Castilla y la libertad de las artes en el siglo XV. La aceptación de la herencia de Al-Andalus: de la realidad material a los fundamentos teóricos

Abstract

Throughout the 15th century, the Crown of Castile offers one of the most diverse and fascinating monumental landscapes in Europe. The central plan prevailing within religious and palatine contexts, added to the design of monumental façades or the development of the semipublic square, etc., are but a few elements which distinguished this monumental landscape from the last third of the 13th century, as a result of the consciously-accepted influence of Al-Andalus. The Andalusi forms gradually wore out throughout the 15th century, in front of the technical and ornamental display of the late Gothic arriving in Castille from the centre and north of the Continent from around 1430. Over the last years of the century there is a general enrichment and overflow with the renewed Renaissance airs coming from Italy. Only thus can we understand such diversity and freedom in the artistic layouts developed in Castille, mixed and overlapped, where pure Andalusi spaces and typologies come to life in the forms of the late Gothic or the Renaissance. Great masterworks such as the Capilla del Condestable in Burgos Cathedral, the façade of San Gregorio College in Valladolid, or the Queen Isabel’s Oratory in the Alcázar of Seville, among many others, could only emerge in Castile during the 15th century and under the circumstances above mentioned.