Palaces

In 1526 Emperor Charles V visited Granada and decided to build a Renaissance palace within the complex of the Alhambra (a Moorish castle). Pedro de Machuca (d. 1550), awarded the commission for the project, had worked in Italy for several years as a painter and had relocated to Granada circa 1520 to paint altarpieces. His experiences with Renaissance antique forms and the architectural models of Raphael and Bramante influenced the simple, Ital-ianate structure of the palace. Although work continued sporadically from 1526 until 1568, the place was never completed. The stately forms that remain, such as the round courtyard with its curving colonnade, testify to the power of the Italian Renaissance on Machuca’s artistic imagination.

4.6 Bird’s-eye view of the Monastery of El Escorial, Spain. Engraving in Braun and Hogenberg’s Civitates orbis terrarum (Cities of the world, c. 1572). (Private Collection/The Stapleton Collection/Bridgeman Art Library)

Since the emperor must have approved the design, then he, too, was attracted to the majestic style of classical Rome.

The Escorial, the royal residence in the countryside outside Madrid commissioned by Philip II (1527-98), was constructed between 1563 and 1582 by Juan de Herrera (1530-97) and Juan Bautista de Toledo (d. 1567). The palace is part of a gigantic walled complex that included a church and a monastery. Toledo died during the early stages of the project, and his assistant, Herrera, completed his plan with a few modifications. Toledo had lived for a while in Rome, assisting Michelangelo at Saint Peter’s Basilica and learning about the classical forms that would influence his designs in Spain. At the Escorial site Toledo lived to see the completion of his Patio de los Evangelistas (patio of the Evangelists), modeled on the Palazzo Farnese in Rome (discussed previously). The Escorial is ordered (using the five orders) and symmetrical, and, with the facades virtually unadorned, follows the ascetic tendencies of the king and his court. (The interior decoration is discussed in chapter 3.)

Robert Smythson (c. 1535-1614) was an architect known for his English country houses. Wollaton Hall in Nottinghamshire was built by him between 1580 and 1588 for Sir Francis Willoughby (c. 1546-96). Centrally planned, the house may have been inspired by a design by Serlio with ornamenta-

Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe

Tion taken from other 16th-century treatises. Renaissance architecture did not flower in England until the early 17 th century, with the designs of Inigo Jones (1573-1652). He visited Italy and later became the “Palladio” of England. Although his work is beyond the chronological scope of this book, we should note that Jones designed the Queen’s House in Greenwich as a villa in Italian Renaissance style, as well as the first classicizing church in England, Queen’s Chapel in Saint James Palace, between 1623 and 1625.