Al‐andalus and Castile: Art and Identity in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

AbstractThe realms of the Crown of Castile present one of the most diverse European monumental landscapes of the early modern period. Castile's constant physical proximity to the Andalusi frontier for nearly 500 years was only outlasted by the process of absorption of Andalusi cities and populations over which it presided and which continued through the expulsion of the Moriscos (converted Muslims) in 1609. The depth, duration, and complexity of the cross‐cultural exchanges that took place between the Castilian and Andalusi populations throughout the medieval period and the first century of the early modern era were unparalleled. It is not surprising, therefore, that the influence of the arts of al‐Andalus reached well into the seventeenth century. At the heart of the process of assimilation of forms that led to the great developments of the early modern period lies the selective integration of Andalusi artistic traditions into the already varied Castilian repertoire. The strength of Andalusi influence waned with time, especially after 1430, when the arrival of northern European and Italian influences and techniques gained great strength. Toward the last decades of the fifteenth century the wealth of classicizing aesthetic information overflowed the markets and began to dominate prominent architectural commissions, paving the way for the emblematic building programs of the sixteenth century. It is within this diversity and freedom of aesthetic experimentation that Andalusi‐derived forms survived, mixed, and transformed alongside late medieval expressions and the great movement of the early modern period: the classicizing vocabulary of the Italian Renaissance.