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Spain Spain Gothic Art Gothic Art EUROPEAN COMMUNITY European Regional Development Fund I TABLE OF CONTENTS SPANISH TOURIST INFORMATION UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Introduction 1 OFFICES ABROAD Los Angeles Tourist Office of Spain Gothic Art 2 CANADA. Toronto The three great cathedrals 8 8383 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 960 Tourist Office of Spain Beverly Hills, California 90211 A Tour 2 Bloor Street West Suite 3402 % 1(323) 658 71 88 Andalusia 14 Toronto, Ontario M4W 3E2 ) 1(323) 658 10 61 Aragon 20 % (1416) 961 31 31 www.okspain.org Asturias 24 ) Ireland (1416) 961 19 92 e-mail: [email protected] The Balearic Isles 26 United www.tourspain.toronto.on.ca Chicago The Canary Islands 27 Dublin e-mail: [email protected] Cantabria 28 Kingdom Tourist Office of Spain Castile-La Mancha 30 GREAT BRITAIN. London Water Tower Place, suite 915 East Castile and León 35 London Spanish Tourist Office 845 North Michigan Avenue Catalonia 45 PO BOX 4009 Chicago, Illinois 60 611 Murcian Region 49 London W1A 6NB % 1(312) 642 19 92 Valencian Region 50 % (44207) 486 80 77 ) 1(312) 642 98 17 Extremadura 53 Paris ) (44207) 486 80 34 www.okspain.org Galicia 56 www.tourspain.co.uk e-mail: [email protected] La Rioja 60 e-mail: [email protected] Miami Madrid 62 France Tourist Office of Spain Navarre 64 JAPAN. Tokyo 1221 Brickell Avenue Basque Country66Bay of Biscay Tourist Office of Spain Miami, Florida 33131 Daini Toranomon Denki % Glossary 70 1(305) 358 19 92 Bldg.6F. 3-1-10 ) 1(305) 358 82 23 General information 72 Toranomon. Minato-Ku www.okspain.org Tokyo-105-0001 e-mail: [email protected] Portugal Madrid % (813) 34 32 61 41 New York ) Lisbon (813) 34 32 61 44 Tourist Office of Spain www.spaintour.com 666 Fifth Avenue 35th floor SPAIN e-mail: [email protected] New York, New York 10103 % 1(212) 265 88 22 Mediterranean RUSSIA. Moscow Atlantic Ocean ) 1(212) 265 88 64 Sea Spanish Tourist Office www.okspain.org Tverskaya – 16/2 Edificio 3 Ceuta e-mail: [email protected] Melilla Moscow 103009 % (7095) 935 83 97 Published by: EMBASSIES IN MADRID © Turespaña ) (7095) 935 83 96 Canada. Núñez de Balboa, 35 – 3º Secretaría de Estado www.tourspain.ru % 914 233 250 ) 914 233 251 de Turismo y Comercio e-mail: [email protected] Ministerio de Industria, Great Britain. Fernando El Santo, 16 Text: Turismo y Comercio SINGAPORE. Singapore % 913 190 200 ) 913 081 033 Jesús de la Cámara Spanish Tourist Office Japan. Serrano, 109 Printed by: 541 Orchard Road % 915 907 600 ) 915 901 321 Translation: EGESA Liat Tower # 09-04 Russia. Velázquez, 155 Michael Benedict % ) D.L. M-52231-2004 238881 Singapore 915 622 264 915 629 712 Photographs: NIPO: 704-04-035-0 % 65 67 37 30 08 United States of America Archivo Turespaña ) 65 67 37 31 73 Serrano, 75 Printed in Spain e-mail: [email protected] % 915 872 200 ) 915 872 303 Graphic Design: P&L MARÍN 1st Edition INTRODUCTION Pinnacles soaring heavenwards, phantasmagoric gargoyles, ogives, stained-glass and rose windows casting iridescent beams of light, in palaces, castles, guildhalls and churches, will astonish and astound the traveller in any corner of Spain. So many and such a variety of structures are to be found -from Extremadura to the Balearic Isles and from Cantabria to the Canary Islands- that to mention them all would be impossible. The scope of this brochure is only enough to allow for a description of the major sights cited in art treatises, and a few more in those cases where the simple poetry of the monument or the beauty of the surroundings is such that it merits inclusion as an attraction; and even though there is no space for more, this will suffice for you to discover just how truly moving Spanish Gothic can be. GOTHIC ART 13th century, germinal forms in Mediterranean regions the predominated. There was a coexisted with those of profile corresponded to a greater stress on grandiose The term Gothic, which comes Romanesque. This was a period rectangular parallelepiped, spaces and increased height. from the word “Goth”, was of evolution, in which formal where the interior space was The proliferation of mouldings used for the first time by Vasari, criteria of beauty prevailed and open, with scant difference (baquetones) on the pillars the Italian art historian of the the figure of the Virgin Mary between nave and aisles. Apart tended to break the spatial 16th century, as a pejorative began to assume growing from this formal diversity, the unity. Vaults became more description of the architecture importance. It is a period materials used offered a very complex and tiercerons marking the period between marked by ogival vaults wide array of textures and appeared. Romanesque and Renaissance. supported by thick arches and colours, ranging from the Up until the 19th century, these walls that continue to be robust. sandstone and granite of From the outset of the forms, which now attract us so, During the 13th and until the