16th and 17th-century Spanish art and architecture

Las investigaciones realizadas para la elaboración del informe histórico-artístico encargado para la restauración de la torre campanario de la iglesia parroquial de Ricla (Zaragoza) han permitido trazar con bastante precisión la historia constructiva y la correspondiente crítica de autenticidad del monumento. Así, hoy estamos en condiciones de afirmar que fue levantada por Juan Lucas Botero el Joven en 1542 y recrecida durante la segunda mitad del siglo XVI. También se ha podido precisar que ese cuerpo superior terminó generando graves problemas estructurales, que fue derribado a comienzos del siglo XVIII, y reconstruido poco después, para reformarse a mediados del siglo XIX y, por última vez, un siglo más tarde, a mediados del XX. Para entonces, su característico chapitel bulboso fue sustituido por el remate edicular inspirado en el de la torre de Utebo que todavía puede contemplarse en la actualidad.

Around the 1485 was born in Villaescusa de Haro Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal (c. 1485-1547), in a family which has dedicated all its best men in the progress of the Kingdom of Castilla. Sebastián Ramírez will life to see the transformation of this Kingdom in an Empire under the government of Carlos V, and to be one of the most trustworthy men of the emperor. After being the responsible of the civil an ecclesiastic government in Santo Domingo (1528-1531) and the president of the Real Audiencia de Nueva España in Tenochtitlán (1531-1535) before the existence of the Viceroyalty; he returned to Spain to be the president of the Real Audiencia de Granada (1536-1539), after of the one in Valladolid (1539-1542) and also the president of the commission responsible to create the laws of the spanish territories in America (1542); at last at the same time he was the bishop of Tuy (1537-1539), León (1539-1542) and Cuenca (1542-1547).
    In this city he decided in the end of 1544 to begin the construction of a new cloister in the cathedral which was almost in ruins, and -after the repeated refusal of the Cathedral Chapter- decided to support at least the building of its hallway. To design and to make it, he chose a singular french man who had been working with the best artists in the Iberian Peninsula since 1535 and for men as important as Francisco de los Cobos: Étienne Jamet (c. 1515-1546) known as Esteban Jamete. The union of these two special men made of the entrance to the cloister of the Cuenca cathedral an exceptional space where the art of Jamet –full of quality, diversity, elegance and pathos- was used to advertise the wishes of the Carlos’ V court to reach the universitas christiana, through a triumphal arc which memorializes the hoped catholic triumph; and inside, the hallway conceived as a meditation’s place for the Christian who is spur on to the virtue’s way of wisdom and fight against the vice to achieve the eternal life in Jesus Christ. Thereby they became the ruins of this space in a stair to God along the religious wars and the inner struggle of citizens, they made the Arco de Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal (1546-1550).

Edition: Paula Velasco Grijalbo.
Press: Diputación Provincial de Cuenca.
ISBN: 978-84-16161-40-9.

Luminous new photography showcases contemporary and historic homes in the beloved Spanish Style in Southern California, while offering, as well, a rare look at the original inspirations to the style, born in Andalusia, Spain.

The great appeal of Spanish Style homes lies in their aura of romance and drama, a sense of story, of magic, as well as in their very comfortable and engaging proportions and the great livability of the interior spaces. Deep shadow, arched doorways, trickling courtyard fountains, climbing bougainvillea on wrought-iron window grilles, wood-beamed ceilings, and white plaster walls are all hallmarks of the style. Here, through a celebration of contemporary and historic homes in Southern California, as well as existing historic precedents in Andalusia, Spain--most notably the intricately detailed Casa de Pilatos in Seville and the Alhambra of Granada--The Spanish Style House presents the definitive picture of the style as it exists today.

