COLEGIO DE SAN GREGORIODuring the 15th century
and well into the 16th, a Late Gothic style of architecture, the
Plateresque, prevailed in Spain.Plateresque derives from the Spanish
word platero,meaning “silversmith,” and the Plateresque style in ar-
chitecture is characterized by the delicate execution of its ornamen-
tation, which resembles elegant metalwork. The Colegio de San Gre-
gorio (Seminary of Saint Gregory;FIG. 23-22) in the Castilian city
of Valladolid handsomely exemplifies the Plateresque manner. Great
carved retables, like the German altarpieces that influenced them
(FIGS. 20-18, 20-19,and 23-2,bottom), appealed to church patrons
and architects in Spain. They thus made such retables a conspicuous
decorative feature of their exterior architecture, dramatizing a portal
set into an otherwise blank wall. The Plateresque entrance of San
Gregorio is a lofty sculptured stone screen that bears no functional
relation to the architecture behind it. On the entrance level, lacelike
tracery reminiscent of Moorish design hems the flamboyant ogival
arches. A great screen, paneled into sculptured compartments, rises
above the tracery. In the center, the branches of a huge pomegranate
tree (symbolizing Granada, the Moorish capital of Spain the Habs-
burgs captured in 1492) wreathe the coat of arms of King Ferdinand
and Queen Isabella. Cupids play among the tree branches, and,
flanking the central panel, niches frame armed pages of the court,
heraldic wild men symbolizing aggression, and armored soldiers, at-
testing to Spain’s proud new militancy. In typical Plateresque and
Late Gothic fashion, the activity of a thousand intertwined motifs
unifies the whole design, which, in sum, creates an exquisitely carved
panel greatly expanded in scale from the retables that inspired it.
NEW SPAINSpanish expansion into the Western Hemisphere
brought the Plateresque style to “New Spain” as well. A mid-16th-
century gem of Plateresque architecture is the portal (FIG. 23-23)
of the Casa de Montejo in Mérida, Mexico. The house, built in 1549,644 Chapter 23 NORTHERN EUROPE AND SPAIN, 1500 TO 1600
23-22Portal, Colegio de San Gregorio, Valladolid, Spain, ca. 1498.
The Plateresque architectural style takes its name from platero
(“silversmith” in Spanish). At the center of this Valladolid portal’s Late
Gothic tracery is the coat of arms of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
23-23Portal, Casa de Montejo, Mérida, Mexico, 1549.
Spanish expansion brought the Plateresque style to the New World.
The portal decoration of the home of the Yucatán’s conqueror includes
Spanish soldiers standing on the severed heads of Maya natives.