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The following is an overview of the Lecture Series now being prepared on CD.

SPANISH ARCHITECTURE IN AMERICA

 

First Meeting: Mesoamerica before the Spanish

 

1.)            Introduction to Seminar, Overview

 

2.)            Mesoamerica

A.)            Kirchoff's terminology and relate to geography.

 

B.)            General overview of history and periodization

Pre-Classic, Classic, Post-Classic

 

C.)            Teotihuacan and Monte Alban in terms of urbanization and economic/cultural relationship

 

D.)            Tula and Chitzen Itza

Toltec decline and the Myth of Quetzalcoatl

 

E.            Tikal, Tulum.

2 Maya cities, one great Classic center, the other a small trading center of the Late Post-Classic era

 

F.)            Aztec Imperial History and the city of Tenochtitlan.

 

 

 

 

SUGGESTED READING :

 

1.)        Kubler, George. The Art and Architecture of Ancient America. Harmondsworth (Eng.): Penguin Books, 1990.

 

Pages 47-117.

[Recommended Reading: Introduction, 27-42]

 

2.)        Heyden, Doris, and Paul Gendrop. Pre-Columbian Architecture of Mesoamerica. New York: Rizzoli, 1975.

 

Pages 6-67.

 

3.)        Padden, R. C. The Hummingbird and the Hawk. New York: Harper & Row, 1967. 

 

pages 1-114.

 


4.)        Salmoral, Manuel Lucena. America 1492, portrait of a continent 500 years ago. New York: Facts on File, 1990.

 

Examine closely the images in this book, especially those depicting Mexican topics.

 

5.)        Townsend, Richard F., ed. The Ancient Americas, art from sacred landscapes. Munich: Prestel Verlag, 1992.

 

Examine closely the images, maps & timelines found in Chapters 1 and 3.

 

 

6.)        Levenson, Jay A. Circa 1492, Art in the Age of Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.

 

"The Aztec Empire: Realm of the Smoking Miror." by Michael D. Coe, pp. 499-506; "The Aztec Gods--How Many?" by Miguel Léon-Portilla, 507-509; "The Taínos: Principal Inhabitants of Columbus' Indies," by Irving Rouse and Jose Juan Arrom, pp. 509-514.

 

Examine the spectacular images in this book which depict Spanish and American topics.

 

Additional recommended readings:

 

For those especially interested in the Pre-Columbian rise and fall of great cities in Mesoamerica:

 

Flannery, Kent V. and Joyce Marcus. The Cloud People. New York: Academic Press, 1983.

Section 6: Monte Alban and Teotihuacan. This section has 6 brief articles comparing and contrasting two dominant urban centers of the Pre-Columbian era. The first two articles by Blanton and Robertson would be the most immediately related to our study, though they treat a period hundreds of years preceding Spanish contact.

 

 

 

 


Second Meeting:            From the Crucible of Cultures: Spanish Architecture before 1500

 

A.)       The Roman Legacy

Merida: Arena, Theatre, Aqueduct

 

B.)       The Visigoths: Early Christian Architecture

Quintanilla de las Viñas

San Pedro de la Nave

 

C.)       The Asturian Kings and their Buildings

San Salvador Valdedios

The Palace at Naranco, Sta. Maria de Lillo

Sta. Cristina de Lena

 

D.)       The Islamic Heritage

Cordoba: The Great Mosque

Early Post-Reconquista Churches-fusion

Mediterranean Vernacular in Andalucia

Granada: The Alhambra

 

E.)  The Reconquista

The Pilgrimage Routes: Transmission of Culture

The Moving Frontier

Attraction of Colonists to settle empty space

Land and Society

Religion and Society: Convivencia?

 

F.)       Isabelline Gothic

Avila: Santo Tomas

Toledo: San Juan de los Reyes

Valladolid: San Pablo and San Gregorio

 

Reading Suggestions

 

1.)        O'Callaghan, Joseph F. A History of Medieval Spain. Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1990.

Part V, "The Struggle for Peninsular Union, 1369-1479," pp. 521-654; and the Epilogue, "The Catholic Kings and the Perfect Prince," pp. 655-676.

 

2.)        Dodds, Jerrilynn D., ed. Al Andalus, the Art of Islamic Spain. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992.

 Epilogue, "The Legacy of Islam in Spain," pp. 173-189.


