Churriguera family

Churriguera family

▪ Spanish family
 a Spanish architectural family prominent during the last years of the 17th century and the first quarter of the 18th. The chief members of the family were three brothers, sons of a Barcelona altarpiece maker, all active at the same time. The family has become identified with the Spanish late Baroque style. The term Churrigueresque denotes a style that is visually frenetic and exuberantly detailed.

      It is frequently difficult to distinguish the work of the various family members. José Benito (1664–1725) is recognized as the head of the family and as an important architect in his own right. His brother Joaquín (1674–1724) is remembered for his work at the Salamanca cathedral (1714–24; dismantled after 1755) and at the Colegio de Calatrava (begun 1717) in Salamanca. Another brother, Alberto (1686–1750), designed the handsome Plaza Mayor in Salamanca.

      José moved from Barcelona to Madrid in the early 1670s to continue the family trade. He achieved recognition in 1689 by winning a competition for a catafalque for the tomb of Queen Marie-Louise d'Orléans, the first wife of Charles II, and in 1690 he was appointed to a court position under Philip V. Following disagreements with his rival at court, Teodoro Ardemáns, he was dismissed from his post and went to Salamanca. Named maestro mayor of the cathedral, he began the work that within 50 years turned Salamanca into a Churrigueresque city. He designed a palace (1715; altered in 1773 in a Neoclassical style by Diego de Villanueva) in Madrid for his patron, the banker Juan de Goyeneche, which today is the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando; he also designed Nuevo Baztán (1709–13), a new town near Aranjuez that was a centre for manufacturing glass.

      José's brothers and various students of the Churrigueras are primarily responsible for more exuberantly lavish Churrigueresque style. The art of José himself is marked by more restraint and shows the influence of Andrea Palladio (Palladio, Andrea) and Juan de Herrera (Herrera, Juan de). As is evident in his masterpiece, the high altar retable (1693) in the church of San Estéban, Salamanca, Jośe (unlike other Churrigueresque architects) did not permit the sculptural qualities of his work to be hidden behind stucco decoration.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Churriguera — The Churriguera family consisted of at least two generations of Spanish sculptors and architects, originally from Barcelona, but who had their greatest impact in Salamanca. The highly decorated Churrigueresque style of architectural construction… …   Wikipedia

  • Western architecture — Introduction       history of Western architecture from prehistoric Mediterranean cultures to the present.       The history of Western architecture is marked by a series of new solutions to structural problems. During the period from the… …   Universalium

  • churrigueresque — /choor ee geuh resk /, adj. noting or pertaining to the baroque architecture of Spain and its colonies in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, characterized by fantastic and lavish detailing. Also, churrigueresco Sp. /choohrdd rddee ge rddes… …   Universalium

  • Spain — /spayn/, n. a kingdom in SW Europe. Including the Balearic and Canary islands, 39,244,195; 194,988 sq. mi. (505,019 sq. km). Cap.: Madrid. Spanish, España. * * * Spain Introduction Spain Background: Spain s powerful world empire of the 16th and… …   Universalium

  • Baroque architecture — Façade of the Church of the Gesù, the first truly baroque façade.[1] Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance… …   Wikipedia

  • Spanish architecture — refers to architecture carried out in any area in what is now modern day Spain, and by Spanish architects worldwide. The term includes buildings within the current geographical limits of Spain before this name was given to those territories… …   Wikipedia

  • Spanish Baroque — is a strand of Baroque architecture that evolved in Spain and its provinces and former colonies, notably Spanish America and Belgium.As Italian Baroque influences penetrated across the Pyrenees, they gradually superseded in popularity the… …   Wikipedia

  • Latin American architecture — Introduction       history of architecture in Mesoamerica, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean beginning after contact with the Spanish and Portuguese in 1492 and 1500, respectively, and continuing to the present.       For… …   Universalium

  • salomónica — ▪ architecture Spanish“Solomon like”also called  barley sugar column    in architecture, a twisted column, so called because, at the Apostle s tomb in Old St. Peter s Basilica in Rome, there were similar columns, which, according to legend, had… …   Universalium

  • Latin American art — Introduction       artistic traditions that developed in Mesoamerica, Central America, and South America after contact with the Spanish and Portuguese beginning in 1492 and 1500, respectively, and continuing to the present.       This article… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”