All Topics  
Spanish Renaissance

 
Spanish Renaissance

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Spanish Renaissance
 
 
  Topics Spanish Renaissance Topic Home

See Renaissance of the 12th century
Renaissance of the 12th century

File:Koelner_Dom_Innenraum.jpgThe Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes during the High Middle Ages. It included social, political and economic transformations, and an intellectual revitalization of Europe with strong philosophical and scientific roots....
 for the earlier Renaissance in Spain.


The Spanish Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 refers to a movement in Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, emerging from the Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe....
 in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 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
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, literature
Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
 and science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
, inspired by Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
 and especially the Greco-Roman tradition, receives the transcendental impulse in this year by various successive historical events:



Historic antecedents
The beginning of the Renaissance in Spain is closely linked to the historical-political life of the monarchy of the Catholic Monarchs
Catholic Monarchs

The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Isabella I of Castile of Crown of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon of Crown of Aragon....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Spanish Renaissance'
Start a new discussion about 'Spanish Renaissance'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


See Renaissance of the 12th century
Renaissance of the 12th century

File:Koelner_Dom_Innenraum.jpgThe Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes during the High Middle Ages. It included social, political and economic transformations, and an intellectual revitalization of Europe with strong philosophical and scientific roots....
 for the earlier Renaissance in Spain.


The Spanish Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 refers to a movement in Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, emerging from the Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe....
 in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 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
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, literature
Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
 and science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
, inspired by Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
 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
    Granada

    Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada , in the autonomous communities of Spain of Andalusia, Spain....
    , last city of Islamic Spain
    Al-Andalus

    Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Arab Muslims, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
     and the successive expulsions of thousands of Muslim and Jewish
    Judaism

    Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
     believers,
  • The official discovery of the western hemisphere, the Americas
    Americas

    The Americas are the region of the Western hemisphere that consists of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions....
    ,
  • The publication of the first grammar
    Grammar

    Grammar is the field of linguistics that covers the conventions governing the use of any given natural language. It includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics....
     of a vernacular European language, the Grammatica (Grammar) by Antonio de Nebrija
    Antonio de Nebrija

    Antonio de Lebrija, also known as Antonio de Nebrija, Elio Antonio de Lebrija, Antonius Nebrissensis, and Antonio of Lebrixa, was a Spain scholar birth at Lebrija in the Provinces of Spain of Seville ....
    .


Historic antecedents


The beginning of the Renaissance in Spain is closely linked to the historical-political life of the monarchy of the Catholic Monarchs
Catholic Monarchs

The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Isabella I of Castile of Crown of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon of Crown of Aragon....
. Its figures are the first to leave the medieval approaches that secured a feudal scheme of weak monarch over a powerful and restless nobility. The Catholic Monarchs unite the forces of the incipient state and se ally with the principal families of the nobility 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
Plateresque

Plateresque refers to the 15th and 16th century art form in Spain, characterized by an ornate style of architecture. This form was soon transferred to Spanish-owned colonies in America....
. Therefore, secondary artists were brought in from Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, 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
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I of Spain, of the Spanish realms from 1516 until his abdication in 1556....
 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
Titian

File:Tizian 090.jpg Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, born 1473/1490 , died 27 August 1576, better known as Titian , was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venice school of the Italian Renaissance....
, who never agreed to relocate to Spain. Painters of great quality were, far from the courtier nucleus, Pedro Berruguete
Pedro Berruguete

Pedro Berruguete was a Spanish painter; his art is regarded as a transitional style between gothic art and Renaissance. Born in Paredes de Nava, Spain, he went to Italy in 1480 and worked in Federigo da Montefeltro's court in Urbino....
, 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
Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil ? especially in early modern Europe, linseed 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.

Literature

Lazarillo De Tormes
*Jorge Manrique
Jorge Manrique

Jorge Manrique was a major Spain poet, whose main work, the Coplas a la muerte de su padre , is still read today. He was a supporter of the great Spanish queen, Isabel I of Castile, and actively participated on her side in the civil war that broke out against her half-brother, Enrique IV, when the latter attempted to make his daughter,...
 author of the Coplas a la muerte de su padre
  • Garcilaso de la Vega
    Garcilaso de la Vega

    Garcilaso de la Vega , was a Spain soldier and poet. The prototypical "Renaissance man," he was the most influential poet to introduce Italian Renaissance verse forms, poetic techniques and themes to Spain....
    , poet.
  • San Juan de la Cruz and
  • Santa Teresa de Jesús
    Teresa of Ávila

