PLAZA MAYOR DE SALAMANCA

The Mayor of Salamanca, Spain, square is built as an urban space square that with time has become the center of social life of the city. It was built in the period from 1729 to 1756 year, in Baroque style. The design is the architect Alberto Churriguera




The current aspect, as regards the pavement (gray granite tile with pink granite marks), made around 1953 with granite from quarries Carbellino. Until then he had a central garden with trees, flower beds and a bandstand in the center. He is outlining what a cobbled street.




The main square of Salamanca is not a perfect square (is an irregular quadrilateral) and none of its facades measures the same. Approximately, the City Hall measuring 82.60 m, the eastern facade (Royal Pavilion) 80.60 m, the west façade is 81.60 m and the side of San Martin measures 75.69 m. Making a rough calculation, the square has an area of about 6400 sqm excluding porches. In total, the square has 88 arches with medallions in which major characters are represented in their spandrels.




The Town never completed: missing two towers on the side wings, the architect (Andrés García de Quiñones) did not dare to build on the grounds that the work which should be supported not meet conditions to withstand the weight, but remains the model of 1745. the project of the towers was used by the author to conclude the towers of the Clergy.

  El rapto de Propersina                           

         

The Rape of Proserpina. It is a sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1621 and 1622 belonging, therefore, to Baroque.

In this century 17th was a very important crisis because the wars, plagues...For example the more important war in the century was the war of 30 years that was a Religious war between the catholics and the protestants. In this century kings Felipe III, Felipe IV and Charles II (minor austrias)is called minors because end the riches empire in Spain. In this century kings the validos that do the work of the king with the same power.




It was commissioned by Scipione Borghese, who gave it to Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi in 1622, who took her to his villa. He remained there until 1908, when the Italian state acquired it and returned it to the Galleria Borghese.




As for the composition is a vertical line which three arms horizontally opposed, both of God and one of the young. Pluto hands sink into the smooth body of the young and meat yields under pressure. Eyebrow God is deformed under the thrust of the hand of the goddess. At the foot of the cerbero can estuatua, the monstrous animal that guards the gates of the kingdom of Pluto. It is one of the most naturalistic images of the history of sculpture.

La vocación de San Mateo.

Painting card:

Title/name: La vocación de San Mateo.
Author: Caravaggio.
Year: 1599-1600
Style: Italian Baroque.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Location: Church of San Luigi of French, Rome.

General description: This is a work made from Caravagio in 1599-1600 using oil in canvas.

This paint was make for Caravagio, Caravaggio was an active italian painter in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. It is considered the first grat exponent of Baroque painting.

It was the first major work that Caravaggio made, not fo a private collector, for a public access church, where all Rome could see his work.
Caravaggio must make more complex scene in terms of meanings, setting, number of characters and moments of the action.

Therefore, compared to the paintings he had been done with one or two figures, The Calling of St Matthew present seven, to be organized coherently and in depth in an architectural space that can no longer be circumvented by the painter in a sort of neutral of neutral background lost in the dark.
However, Caravaggio did not give up at all its plastic resources, and again the light is what gives structure and sets the composition of the canvas. Thus, after the figure of Christ who just enter the tavern shines a powerful spotlight. The light has come into darknesswith Christ and risp the space diagonally to go look at the figure of Matthew surprised that backtracks and points to himself it is doubtful that he who seeks. The light beam reproduces the gesture of Christ, reaching masterfully scope and symbolism.

Cristo de la agonías o cristo yacente.

Sculpture card:

Title/name: Christ of the agonies.
Author: Gregorio Fernández.
Year: 1576-1636.
Style: Spanish Baroque.
Technique: polychomed wood.
Location: National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, Spain.
General descript: This is a piece of sculpture maked by Gregorio Fernández between 1576-1636 made to order from Duke fo Lerma.

This work was made by Gregorio Fernández, Gregorio was a Spanish Baroque sculptor, the greatest exponent of the Spanish school of sculpture. Heir to the expressiveness of Alonso Berruguete and Juan de Juni, knew bringing these influences classicism of Pompeyo Leoni and Juan de Arfe, so that his art was freed progessively from prevailing Mannerism in his time to become one of the the paradigms of the Spanish Baroque.

This sculpture, mainly religious, of which recumbent of Christ is a clear exmaple, meant a radical break with the nuance realism of Renaissance classicism, to focus on an extraordinarily heightened drama. Its main objetive will be to promote and enhance the religiosity of the faithful trought contemplation of martyrdom and death of Jesus, the Virgin pain, scenes of the life of saints, etc, all with a poignancy without limits.

