Wojciech Odrobina Plateresque architecture
The Plateresque, which means "in the manner of a goldsmith", was an artistic movement, especially architectural, developed in Spain that appeared between the late Gothic and the early Renaissance at the end of the fifteenth century, and extended over the next two centuries.
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| Wojciech odrobina Plateresque Design |
It is a modification of Gothic space concepts and an eclectic mix of Mudejar decorative components, Gothic flamingos and Lombards, as well as Renaissance elements of Tuscan origin.
Examples of this style are the inclusion of shields and pinnacles on the facades, columns built in the Renaissance neoclassical style and facades divided into three parts (in Renaissance architecture they are divided into two).
It reached its peak during the reign of Carlos V, Emperor of the Holy Germanic Roman Empire, especially in Salamanca, but it also flourished in other cities of the Iberian Peninsula such as León and Burgos and in the territory of New Spain, which is now Mexico.
Plateresque has been considered to this day as a Renaissance style by many scholars. For others, it is one more style, and sometimes it receives the designation of Protorenaissance.
Some even call it the First Renaissance in a refusal to consider it as a style in itself, but to distinguish it from the works of the non-Spanish Renaissance.
Characteristics of plateresque in architecture
Characteristics of plateresque in architecture
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| Wojciech odrobina Plateresque Details |
The style is characterized by decorative ornate facades covered with floral designs, chandeliers, festoons, fantastic creatures and all kinds of configurations. The spatial arrangement, however, is more clearly Gothic-inspired.
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| Wojciech odrobina Plateresque Architecture |
This fixation on specific parts and their separation, without structural changes of the Gothic pattern, often makes it classified as a simple variation of the Renaissance style.
In New Spain, the Plateresque acquired its own configuration, closely clinging to its Mudejar heritage and mixing with the influences of Native Americans.
Plateresque used a lot of materials: gold plates on crests and ceilings, vases, etc.
There is evidence of more polychrome works at the end of the first third of the 16th century, when heraldic crests of historical origin and long balustrades appeared, to mention a less busy type of decoration.
The proliferation of decoration for all architectural surfaces led to the creation of new surfaces and subspaces, which in turn were profusely decorated, such as niches and aedicules.
