History of Spanish Architecture
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This course provides an outline of the History of Spanish Architecture from Roman to present times. It will deal with the main architectural styles present in the Spanish Peninsula and its most celebrated examples taking into account the historical, social and cultural background in which they were produced. The overall learning goal of the course is to learn how to look at a building using its own language, and analyzing its style, function and meaning. At the end of the course students will have a clear vision of the evolution of architecture in Spain, recognizing its main periods and examples, and being able to analyse it in terms of the political and cultural background in which it was conceived and in comparison with that of other European and American countries. This course seeks to develop perceptual and expressive abilities in order to see a building as a whole.
Attendance is mandatory for all IES Abroad classes, including course-related excursions. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or family emergencies. If a student misses more than two classes in any course half a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Seven absences in any course will result in a failing grade.
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Analyze a building using its specific architectural and stylistic vocabulary.
- Students will gain a deeper understanding on a building’s meaning and the specific Spanish historical and cultural background in which it was conceived.
- They will be able to compare it with other examples of similar characteristics in Europe and in their own countries.
Classroom teaching combines lectures illustrated with powerpoint images with visits to the most important buildings and sites of Madrid. Thanks to this visits students will have an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate by themselves the architecture of different periods and styles, such as the Plaza Mayor, the Palacio Real, the Museo del Prado, the Puerta de Alcalá, the Palacio de Cristal, the enlargement of the Museo Reina Sofía, Caixa Forum.
- Plaza Mayor and Plaza de la Villa
- Palacio Real de Madrid
- Paseo del Prado and Museo del Prado
- Palacio de Velázquez
- Palacio de Cristal del Retiro
- Palacio de Comunicaciones
- Círculo de Bellas Artes
- Banco Español del Río de la Plata
- Moncola
- Caixa Forum
- Museo Reina Sofía’s enlargement
- Special Field Study: The installations of Matadero -one of the most exciting cultural centers in Madrid, dedicated to modern arts (music, cinema, theatre, photography, video, design and creativity).
- Midterm Exam (20%): The first midterm exam will consist on 4 powerpoint images of buildings already seen in class. Students will have 10 minutes in order to analyze their style and function, and the historical conditions in which they were produced.
- Paper (30%): At the end of the term students will deliver a paper (six pages double spaced) analyzing and comparing two architectural examples of their choice. The buildings can be of the same or two different architects, but at least one of them should have been by a Spanish architect. The paper is a personal writing and it should follow the general rules of an academic publishing, with quotation marks, notes and bibliography. Deadline: Wednesday’ class, 10th December.
- Participation (10%): By participation it is meant that students will have an active role and will submit small comments on buildings seen during the visits, a text given in class or a video indicated in advance.
- Final Exam (40%): The final exam will also consist on 4 powerpoint images of buildings already seen in class. Students will have 10 minutes time to analyze each one according to its specific style and function and taking into account the historical and cultural context in which it was erected.
Session |
Content |
Required Readings |
Session 1 | Presentation y orientation. | None |
Session 2 | Introduction.
Concept of architecture: nature, materials and main techniques. Tradition and innovation. |
None |
Session 3 | Roman Spain.
The process of romanization and its repercussions: civil projects and infrastructures (streets and roads, the bridge of Córdoba, the lighthouse of La Coruña, the aqueduct of Segovia, Mérida’s theatre) |
Romanización de Hispania |
Session 4 | The beginnings of medieval Spain.
Pre-Romanesque architecture. Islam: (Mosque of Córdoba), Judaism and religious cohabitation (Toledo: Mosque of Cristo de la luz and Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca). |
G. Borrás, El Islam: de Córdoba al mudéjar, Madrid, Ed. Silex, 1994 |
Session 5 | Romanesque: the Pilgrimway to Santiago de Compostela. | Avance Preliminar - The Camino Documentary |
Session 6 | Beginnings of an urban culture: the gothic cathedrals of León and Burgos. | Alfonso Muñoz Cosme, Arquitectura y vidrieras: evolución del siglo XIII al XIX, 26-44, esp. 26-29
Félix Benito Martín, Aspectos históricos de la cathedral de León. La influencia de las catedrales europeas, 45-54 |
Session 7 | The Nazari World and the Miracle of La Alhambra. | AAVV, La Alhambra y el Generalife, Guía histórico-artística, Granada, Ed. Universidad de Granada, 2006 |
Session 8 | Renaissance.
