Mudéjar
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Mudéjar is the name given to the Moors, and native Andalusians practising Islam, who remained in Spain after the Christian Reconquista but were not converted to Christianity. It also denotes a vernacular style of Spanish architecture and decoration, particularly of Aragon and Castile, of the 12th and 16th centuries, strongly influenced by Moorish taste and workmanship, that they developed.
The word Mudéjar is a Medieval Spanish corruption of the Arabic word Mudajjan مدجن, meaning "those who accept submission", with a double implication, both submission to Islam and to the temporal rule of the Christian kings
After the fall of Granada in January of 1492, Mudejars kept their status for some time. However, they were forced to convert to Christianity in the mid 16th century, and were known as Moriscos from that time until those who refused to convert to Christianity were expelled in 1610. Their distinctive style is still evident in architecture as well as the music, art, and crafts of the region.
Mudéjar style
In erecting Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance buildings, elements of Islamic art were used, achieving sometimes striking results. Its influence survived into the 17th century.
The Mudéjar style, a symbiosis of techniques and ways of understanding architecture resulting from Jewish, Muslim and Christian cultures living side by side, emerged as an architectural style in the 12th century on the Iberian peninsula. It is characterised by the use of brick as the main material. Mudéjar did not involve the creation of new shapes or structures (unlike Gothic or Romanesque), but reinterpreting Western cultural styles through Islamic influences. The dominant geometrical character, distinctly Islamic, emerged conspicuously in the accessory crafts using cheap materials elaborately worked—tilework, brickwork, wood carving, plaster carving, and ornamental metals. To enliven planar surfaces of wall and floor, Mudéjar style developed complicated tiling patterns that have never been surpassed in sophistication.Even after the Muslims were no longer employed, many of their contributions remained as an integral part of Spanish architecture. The term Mudejar style was first coined by José Amador de los Ríos, an Andalusian historian and archeologist, in 1859.
It is accepted that the Mudéjar style was born in Sahagún [link], as an adaptation of architectural and ornamental motifs (especially through decoration with plasterwork and brick). Mudéjar extended to the rest of the Kingdom of León, Toledo, Ávila, Segovia, etc. giving rise to what has been called brick Romanesque. Centers of Mudéjar art are found in other cities, like Toro, Cuéllar, Arévalo and Madrigal de las Altas Torres. It became most highly developed mainly in Aragon, especially in Teruel (although also in Zaragoza, Utebo, Tauste, Daroca, Calatayud, etc.). During the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, many imposing Mudéjar-style towers were built in the city of Teruel, changing the aspect of the city right down to the present day. Mudéjar brought in a new characteristic by leading to a fusion between the incipient Gothic style and the Muslim influences that had previously been superimposed on late Romanesque. A particularly fine Mudéjar example is the Casa de Pilatos, of the early 16th century at Seville.
Seville includes many other examples of Mudéjar style. The Alcázar of Seville is considered one of the greatest surviving examples of the style. The Alcázar contains Gothic and Renaissance styles as well as Mudéjar. The Palace originally began as a Moorish fort. King Pedro the Cruel continued the Islamic architectural style when he had the palace expanded. The Parish of Santa Catalina (pictured) was built on the 14th Century over an old mosque.
Neo Mudéjar is a perpetuation or revival of features of the style in the 16th to 19th centuries in Spain and Latin America. When Emilio Rodriguez Ayuso designed Madrid's now-demolished Plaza de Toros in a neo-mudejar style in the late 19th century, it became a popular style in bullfight rings all around Spain. Seville's Plaza de España from the 1929 World's Fair uses neo-Mudéjar style. The Gran Teatro Falla in Cádiz also uses this style.
In Madrid there are several good examples of neo-mudejar architecture which still remain, including the bullfight ring Las Ventas (pictured), La Iglesia Virgen de la Paloma, Escuelas Aguirre, and the water-tower turned art exhibition space Torre de Canal Isabel II.
Gallery
References
- Boswell, John (1978). Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300020902
See also
External Links
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