Featured homes include the George Washington Smith-designed Casa Blanca (1928)--a fantasy made real in stone and stucco replete with the romance of old Morocco in its horseshoe arches, domes, and evocative tile murals--and a Marc Appleton-designed beach house (2007) in Del Mar, California, which is a dream on the sea and an eloquent testament to the virtues of the style for today. Publish Date: March 09, 2021
Format: Hardcover
Category: House & Home - Decorating & Furnishings
Publisher: Rizzoli
Trim Size: 9 x 9
Pages: 256
US Price: $55.00
CDN Price: $75.00
ISBN: 978-0-8478-6516-1
See https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847865161/

'An invaluable introduction to the figure of Luisa Roldán . . . Drawing on her own extensive archival research and decades of firsthand study of the sculpture, Catherine Hall-van den Elsen offers a sensitive analysis of the works while also setting them effectively in their historical context . . . More than the story of one remarkable sculptor, this book also offers insights into the challenges women confronted in seventeenth-century Spain and the artistic production of the period.' – Patrick Lenaghan, Curator, Hispanic Society Museum and Library

'Catherine Hall has produced a book which is a pleasure to read, superbly illustrated, incorporating fascinating details about the society in which Luisa worked, including the challenges she faced as a woman artist. At the same time this monograph is rooted in serious scholarship, discussing the process of some of the commissions, as well as the materials and techniques lying behind the creation of these extraordinary works of art. This is both a highly readable and delightful book.' – Marjorie Trusted, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Victoria and Albert Museum

This beautifully illustrated monograph presents the first overview in English of the life and work of Luisa Roldán (1652–1706), a prolific and celebrated sculptor of the Spanish Golden Age.

The daughter of Pedro Roldán, a well-known sculptor from Seville, she developed her talent in her father’s workshop. Early in her career she produced large polychromed wooden sculptures for churches in Seville, Cádiz, and surrounding towns. She spent the second half of her career in Madrid, where she worked in both polychromed wood and polychromed terracotta, developing new products for a domestic, devotional market. In recognition of her talent, she was awarded the title of Sculptor to the Royal Chambers of two kings of Spain, Charles II and Philip V.

This book places Roldán within a wider historical and social context, exploring what life would have been like for her as a woman sculptor in early modern Spain. It considers her work alongside that of other artists of the Baroque period, including Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán. Reflecting on the opportunities available to her during this time, as well as the challenges she faced, Catherine Hall-van den Elsen weaves the narrative of Roldán’s story with analysis, revealing the complexities of her oeuvre.

Every year, newly discovered sculptures in wood and in terracotta enter into Roldán’s oeuvre. As her artistic output begins to attract greater attention from scholars and art lovers, Luisa Roldán provides invaluable insights into her artistic achievements.

UK/ROW: https://www.lundhumphries.com/products/luisa-roldan
N. America: https://shop.getty.edu/products/luisa-roldan-978-1606067321

In the seventeenth century, the renown of artists from the 'river Maas'
area inspired Spanish and Portuguese masters to seek out Netherlandish writings about art. Pacheco, for one, refers to Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527-c. 1606) and Johannes Molanus (1533-1585) and also owned the 1572 painters' biographies by Dominicus Lampsonius. The Portuguese artist Felix da Costa (1639-1712) read the Dutchman Franciscus Junius' The Painting of the Ancients (1637); th.is book may also have been the model for Ancient Painting (De veteri pictura), an early sevcnteenth-century work by Juan de Fonseca from Seville. Of all Northern authors, Karel van Mander (1548-1606) in particular rose to fame. His Schilder-boeck of 1604 was known in Italy, England, Germany, and France. lt was in Spain, however, that Van Mander's ideas were studied in greatest detail. Pacheco became his most faithful reader outside the Nerherlands.

Through the expansion of colonial power, Spain harnessed a network of global trade which fostered its development in the seventeenth century. As the trading gateway between Spain and the American colonies, Seville was positioned with direct access to foreign economies and the international circulation of goods. Master painter Francisco de Zurbarán utilized the economic opportunities available in Seville by engaging in colonial markets. Zurbarán exported his works to patrons in Americas through direct commission, but also created paintings specifically for sale at auction in the Americas to meet demands for Spanish artistry. By participating in the transatlantic trade, Zurbarán thereby capitalized on the commodity value of his artworks and utilized networks set in place by the Spanish crown in order to maintain colonial control. This paper will trace the economic biography of Zurbarán’s exports to the Americas, using the apostle series of the Convento de San Francisco in Lima, Peru, as a case study.