Third Meeting:            Spain at the Dawn of the Golden Age:

 

A.)       Nasrid Kingdom of Granada: Last Islamic Cultural Center in Spain

The Alhambra (ca. 1350-1400), taken by Ferdinand & Isabella in 1492

 

B.)       Mudejar: Muslim Artisans, Christian Buildings

Monastery of Guadalupe, after 1372

 

C.)       Isabelline Gothic, Culmination and Transition

High Gothic in Burgos:

The Cathedral (facade & Towers ca: 1450, Juan de Colonia, Gil de Siloé, et a, Chapel of the Constable Simon & Francisco de Colonia, Felipe de Bigarny, Gil & Diego de Siloé, Cristóbal de Andino, 1482-1532)

Plateresque Precursors in Valladolid

San Gregorio  (1492, Gil de Siloé(?))

San Pablo (1486-1500, Simon de Colonia & son Francisco)

Birth of Isabelline Style in Burgos:

La Cartuja de Miraflores, mortuary chapel for Isabella' s Parents (1474-1488, Simón de Colonia,  Alabaster tombs, 1486-1493, Gil de Siloé,  Retablo 1496-99 Gil de Siloé)

Royal residence in a monastery inToledo:

San Juan de Los Reyes (1476-1488, Juan Gúas)

Avila: Santo Tómas 1483-93

 

D.)       Plateresque: A distinctly Spanish Renaissance Style

Toledo: Hospital de la Santa Cruz: Engique Egas 1504-1514

 

1526 Diego de Sagredo: Medidas del Romano

 

Lingering Gothic Taste and Plateresque Ornament

Salamanca:Cathedral facade Gil de Hontañon 1512

University ca: 1535

Segovia: Cathedral: Gil de Hontañon 1525

Granada: Mortuary Chapel for Ferdinand & Isabella

1523- Felipe Bigarny, Cristóbal Andino

Valladolid: Retablo for San Benito: 1527 Alonso de Berruguete

Salamanca: San Esteban ca 1550

 

E.)       Mannerism Imported  to Spain by one of Michaelangelo's apprentices

Granada: Palace of Charles V: 1526- Pedro de Machuca

 

F.)       Herrera and the Severe Style

El Escorial Juan de Herrera, principal Architect 1560-84


Cathedral of Valladolid Juan de herrera 1580

Zafra: Castle/Palace of Dukes de Feria, Juan de Herrera Patio  remodeling after 1580

 

READING SUGGESTIONS

 

[Highly recommended general introduction]

Bernard Bevan. History of Spanish Architecture. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1939.

 

Pages 1-78, 97-114, 126-139.

 

1.) Byne, Arthur, and Mildred Stapley. Spanish Architecture of the Sixteenth Century. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1917.

 

Pages 1-106, 130-210, 388-430.

 

 

2.) Payne, Stanley G. Spanish Catholicism. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.

Pages 1-70.

 

3.) Ortiz, Antonio Domínguez,C. H. Carretero, and José A. Godoy. Resplendence of the Spanish Monarchy. New York:  Metropolitan Museum of Art

Especially Photographs of Royal Armor, notice where the artists were from and the resemblence between this art and the architecture of the period.

 

4.) Zerner, Catherine Wilkinson. Juan de Herrera: Architect to Philip II of Spain. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.

This is the best synthesis ever published of the many and often confusing architectural, artistic, cultural and political forces at work in and on 16th-century Spain. Highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding the shift from the Medieval master-builder tradition to buildings designed, drawn, and supervised by professional Architects in the modern sense. Also shows the development of professional urban planning as means of implementing royal political and social policy. Excellent photography, extensive bibliography.

 

4.) Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. The Golden Age of Spanish Sculpture. Greenwich [Conn.]: New York Graphic Society, 1964.

text from page 6-27 (about half of this is full page plates which you should also examine), then look through the rest of the plates and become generally familiar with who did what when by referring to the notes to the plates.


Fourth Meeting:             Columbus and the Caribbean

 

Opening discussion to review readings and discuss term projects.

 

A.)       Discuss general chronology of Columbus's voyages and the establishment of Santo Domingo.

 

B.)       Nicolas de Ovando and his specific instructions from the Queen

 

C.)       Pedro de Córdoba and the Dominican Mission, the Great Debate concerning the Humanity of the Indios, the demographic collapse

 

D.)       Tierra Firma, failed missions and slave trade. Venezuela and Colombia, Coro, Cartagena de los Indios, Maricaibo. Instructions to Padilla, 1513 concerning urban layout.

 

E.)       Ponce de Léon and Puerto Rico, and St. Augustine Florida.

The Dominicans in Puerto Rico, the Atrio Cross in San José.

 

F.)       General overview of early architecture in Santo Domingo and the Caribbean.

Relate to Work in Spain, Seville, Artisans and where they go after 1522...

 

G.)       The gradual decline of Santo Domingo as an important place.