Plateresque architecture: San Marcos de León and the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos in Santiago. High Renaissance: Palace of Charles V in Granada. Mannerism and the Escorial. |
Juan Rafael de la Cuadra Blanco, Arquitectura e Historia Sagrada. Nuevas consideraciones sobre la idea de El Escorial y el templo de Jerusalén, Cuadernos de Arte e Iconografía, XXII/43, 2003 |
Session 9 | Baroque: the Obradoiro façade of Santiago de Compostela’s catedral and the Cartuja of Granada. | None |
Session 10 | Field Study: Madrid de los Austrias. Plaza Mayor and Plaza de la Villa | None |
Session 11 | Review for the Midterm Exam | None |
Session 12 | MIDTERM EXAM | |
Session 13 | Field Study: Palacio Real de Madrid | José Luis Sancho, El Palacio Real de Madrid, Ed. Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, 2004 |
Session 14 | Field Study: Neoclasicism. Paseo del Prado and Museo del Prado | None |
Session 15 | Modernism and Eclecticism: Antoni Gaudí and Barcelona (1852-1926), Antonio Palacios (1874-1945) in Madrid. | AAVV, Antonio Gaudí, Taschen, 2009 |
Session 16 | Field Study: La arquitectura del hierro: Palacio de Velázquez and Palacio de Cristal del Retiro | |
Session 17 | Field Study: Antonio Palacios: Palacio de Comunicaciones, Círculo de Bellas Artes and Banco Español del Río de la Plata (headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes nowadays) | None |
Session 18 | Rationalism (Sert and Lacasa, Spanish pavilion of the International Exhibition Paris, 1937). | Sofía Diéguez Patao, La Generación del 25. Primera arquitectura moderna en Madrid, Ed. Cátedra, Madrid 1997 |
Session 19 | Francoist architecture: Ministerio del aire, Arco de triunfo de Moncloa. | None |
Session 20 | Course-related excursion: TBD | None |
Session 21 | The Guggenheim Museum and the so-called “Bilbao effect”. | None |
Session 22 | Exchanging places: Spanish architects abroad (Moneo, Miralles, Calatrava), and foreign architects in Spain (Gehry, Nouvel, Herzog & de Meuron, Lamela/Rogers). | Lectura: AAVV, Spain Builds. Arquitectura en España 1975-2010, Ed. Arquitectura Viva, Madrid 2010 |
Session 23 | Field Study: Caixa Forum and Museo Reina Sofía’s enlargement | None |
Session 24 | Review for the Final Exam.
Paper deadline |
None |
AA.VV., Arte español para extranjeros, Barcelona, Nerea, 2000.
- AA.VV., Arte español para extranjeros, Barcelona, Nerea, 2000.
- AA.VV., Arquitectura de Al Andalus. Almería, Granada, Jaén y Málaga. Madrid, Ed. Concurso, 2002.
- AA.VV. La Alhambra y el Generalife. Guía histórico-artística. Granada, Editorial Universidad de Granada y Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa, 2006.
- AZCÁRATE, J. M., Arte Gótico en España. Madrid, Cátedra, 1990.
- BANGO TORVISO, I., La Arte Edad Media: de la tradición hispanogoda al románico. Madrid, Silez, 1989.
- BOZAL, V., Historia del Arte en España. Madrid, Istmo, 1993. 2 vol., 1994.
- BUSTAMANTE, A., El siglo XVII: Clasicismo y barroco. Madrid, Silex, 1993.
- DURLIAT, M., España románica. Madrid, Encuentro, 1993.
- ESPINO NUÑO, J. y MORÁN TURINA, M., Historia del arte español. Madrid, Sgel, 1996.
- HERNANDO, J., Arquitectura en España 1770-1900, Madrid, Cátedra, 2004.
- MOMPLET MIGUEZ, A., Arquitectura románica en Castilla y León. Salamanca, Colegio de España, 1995.
- OLAGUER FELIU, F., El Arte Medieval español hasta el año 1000. Madrid, Encuentro, 1998.
- RODRÍGUEZ G. DE CEBALLOS, A., El Siglo XVIII: Entre tradición y Academia. Madrid, Silex, 1992.
- NAVASCUÉS PALACIO, P., Del neoclasicismo al modernismo. Madrid, Alhambra, Historia del Arte Hispánico, T. V, 1989.
- NAVASCUÉS PALACIO, P., Arquitectura e ingeniería del hierro en España (1814-1936), Madrid, Fundación Iberdrola, Ed. El viso, 2007.
- TOVAR MARTÍN, V., El Arte Barroco. Arquitectura y escultura. Madrid, Taurus, 1990.
- TOVAR MARTÍN, V., El S. XVIII español. Madrid, Historia 16, 1989.
- URRUTIA, A., Arquitectura española del siglo XX. Madrid, Cátedra, 2003.
- ZERBST, R., Antoni Gaudí. Tokyo, Taschen, 1989.