The Royal Palaces of Spain [antikvár]

¦ ¦'''>',i PROLOGUE Beyond style, architecture has to be understood as a true source of memory, which explains the respect it inspires in all who experience it. Architecture gathers into its essence and appearance, its structure and ornament, all the events that take place at a given moment in history, conveying to us the spirit of a time. A knowledge of architecture is a way of approaching the past, using it as a guide, a sure witness to what once occurred. Thus the aqueduct of Segovia tells us more about its Roman essence than all the scholarly treatises written about it. Wandering through the naves and chapels of Burgos Cathedral, or delighting in the Nazarite palaces of La Alhambra, one clearly feels something undefinabie, which is simply the evocative power of architecture. Such power permeates and delights our senses and for a few instants makes ui abandon the real time in which we live. There is no need to fantasize about other eras. Architecture is a virtual time machine. Architecture speaks to the scholar and the layman alike, in a way both are able to understand. If, in addition, a knowledgeable architectural emissary takes us on a stroll like this one through the royal palaces of the Spanish Crown, then the pleasure is complete. Indeed, Juan Hernández Perrero has two very important qualifications: his profession as an architect and his interest in history. He has written an admirable text based on his intimate knowledge of these palace complexes. As curator architect of the National Heritage, be oversees, maintains, restores, and preserves these buildings. Those of us who are privileged to be his friends know that he performs this highly demanding task not only as a duty but with love. In his writing architecture and historic circumstances tend to explain each other. The excellent pictorial accompaniment in this book is in itself a treat for the eye. It intensifies the memory and transmits the inexpressible beauty of these royal buildings. A rich chapter on courtly art was written in these palaces, particularly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, not to mention the artists of the Baroque period, such as Velázquez, who worked for the Hapsburg king Felipe IV in the now vanished Alcázar of Madrid and whose masterpieces were later moved to the Prado Museum. From their medieval prologue in Mallorca and Sevilla, these palace buildings, fountains, and gardens project a European cosmopolitanism befitting the court. Their language is universal and can be heard in other European capitals as well, where the external signs of taste, refinement, power, and wealth stimulated and promoted rivalry, above all in the eighteenth century. Absolute rulers contended for the services of prestigious architects and painters such as Juvarra, Mengs, and Tiepolo in order to produce better buildings or frescoes than their predecessors or contemporaries. They competed to emulate rooms paneled in mirrors, porcelain, or fine woods,- to produce superior objects of bronze, glass, and pietre dure, to own fountains in the manner of Versailles. These were the enticements that spurred a line of art history that parallels the distinctive artistic evolution of each country. The fashions of France and Italy were reflected in Madrid and St. Petersburg. And from France and Italy artists and craftsmen arrived in Spain to build the Royal Palace of Madrid or the fountains and gardens of La Granja, shining pages of European art grafted on the Spanish horizon under the rule of the Hapsburg and Bourbon kings. PEDRO NAVASCUÉS PALACIOS