One of the most important features that has this piece of sculpture is the pathosm showing us a sense of print depicting the pain of sculpture, in this case it is perceived very well since Christ has set eyes open that allows us to recognize that sesation.

Las meninas.

LAS MENINAS

Painting card

Name: Las meninas.

Author: Diego Velázquez.

Year: 1656.

Style: Baroque.

Technique: Oil on canvas

Location : Prado museum, Madrid.

General description: Las meninas is a painting from the spanish Diego Velázquez, it was created in 1656, the technique used is oil on canvas. It represent how the real maid servants (meninas), are serving Margarita María Teresa de Austria,daughter of Felipe IV and Mariana de Austria.

“Las meninas” was created by Diego de Velázquez and his style is baroque , a style that was given in europe between XVII century and a little of XVIII century. 

The baroque period was a period of decline for society, It was some wars, It had poor, but in the culture was a very important period, that predominated the realism and naturalism .
This painting have some curious things, for example we can see the painter Velázquez in the picture and also we can see a picture of Felipe IV and Mariana de Austria.
The technique used is oil on canvas with dimensions of 318 cm × 276 cm. The use of perspective is linear and the light are from front to back, this produce some darks behind, also it is claroscuro. The colours are cold colours and not with some variety. 

The compositions is pyramidal, from the people to the roof.
The function is political because represent the infanta and the meninas and it is historical because represent a real scene from baroque.
The figures are so realistic and naturalistic, typic from baroque.
This picture it one of the most important from baroque in spain and in all world, but it had other good baroque painters like Caravaggio or Rembrandt.


In my opinion, Velázquez was one of the most important baroque picture from baroque and it is normal because the realistic and the naturalistic that he putted in the paintings, it so awesome.

Cristo de la Clemencia

CRISTO DE LA CLEMENCIA

BASIC INFORMATION

Title: Cristo de la Clemencia
Author: Juan Martínez Montañés
Year: 1603-1604
Style: Baroque
Technique: Carved out of wood
Location: Cathedral of Seville
General description: It is a sculpture that it was created by Juan Martínez Montañés in 1603-1604. His style is Baroque and it was created with carved out of wood. It is in the Cathedral of Seville.

Cristo de la Clemencia is a sculpture of Juan Martínez Montañés. Montañés was an Spanish sculptor who worked between Renaissance and Baroque. Almost all his work is religious. The statues of Alonso Pérez de Guzmán and his wife Maria Alonso Coronel, made for the chapel of the monastery of San Isidoro del Campo in Santiponce. His works are: San Cristobal y el Niño, santo Domingo penitente, San Juan Bautista, Batalla de los Angeles....

The type of sculpture is free standing figure. The technique is carved out of wood. The light only focuses on the face of Cristo. It is religious because it represents Cristo and it is part of the Bible. The figure is realistic and naturalistic, express very well the emotions The sculpture represent Jesus in the cross with 4 nails (two in the hands and two in the feet). In the figure, I can see the representation of the bones and the blood. He has half-open eyes.

I think that the sculpture is beatiful because Montañés express very well the emotions.

La cena de Emaús

LA CENA DE EMAÚS

PAINTING CARD

Title: La Cena de Emaús
Autor: Caravaggio
Year: 1596-1602
Style: Italian Baroque
Technique: Oil on canvas
Location: National Gallery of Londres
General description: La Cena de Emaús is a painting of Caravaggio. It is a Italian Baroque and it was created in 1596-1602 in oil on canvas. It is in National Gallery of Londres.

La Cena de Emaús is a painting of Caravaggio. Caravaggio was an active Italian painter in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593-1610. It is considered the first great exponent of Baroque painting. It is Baroque. Some of his works are: La cena de Emaús, La vocacion de San Mateo, Baco, Jugadores de cartas, David con la cabeza de Goliat, Apolo tocando el laúd... and many more.

His technique is oil on canvas. He uses the tenebrism, it is a style of Baroque painting. It is characterized by the contrast of light and shadow through forced lighting. It has become common in the Spanish school or Spanish tenebris. It emerged in the 17th century as a result of the impact of caravaggismo in the tradition of using the technique of chiaroscuro already incorporated in the Spanish painting and used in the second half of the 16th century.
It is religious and it represents the two disciples of Jesucristo: Cleofás in the left and Santiago in the right, at the time of recognizing the risen Christ, who had come to dinner. The painting represents the moment that blesses the bread, an act that is part of the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The style is realistic.

I think that the painting is interesting because Caravaggio use the tenebrism and there is only light in the faces and he does the shadow on the wall.

Apollo and Daphne.

Apollo and Daphne

Sculpture Card:


Title: Apollo and Daphne.

Author: Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Year: 1622-1625.

Style: Baroque.

Technique: Marble.