Cortés's preparation for his discovery.

The Previous explorations, pilots and plots

 

 

READING SUGGESTIONS

 

1.)        Padden, R. C. The Hummingbird and the Hawk. New York: Harper & Row, 1967. 

 

Pages 115-274.

 

2.)        Clendinnen, Inga. "Fierce and Unnatural Cruelty: Cortés and the Conquest of Mexico." Representations 33: 65-100.

 

 

3.)        Kubler, George. Mexican Architecture of the Sixteenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948.

 

Chapter 2, "Urbanism," Vol. I, pages 68-102.

 


4.)        Pasztory, Esther. Aztec Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983.

 

Chapter 3, "Aztec Architecture and Cliff Sculpture," pages 95-138.

 

Examine closely the art presented in this beautiful volume.

 

Highly recommended:

 

Sabloff, Jeremy A. The Cities of Ancient Mexico: Reconstructing a Lost World. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1989. Read Chapter 8 "The Aztecs and Tenochtitlan," pages 117-130 [this is mostly pictures, including a model of the center of the Aztec capital].

 

Broda, Johanna, Davíd Carrasco, and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma. The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan: Center and Periphery in the Aztec World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. [This is a series of three articles on different aspects of this all important monument.]

 

For those of you interested in the Conquest story, the following are translations of actual Spanish eyewitness accounts, which in spite of their biases, are still fascinating stories...

 

Cortés, Hernan. Translated and edited by Anthony Pagden. Letters from Mexico. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1986.

[these are the famous letters written by Cortés from Mexico to the King in Spain during the actual military operations]

 

Díaz, Bernal. Translated by J. M. Cohen. The Conquest of New Spain. London: Penguin Books, 1987. [This is a riveting story told for his grandchildren in his old age many years after the event, but it has a compelling immediacy even in translation almost 500 years later...There are many editions of this book by various translators.]


Fifth Meeting: Cortes, Contact and Conquest

 

                        A.)       The Destruction of Tenochtitlán

Final Episode of the "Conquest"

"Conquest" or Revolution?

The notion of the "Other"

Transmission of Culture through Architecture

 

B.)       The Construction of Mexico City

Political/Strategic Considerations

Symbolic Implications

Size of City

Organization and Implementation

The Grid Plan

Transport and Communication: the Tlamemes

Consequences of Centralization over time: Smog

 

 

Reading Assignment:

 

 

1.)        Gibson, Charles. The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964.

 

Read Chapter 13, "The City," pp. 388-402.

 

 

2.)        Cervantes de Salazar, Francisco. Life in the Imperial and Loyal City of Mexico in New Spain...1554.... tr. Minnie Lee Barrett Shepard, intr. Carlos Eduardo Castañeda. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1970.

 

Read Pages 1-81.

 

 

3.)        Schuetz, Mardith K. Architectural Practice in Mexico City, A manual for Journeymen Architects of the Eighteenth Century. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1987.

 

Read Pages 1-80.

 

4.)        Crouch, Dora P. et al. "City Planning Ordinances of the Laws of the Indies," in Spanish City Planning in North America, 1982, pp. 1-10.

 

Read the whole article.           

 


Recommended Further Reading:

Hassig, Ross. Trade, Tribute, and Transportation, the sixteenth-century political economy of the Valley of Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.


Sixth Meeting:            The Coming of the Friars: Cultural Transmission and Cultural Transformation

 

 

 

                        A.)       Enormity of task, Scarcity of friars

 

B.)       Apocalyptic Millenarian Vision among the Franciscans

 

C.)       Congregación: Urbanizing a dispersed population

Spanish Vernacular forms in a new world

Transplantation of Spanish Local Religion

 

D.)       Utopian Social Experiments of Vasco de Quiroga

Thomas Moore read by Archbishop Zumárraga & Quiroga

 

E.)       Perisistence of the 16th-C Built Environment.

Patzcuaro

Santa Fe de la Laguna

Angahuan

Zacan

San Lorenzo

Uruapan

 

 

 

Mid Term Presentations

 

 

Reading Assignment:

 

 

1.)        Kubler, George. Mexican Architecture of the Sixteenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948.

 

Read "Introduction: The Mendicant Friars," pp. 1-22.

 

2.)        Ricard, Robert. The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico. Lesley Byrd Simpson, tr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.

 

Read pages 1-161.

 


Seventh Meeting:            Mendicant Architecture and the Transmission of Culture in the 16th Century: Larger Monastic Houses and the Open Chapels.

