Spanish Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture was that style of architecture which evolved firstly in Florence and then Rome and other parts of Italy as the result of Humanism and a revived interest in Classical architecture. It was part of the general movement known as the Renaissance which spread outwards from Italy and affected many aspects of scholarship and the arts.

In Spain, the Renaissance began to be grafted to Gothic forms in the last decades of the 15th century.

The style started to spread mainly by local architects: that is the cause of the creation of a specifically Spanish Renaissance, that brought the influence of South Italian architecture, sometimes from illuminated books and paintings, mixed with Gothic tradition and local idiosyncrasy. The new style is called Plateresque, because of the extremely decorated facades, that brought to the mind the decorative motifs of the intricately detailed work of silversmiths, the “Plateros”. Classical orders and candelabra motifs (a candelieri) combined freely into symmetrical wholes. Examples include the facades of the University of Salamanca and of the Convent of San Marcos in León.

As decades passed, the Gothic influence disappeared and the research of an orthodox classicism reached high levels. Although Plateresco is a commonly used term to define most of the architectural production of the late XV and first half of XVI, some architects acquired a more sober personal style, like Diego Siloe, and Andrés de Vandelvira in Andalusia, and Alonso de Covarrubias and Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón in Castile.This phase of Spanish Renaissance is called Purism.

From the mid 16th century, under such architects as Pedro Machuca, Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera there was a much closer adherence to the art of ancient Rome, sometimes anticipating Mannerism. An example of this is the palace of Charles V in Granada built by Pedro Machuca. A new style emerged with the work of Juan Bautista de Toledo, and Juan de Herrera in the Escorial: the Herrerian style, extremely sober and naked, reached high levels of perfection in the use of granite ashlar work, and influenced the Spanish architecture of both the peninsula and the colonies for over a century.

Plateresque style
In Spain, the Renaissance began to insert itself into the Gothic forms of the last decades of the fifteenth century. The development of the Renaissance was mainly produced by local architects. This way, a purely Spanish style chain was created, that was influenced by the architecture of the south of Italy (domains of the Kingdom of Aragon at this time). This Spanish style called plateresco, combined the new Italian ideas with the Spanish Gothic tradition, as well as the local idiosyncrasy. The name comes from the highly decorated facades of these buildings, who assimilated themselves to the intricate and detailed work of the jewelers (silversmiths).

Purism
Over the decades, the influence of the Gothic was disappearing, reaching a more refined and orthodox style, from the point of view of the Renaissance. Purism is characterized by a greater decorative austerity, which is limited to certain concrete elements, generally of classic inspiration. There is a certain weariness of the decorative exuberance of the middle of the sixteenth century and impose more serene, harmonious and balanced buildings. Some architects are able to recycle their late-Gothic production to start in this new style: for example, Alonso de Covarrubias, Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón and Pedro de Ibarra.

The center of the Renaissance production was located in Andalusia with Diego de Siloé (facade of the Cathedral of Granada and Sacred Chapel of the Savior of Úbeda); Pedro Machuca (Palacio de Carlos V, in Granada), the most decidedly classical architect; Andrés de Vandelvira (Cathedral of Jaén and de Baeza) and Diego de Riaño (Seville Town Hall); Patio of the Kings and facade of the Basilica of the Monastery of the Escorial, Juan de Herrera.

Herreriano style
In the middle of the sixteenth century, the initiation of the Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, as a symbol of the power of Philip II of Spain, by Juan Bautista de Toledo (died 1567) and Juan de Herrera assumed the appearance of a new style, characterized by the predominance of constructive elements, decorative absence, straight lines and cubic volumes. It means the introduction of Mannerist postulates from Italy.

This style was later renamed Herrerian style in honor of the figure of Juan de Herrera, who dominated Spanish architecture for almost a century, and among his followers are such important figures as Francisco de Mora, Juan Gomez de Mora or Juan Gómez de Trasmonte.

In all cases, the concepts of architecture and urbanism of Spain in the Renaissance were taken to the colonies of America, where they found fertile field for its diffusion given the extensive urbanization that took place during three centuries and that they also recanted later styles like the Baroque and the Neoclassical.

Sacral architecture
The Renaissance in Spain is primarily secular architecture. The churches built at the beginning of the 16th century (the cathedral in Salamanca and Segovia) belong to the Gothic style. Only some decorative elements reveal Renaissance influences. Only the cathedral in Granada, designed by Diego de Siloé in 1528 on the Gothic plan, receives vaults based on pillars with pilasters and semi – columns with Corinthian heads, and has a Renaissance façade (completed by Alonso Cano). Renaissance forms receive only cathedrals:
in Málaga, three-nave, with domes on sails, designed by Diego de Siloé (1538),
in Jaén, designed by Pedra de Vandelvir (1532)

Secular architecture
estilo mudejar – most of the transition-style buildings were built in the south of the country, in cities with larger Moorish traditions. Examples of monuments in the style of the buildings are the Palacio de las Dueñas and the Casa de Pilatos in Seville (casa es. – house).
plateresco:
Seville City Hall (circa 1527) designed by Diego de Riaño
The University and the Archbishop’s Palace in Alcalá de Henares, designed by Rodrigo Gil de Hontanon
portal of the University of Escuelas Menores in Salamanca, designed by Alonso de Covarrubias (1532)
classic style (estilo greco-romano):
Calahorra castle built in 1512 by Italian architect Antonio Aprile
the royal palace of Charles V designed by Pedro Machuca (1526) in Granada, the building was never completed in its entirety; the two-level palace adjoins the Alhambra from the east
Royal palace in Toledo – Alkazar, rebuilt after damage (about 1548)
the royal palace of the Escorial near Madrid (1563 – 1584) designed by Juan Bautista de Toledo, the construction was continued by his student Juan de Herrera
palace in Aranjuez and Casa Lonja in Seville built by Herrera

List of notable structures
El Escorial (by Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera)
University of Salamanca (unknown architect)
New Cathedral of Salamanca (by Juan de Álava and others)
Palace of Monterrey in Salamanca (by Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón)
Arzobispo Fonseca College in Salamanca (by Diego de Siloé, Juan de Álava and R. G. de Hontañón)
Convent of San Esteban in Salamanca, (by Juan de Álava and R. G. de Hontañón)
Palace of Guzmanes in León (by R. G. de Hontañón)
Hospital de la Santa Cruz in Toledo (by Enrique Egas and Alonso de Covarrubias)
Hospital de Tavera, in Toledo (by Bartolomé Bustamante)
Hospital Real, in Granada (by Enrique Egas)
Palace of Charles V in Granada (by Pedro Machuca)
Cathedral of Granada (by Juan Gil de Hontañón, Enrigue Egas and Diego de Siloé)
Jaén Cathedral (by Andrés de Vandelvira)
Cathedral of Baeza (by Vandelvira)
Vázquez de Molina Square in Úbeda (by Vandelvira)
Town Hall in Seville (by Diego de Riaño)
University of Alcalá de Henares (by Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón and others)
Royal Collegiate Church of Santa María la Mayor in Antequera, Andalusia (by Pedro del Campo)
Hostal de los Reyes Católicos of Santiago de Compostela (by Enrique Egas)
Town Hall of Tarazona

Source from Wikipedia