Spanish Renaissance

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Spain
This article is about the Spanish Renaissance of the 15th-16th centuries.
See Renaissance of the 12th century for the earlier Renaissance in Spain.

The Spanish Renaissance refers to a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries. The year 1492 is commonly accepted as the beginning of the influence of the Renaissance in Spain.

This new focus in art, literature and science, inspired by Classical antiquity and especially the Greco-Roman tradition, receives the transcendental impulse in this year by various successive historical events:

  • Unification of the longed-for Christian kingdom with the definitive taking of Granada, last city of Islamic Spain and the successive expulsions of thousands of Muslim and Jewish believers,
  • The official discovery of the western hemisphere, the Americas,
  • The publication of the first grammar of a vernacular European language, the Grammatica (Grammar) by Antonio de Nebrija.

Contents

[edit] Historic antecedents

The beginning of the Renaissance in Spain is closely linked to the historical-political life of the monarchy of the Catholic Monarchs. Its figures are the first to leave the medieval approaches that secured a feudal scheme of weak monarch over a powerful and restless noblity. The Catholic Monarchs unite the forces of the incipient state and se ally with the principal families of the noblity to maintain their power. One of these families, the Mendoza, use the new style like distinction of its clan and, by extension, of the protection of the monarchy.

Little by little, the novel esthetic was introduced into the rest of the court and the clergy, mixing with purely Iberian styles, like the Nasrid art of the dying kingdom of Granada, the exalted and personal Gothic Castilian queen, and the Flemish tendencies in the official painting of the court and the Church. The assimilation of elements gave way to a personal interpretation of the orthodox Renaissance, which came to be called Plateresque. Therefore, secondary artists were brought in from Italy, apprentices were sent to the Italian shops, they brought designs, architectural plans, books and engravings, paintings, etc., of which portraits, themes and composition were copied.

King Charles I was more predisposed to the new art, paradoxically called the old way, remitted to the Classical antiquity. His direct patronage achieved some of the most beautiful works of the special and unique Spanish Renaissance style: the patronage of Alonso de Covarrubias, his commissions for Titian, who never agreed to relocate to Spain. Painters of great quality were, far from the courtier nucleus, Pedro Berruguete, Juan de Juanes, Paolo de San Leocadio, of whom the delicate Virgin of the Caballero de Montesa is highlighted, Yáñez de la Almedina and Fernando de los Llanos.

The painting of the Spanish Renaissance is normally completed in oil. It realizes interiors perfectly subject to the laws of perspective, without over-emphasis of the people. The figures are all of the same size and anatomically correct.

The colors and the shading are applied in tonal ranges, according to the Italian teachings. To accentuate the Italian style, in addition, it is common to add elements directly copied from it, like the adornments a candelieri (borders of vegetables and cupids that surround the frames), or Roman ruins in the countrysides, including in scenes of the life of Christ.

[edit] Literature

Main article: Spanish Renaissance literature
Vida del Lazarillo de Tormes, de sus fortunas y adversidades published in 1554. Front page.
Vida del Lazarillo de Tormes, de sus fortunas y adversidades published in 1554. Front page.

[edit] Painting and Sculpture

Salome with the Baptist's Head, by Berruguete.
Salome with the Baptist's Head, by Berruguete.

[edit] Featured artists

[edit] Famous paintings

The religious themes occupied the majority of his paintings. In this extraordinary painting the Classicist composition and the Mannerist features and that strange spiritualization of the people, whose figures are elongated, are set in contrast.

  • Virgin of the Milk or Virgin with Child (Luis de Morales).

The theme represented is very old, within the Christian iconography: the Virgin Mary feeding Baby Jesus.

Nevertheless, in the case of this work, the chest is not viewed directly, instead the mother and son look at each other in one of the most intimistas images of the 16th century. The purpose is clearly religious, exalting the sentiment of maternal love.

Court of the Palace of Charles V, 180º panorama.
Court of the Palace of Charles V, 180º panorama.

[edit] Architecture

Main article: Architecture of the Spanish Renaissance
The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, by Herrera and Juan Bautista de Toledo
The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, by Herrera and Juan Bautista de Toledo

[edit] Music

[edit] Science

[edit] See also

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