A Gothic-Renaissance Synthesis in A
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Nexus Network Journal (2020) 22:429–447 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00004-019-00471-2 RESEARCH A Gothic‑Renaissance Synthesis in a Diego de Riaño Vault Antonio Ampliato1 · Eduardo Acosta1 Published online: 5 December 2019 © Kim Williams Books, Turin 2019 Abstract The aim of this article is to explain the design and construction processes employed in the ribbed vault prolonged by translation which Diego de Riaño (†1534) built in the antesacristy of the church of Santa María in Carmona. The vault represents an outstanding synthesis between the Late Gothic diagonal ribs and severies and the emerging systems that adopt the form of orthogonal grids and tend towards a unitary volumetric composition. The work refects the coexistence of two diferent architectural languages in Andalucía in the frst half of the sixteenth century, a transitional situation which, in our view, Riaño deliberately embraces in his design. Based upon rigorous photogrammetric mapping, this paper analyses the formal and geometric characteristics of this exceptional work. The analysis conducted reveals that this was not simply an experiment with form, because beneath their singular appearance the geometric designs point to the investigation of new solutions. Keywords Diego de Riaño · Ribbed vault · Oval · Gothic · Renaissance The Crossroads in Spanish Architecture in the First Third of the Sixteenth Century Erwin Panofsky, in his book Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art (1960), examined in great detail the numerous irruptions of classical models that periodically emerged in Europe during the Middle Ages. However, the Italian Renaissance ushered in a radical novelty that marked a change of epoch in the sense that “the classical past began to be looked upon from a fxed distance, quite comparable to the ‘distance between the eye and the object’ in… focused perspective, [which permitted] a total and rationalised view” (Panofsky 1960: 166 and 173). This historical awareness of distance, like so many other cultural aspects at the beginning * Eduardo Acosta [email protected] Antonio Ampliato [email protected] 1 University of Seville School of Architecture, Seville, Spain Vol.:(0123456789) 430 A. Ampliato, E. Acosta of the Modern Era, brought with it a new abstract value and also, a brand new space never before seen and now claimed for creation. Undoubtedly, it is well worth for us exploring in any of its possible manifestations. Compared with the forcefulness of the Italian process, the dynamics in other parts of Europe were very diferent. On the Iberian Peninsula the Gothic language had accompanied a long process of political and social reconstruction that aspired to unify all the peninsular kingdoms in the face of Islamic domination. Between the latter decades of the ffteenth century and the early sixteenth century, Iberian Late Gothic enjoyed moments of great brilliance, occasionally incorporating an interesting experimental component. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, in the recently constituted Kingdom of Spain, artistic manifestations combined traditional and new languages while architectural production was immersed in a complex combination of tendencies (Marías 1989). In any case, the drives for modernisation were anything but marginal. Many of the powerful fgures in political and ecclesiastical circles were schooled in humanistic theory and promoted the use of Classic forms. The 1520s saw the publication of Medidas del romano (Sagredo 1986), a brief architectural treatise with an impressive display of classical language and the frst in Europe to be written in the vernacular. At the same time, several young fgures were coming to the fore, the famous eagles of the Spanish Renaissance described by Gómez-Moreno (1983), armed with indisputable classical training and leanings. King Charles I (1516), soon elevated to Emperor Charles V (1520), was instrumental in consolidating a Romano identity associated with imperial power, and in fact some of the earliest and most important works in the new style emerged in connection with his presence or his direct instructions. His marriage in Seville in 1526 to Princess Isabella of Portugal and the royal couple’s subsequent move to Granada left both cities with a legacy of major building projects. Masters like Diego de Riaño, Pedro Machuca and Diego Siloe built works such as the city hall and the main sacristy in the cathedral, in Seville, and in Granada the Palace of Charles V at the Alhambra and the new cathedral and imperial mausoleum. All of these projects began to emerge around 1527–1528 and were well under way by the 1530s. The vault over the antesacristy in the church of Santa María in Carmona (Fig. 1), discussed in this paper, was designed and built by Diego de Riaño between 1528 and 1534, and its forms refect the crossroads which this master negotiated during his intense but short-lived career.1 Creatively integrated in this vault are various formal elements from diferent ecosystems, the geometries of which evidence the need to experiment with new adaptive logics. In short, it is a compositional exercise which, in our view, must be examined in the light of that historical awareness that Panofsky wrote about and which in Riaño’s case took the form of an intense personal evolution. 