 

 

A.)       The Friars as Architects and Overseers

Printed visual resources as source books

Untrained Architects building for the ages

 

B.)       The Labor Force

Motivation, Coercion or Cooperation?

Organization of crews

Rotational Labor and wage labor

Training centers and technological transmission

Tools, Transport and Materials

 

C.)       Revolutionary Architecture?

Barrel and Rib Vaulting: the Enclosure of Space

 

D.)       Types of Churches

Single Nave, cryptocollateral, Bascillica

The use of vaulting and buttressing

Fenestration

 

E.)       The Convento as Social Center for a New Society

The role of the larger houses as centers of education and diffusion

 

F.)       Open Chapels: A New Form for a New World?

The Atrio: Sacred Pageantry and Processions: Fun Under the Sun

 

Reading Assignment:

 

1.)        McAndrew, John. The Open-Air Churches of Sixteenth-Century Mexico. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965.

 

Read "The New Architecture and the Old" pp. 168-201; "The Atrio" 202-254, "Posas" 279-333; "The Open Chapel" 340-367; "The First Open Chapels II," 443-465; "Single-Cell Chapels" 466-503; "Portico Chapels I," 525-570.

 

 


Eight Meeting:                        Painting and Sculpture in the Service of God: Art and the Evangelization, various European contributions and Indigenous adaptations.

 

A.)       Atrio Crosses and Christian Education

Iconography of the Mass of St. Gregory

Feather Mosaic for the Pope, 1539

Syncretic Art Officially Supervised

 

B.)       Mural Art in the Conventos, Public and Private

Devotional Art within the Cloister

Epazoyucan Frescoes

Actopan Stairwell Frescoes

Actopan Open Chapel Frescoes

Ixmiquilpan Nave Frescoes

 

B.)       Retablo Art, Matrix for the Miraculous

Schematic Organization, Basics of Iconography

Constants & Local variants

Coixtlahuaca

San Juan Teposcolula           

European Masters

Alonso de la Concha

Simon Peyrens

Spanish Guilds and Indian Apprentices

Indian Competition

Contracts and Commissions, Indian Control

Huejotzingo

Coixtlahuaca

 

C.)       Church Bells and Christian Life

 

 

D.)       Sacred Drama and Syncretic Meaning

The Case of Coixtlahuaca

The Fire Serpent and the Arms of Christ

 

Reading Assignment

 

1.)        Kubler, George. Mexican Architecture of the Sixteenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948.

 

Read Chapter 8, "Paintings and Sculpture," pp. 361-416.

 


2.)        Weismann, Elizabeth Wilder. Mexico In Sculpture, 1521-1821. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950.

 

Read the brief introduction and then spend an hour examining the plates and her notes.

 

3.)        Weismann, Elizabeth Wilder. Art and Time In Mexico. 1985

 

Read her Introduction and especially her brief chapter on Tequitqui Art.

 

4.)        Toussaint, Manuel. Colonial Art in Mexico, tr Elizabeth Wilder Weismann. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967.

 

Read "Medieval Painting," pp. 38-47; "Medieval Sculpture," pp. 48-62; "Minor Arts of the Middle Ages," pp. 63-75; "Renaissance Painting," 129-152; "Renaissance Sculpture," pp. 153-161; "The Minor Arts of the Renaissance Period," pp. 162-178.

 

5.)        Ricard, Robert. The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico. Lesley Byrd Simpson, tr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.

 

Read pages 162-206.


Ninth Meeting:                        Urbanization: The Policy of "Congregacion," and the Case of Teposcolula.

 

 

A.)       Dispersed Settlement Pattern typical outside of Valley of México and Valley of Oaxaca, and Maya Centers

Jeremy Sabloff's Contention

 

B.)       Local Ceremonial Centers and dispersion in hinterland

Mixtec case

Some dispersion after fall of Teotihuacan

Hilltowns persistent for defense

The Aztec Threat

The Local Wars

Political Organization around ceremonial center

Hillside terrace framing

Erosion problems in pre-hispanic times

Valley Bottoms, Royal, Noble, Cult

 

C.)       Mixteca on the Eve of Spanish Arrival

Aztec conquest of Oaxaca consolidated after 1509

Brutal destruction of Mixtec Towns, Prisoners

Political/Religious Elite

Family structures

Religious Practices

Dzahui, Water Spirit

Human Sacrifice

 

D.)       First Contact with Spanish, 1522

Passing through

 

E.)       Later Encomienda of Francisco de las Casas

Slavery in the Mines

 

F.)       Friars arrive to begin Evangelization after 1535

Doctrina of Pedro de Córdoba

Letter of Domingo de Betanzos

Drama

 