Se documenta la participación de Jusepe Leonardo (Calatayud, 1601-Zaragoza, ca. 1653) en la realización de pinturas para los monumentos de Semana Santa en la antigua iglesia de la Almudena de Madrid y se estudia el proceso de fabricación de estas arquitecturas desde 1632, en el que intervinieron diferentes maestros. A través de los pagos recogidos en los libros de cuentas de la fábrica de la iglesia, se añaden al catálogo del pintor dos nuevas obras, hoy perdidas, con los temas de la Flagelación de Cristo y la Oración en el huerto, encargadas para el monumento de 1633.

In this paper we document the participation of Jusepe Leonardo (Calatayud, 1601-Zaragoza, ca. 1653) in the execution of paintings for the Holy Week monuments in the old church of Santa Maria de la Almudena (Madrid), as well as the manufacturing process of these architectures since 1632, in which different masters intervened. Through the payments registered in the church ledgers, we add two works to the painter's catalogue, commissioned for the 1633 monument: the Flagellation of Christ and the Agony in the Garden, both works long since lost.

La reciente restauración de la portada de la colegiata de Santa María de Calatayud, impulsada por el Departamento de Educación, Cultura y Deporte del Gobierno de Aragón, y llevada a cabo por la empresa Tracer Restauración y Conservación, ha exigido realizar, entre otras actuaciones, un apurado estudio histórico artístico del monumento.
La labor desarrollada en diferentes archivos bilbilitanos, aragoneses y estatales ha permitido reunir un gran número de referencias documentales que vienen a esclarecer tanto las circunstancias de su confección, como la verdadera naturaleza de las distintas intervenciones de que ha sido objeto a lo largo del tiempo, muchas de ellas desconocidas o insuficientemente estudiadas hasta ahora. Pero el trabajo, que se demostró de gran utilidad a la hora de afrontar la restauración integral de la portada y sus batientes de madera, no se limita a ofrecer una cuidadosa crítica de autenticidad de las mismas, sino que aporta una novedosa interpretación del conjunto, demostrando su relación con algunas de las manifestaciones más destacadas del primer Renacimiento normando, un contexto artístico sumamente interesante –caracterizado por la supervivencia de los presupuestos del gótico flamígero y la apresurada adopción del nuevo lenguaje all’antica llegado desde la Península Itálica– del que procedía Esteban de Obray, uno de los maestros que contrataron su ejecución. Además, el libro facilita el grueso de la documentación histórica reunida sobre la portada en un PDF adjunto en un CD.

This essay is a hermeneutic investigation into a "mirror mode of looking," which the author defines as a strategy of semiotic representation inherited by Manet from a host of predecessors, including Van Eyck, Titian, Velázquez, Steen, Vermeer, and Watteau. It is proposed that the early historical precedence of a "mirror mode" in realist painting calls for a new, multivalent reading of the praxis of mimesis (and its public reception) in the premodern era. In turn, the subjective visuality of nineteenth-century modernism signals perhaps not so radical a departure from a former "ocularcentric regime" than is commonly presumed.

EXCERPT:
In 1878, at the age of forty-six, Edouard Manet painted a picture of himself painting a picture [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]. This Self-Portrait with a Palette is one of only two formal self-portraits that Manet conceived in his prolific, if succinct career.(1) As the painter gazes outward, he engages us in no simple standoff; rather, our position is uncertain, perhaps that of a portrait sitter, the painter himself, or a mirror before him. In sum, we serve as a complex foil that returns Manet's gaze to his own body and the canvas itself, in a continuous three-way shuttle. Even Manet's palette takes a critical stance in this tight cloister: at once a common tool and a painter's coat-of-arms, or auto-insignia, it is held at the hip like a heraldic battle shield, as if to steel the painter against his own self-scrutiny.

