Spanish Art and Architecture: Low Middle Ages

Posted on Apr 6, 2025 in Arts and Humanities

Spanish Art and Architecture: Low Middle Ages

1. Historical Context

(Further reading recommended)

2. The Cistercian Reform

(Further reading recommended)

3. Gothic Architecture

3.1. Concept and Chronology

3.2. General Characteristics

A. Building Elements
  • Plants
  • Pointed, ogee, and basket-handle arches
  • Groin vaults
  • Flying buttresses
  • Fasciculate pillars or ribs
  • Triforium
  • Clerestory
  • Pinnacles, needles, gables
B. Civil Architecture
  • Municipalities (Florence, Siena, Venice, Bruges)
  • Auctions (Valencia, Barcelona, Palma)
  • Palaces

3.3. Periodization

A. Proto-Gothic (2nd Half of the 12th Century): Beginnings, Cistercian architecture
B. Classic Gothic (13th Century): (Chartres) equilateral pointed arches, simple ribbed vaults, flying buttresses
C. Rayonnant or Mannerist Gothic (14th Century): Increased stylized decoration, complex and warped tierceron vaults, tracery in the windows with trefoils and quatrefoils. Large windows.
D. Flamboyant Gothic (15th and 16th Centuries): Arches with sinuous, flame-like lines. Ogee arches, starry vaults, abundant plant and heraldic motifs.

3.4. Schools and National Variations

A. France
  • 2nd Half of the 12th Century: Laon, Notre Dame de Paris
  • 13th Century: Chartres, Reims, Amiens, Sainte Chapelle
B. England
  • Primitive Style (12th-13th Centuries): Canterbury, Salisbury
  • Ornamental Style (13th-14th Centuries): Floral decoration, complex ribbed vaults
  • Perpendicular Style (15th Century): Fan vaults
C. Italy
  • Predominance of horizontal elements
  • Thick walls with paintings
  • Marble facades, no flying buttresses
  • Cathedrals of Florence, Siena, and Milan (related to French models)
  • Local authorities and palaces: Florence, Siena, Venice
D. Spain
Proto-Gothic (12th Century)
  • Introduction of some forms that coexist with the Romanesque.
Classic Gothic (13th Century)
  • French influences: Cathedrals of Burgos, León, and Toledo
Mannerist Gothic (14th Century)
  • Mediterranean or horizontal Gothic appears in Aragon, with hall churches: Cathedrals of Barcelona, Girona, and Palma.
Flamboyant Gothic (15th and 16th Centuries)
  • Aragon: Constructions of William Sagrera: Lonja de Palma
  • Castile: Elizabethan or Hispano-Flemish style, a union of late Gothic decoration with Mudejar: Cathedrals of Seville, Salamanca, Segovia

4. Gothic Sculpture

4.1. General Characteristics

A. Ideological Content
  • Scholastic and Franciscan: Appreciation of nature
  • Preoccupation with death
  • Bourgeois class as a client: portraiture
B. Materials and Aesthetic Development
  • Stone, painted wood, marble, alabaster
  • Evolution:
    1. Attached to the architectural framework, mere decoration.
    2. Start of independence from architecture: columns, statues.
    3. Final independence: tombs, portraits tending toward naturalism.
C. Themes and Iconographic Sources
  • Christ, the Virgin, saints, death, man, and nature

4.2. Schools Outside Spain

A. France: Reims Cathedral, Claus Sluter (14th Century)
B. Italy: Pisano family

4.3. Spain

A. Proto-Gothic: Romanesque Master Mateo
B. Classic Gothic (13th Century): French influence
C. 14th Century: Influences of Italian and international styles
D. 15th Century
a. Aragon: Burgundian influence and Claus Sluter
b. Castile: Flemish influence
  • Seville: Lorenzo Mercadante
  • Toledo: Egas, Rodrigo Alemán
  • Burgos: Juan de Colonia, Gil de Siloe

5. Gothic Painting

5.1. Phases of Gothic Painting

A. Linear Gothic or Franco-Gothic: Linked to Romanesque
B. Italo-Gothic Style: Byzantine influence
a. Florence: Giotto: Preoccupation with space and volume
b. Siena: Stylized, elegant forms: Duccio, Simone Martini
C. International Style: Combination of Linear Gothic and Italo-Gothic, stylization of figures, elaborate costumes, anecdotal details. Spain: Borrassà, Martorell, Nicolás Francés.
D. Flemish Style: Oil on panel, detail, importance of light

5.2. Generations of Flemish Painting

A. Style Creators: Van Eyck brothers, Rogier van der Weyden
B. 2nd Generation: Hugo van der Goes, Hieronymus Bosch

5.3. Hispano-Flemish Painting

  • Catalonia: Lluís Dalmau, Jaume Huguet
  • Aragon: Bartolomé Bermejo
  • Castile: Fernando Gallego

6. Mudejar Art

6.1. Stages

  • Romanesque-Mudejar
  • Gothic-Mudejar