1 On the presence of Riaño in Carmona, see: Ampliato and Rodríguez (2017: 206f). 431 A Gothic-Renaissance Synthesis in a Diego de Riaño Vault Fig. 1 Vault of the antesacristy in the church of Santa María in Carmona On the Career of Diego de Riaño The master Diego de Riaño was born in Cantabria, in northern Spain, at the beginning of the last decade of the ffteenth century; he died in November 1534, when he was barely 40 years old.2 The information that has come down to us about his career is scant and scattered, while the reconstruction of his personal evolution is severely hindered by the difculties surrounding the attribution of some of his main works, a matter of near constant debate even today. In any case, the frst documentary evidence that we have of the master supplies ample information. It is a dossier (Morales 1993) recording Riaño’s request for a pardon from Emperor Charles V to enable him to end his exile in Portugal. Endorsed by Queen Eleanor of Portugal, the emperor’s sister, the request was eventually granted. This incident prompts multiple considerations. Firstly, the documents describe the origin of the problem: Riaño’s fight to Portugal following a brawl with fatal consequences that took place in the cathedral workshop in Seville in 1517. This enables us to place the master—probably during his formative period—in the orbit of Juan Gil de Hontañón, who was in charge of the works at the cathedral during that time. Although we cannot elaborate further on this matter here, certain highly signifcant formal characteristics in Riaño’s work would appear to confrm this relationship with a key master during the early decades of the sixteenth century in Spain (Ampliato and Rodríguez 2019). Secondly, Riaño’s exile in Lisbon between 1517 and 1522 coincided almost exactly with the crucial years in the construction of the Jerónimos monastery and 2 Alfredo J. Morales has shed the most light on the life and work of Diego de Riaño. Of particular interest among his various publications on the subject is the synthesis he published in 2011 (Morales 2011). 432 A. Ampliato, E. Acosta Fig. 2 Chevet of the church of Santa María in Carmona church in the parish of Belém, directed by João de Castilho (Dias 1986: 62f.). As with Hontañón, there are also highly signifcant characteristics in the work of Diego de Riaño that point to an association with the Spanish-Portuguese master (Ampliato and Rodríguez 2019). Lastly, the dossier sheds important light on another aspect about which there is no previous knowledge: the considerable esteem in which Queen Eleanor of Portugal held the master and, in general terms, his proximity to the Portuguese and Spanish crowns, which we hope future research may one day clarify further. This prestige would be confrmed, after his return to Spain, with his appointment in 1526 as master of the works for the Collegiate in Valladolid, a project deeply associated with the emperor and now unfortunately lost (Alonso 2004). But the most interesting aspect about Riaño’s career, and also the most complex, is undoubtedly the fact that his artistic production straddles two modes of operation, Gothic and Renaissance, and everything suggests that this context enabled him to make an enormous qualitative leap. The radical contrast between works like the chevet at Santa María in Carmona (Fig. 2) and the Main Sacristy in Seville Cathedral (Fig. 3a) clearly demonstrates this complexity. The general reluctance of a signifcant part of historians to accept this personal evolution of the master3 goes some way to explaining why the authorship of the second of these works, which 3 On these opinions, see Rodríguez and Ampliato (2019). 433 A Gothic-Renaissance Synthesis in a Diego de Riaño Vault Fig. 3 Main sacristy (a) and sacristy of the Chalices (b) in Seville Cathedral Fig. 4 South and East facades of Seville’s city hall the master could not complete, has been particularly contested, although it must be noted that nowadays it has been defnitively confrmed.4 Other works by the master, with a clear tendency towards classical forms, provide further evidence of the consistency of his personal evolution. This is the case, for example, of the church of La Asunción in Aracena, barely begun by Riaño, of the Collegiate portal in Osuna, from 1533, and the facade of Seville’s city hall, begun in 1527 (Fig. 4). 4 In fact, it was confrmed by the solid documentary analysis presented by Afredo Morales in 1984 (Morales 1984), which has subsequently been reinforced by recent contributions on the construction process (Rodríguez and Ampliato 2019).