Manet's only other serf-portrait is notably different in conception. Executed about the same time as the portrait with palette, it is a painter's full-length posturing as a pensive scholar [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED]. Manet spreads wide his feet, so as to mime a steady, if haunted statue. Both hands thrust into his coat pockets, the painter shifts toward the raking light to train his attention on an urgent problem. This rather troubled image of Manet is unlike any other of him extant. Nobody questions whether its sense of gravity genuinely arises from the artist's nature; the mood is evident, for instance, in Manet's photographic portrait by Nadar of 1865.(2) Still, we tend to expect of this "hero" of modern painting the amiable mien of a social aesthete, that is, the congenial if reticent flaneur with top hat and walking stick - as Manet had been figured for posterity by Henri Fantin-Latour in a flattering portrait of 1867 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED].

As if to lionize Manet as Fantin's gregarious and convivial creature, we often explain the Self-Portrait with a Palette as a souvenir of personal achievement, an automemento in which Manet celebrates himself as the "stylish and successful" gentleman painter.(3) That assessment has the merit of economy, for it derives simply from Manet's costume - the suave frock coat, the cravat with pearl clip, the rakish bowler - with which he strikes an impressive, if not exceedingly confident, pose. A divergent reading. arises, however, as one takes note of a telling detail: the painter's gaze itself, at once redoubtable and reflexive, subtly tempers our first impression. In fact, Manet's gaze appears to penetrate his social mien - the self-as-spectacle - so as to plumb deeper leagues of his private identity. Given this circumstance we might say that Manet's costume is a decoy, for while it doubtless attracts us, to read it as an index of this painter's self-image may be to fall for a cunning deception.

Indeed, in both of his self-portraits Manet's gaze renders his costume all but beside the point. We might consider, then, how Manet's self-portraits of 1878 are doubly important. While both pictures present the painter reflecting on his success in society, perhaps they are more significant for how they paint Manet as an implacable Peripatetic, a peintre-philosophe of visual cognition.
If that would seem to overstate the tenor of these two self-portraits, we should take stock of the remaining instances in which Manet pictured himself. We know of only three such cases, and in each of them Manet poses as only one among other social or political beings. For instance, the painter has been located in the right foreground of the early Fishing of 1861-63 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 4 OMITTED]; sited as the figure cropped by the left border of Music in the Tuileries of 1862 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 20 OMITTED]; and spied as a bon vivant looking out of the picture in his Ball at the Opera of 1873-74 ([ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 24 OMITTED]; Manet has been identified as the second top-hatted male from the beholder's right, that is, the gentleman who stands in depth behind a discarded dance program in the foreground, which bears his signature). In each of these scenarios the painter dons the mask of the man of leisure, that unencumbered boulevardier whose principal burden is his dogged boredom.

When compared with these sociable self-depictions, Manet's image in the Self-Portrait with a Palette is hardly dashing. What is more, it has been figured nervously, and as the viewer explores that quality of the portrait more carefully, it betrays a self that is far less stable than the first impression would have it. This is a self in a continuous flurry of making, or thoughtful refiguring, so that as we look at it, the image is perpetually shifting, in effect, if not kaleidoscopic.(4) For all its hauteur, this portrait harbors a potential for self-erasure. No mere snapshot, it is a slowly additive collage of a self recovered from the mirror and purposefully, if precariously, transcribed by painting.

I take that reflexive scrimmage of looking depict...

La Inmaculada Concepción de Vel􌍝azquez se ha investigado en comparación con la
referencia iconográfica que Pacheco estableció en su tratado artístico “Arte de la
Pintura”,aunque apenas se ha tratado la diferencia pictórica entre la Inmaculada del
discípulo y de su maestro. En este artículo se presenta la técnica utilizada por Pacheco
de representar a la Virgen de la Inmaculada como si apareciera encima de la ciudad de
Sevilla para lograr que sus pinturas parecieran “vivas”y, de esta manera poder cumplir
con sus propios preceptos iconogr􌍝aficos acerca de las pinturas religiosas,reflejados en el
libro anteriormente citado;sin embargo,su discípulo Velázquez no sólo no utilizó este
estilo de retratar a la Virgen, sino que aspiró a representarla de una manera admirablemente
realista a través de un modo caracterizado“por tener siempre delante el natural”.

