambra.
San Lorenzo
de El Escorial
Is it a palace?
A mausoleum?
A monastery?
A hunting lodge?
It’s all those things and
more, packaged in
the bare, humourless
style of Spain’s later
Renaissance.
Three
Renaissance
wonders
of Spain
