The Baroque movement in Spain and Latin America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. With the spirit of the Counter-Reformation sweeping through the Iberian peninsula, by the mid seventeenth century Baroque features began to augment buildings otherwise characteristic of the Herrerian tradition. However, a uniquely Spanish manifestation of the Baroque began in the work of Jose Benito de Churriguera, and his brothers Joaquin and Alberto. Another source was the indigenous architecture of Latin American. After the first Conquistadors landed in the Americas at the end of the fifteenth century, gold flowed back to Spain. The buildings created from these profits in some ways reflected in their architecture the origins of the money that paid for their construction. (Hopkins, 2014)
Defining characteristics include: Moorish influence, Indigenous American influence, Churrigueresque, defiance of structure, dramatic use of light, heavy moldings. (Hopkins, 2014)
Leading Examples
- Hall of the Abencerrajes, Palace of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada, 1354-91
- Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Cusco, Peru, 1559-1654
- Luis de Arevalo and F. Manuel Vasquez, sacristy, Granada Charterhouse, Spain, 1727-64
- Narisco Tome, El Transparente altarpiece, Toledo Cathedral, Spain, 1729-32
- Diego Duran and Cayetano Siguenza, Santa Prisca, Taxco, Mexico, 1751-58