Mudéjar art
Mudéjar is the name given to the Moors or Muslims of Al-Andalus, who remained in Christian territory after the Reconquista but were not converted to Christianity. It also denotes a vernacular style of Iberian architecture and decoration, particularly of Aragon and Castile, of the 12th and 16th centuries, strongly influenced by Moorish taste and workmanship.
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, Mudéjars 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 Muslim, Christian and Jewish 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, León [1], 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. Pedro of Castile 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.
In Portugal there are also examples of Mudéjar art and architecture, although less common and much more simple in decoration than in neighbouring Spain. Mudéjar brick architecture is only found in the apse of the Church of Castro de Avelãs [2], near Braganza, very similar to the prototypic Church of Sahagún in León. A hybrid gothic-mudéjar style developed also in the Alentejo province in southern Portugal during the 15th-16th centuries, overlapping with the manueline style. The windows of the Royal Palace and the Palace of the Counts of Basto in Évora are good examples of this style. Decorative arts of mudéjar inspiration are also found in the tile patterns of churches and palaces, like the 16th-century tiles - imported from Seville - that decorate the Royal Palace of Sintra. Mudéjar wooden roofs are found in churches in Sintra, Caminha, Funchal, Lisbon and some other places.
Neo-Mudéjar architecture
Gallery
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Church of San Tirso, Sahagún. -
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La Seo - Wall of the Parroquieta -
Church of Santa Catalina, Seville -
Monastery of Santa Clara in Tordesillas, characteristical artesonado ceiling -
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Mudéjar castle of La Mota, in Medina del Campo, Valladolid. -
Cathedral of Teruel. -
Dome of the San Juan church in Calatayud -
Central courtyard of the Royal Palace of Sintra (Portugal), with Mudéjar tiles and arches. -
Church of San Marcos, Seville -
Church of Santa Marina, Seville (Gothic-Mudejar style)
See also
References
- Boswell, John (1978). Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300020902
- Harvey, L. P. (1992). "Islamic Spain, 1250 to 1500". Chicago : University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226319601
- Harvey, L. P. (2005). "Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614." Chicago : University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226319636
- Menocal, Maria Rosa (2002). "Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain". Little, Brown, & Co. ISBN 0316168718
- Rubenstein, Richard (2003). "Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages." Harcourt Books. ISBN 0156030098