Lecture 7- Spain and Portugal in the Americas

feudalism

dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection

encomiendas

Spanish colonial labor system where the Crown granted conquistadors authority over indigenous populations, allowing them to demand tribute and forced labor in mining or agriculture in exchange for protection and Christian conversion

Site/ Location

San Augustin de Acolman

Acolman, Mexico

atrio

a large open court, walled along the edges, that used the façade of the church as a backdrop

capilla abierta

outdoor chapel to conduct Mass at the west end

Plateresque

Intricate, highly decorative style of early 16th-century Spanish architecture, resembling fine silversmith’s work, extravagantly applied to the walls of late-Gothic buildings and generally unrelated to any expression of construction

Site/ Location

San Esteban del Rey

Acoma Puebla, New Mexico

Site/ Location

San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Madrid, Spain

Site/ Location

Church of Santa Prisca

Taxco, Mexico

retablo-facade

Alterpeice facades often divided into multiple levels with columns that framed sculptures and paintings

Churrigueresque

A heavy and rather awkward form of ornament applied mainly to altars, but sometimes to façades, and named after the de Churriguera family of Spanish architects

Site/ Location

Tower of Belem

Lisbon, Portugal

Site/ Location

Church of Sao Francisco de Asis

Ouro Preto, Brazil

Image+ Image description (Importance to architecture)

Image: San Agustin de Acolman, Acolman, Mexico

Importance to Architecture:

• Features unseen to traditional Christian Architecture:

  • addition of an open chapel for woman

  • addition of a Guthro; a large open walled along the edges that used the church as a backdrop.

  • Plateresque architecture, the distinct paintings on the facade, and its ability to evangelize Christianity to newcoming indigenous group

Image+ Image description (Importance to architecture)

Image: Church of Santa Prisca, Taxco, Mexico

Importance to Architecture:

• intricate and detailed ornamentation using the churrigueresque style

• practice of the retablo-facade, which was the division of a structure into multiple levels with columns framing the sculptures and paintings displayed

• most important examples of the Baroque style moving into the Americas

  • features two slender towers, a tiled dome and a carved pink stone

Image+ Image description (Importance to architecture)

Image: Plan, El Escorial, Spain

Importance to Architecture:

• constructed in the shape of a rectangle that represents the grill where Saint Lawrence was martyred

• combined a place, a monastery, church and school in one

• Ưiciently organized the diƯerent rooms within the structure with the basilica at the center, the monastery on the north side, the royal palace on the south and east sides, and the pantheons underground used as a burial chamber for Spanish monarchs

name the sites and COMPARE AND CONTRAST

University of Salamanca representing Plateresque architecture vs El Escorial representing Christian Classicism

• University of Salamanca:

  • blends gothic and renaissance elements and includes detailed ornamentation typical of Plateresque architecture

• El Escorial

  • block-like design; emphasizes balance, order, clarity as there is more symmetry, same orders, and spatial arrangements

    focuses more on the internal space for unity rather than surface ornamentation