Location: Galería Borghese (Rome).

General description: Apollo and Daphne is an sculpture made by Bernini between 1622 and 1625 and he used marble. It is baroque and is situated in the galery borghese in Rome. The sculpture shows one man and one women, Apollo and Daphne, that is one mythological myth.



Apolo and Dafne is the piece of art that now I will analyse, his author is Bernini, a very famous baroque sculptor, but he not only was sculptor, he was artist, painter and architect.
The style is baroque, this we can see in the expressions of the Apollo and Dafphe, especially in her.
The Baroque was a period of history in western culture originated by a new way of conceiving art and , starting from different historical and cultural contexts , he produced works in many artistic fields, for example in the sculpture. The baroque was established in Europe at the beginning of XVII century.
For that time was a bad period for the society but not for the culture of course.


This sculpture is a group of figures which represent one episode of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Apollo and Daphne.We could see that Daphne is transforming in a laurel, the same that mythological story and Apollo is catching her.
The technique used it is marble and the volumetric form is with diagonal lines for example in the arms.
The effects of lights are from upward to backward, as the sun light.
Is a mythological sculpture, more typical of renaissance and the figures are so realistics and naturalism, a characteristic of baroque.
This sculpture is a very famous sculpture from Bernini, the best italian sculptor from baroque, but also It was other good sculptors like Juan Martinez Montañes a spanish woodcarver or Francois Duquesnoy a sculptor classical style marble,stone and bronze .


In my opinion, Bernini is one of the greatest sculptors of all time because watching his piece of art, we could see the expressions and the naturalism,like in this piece, and this, reflected is marmol, it is so hard and so difficult, and for me he has enormous merit also, the proportions are very good.

The sacrifice of Isaac.

Sculpture card:
Author: Alonso Berruguete.
Year: 1523-1532.
Style: Spanish Renassaince.
Technique: gilding technique.
Location: Cultural Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, Spain.
General description: This sculture its represents when Abraham will kill his son Isaac.


The sacrifice of Isaac is a sculpture made of wood painted by artist Alonso Berruguete in 1526 for the altarpiece of San Benito Monastery in Valladolid.
Alonso Beuguete came from a family of artists, her father was a famous painter and Alonso was trained as a sculptor and as a painter in the family workshop. He traveled to Italy to continue his his training, when he retur to Spain made some important works like the martydom os San Esteban.

Berruguete in the sacrifice of Isaac, chooses the right moment of maximun tension when the father is about to kill his son, also is impotant to observa that in this work does not efer to the angel sent by Yahvé to stop the father, so the images have a force of impressive expresions.
The form of this sculpture are manierist. Berruguete has echoes of the work done by the same subject, notwithstanding the spanish figures acquire greater stenght and expressiveness perhaps influenced by the discovery at the time of hellenistic sculpture of Laocoon.

 The characters wear light clothes decorated with the technique of gilding showing much of their naked body where the artist highlights a natural figure, the canon is enlogated own manierism and twisted into grimaces of terror Isaac and pain Abraham.

El entierro de Cristo.

EL ENTIERRO DE CRISTO


  

Sculpture Card:

-Name: El entierro de Cristo.
- Author: Juan de Juni.
- Year: 1541-1545.
- Style: Renaissance.
- Technique: Sculpture carved in wood.
- Location: National museum of sculpture of San Gregorio in Valladolid(Spain
- General description: El entierro de Cristo is a sculpture that represent the burial of Christ with 7 different sculptures. In the centre Christ is situated and other 6 people are near. The thematic obviously is religious.


El entierro de Cristo of Juan de Juni is a renaissance sculpture. The renaissance was the period in Europe from 14th to 17th century, one of the characteristic to establish renaissance in Europe was the humanism, specially the anthropocentrism, a idea that the human is the centre of the universe and not God, although this sculpture is a religious , is from the renaissance in Spain. In Spain the renaissance was established some years later respect other places of Europe, for example Italy, also Spain have not got some renaissance pieces of art because the gothic was established very strongly, for the catholics kings.


The form used in this sculpture is a group of people that are adoring to Christ
As Juan de Juni was a sculptor that used normally the wood, this sculpture is a wood sculpture. Also the form is cuadrangular with some people kneeling and other people up.
The lights are from upward to backward, simulation the sun and in front of Christ.
It is formed by polychrome wood.
The function is religious and the subject matter is the bible, a situation that the burial of Christ.The figures try to be realistics and it be but other sculptures are more realistics.
Other good spanish sculptor are Vasco de la Zarz, Felipe Vigarny or Bartolomé Ordoñez.


This sculpture is very nice sculpture but I prefer other types of sculpture like The Piety, David…, italian sculptures because are more realistics and in my opinion more difficult to make.

