Door to the permanent collection, The Infantado Palace, Plaza de España, Guadalajara, Castilla la Mancha, Spain
In Plaza España stands the most beautiful building in the capital, the Palace of the Dukes of Infantado, described as "unique of its kind" by those authors who have dealt with it, pointing it out as a peculiar sample of universal art.
The Palace of the Infantado was built by the architect Juan Guas and the stone carver Egas Coeman at the behest of the II Duke of Infantado around 1480. It is a mixture between a palace and a fortress and various artistic styles.
In this building we can already see the germ of the aesthetics of humanist thought in Spain. Specifically, the Duke Íñigo de Mendoza, who had it erected as a sign of his power and his position. Everything in the building exudes splendor, from its façade to the interior decorations. Christians and Muslims collaborated in its construction, directed by the architect Juan Guas, which is why Gothic elements, Mudejar decorations and an unquestionable Renaissance spirit are present. Its magnificence is such that King Felipe II -Austria- and Felipe V -Bourbon- chose it to celebrate their weddings there.
MAIN ATTRACTIONS
The spectacular façade, which is worth contemplating carefully, is carved in limestone specially brought from Tamajón, a town located 51 km from the city. Its diamond points, the upper gallery and the main door are just a preview of the stone carvings that characterize the building and that we will see reproduced in all their splendor in the interior Lion courtyard. The curtain wall of this main façade responds to the models proposed by Filarete in his Trattato d'architettura (1465) and in the works projected by this architect in Milan; but, faced with the regular order of this pattern, Juan Guas, appropriating the Andalusian aesthetic, proposes an innovative layout with diamond points to form a highly dynamic rhomboid pattern – “sebka” – that surpasses the monotonous longitudinal layout of the Italian canon.
Another point for the confluence of trends is the portal, which, inspired by the schemes used in 14th century Mudejar palaces, presents the door between columns, heraldic lintel, pointed arch and facing figures on the spandrels; all profusely decorated with resources incorporated from the European Gothic –taqueados, spheres, interwoven, cardinas, tracery, rosettes, etc–, and from the Hispanic Mudejar – epigraphs and muqarnas–. Insisting on this theme, another item of innovation is the prolongation of the cover, beyond the usual limits, with the incorporation of a large coat of arms supported by two colossi.
Inside, the Patio de los Leones is resolved under Gothic schemes, that is, creating a program in which ornamentation dominates over architectural values and in which the overall effect takes precedence over the quality of detail; but, also, including facing figures –lions and griffins–, an iconography drawn from the most eastern Islamic tradition. The result is an exquisite staging, repetitive but not repetitive.
The creation of an extensive garden is also novel, since, until then, this type of recreational space was exclusive to the palaces of Al-Andalus or the monasteries that the Castilian monarchy used as temporary residence. Likewise, the gallery with which the Infantado opens to the west is germinal, resolved, as an "antiquarian factory", with semicircular arches on elliptical pillars.
The Museum of Guadalajara occupies the entire building. On the ground floor are preserved some of the honor rooms where you can see the wall painting decoration from the 16th century. Today this space is a permanent exhibition area of the Museum in which the Palace of the Infantado and the lineage that ordered it to be built are interpreted: the powerful Mendoza family.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalajara,_Spain
Door to the permanent collection, The Infantado Palace, Plaza de España, Guadalajara, Castilla la Mancha, Spain
In Plaza España stands the most beautiful building in the capital, the Palace of the Dukes of Infantado, described as "unique of its kind" by those authors who have dealt with it, pointing it out as a peculiar sample of universal art.
The Palace of the Infantado was built by the architect Juan Guas and the stone carver Egas Coeman at the behest of the II Duke of Infantado around 1480. It is a mixture between a palace and a fortress and various artistic styles.
In this building we can already see the germ of the aesthetics of humanist thought in Spain. Specifically, the Duke Íñigo de Mendoza, who had it erected as a sign of his power and his position. Everything in the building exudes splendor, from its façade to the interior decorations. Christians and Muslims collaborated in its construction, directed by the architect Juan Guas, which is why Gothic elements, Mudejar decorations and an unquestionable Renaissance spirit are present. Its magnificence is such that King Felipe II -Austria- and Felipe V -Bourbon- chose it to celebrate their weddings there.
MAIN ATTRACTIONS
The spectacular façade, which is worth contemplating carefully, is carved in limestone specially brought from Tamajón, a town located 51 km from the city. Its diamond points, the upper gallery and the main door are just a preview of the stone carvings that characterize the building and that we will see reproduced in all their splendor in the interior Lion courtyard. The curtain wall of this main façade responds to the models proposed by Filarete in his Trattato d'architettura (1465) and in the works projected by this architect in Milan; but, faced with the regular order of this pattern, Juan Guas, appropriating the Andalusian aesthetic, proposes an innovative layout with diamond points to form a highly dynamic rhomboid pattern – “sebka” – that surpasses the monotonous longitudinal layout of the Italian canon.
Another point for the confluence of trends is the portal, which, inspired by the schemes used in 14th century Mudejar palaces, presents the door between columns, heraldic lintel, pointed arch and facing figures on the spandrels; all profusely decorated with resources incorporated from the European Gothic –taqueados, spheres, interwoven, cardinas, tracery, rosettes, etc–, and from the Hispanic Mudejar – epigraphs and muqarnas–. Insisting on this theme, another item of innovation is the prolongation of the cover, beyond the usual limits, with the incorporation of a large coat of arms supported by two colossi.
Inside, the Patio de los Leones is resolved under Gothic schemes, that is, creating a program in which ornamentation dominates over architectural values and in which the overall effect takes precedence over the quality of detail; but, also, including facing figures –lions and griffins–, an iconography drawn from the most eastern Islamic tradition. The result is an exquisite staging, repetitive but not repetitive.
The creation of an extensive garden is also novel, since, until then, this type of recreational space was exclusive to the palaces of Al-Andalus or the monasteries that the Castilian monarchy used as temporary residence. Likewise, the gallery with which the Infantado opens to the west is germinal, resolved, as an "antiquarian factory", with semicircular arches on elliptical pillars.
The Museum of Guadalajara occupies the entire building. On the ground floor are preserved some of the honor rooms where you can see the wall painting decoration from the 16th century. Today this space is a permanent exhibition area of the Museum in which the Palace of the Infantado and the lineage that ordered it to be built are interpreted: the powerful Mendoza family.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalajara,_Spain