Churrigueresque Style (Spain/Mexico)
Introduction
Churrigueresque is an artistic stage, as well as an architectural style in Spain, which occurred in the Baroque era,[1] and reached the New World, in various buildings built in the viceroyalties of Peru and New Spain, where it is known as anticlassical baroque.[2].
Definition
The term churrigueresco comes from the surname Churriguera. The Churrigueras were a family of baroque architects of Catalan origin whose work was characterized by its ornate decoration. By extension, the term has been used to refer to the Spanish baroque of the first third of the century. Churrigueresque were understood as all those architectures that had marked movement and variegated ornamentation, especially in the altarpieces.
This style is very similar to the Baroque style, although it has even more ornamentation. The constructions of ephemeral altarpieces and also architectural works, with the typical characteristics of the style, were common.
The first of the Churrigueras was José de Churriguera (1665-1725), who trained as an assembler of altarpieces, creating some very important ones for various temples in Salamanca, Madrid, Valladolid and other Spanish cities. Some have disappeared and currently only a few traces remain.
On the other hand, Francisco de la Maza points out that the term churrigueresque is not only used for baroque with a stipe "Estípite (architecture)"), but also for "many works or almost all works with common pilasters, highly ornamented and corresponding, in Spain, from 1689 to 1730, and in Mexico from 1725 to 1780, more or less, since there is only one sense of will so that presides over those works.
Therefore, Churrigueresque is not an architectural style, but rather a sculptural and decorative style.
History
The forms of the Baroque in Spain and Mexico had two special forms: the Solomonic column and the stipe pilaster:.
"The first has been called Solomonic Baroque and the second, with setbacks and oppositions, Churrigueresque Baroque, two adjectives derived from a name and surname that are due to two very different characters, a Hebrew king and a Madrid architect."[3].
The Baroque Solomonic column has its origin in Rome, in the chapel of Saint Peter: «It was believed to be the temple of Solomon, given to the Pope by Sultan Bayezid. It is a column, certainly, of eastern origin because it undulates and twists its shaft into a corkscrew, but it is already Hellenistic because of its Ionic capital.»[3].