Castile, through the limestone 15th century, Spanish Gothic were relegated to a minor early years of the 14th century, of the so-called Levant region presents us with a very prolific position, since many authors, French influence remained (Valencia/Alicante area), to the Baroque phase, a consequence such as Molière, were of the dominant, but, to the delight of abundance of brick in Aragon. of the cultural and economic opinion that they were a the traveller, here in Spain, it development and greater “torrent of odious monsters”. acquired very specific local From 1300 onwards, a Mannerist wealth enjoyed by broad sectors Shortly before the beginning of traits. Hence, whereas in the phase emerged, with buildings of society. The Flamboyant the 20th century, the style began inland regions, church becoming stylised and Gothic Style originally appeared to be regarded positively. elevations would fit into a mouldings multiplying, as did in the north of France and triangle, and the aisles tended the tracery in the window Flanders, but, on arriving in Initiated in mid-12th century as a to be lower in height openings, in which curved Spain and coming into contact “language” without precedent, than the central nave, triangles and squares with Moorish forms, led to the the style became generalised emergence of a very particular throughout Europe over the style, known as Hispano-Flemish course of the 13th century, and Castilian, a style that will its acceptance and deep-rooted doubtless captivate the hold kept it in vogue until the onlooker. The Mudejar-inspired 16th century. In Spain, it decoration, with its tendency coincided with the maximum towards decorative lavishness, deployment and culmination of blind arcades, ornamental ribs, the Reconquest, i.e., the etc., makes for something that is consolidation of the Christian rather exclusive and can only be kingdoms. Under the Catholic seen in this part of the world. Monarchs, whose favourite architect was Juan Guas, it rose In the 16th century, the vitality of to a pinnacle of splendour. the Gothic Style, with work on three great cathedrals -Seville, During these three long Salamanca and Segovia- having centuries of survival, which were commenced at the turn of the to characterise the whole of the century, entered a revivalist or Late Middle Ages, Gothic passed through different phases. From Triptych on board. its beginnings until the early Valencia Gallery of Fine Art 2 3 “retro” phase that was to coexist between the major and minor art Architecture Sculpture with the Renaissance. In the forms, in that all were regarded search for a new classicism, there as equally important, and you Gothic architecture displays two As any site was looked upon as was a return to pure forms. will come across interiors that new and hitherto unparalleled ideal for locating sculpture, this bring together a number of aspects: the use of light and the will be found affixed to church The Gothic Style was a disciplines: gold- and silverwork, close relationship between and cathedral façades, retables, phenomenon in which the ceramic, embroidery, stained structure and appearance. All is choir stalls and funerary entire population participated: glass, tapestries, rugs, arms, geometry brimming with light, monuments, and even in its one sees churches and furniture, painting, sculpture and geometry that is felt though not own right, unrelated to the cathedrals conceived and architecture. Often, the selfsame seen but that will nevertheless be architecture, put there for the designed thanks to an overall person was skilled in several of discovered if sufficient attention pure enjoyment of the owner. combined effort, palaces, these techniques, e.g., sculptors is paid. Columns, windows and Yet when it does appear on fortresses and commercial and who were at once blacksmiths other points of reference delimit the exterior, it tends to be industrial edifices that mark the and/or gold- and silversmiths, squares, cubes, equilateral monumental, executed in independence of art from painters that gilded retables and triangles, rhythmic series that limestone or granite and ecclesiastical patronage, as well designed tapestries… and you convert space into a designed occasionally in alabaster or as an incipient craftsmanship. will see jewels, weavings and volume. The stained glass marble, since the noble furniture enriching an windows seem to render the wall materials (such as polychromed Imagine Gothic spaces as they architecture that succeeded porous, so that they filter and wood and metal) were reserved were perceived in Mediaeval in reflecting art in such merge with the light. No space is for the sumptuous interiors. times, without any differences exquisite detail. left for paintings, frescoes become luminous iridescence. Subject matter and motifs tend Arches are ogival and vaults are to vary, consisting of exquisite, marked by simple ribbing or delicately shaped figures of the assume complicated stellar virgin, apostles, narrative scenes forms.