But war seemed to make war ever more necessary; and the conflict overwhelmed the whole of Europe. France, although much smaller than the vast state of the Habsburgs, was by now a homogeneous and compact monarchy, with unique interests, with a robust financial and economic organization, while the dominions of Charles V were separated by… Read More »
In this way, thanks to the Catholic kings, Spain, which still largely lacked it, began to have a modern organization, gave itself a certain moral unity, began its own transformation into a great power. And this “national” policy, as it has rightly been said, continued Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros, during the regency of Castile, of… Read More »
According to SHOEFRANTICS, the architecture continues in the neoclassical style during the first half of the century, then manages to break through, hesitating, behind the French fashions. In the second half of the century. XIX achieves some success an alleged nationalism that manifests itself in the use, not always fortunate, of colored tiles in the… Read More »
Art in the second half of the century. XVII. – Philip IV was succeeded by his son Charles II, who defended the royal collections, opposing the sending of Palatine paintings to the emperor who insisted on them. Carreño, a wonderful portraitist known as “the Spanish Van Dyck”, Francisco Ricci, an easy painter, Francisco de Herrera the… Read More »
Art under Philip III (1598-1621). – This is an era of transition for art: Escorial architectural forms continue to be in vogue, maintained by Gómez de Mora and others while those baroque freedoms that were to blossom during the following reign are incubating. If Schubert opens the history of the Spanish Baroque with the Escoriale, other… Read More »
Plateresque style. – For the notable reaction of the national genius against the introduction of foreign styles, and in moments of enormous vitality such as those of the reign of Charles V, an original art had to arise. Since the architectural forms of the Renaissance began to arrive, a style is being formed (which Bertaux… Read More »
At the end of the century. XV, and more and more intensely in the XVI, Italian art asserted itself with the work of its artists, with its influences, as well as in architecture as in sculpture and painting. If we ignore more curious than important particularities, we can say that the first building directly subject… Read More »
The rise of Christian power coincides with the division of the Caliphate of Córdoba into kingdoms of taifa. It would take too much space to indicate even the characteristics of the various artistic centers that arise: Zaragoza with its Aljaferia, Málaga with its Alcazaba, Seville with the very graceful tower of the Giralda, etc. In the… Read More »
The sculpture of the century. XIV is not comparable to that of XIII; it is more profuse than inspired and vigorous. In the fourteenth century works arrived from Italy, such as the sepulcher of Spain Eulalia in the cathedral of Barcelona (1339). According to INSIDEWATCH, the sec. XV was a wonderful flowering for Spanish sculpture.… Read More »
There are some works of transition to the new style: not exactly the strange domes of the cathedral of Zamora, of the old cathedral of Salamanca and of the collegiate church of Toro, which perhaps come closer to the Muslim style than to the oriental one; but certainly some buildings, such as the Pórtico de… Read More »