La redacción del Plan Director para la Restauración de la Colegiata de Santa María de Calatayud, Revisión y Actualización, encargada por el Gobierno de Aragón en 2010, ha exigido realizar, entre otras actuaciones, un apurado estudio histórico artístico del monumento, y su completo levantamiento planimétrico.
La labor desarrollada en diferentes archivos bilbilitanos, aragoneses y estatales ha permitido reunir un abultado corpus documental sobre la complicada historia constructiva del complejo, y el análisis de todas estas referencias, cohonestado con el estudio de la propia fábrica constructiva, permite ofrecer una novedosa lectura e interpretación del conjunto como resultado de su devenir histórico, desde su fundación hasta las últimas intervenciones restauradoras de que ha sido objeto. Además, el libro facilita el grueso de la documentación histórica reunida, y se acompaña de un anexo gráfico que reúne las plantas, alzados y secciones más significativos del complejo.

Through drawings we can study one of the most famous stone bridges of the Sixteenth century, which affected the defense of a bay that was key for the monarchy and it's control and trade of the Indias. The fact that several of the best experts in stereotomy in Spain, as well as great engineers all were in Cadiz during the turn of the century makes it a remarkable case study for the history of construction. If we analyze the unpublished documents about this bridge we can also understand how the movement of profesionals in the Spanish monarchy worked, as both Juan Marín, venetian expert in foundations in water, and Tiburzio Spanocchi, the Main Engineer of the Spanish Crown worked in it, as well as several stonemasons from Bizkaia (Basque Country).

Investigation about Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal through the architectonical industries which were supported and boosted by him as ecclesiastical and political governor of La Española and Nueva España between 1528 and 1536. These were a main part of his goverment, characterized by achieving the development of the american cities and citizens, specially the welfare of the natives.

Beschäftigten sich Kunsthistoriker mit der Kopie des Genter Altars für Philipp II. durch Michiel Coxcie, dann ging es bisher vor allem um die Umstände ihrer Entstehung und ihre Stellung im Gesamtwerk des Künstlers. Daneben wurde sie auch im Zusammenhang mit der Kunst- und Sammlungspolitik Philipp II. angeführt, jedoch nicht weiter in deren Kontext analysiert. Der spanische Zusammenhang, in den die Kopie des Genter Altars gelangte, wurde weitestgehend ignoriert. Dabei hatte die Installation eines für eine Privatkapelle geschaffenen Retabels auf dem Hochaltar der Kapelle des zentralen Königspalasts, dem Alcázar von Madrid, erheblich Veränderungen seiner Bedeutung zur Folge. Diese waren bislang nicht Gegenstand der Forschung. Darüber hinaus erlaubt der Blick nach Spanien auch die abschließende Klärung des Umfangs von Coxcies Kopie, über die bisher verschiedene Vermutungen angestellt wurden. Davon ausgehend möchte ich einige Überlegungen zur Funktion des Retabels am spanischen Hof vorstellen.

El presente artículo reexamina las pinturas de los cuartos de las frutas de la Alhambra y reivindica su papel precursor en el desarrollo del bodegón español. Aunque las pinturas de los cuartos de las frutas han sido estudiadas solo en relación con el Renacimiento italiano, este artículo las considera desde la perspectiva de su emplazamiento en el marco arquitectónico y simbólico de la Alhambra, así como en el contexto de la utilización del naturalismo como lenguaje pictórico al servicio de la ideología imperial, poniendo de manifiesto conexiones entre estas pinturas y la historial natural, el pasado islámico y la ideología imperial.