El Escorial

 EL ESCORIAL

BASIC INFORMATION 

Author: Juan Herrera

Title: El Escorial

Year: 1563-1584

Style: Spanish Culture

Technique: Sand, lime, granite, slate, marble and bronze

Location: Madrid

General Description: El Escorial is a monastery devised by Felipe II and his architect Juan Bautista of Toledo.

This is the monastery of San Lorenzo of El Escorial. The architect is Juan Herrera. Juan Herrera was an architect, mathematician and geometrician. One of the most outstanding Spanish architects in the 16th century. He represents the peak of the Renaissance in Spain.

Their works were: Monastery of San Lorenzo of El Escorial, Cathedral of Valladolid, Royal Palace of Aranjuez and Archivo General of Indias. His most important work was El Escorial, that he ended in 1584, after reorganizing the original project of Juan Bautista of Toledo. Later, Felipe II, commanded the Cathedral of Valladolid and it was to be the largest cathedral in Europe. 

The style is Spanish Culture. The construction is in 1563-1584. 

El Escorial is a royal palace, a basilica, a cemetery, a library and a monastery. It was built with sand, lime, granite and slate. Marbles figures in Toledo and bronze in Milan.

This monastery is in Madrid. 

The plant is rectangular with four cornes towers. That is common in the Castilian fortresses of stone, classic Italian architecture in the basilica and the covers. The roofs made with slate. 

The sections of the building are: the library, Palace of Felipe II, basilica, crypt, reliquaries, convent, main staircase, chapter houses, hall of battles, museum of architecture and gardens of the friars.

I think that El Escorial is one of the best monasteries of Spain. I like it because now is a museum and you can visit all.

    palace of Carlos V

The palace of Charles V of Granada, independent community of Andalusia, Spain, is a Renaissance building situated on the hill of the Alhambra. Since 1958, it houses the Museum of Fine Arts in Granada and, since 1994, is also home to the Museum of the Alhambra.




It was built by King Charles I (Holy Roman Emperor with the name of Carlos V) from his marriage to Isabel of Portugal, held in Seville in 1526. After the wedding, the couple was living several months in the Alhambra, being deeply impressed by the palace, leaving commissioned the construction of the new palace with the intention to establish residence in the Granada Alhambra.

In the sigle 16th is the sigle when this happen, in tis sigle kings Charles I and Felipe II.

Charles I have a lot of domestics problems and with others countries. Felipe the same at Charles.

In this sigle there was a Religious revolt of Luterans but this was a century with a lot of riches of the Americas.




The floor of the palace the forms a square of 63 meters side with a circular courtyard inscribed inside. This provision, mannerist main feature of the palace, is unprecedented in Renaissance architecture and construction located in what is considered the artistic vanguard of the moment. The building consists of two levels: the bass is fully padded Tuscan order, whose pilasters decorated large brass rings are inserted. The top floor is Ionic and pilasters alternating with lintel openings provided with pediment.

On the inside we can see that is also divided into two floors subject by a doric colonnade on the first floor and the second an Ionic colonnade.

The Birth of Venus.

PAINTING CARD:

Title/Name: The Birth of Venus.

Author: Botticelli.

Year: 1484

Style: Renaissance.

Technique: tempera on canvas.

Location: Gallery Uffizi, Florence, Italy

General description: 

This is The Birth of Venus, this paint represent the summit work of Sandro Botticelli.

Sandro Botticelli was a painter of the Italian Quattrocento. This painting has a mitology theme, that show the birth of Venus the goddess of love. The work was realized between 1484 and 1486.

The painting was making about tempera on canvas. The light is similar in all the work, but in the sea look like more like that was maked with the white. In the middle of the painting we can see Venus, to her right was a pair formed by Céfiro and his wife Cloris and to her left the Hora Primavera.

Botticelli used black lines marking the outlines of the figures protagonists and uses soft and almost uniform to provide an air of unreality to the canvs light colors.

Also we can see a contrast to thr pallor of Venus and the other two female characters with darker skin of the male character. The figures are modeled surface and are somewhat flat, with slender bodies and poor muscle development.

The composition of the work was dynamism, movmente and tension in the scene. This picture has the historical function, because show part of the histoy of mitology.

All the painted include the historical, the mitology, the landscape, the portrait, the genre.

The landscape is one of this subject matter, because the scene happens in the sea, the portrait show the four people with details and the genre is important because appear one man between the three womans. 

The figures are idealised that provide a deep lyricism to this picture.

This work show and represent the birth of the Venus, that was good because the history about the picture are interesting and you learn about the mitology and about the art of the 15th period.