    Saint Teresa of ?vila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystics, Carmelites nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation....
    , mystic poets
    Spanish mystics

    The Spanish Mystics are major figures in the Catholic Reformation of 16th and 17th century Spain. The goal of this movement was to reform the Church structurally and to renew it spiritually....
     .
  • Fernando de Rojas
    Fernando de Rojas

    Fernando de Rojas was a Castilian author about whom little information is known. He possibly attended the University of Salamanca. Although his family was of Jewish ancestry, they were conversos, or Jews who had converted to Christianity under pressure from the Spanish crown....
    , author of La Celestina
    La Celestina

    La Celestina is a novel published by Fernando de Rojas in 1499. This book is considered to be one of the greatest in Spanish literature, and traditionally marks the end of medieval literature and the beginning of the literary renaissance in Spain....
  • Fray Luis de León
  • Juan Boscán
  • Ausiàs March
  • Alonso de Ercilla
    Alonso de Ercilla

    Alonso de Ercilla y Z??iga , was a Spanish people nobleman, soldier and epic poet. While in Chile he fought against the Mapuche, and there he began the epic poem La Araucana, considered the greatest Spanish historical poem....
    , author of La Araucana
    La Araucana

    La Araucana is an epic poem in Spanish language about the Spanish conquest of Chile, by Alonso de Ercilla; it is also known in English as The Araucaniad....
  • Lope de Rueda
    Lope de Rueda

    Lope de Rueda was a Spain dramatist and author, regarded by some as the best of his era. A very versatile writer, he also wrote comedy, farces, and pasos....
  • Fray Luis de Granada
  • Marqués de Santillana
    Íñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de Santillana

    Don ??igo L?pez de Mendoza y de la Vega, Marquis of Santillana was a Castile poet who held an important position in society and Literature during the reign of John II of Castile....
  • Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
    Diego Hurtado de Mendoza

    Diego Hurtado de Mendoza , Spain novelist, poetry, diplomat and historian, a younger son of the count of Tendillas, governor of Granada, was born in that city in 1503....
  • Juan Latino
    Juan Latino

    Juan Latino, professor at Granada during the sixteenth century, was the only black Latinist, scholar, and writer in the European Renaissance....
    , born Juan de Sessa, poet and humanist.
  • Alonso de Santa Cruz
  • Francisco de la Torre
  • Juan de Valdés
    Juan de Valdés

    Juan de Vald?s was Spain religious writer, younger of twin sons of Fernando de Vald?s, hereditary regidor of Cuenca in Castile , was born about 1509 at Cuenca....
  • Anonymous writers of the Romancero and of the Masterpiece of picaresque literature Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes
    Lazarillo de Tormes

    The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities is a Spanish novella, published anonymously, because of its heresy content....


Painting and Sculpture


Featured artists

  • El Greco
    El Greco

    El Greco was a painting, sculpture, and architecture of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek alphabet, ????????? Te?t???p????? ....
    , Crete-born Dominico Theotocópulos (1541-1614), developed his art in Spain.
  • Pedro Berruguete
    Pedro Berruguete

    Pedro Berruguete was a Spanish painter; his art is regarded as a transitional style between gothic art and Renaissance. Born in Paredes de Nava, Spain, he went to Italy in 1480 and worked in Federigo da Montefeltro's court in Urbino....
  • Alonso Berruguete
    Alonso Berruguete

    Alonso Gonz?lez de Berruguete was a Spain Painting, Sculpture and architect. He is considered to be the most important sculptor of the Spanish Renaissance, and is known for his emotive sculptures depicting religious ecstasy or torment....
  • Luis de Morales
    Luis de Morales

    Luis de Morales was a Spain painter born in Badajoz, Extremadura. Most of his work was of religious subjects, including many representations of the Madonna and Child and the Passion ....
  • Juan de Flandes
    Juan de Flandes

    Juan de Flandes was an Early Netherlandish painter who was active in Spain from 1496 to 1519. Born around 1460 in Flanders , and evidently trained there, Juan de Flandes became an artist at the court of Isabella I of Castile in Spain painting accomplished portraits of her and members of her family in the Renaissance mode....
  • Alonso Sánchez Coello
    Alonso Sánchez Coello