Dentro del actual proceso de restauración de la colegiata de Santa María la Mayor, en Calatayud, iniciada con la actualización y revisión del Plan Director en 2011, se inscribe la reciente actuación del Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, que ha atendido a la recuperación del ábside y del cuerpo de sacristía. Elementos con una compleja historia constructiva, han sido objeto de trabajos de muy diversa naturaleza en respuesta a las patologías, también diversas, y en especial, de tipo estructural, que presentaban. Las obras y su paralelo estudio histórico y arqueológico han permitido un mejor conocimiento de la historia del edificio y facilitado la interpretación de algunos de los problemas de conservación diagnosticados.

The current restoration process of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary Major, in Calatayud, which was initiated with the updated and revised Master Plan in 2011, includes the recent intervention of the Cultural Heritage Institute of Spain in the recovery of the apse and the vestry. The elements have a complex structural history and the work carried out on them has been diverse in nature in response to their varied pathologies and, in particular, structural types. The works, and their parallel historical and archaeological study, have provided a better understanding of the history of the building and enabled the interpretation of some of the conservation problems identified.
Keywords: structural consolidation, apse, vestry, Calatayud, structural history.

En este artículo hacemos una reflexión sobre la propuesta de Emilio Orozco Díaz de ver en las figuras de santas vírgenes y mártires de Zurbarán unos retratos “a lo divino”. Apreciamos si esta expresión ya admitida por todos los estudiosos del Barroco puede aplicarse a las formas diversas de inclusión de un retrato en un cuadro religioso, y en qué medida puede serlo. Importa cuestionar la intencionalidad a la que respondía esta forma de hibridación. Más allá de las prácticas nobiliarias o monárquicas que analizamos, la vera effigies de los santos se impuso desde principios del XVII como una prueba de santidad, y el “retratar” como una forma de acercarse a la Verdad sacra en la pintura. En las décadas 1660 y 1670 las cabezas de santos de Llanos y Valdés jugaron con las expectativas de esta forma de “retrato” para crear bodegones “a lo divino”.

This article reexamines the function, decoration, and political and artistic significance of the Torre de la Estufa of Charles V in the Alhambra, a steam room decorated between 1528 and 1539 with topographic landscapes of the conquest of Tunis and paintings of grotesques. Challenging the traditional focus on the tower's debt to the Italian Renaissance, this essay brings attention to its pre-existing Islamic framework, arguing that its overall architectural language, specific decorative elements, and intended function reveal Charles V's will to engage formally and conceptually with the preexisting palace as a means of advancing imperial ideology.

Las tradicionales estructuras nervadas a compresión habían permitido levantar, sobre pilares y arcos torales, soluciones de carácter turricular como los cimborrios, que, además de proporcionar luz natural sobre las encrucijadas de los transeptos de los templos, adoptaron, en algunos casos, perfiles escalonados de muy difícil resolución desde el punto de vista constructivo. Sin embargo, estas estructuras no pudieron emplearse para la materialización de las nuevas tipologías arquitectónicas que trataron de introducirse en el contexto artístico aragonés de mediados del Quinientos, como la cúpula sobre pechinas y tambor, en esencia, porque generaban unos estados tensionales en las fábricas que podían tornarlas inseguras.
No obstante, al margen de otras vías, las cúpulas terminarán resolviéndose desde una tradición constructiva local habituada al empleo del ladrillo, la madera y el yeso, pero, sobre todo, gracias a un nuevo sistema constructivo que contemplaba la incorporación de elementos de madera en el seno de las propias fábricas.

The traditional ribbed structures had allowed to build, on pillars and chancel archs, tower-shaped solutions such as the cimborrios –lantern towers–, which provided natural light over the crossing and, in some cases, adopted stepped profiles that were very difficult to perform in building terms.
However, these structures couldn’t be used to perform the new architectonical typologies coming from Italy in the Aragonese artistic context of the middle of the 16th century, such as the dome on pendentives and drum, essentially because they generated such tensions in the constructions that could make them unsafe.
In any case, besides some other solutions, the domes were finally executed starting from the local construction tradition in brick, wood and plaster but, above all, thanks to a new construction system which included wooden elements in the constructions themselves.

