Spanish architect, member of a family of architects and sculptors prominent during the last years of the 17th century and the first quarter of the 18th. The chief members of the family were three brothers, sons of a Barcelona altarpieceGLOSSARYA picture or sculpture that stands on or is set up behind an altar. The term reredos is used for an ornamental screen or partition, not directly attached to the altar table but affixed to the wall behind it. A diptych is an altarpiece consisting of two panels, a triptych one of three panels, and a polyptych one of four or more panels. From the 14th to 16th century, the altarpiece was one of the most important commissions in European art; it was through the altarpiece that some of the most decisive developments in painting and sculpture came about. maker, all active at the same time. Often they and their four sons worked together on projects. The family has become identified with the Spanish late-BaroqueGLOSSARYThe period in art history from about 1600 to about 1750. In this sense the term covers a wide range of styles and artists. In painting and sculpture there were three main forms of Baroque: (1) sumptuous display, a style associated with the Catholic Counter Reformation and the absolutist courts of Europe (Bernini, Rubens); (2) dramatic realism (Caravaggio); and (3) everyday realism, a development seen in particular in Holland (Rembrandt, Vermeer). In architecture, there was an emphasis on expressiveness and grandeur, achieved through scale, the dramatic use of light and shadow, and increasingly elaborate decoration. In a more limited sense the term Baroque often refers to the first of these categories. The development of the Baroque reflects the period's religious tensions (Catholic versus Protestant); a new and more expansive world view based on science and exploration; and the growth of absolutist monarchies. style. The term ChurrigueresqueGLOSSARYSpanish Churrigueresco, Spanish Rococo style in architecture, historically a late Baroque return to the aesthetics of the earlier Plateresque style. In addition to a plethora of compressed ornament, surfaces bristle with such devices as broken pediments, undulating cornices, reversed volutes, balustrades, stucco shells, and garlands. Restraint was totally abandoned in a conscious effort to overwhelm the spectator. Although the name of the style comes from the family name of José Benito Churriguera, an architect, the Churriguera family members are not the most representative masters of the style. The Transparente (completed 1732), designed by Narciso Tomé for the cathedral in Toledo, is among the masterpieces of Churrigueresque. Tomé created an arrangement in which the Holy Sacrament could be placed within a transparent vessel that was visible from both the high altar and the ambulatory, seen both by the congregation and the pilgrim. Sculpted clouds, gilded rays, a massing of carved angels, and architecturally directed natural light combine to produce a mystical and spiritual effect. In the sacristy of the Cartuja of Granada (1727-64), Luis de Arévalo and Francisco Manuel Vásquez created an interior that, if not as delicate or as ingenious as that designed by Tomé, is as typically Churrigueresque. The architects drew from other sources for the thick moldings, undulating lines, and repetition of pattern. In Spanish America tendencies from both the native art of the Americas and the ever-present Mudéjar (Moorish art) have been incorporated, further enriching the style, and the Churrigueresque column, which was shaped like an inverted cone, became the most common motif. The Mexico cathedral (1718), Santa Prisca at Taxco (1758), and San Martín at San Luis Potosí (1764) are excellent examples of Churrigueresque in Mexico. denotes a style that is visually frenetic and exuberantly detailed.
It is frequently difficult to distinguish the work of the various family members. José Benito (1665-1725) is recognized as the head of the family and as an important architect in his own right. His brother Joaquín (1674-1720) is remembered for his work at the Salamanca cathedralGLOSSARYThe principal church of a province or diocese, where the throne of the bishop is placed. For reasons lost to time and tradition, a cathedral always faces west - toward the setting sun. The altar is placed at the east end. The main body, or nave, of the cathedral is usually divided into one main and two side aisles. These lead up to the north and south transepts, or arms of the cross, the shape in which a cathedral is usually formed. (1714-24; dismantled after 1755) and at the Colegio de Calatrava (Salamanca, begun 1717). Another brother, Alberto (1676-1750), designed the handsome Plaza Mayor in Salamanca.
José moved with his brother Joaquín from Barcelona to Madrid in the early 1670s to continue the family trade. He achieved recognition in 1689 by winning a competition for a catafalque for the tomb of Queen Marie-Louise d'Orléans, the first wife of Charles II, and in 1690 he was appointed to a court position under Philip V. Following disagreements with his rival at court, Teodoro Ardemáns, he was dismissed from his post and went to Salamanca. Named maestro mayor of the cathedral, he began the work that within 50 years turned Salamanca into a Churrigueresque city. He designed a palace in Madrid for his patron, the banker Juan de Goyeneche (1715, altered in 1773 in a Neoclassical style by Diego de Villanueva), which today is the Academia de San Fernando; he also designed Nuevo Baztán, a new town, near Aranjuez, a centre for manufacturing of glass (1709-13).
José's brothers and the pupils of the family are primarily responsible for more exuberantly lavish Churrigueresque style; the art of José himself is marked by more restraint and shows the influence of Andrea Palladio and Juan de Herrera. Unlike other Churrigueresque architects, he does not permit the sculptural qualities of his work to be hidden behind stuccoGLOSSARYA type of light, malleable plaster made from dehydrated lime (calcium carbonate) mixed with powdered marble and glue and sometimes reinforced with hair. It is used for sculpture and architectural decoration, both external and internal. In a looser sense, the term is applied to a plaster coating applied to the exterior of buildings, but stucco is a different substance from plaster (which is calcium sulphate). Stucco in the more restricted sense has been known to virtually every civilization. In Europe it was exploited most fully from the 16th century to the 18th century, notable exponents being the artists of the School of Fontainebleau and Giacomo Serpotta. By adding large quantities of glue and colour to the stucco mixture stuccatori were able to produce a material that could take a high polish and assume the appearance of marble. Indeed, sometimes it is difficult to distinguish from real marble without touching it (stucco feels warmer). decoration, as is evident in his masterpieceGLOSSARYA term now loosely applied to the finest work by a particular artist or to any work of art of acknowledged greatness or of preeminence in its field. Originally it meant the piece of work by which a craftsman, having finished his training, gained the rank of'master' in his guild., the altar in the church of San Estéban, Salamanca (1693).