    Alonso S?nchez Coello was a portrait painter of the Spanish Renaissance and one of the pioneers of the great tradition of Spanish portrait painting....
  • Fernando Gallego
    Fernando Gallego

    Fernando Gallego was a Spanish painter, brought up in an age of gothic art style, his art is generally regarded as Hispano-Flemish style. It's thought that he was born in Salamanca, Spain, and his first known works were in the cathedrals of Plasencia and Coria, C?ceres, in C?ceres ....
  • Bartolomé González y Serrano
GA

Famous paintings

  • The Burial of the Count of Orgaz
    The Burial of the Count of Orgaz

    The Burial of the Count of Orgaz is a painting by El Greco, a painting, sculpture, and architecture of the Spanish Renaissance. Widely considered among his finest works, it illustrates a popular local legend of his time....
     (El Greco).
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
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 iconography
Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Ancient Greek e???? and ??afe?? ....
: the Virgin Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)

Mary , usually referred to by Christians as Saint Mary, the Virgin Mary, Holy Mary or the Madonna, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, identified in the New Testament as the mother of Jesus of Nazareth....
 feeding Baby Jesus
Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
.

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
Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
, exalting the sentiment of maternal love.

Alhambra2001

Architecture

  • Juan de Herrera
    Juan de Herrera

    Juan de Herrera was a Spain architect, mathematician and geometrician.One of the most outstanding Spanish architects in the 16th century, Herrera represents the peak of the Spanish Renaissance....
  • Juan Bautista de Toledo
    Juan Bautista de Toledo

    Juan Bautista de Toledo. Spanish architect educated in Italy, in the Italian High Renaissance. As many Italian renaissance architects, he had experience in both architecture and military and civil public works....
  • Gil de Hontañón
  • Diego Siloe
    Diego Siloe

    Diego Siloe , Spain Renaissance architecture and sculptor. He was one of the most remarkable architects of his time in Spain. He developed the majority of his work in Andalusia....
  • Enrique Egas
  • Alonso de Covarrubias
  • Pedro Machuca
    Pedro Machuca

    Pedro Machuca is mainly remembered as the Spain architect responsible for the design of the Palace of Charles V adjacent to the Alcazar in Granada....
  • Andrés de Vandelvira
  • Diego de Riaño
    Diego de Riaño

    Diego de Ria?o was a Spanish architecture of the Renaissance. He was one of the most outstanding architects of the Plateresque style....
  • Juan de Álava


Music


  • Juan de Anchieta
    Juan de Anchieta

    Juan de Anchieta was a Spain Basque people composer of the Renaissance music....
  • Antonio de Cabezón
    Antonio de Cabezón

    Antonio de Cabez?n was a Spain composer and organist of the Renaissance music. He was blindness from early childhood.He traveled widely in Europe with the king in the years 1548-56 but settled in Madrid when it became the home of the Spanish royal court, remaining there until his death....
     (organist)
  • Juan del Encina
    Juan del Encina

    Juan del Encina . His actual name was Juan de Fermoselle, and was one of at least 7 known children. Fermoselle was a composer, poet and playwriter, often called the founder of Spain drama....
     (also poet and dramatist)
  • Bartolomé de Escobedo
    Bartolomé de Escobedo

    Bartolom? de Escobedo was a Spain composer of the Renaissance music. He was born in Zamora , studied at Salamanca where he was a singer, and in 1536 joined the papal choir in Rome, where he remained off-and-on until 1554....
  • Juan de Esquivel Barahona
    Juan de Esquivel Barahona

    Juan de Esquivel Barahona was the most prominent of the last generation of Spain church composers of the Renaissance music era. Although he never served in one of the major Spanish cathedrals, his music was known throughout Spain during the early seventeenth century....
  • Juan Pérez de Gijón
    Juan Pérez de Gijón

    Juan P?rez de Gij?n was a Spain composer of the Renaissance music.Nothing is known about his life, except for his approximate period of activity....
  • Francisco Guerrero
    Francisco Guerrero

    Francisco Guerrero was a Spain composer of the Renaissance music. He was born and died in Seville.Guerrero's early musical education was with his older brother Pedro....
  • Mateo Flecha
    Mateo Flecha

    Mateo Flecha was a composer born in Catalonia, in the region of Prades. He is sometimes known as "El Viejo" to distinguish him from his nephew, Mateo Flecha "El Joven" , also a composer of Madrigal ....
  • Alonso Lobo
    Alonso Lobo

