156- 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
Drama kings: the Churrigueras
The new style was slow to develop: the Herrera
hangover lingered, carrying the taste for self-control
into the early Baroque period. Artist Alonso Cano
lightened the mood somewhat in 1667 with the façade
of Granada cathedral, although his early, cagey effort,
only mildly suggestive of Baroque’s taste for eloquence
and pomp, was still governed by classical restraint.
Within a generation any such self-discipline was gone.
The early 18thcentury ushered in the exuberant
Churrigueresque style, named after a family of
Andalusian architects and sculptors. José Benito de
Churriguera, the leading sibling, set the tone with
dramatic, heady decoration. In truth he could be termed
a sculptor, as a collection of swirling church retables
prove.The most famous, put in place at the convent
of San Esteban, Salamanca, in 1692, has his detailed
mix of twisting columns and angels. José’s architecture
proper was less flamboyant. He designed the town
of Nuevo Baztán near Madrid to commission from a
banker in 1709 and brought an unpretentiously classical
touch to its church, palace and glass factory. José’s
brother, Alberto, came up with something more
decorative for the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca with its
decorated arcades. However, the best (some say worst)
exponents of Churrigueresque weren’t the eponymous
instigators but the contemporaries smothering
doorways in leaves, cherubs and corkscrew columns.
Pedro de Ribera’s doorway for the Museo Municipal in
Madrid is a fine example.The Churrigueras
and their columns
An inverted column with
a wider top than bottom
was a regular feature
of the Churrigueresque
style. However, it was
thesalomónica, or barley
sugar column, doing
the rounds since
Antiquity, that became
the movement’s most
recognisable device.