Architecture and Painting

ARCHITECTURE: THE ROYAL PALACE OF MADRID

The Royal Place of Madrid. was made by the architects Francesco Sabatini, Filippo Juvara, José Segundo de Lema, Giambattista Sacchetti in 1738.

Chronology:

It was built from 1738 to 1892.

Type of building and function:

It’s a royal palace where the king lived. At the moment the kings live in the Zarzuela’s palace so they use the Royal Place for state ceremonies .

Materials used:

They used bricks, stones (granitic, limestone and sylex) and differents gypsums.

Exterior of the palace:

-The main facade of the Palace consists of a two-story rusticated stone base, from which rise Tuscan and Composite pilasters framing the windows of the three main floor. The upper storeys floors is hidden behind a cornice which encircles the building and is capped with a large ballustrade. The ballustrade was adorned with a series of statues of saints and kings, but these were relocated elsewhere under the reign of Charles III to give the building a more classical appearance. The restoration of the facade in 1973 returned some sculptures, partially restoring the appearance of Sachetti's design.

Statues of Philip V, Maria Luisa of Savoy and Elisabeth Farnese, and that of Ferdinand VI and his wife Barbara of Portugal. Also found flanking both sculptural series an allusion to Zodiac of the Greeks occupied spaces on the southern front.

Many of the sculptures that adorned the palace at the time of Ferdinand VI are the work of Juan Domingo Olivieri and his workshop. He was also the creator of many of the masks and other allegorical figures of Greek mythology, that now occupy less visible locations.

Main features:

It has Solomonic columns, oval and floor plans and it has games of lights and shadows.

Additional information: Influence on other palaces, like the one in la Granja, Segovia.

Source:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_Real_de_Madrid

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arquitectura_de_Madrid

My history of art encyclopedia.

Pictures:

http://www.arteespana.com/franciscosabatini.htm

http://www.viajejet.com/palacio-real-%E2%80%93-madrid/

PAINTING: THE MONSTER

The monster is a painting made by Juan Carreño de Miranda. The monster was Eugenia Martínez Vallejo. This painter made two drawings of this woman: “Eugenia Martínez Vallejo dressed” and Eugenia Martínez Vallejo undressed”. It was painted more or less in 1680. It was commissioned by Charles II. The painting’s size is 165 cm x 107 cm and now this painting is in the Prado Museum, Zarzuela Palace in Madrid. The main materials are oil painting on canvas. The painting is an example of Baroque art because it represents the nature's rarity and the attraction by people with a physical or psychological defect. The women represented in the painting is physically or mentally disabled. She was only 10 years old and she had an hormonal disorder. In this work she is represented as girl who has an excessive size, probably caused by the hormonal disorder. Its main features are: use of oil painting, predominance of colour over drawing, use of warm colours (red), contrast of light and shadow and realism. Since this moment the personal disability was introduced in the paintings for example in Goya’s paintings. Don Diego de Acedo did the same as Juan Carreño de Miranda.

Pictures:

Sources:

http://arkeologia.blogspot.com.es/2010/09/eugenia-martinez-vallejo-la-nina_16.html

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Carre%C3%B1o_de_Miranda