    Alonso Lobo was a Spain composer of the late Renaissance music. Although not as famous as Tom?s Lu?s de Tom?s Luis de Victoria, he was highly regarded at the time, and Victoria himself considered him to be his equal....
  • Luis de Milán
    Luis de Milán

    Luis de Mil?n was a Spain Renaissance music composer, vihuela , and writer on music. He was the first composer in history to publish music for the vihuela de mano, an instrument employed primarily in the Iberian peninsula and some of the Italian states during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and he was also one of the first musicians...
     (vihuelist)
  • Cristóbal de Morales
    Cristóbal de Morales

    Crist?bal de Morales was a Spain composer of the Renaissance music. He is generally considered to be the most influential Spanish composer before Tom?s Luis de Victoria....
  • Alonso Mudarra
    Alonso Mudarra

    Alonso Mudarra was a Spain composer and vihuela of the Renaissance music. He was an innovative composer of instrumental music as well as songs, and was the composer of the earliest surviving music for the guitar....
  • Juan Navarro
  • Diego Ortiz
    Diego Ortiz

    Diego Ortiz was a Spain composer and musicologist, in service to the Spanish viceroy in Naples and later to Philip II of Spain. Ortiz published influential treatises on both instrumental and vocal performance....
  • Francisco de Peñalosa
    Francisco de Peñalosa

    Francisco de Pe?alosa was a Spain composer of the early Renaissance music....
  • Joan Pau Pujol
    Joan Pau Pujol

    Joan Pau Pujol was a Catalonia composer and organ of the late Renaissance music and early Baroque music. While best known for his sacred music, he also wrote popular secular music....
  • Melchior Robles
  • Francisco de Salinas
    Francisco de Salinas

    Francisco de Salinas was a music theorist and organist, noted as among the first to describe meantone temperament in mathematically precise terms, and one of the first to describe, in effect, 19 equal temperament....
     (theorist)
  • Tomás de Santa María
    Tomás de Santa María

    Tom?s de Santa Mar?a was a Spain music theorist, organist and composer of the Renaissance music. He was born in Madrid but the date is highly uncertain; he died in Ribadavia....
  • Francisco de la Torre
  • Juan de Triana
  • Juan Vásquez
    Juan Vásquez (composer)

    Juan V?squez was a Spain priest and composer of the renaissance music. He can be considered part of the School of Andalusia group of composers along with Francisco Guerrero , Crist?bal de Morales, Juan Navarro and others....
  • Tomás Luis de Victoria
    Tomás Luis de Victoria

    Tom?s Luis de Victoria, sometimes Italianised da Vittoria , was a Spain composer of the late Renaissance music. "The Spanish Palestrina", as he is known, was the most famous composer of the 16th century in Spain, and one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di...
  • Sebástian de Vivanco
    Sebastián de Vivanco

    Sebasti?n de Vivanco was a Spain priest and composer of the Renaissance music....


Science

  • Miguel Servet
  • School of Salamanca
    School of Salamanca

    The School of Salamanca is the renaissance of thought in diverse intellectual areas by Spain theology, rooted in the intellectual and pedagogical work of Francisco de Vitoria....
  • Jerónimo Muñoz
  • Fernán Pérez de Oliva
    Fernan Perez de Oliva

    Fernan Perez de Oliva was a Spain man of letters.He was born in C?rdoba, Spain. After studying at Salamanca, Alcala, Paris and Rome, he was appointed rector at Salamanca, where he died in 1530 or 1531....


See also

  • Spanish art
    Spanish art

    Spanish art is an important and influential type of art in Europe. Spanish art is the name given to the artistic disciplines and works developed in Spain throughout time, and those by Spanish authors world-wide....
  • Renaissance of the 12th century
    Renaissance of the 12th century

    File:Koelner_Dom_Innenraum.jpgThe Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes during the High Middle Ages. It included social, political and economic transformations, and an intellectual revitalization of Europe with strong philosophical and scientific roots....
  • Al-Andalus
    Al-Andalus

    Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Arab Muslims, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
  • Plateresque
    Plateresque

    Plateresque refers to the 15th and 16th century art form in Spain, characterized by an ornate style of architecture. This form was soon transferred to Spanish-owned colonies in America....