G.)       Cultural Transformation: Beginning the New Town 1540

Moving down off hill top

The Grid Pattern, the aqueduct

New Economy

Silk Cultivation

Increased Wealth


Cochinilla Cultivation

Increased Wealth

Sheep and Goats

Richer diet, more protein                                               

The New Ceremonial Center

The Open Chapel

Sacred Drama, Ritual Performance

The King's House

Reading Assignment:

 

1.)        Markman, Sidney D. "The Dominican Townscape for "Pueblos de Indios" in Colonial Chiapas." in Atti del XL Congresso Internazionale degli Americanisti, Roma-Genova, 3-10 Settembre 1972 Vol. IV. Genova: Tilgher, 1973, pp. 79-90.

 

Read the whole article.

 

2.)        Cline, Howard F. "Civil Congregations of the Indians in New Spain, 1598-1606." Hispanic American Historical Review    pp. 350-369.

 

Read the whole article.

 

3.)        Hardoy, Jorge E. and Carmen Aranovich. "Urban Scales and Functions in Spanish America Towards the Year 1600: First Conclusions." Latin American Research Review 3 (1970): 57-91.

 

Read the whole article.

 

4.)        Socolow, Susan Migden and Lyman L. Johnson. "Urbanization in Colonial Latin America." Journal of Urban History 8 1(Nov 1981): 27-59.

 

Read the whole article.

 

5.)        Van Oss, A. C. "Mendicant Expansion in New Spain and the extent of the colony (sixteenth century)." Boletin de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 21 (dec 1976): 32-56.

 

Read the whole article.


Tenth Meeting:                        Friars on the Fringes: New Mexico

 

A.)       The Anasazi before Spanish Contact

 

B.)       The First Contact

 

C.)       The Conquest and Colonization

Sodiers of Fortune and the Friars

 

D.)       The Rebelion of 1680

 

E.)       The Return of the Spanish

 

F.)       Adaptation of Spanish forms to Local Materials, techniques and Taste

 

G.)       The Persistence of "Pueblo" style

Territorial Style

Pueblo Revival

Post Modern Pueblo

 

H.)       Albuquerque Today: High-Tech Highrise on the Rio Grande

 

Suggested Reading

1.)        Spicer, Edward H. Cycles of Conquest, The Impact of Spain, Mexico and the United States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533-1960. Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1989.

 

Read "Introduction: Cultural Frontiers," pp. 1-20; "Programs for Civilization," pp. 279-342; "The Results of Contact," pp. 462-501, and select one other chapter from this section.

 

2.)        Kubler, George. The Religious Architecture of New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.

 

Read 1-147.


Eleventh Meeting:            Friars on the Fringes: Texas and California.

 

A.)       Early Missions in Texas

 

B.)       The French Threat

 

C.)       Attempts to Stabilize a Cultural Frontier: Architecture as a Cultural Anchor

 

D.)       The Last Stand: San Antonio Missions

Persistence of Missions through time

Urban and Local identity, links to past

Preservation and Community

 

E.)       Hispanic Influence on the Later Built Environment

The German Cowboys

Jalepenos and Knockwurst

Mexican Polka Music

Transformation of Germanic Architecture

 

F.)       San Antonio Today: The River Walk and the Mercado

 


Twelfth Meeting:            Friars on the Fringes: California.

 

 

A.)       Junipero Serra and the Mallorcan Connection

 

B.)       Junipero Serra and the Mexican Connection

 

C.)       California Indians before the Spanish

 

D.)       The Mission Churches: Historic Chronology & Overview

 

E.)       The Mission Landscape Preserved

La Purisima Concepcion

 

F.)       The Mission as part of the Urban Scene

San Luis Obispo

San Buenaventura

San Gabriel

 

G.)       The Mission compound as a greenspace within the Urban Environment

San Fernando

Santa Barbara

 

H.)       The Mission as part of Small Town Life

San Juan Bautista

Santa Ynez

 

J.)        The Mission as an Isolated Artifact

San Antonio de Padua

San Miguel Archangel

 

K.)       The Mission as a Problem in Preservation

San Gabriel, Earthquake victim

 

L.)        Persistence of the "Mission Style"

Railway Architecture, Exotic Destinations before Disney

Santa Barbara, California, 1905

Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1904

Orlando, Florida, 1927

 

M.)       Hollywood and the "Mission Style"

Tile roofs before the Talkies

Wright's Rebellion: Maya Revival goes Deco

 

O.)       Vernacular and Contemporary reflections


 

P.)       A Return to the Begining: Spanish Renaissance Revival

Flagler's Florida Fantasies

Hotel Ponce de Léon