The tradition of stereotomy developed in the different Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula between the late XIV and the early XV century will allow to materialize in stone the new Renaissance system which had arrived from Italy. This phenomenon, which represents, without a doubt, one of the greatest Spanish contributions to the “a la Antigua” architecture, will follow two different ways: one, derived from the construction techniques developed in the building of ribbed vaults, and the other one based on the carving and assembly of “piezas enterizas”.




La tradición estereotómica desarrollada en los diferentes reinos cristianos de la Península Ibérica desde finales del siglo XIV y comienzos de la centuria siguiente permitirá afrontar la materialización en piedra del nuevo sistema renacentista llegado desde Italia. Este fenómeno, que constituye, sin lugar a dudas, una de las mayores aportaciones españolas a la arquitectura “a la antigua”, se abordará a partir de dos vías sensiblemente diferentes: una, derivada de las técnicas constructivas desarrolladas en el volteo de las bóvedas de crucería, y otra, basada en la labra y el ensamblado de “piezas enterizas”.





La tradizione stereotomica sviluppata nei vari regni cristiani della Penisola Iberica tra la fine del XIV secolo e gli inizi del secolo successivo permetterà di affrontare la materializzazione in pietra del nuovo sistema rinascimentale giunto dall’Italia. Questo fenomeno, che rappresenta, senza alcun dubbio, uno dei maggiori contributi spagnoli all’architettura “a la antigua”, seguirà due vie profondamente differenti: una, derivata dalle tecniche costruttive sviluppate nella costruzione di volte a crociera, e l’altra basata sulla lavorazione e l’assemblaggio di “piezas enterizas”.

The final expense report for the construction and decoration of the new retrochoir of the cathedral of Burgos contains an inconsistency that may reflect conflicting opinions among the early modern clergy concerning religious imagery displayed in a public setting. The Benedictine artist and architect Fray Juan Ricci was one of the artists involved in this important commission: Ricci was awarded 5,515½ reales for a series of six paintings destined for the side altars, a series that included The Ecstasy of St Francis, one of his most powerful celebrations of visionary experience. Yet soon after Ricci’s series was completed, two canons, Diego and Manuel de la Moneda, purchased an additional canvas of St Francis from a local artist, perhaps as a replacement for Ricci’s version of the miraculous event. The possible controversy surrounding Ricci’s painting provides an opportunity to examine the role of devotional painting in seventeenth-century Castile.

Diego de Siloé levantó en Granada, sobre las fundaciones tardogóticas de Enrique Egas, la que es considerada la primera catedral del Renacimiento español. Earl Rosenthal señaló que las bóvedas de la girola, divididas en compartimentos rectangulares y construidas en vida de Siloé, son muy diferentes en su técnica estructural y en su concepción decorativa de las bóvedas estrelladas ojivales de la nave, realizadas después de su muerte y paradójicamente más retardatarias estilísticamente.
Ahora bien, tampoco resulta fácil encontrar precedentes renacentistas para las bóvedas de la girola. Este estudio, partiendo de la base de un levantamiento topográfico y mediante un análisis sin conclusiones prefijadas, aborda el estudio de la solución constructiva de estos elementos arquitectónicos, intentando determinar en qué medida parten de la tradición medieval y en qué proporción responden al ideal clásico.

This paper focuses on the decoration of the Alcazar palace in Madrid during the reign of Philip II of Spain, concentrating on the king's portrait collection and other pictorial cycles deployed to decorate principal reception rooms and the queen's quarters.

Also discussed is the portrait of Infante Carlos by Sofonisba Anguissola, created for the heir and prince before his untimely death in 1568. Several copies and relics of this portrait of the prince wearing a lynx fur coat (bohemia) were made by Alonso Sánchez Coello and his workshop. One version today in the former royal palace in Sintra was identified by the author as a work after Sofonisba Anguissola and produced in Sánchez Coello's workshop, is published here for the first time.