Jump to content

Repoblación art and architecture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Fogar Mozárabe (talk | contribs) at 20:34, 26 December 2024. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
San Miguel de Escalada (S.X), an example of Mozarabic leonese art with influences from the Caliphate of Cordoba

The term "arte de repoblación" (literally, "art or architecture of repopulation") refers to the early Romanesque churches built in the Christian kingdoms of northern Spain between the late 9th and early 11th centuries. This was a time when these kingdoms were growing stronger after the Muslim occupation.

These churches show a mix of different styles, including Visigothic, Asturian, Mozarabic, Carolingian, and even Andalusian Muslim influences. This mix of styles reflects the different cultures that were living together at that time. Within this period, we can see different groups of churches, like Mozarabic churches in the Kingdom of León or the Serrablo group, each with its own unique style.

In the 10th century, Muslim influences can be seen in many buildings in northern Spain, even religious ones. This is because these Christian kingdoms were neighbors to the powerful Muslim caliphate of Córdoba. However, the term "repoblación art" emphasizes that these churches were not always built by the small groups of Mozarabic people who moved to these areas from Muslim-controlled lands.

The term "repoblación art" includes some of the buildings that were previously called "Mozarabic" by scholars following the work of Manuel Gómez-Moreno. However, there is still some debate about this term, and many authors use "Mozarabic art" to describe this period.[1]

In Spanish historiography, the Repoblación is the expansion of Christian settlement in the Duero basin and the Meseta Central in the 9th–10th centuries.

History

The church of San Pedro de Lárrede is an example of Repoblación architecture closely linked to Asturian architecture and distinct from Mozarabic.[1]

The religious influences were inevitable given the presence of the Islamic state of the Caliph of Córdoba, which was highly developed culturally, artistically and economically. However, it had long been suggested that the monumental buildings in northern Spain from this period were crafted by the modest groups of Mozarabic immigrants that settled in the areas of repopulation when the living conditions in Muslim al-Andalus became difficult to bear. As stated by professor Isidro Bango Torviso, suggesting that these immigrants were responsible for these buildings would be akin to suggesting that:

when the Duero River Valley was repopulated under the auspices of the Asturian-Leonese kingdom, northerners settlers would have forsaken all their knowledge and experience and submitted themselves to the 'very rich and demonstrated creative capacity' of poor, rural southern immigrants.

The art and architecture of the Repoblación is identified as the third subset of the Hispanic Pre-Romanesque period, by the phases that correspond to the Visigothic art and architecture and Asturian architecture. Its architecture is a summary of elements of diverse extraction, irregularly distributed, in such a way that on occasion elements of paleo-Christian, Visigothic or Asturian origin come to predominate, while at other times Muslim characteristics come to the fore.

Characteristics

Some of the identifying characteristics of the Repoblación ecclesiastic architecture are:

  • Basilica or centralized plan; sometimes with opposing apses.
  • Main chapel on a rectangular plan on the exterior and ultra-semicircular in the interior.
  • Use of the horseshoe arch of Muslim derivation, somewhat more closed and sloped than the Visigothic.
  • Generalized use of the horseshoe arch doorway or alfiz.
  • Use of the twin and triple windows of Asturian tradition.
  • Roofs composed of segmented vaults, including traditional barrel vaults.
  • Grouped columns forming composite pillars, with Corinthian capitals decorated with stylized elements and cinctures joining the capital to the columns.
  • Walls re-enforced by exterior buttresses.
  • Evolution of rafter ornaments to great lobed offsets that support very pronounced eaves.
  • Decoration similar to the Visigothic based on volutes, swastikas, and vegetable and animal themes forming projecting borders.
  • A great command of the technique in construction, employing principally ashlar by length and width.
  • Absence or sobriety of exterior decoration.
  • Diversity in the floor plans, with small proportions and discontinuous spaces covered by cupolas (groined, segmented, ribbed of horseshoe transept, etc.).

Examples

The most representative buildings of the genre are:[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Canellas López and San Vicente (1996), p. 93.

References

  • Bango Torviso, Isidro G. "Arquitectura de la decima centuria: ¿Repoblación o mozárabe?" Goya: Revista de arte 122 (1974), pp. 68–75.
  • Bango Torviso, Isidro G. "Arquitectura de repoblación", pp. 167–216. In Javier Rivera Blanco, Francisco Javier de la Plaza Santiago and Simón Marchán Fiz (eds.), Historia del arte de Castilla y León, Vol. 1, Prehistoria, Edad Antigua y arte prerrománico. Valladolid, 1994.
  • Camón Aznar, J. "Arquitectura española del siglo X: Mozárabe y de la repoblación". Goya: Revista de arte 52 (1963), pp. 206–19.
  • Canellas López, Ángel; San Vicente, Ángel. Rutas románicas de Aragón. Madrid, 1996.
  • Martínez Tejera, Artemio Manuel. "El contraábside en la arquitectura de la repoblación: el grupo castellano-leonés", pp. 57–76. III Curso de Cultura Medieval. Seminario: Repoblación y Reconquista (Centro de Estudios del Románico, Aguilar de Campoo, septiembre 1991). Madrid, 1993.
  • Martínez Tejera, Artemio Manuel. "La arquitectura cristiana hispánica de los siglos IX y X en el Regnum Astur-leonés". Argutorio 14 (2004), pp. 9–12
  • Monedero Bermejo, Miguel Ángel. La arquitectura de la repoblación en la provincia de Cuenca. Cuenca, 1982.
  • Moreno, Manuel Gómez. Iglesias mozárabes. Madrid, 1917.
  • Utrero Agudo, María de los Ángeles. Iglesias tardoantiguas y altomedievales en la península ibérica: análisis arqueológico y sistemas de abovedamiento. Madrid, 2006.
  • Werckmeister, O. K. "Art of the Frontier: Mozarabic Monasticism", pp. 121–32. In Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500–1200. New York, 1993.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Repoblación_art_and_architecture&oldid=1265411981"